Product Details

• Actors: Fred Gwynne, Al Lewis, Yvonne De Carlo
• Format: Box set, Black & White, Dolby, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 12
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Universal Studios
• DVD Release Date: October 7, 2008
• Run Time: 546 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (163 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001DZOCZU
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,255 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Season One
It has its own stormy weather and fire-breathing housepet named Spot, but the mansion at 1313 Mockingbird Heights is otherwise like any other American sitcom home. This is the address of the Munsters, the family that for two seasons, 1964-66, found a permanent place in pop culture--if not "monster" success. Developed by Leave It to Beaver team Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher, the series was a standard sitcom (complete with the same awful canned laughter), except that the Ward Cleaver character was a reanimated corpse.

Dad Herman (Fred Gwynne) was a Frankenstein's monster, mom Lily (Yvonne DeCarlo) and Grandpa (Al Lewis) were vampires, and son Eddie (Butch Patrick) a little wolf-boy. Munster niece Marilyn was inexplicably normal, which prompted much worry from the other members of the family (she was played in early episodes by Beverly Owen, who left to get married, and then by Pat Priest). The plots revolve around typically tortured sitcom situations: Herman must lose weight to fit into his old Army uniform, Herman has insomnia, Herman takes dance lessons from a crooked instructor. (As that list would suggest, 6'5" Fred Gwynne's wonderfully agile slapstick and Borscht Belt comedy made him the center of the show.) What distinguished The Munsters from Father Knows Best was the Universal horror-movie lineage and the ghoulish one-liners (the latter growing a bit tedious after a while). The three-disc DVD has all 38 first-season episodes in excellent transfers, a 15-minute pilot with different actors as Lily and Eddie, and no extras or commentaries. High points include "Hot Rod Herman," which features the tricked-out Munster Koach and Drag-u-la (boss wagons both), and "Eddie's Nickname," the one where Grandpa gives Eddie a potion that causes the boy's beard to grow (a weirdly memorable image, if you're a kid). The show was either pure kiddie farce or a radical comment on the absurdly unreal world of sitcoms. Either way, if you grew up with them as an alternate TV family, you can't help but have warm feelings for the Munsters, as clammy as they are. --Robert Horton

Season Two
The second and final season of The Munsters seamlessly carries on the sardonic picture of family life painted in the monster-comedy's first year. Family head Herman Munster (Fred Gwynne) continues to vacillate between thick-headedness and intellectual posturing. His wife, Lily (Yvonne DeCarol), has her feet on the ground, even if her daughter-of-Dracula looks skew her idea of beauty and grace. Grandpa (Al Lewis), the irascible vampire, spends his time concocting mad inventions and criticizing Herman. Young Eddie (Butch Patrick) goes to school and acts like any other kid except, well, he isn't. And lovely Marilyn (Pat Priest) is still stuck with low self-esteem, convinced by her Uncle Herman, Aunt Lily and Grandpa that she's an unattractive woman who scares away potential suitors. In the opening episode, "Herman's Child Psychology," Herman disastrously attempts to convince Eddie not to run away from home by acting as if his son's behavior is no big deal. The very funny "Herman, the Master Spy" finds the big man taken aboard a Russian submarine, where the undersea comrades assume he must be some sort of strange fish. "A Man for Marilyn" concerns Grandpa's ridiculous effort to turn a frog into a handsome boyfriend for Marilyn, an experiment he assumes must have worked when a good-looking guy turns up at the Munster home. (The fellow is there because he assumes Marilyn is being held against her will by monsters.) "Big Heap Herman" is a particularly silly but enjoyable story about an Indian tribe that has been awaiting the arrival of a god who looks, of course, like Herman.

Along with seasons one and two on The Munsters: The Complete Series are a couple of post-TV series, theatrical movies of differing quality. In Munster, Go Home, Herman discovers he's the new lord of Munster Hall in England. Crossing the Atlantic with his family to claim his inheritance, Herman is met with hostility by the would-be heirs (played by Terry-Thomas and Hermione Gingold) and a plot to eliminate him from a car race. While the film takes something away from The Munsters by placing them in foreign territory, Munster, Go Home is still a lot of fun. Less so is the cheap-looking The Munsters' Revenge, a 1981 potboiler in which Herman and Grandpa are charged with crimes committed by robot monsters from a wax museum. Hard to watch and kind of greasy-looking, Revenge is instantly forgettable, even with Sid Caesar's participation. --Tom Keogh

Product Description

Fred Gwynne, Yvonne De Carlo, Al Lewis, Butch Patrick. The lovable Munster Family took its short-lived, two-season run and made TV icons of Herman the undertaker, his wife Lily, warlock Grandpa, son Eddie and un-munsterlike" oddball niece Marilyn. Includes 70 episodes on 12 DVDs. 1964-66/b&w/29 hrs., 52 min/NR/fullscreen.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

193 of 199 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Spooktacular Munsters Deal That's Really Wizard! August 25, 2008

By Servo VINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase

From the windy Mockingbird Heights at 1313 Mockingbird Lane, The Munsters come to send goosebumping, rib-tickling '60s wit and humor to your funny bone with The Munsters - The Complete Series!

Previously released as separate season sets, each with its own history of issues Munsters fans are all too familiar with, The Munsters Complete Series doesn't just simply repackage the episodes but also attempts to do the fans proud by righting the wrongs that haunted the previous sets.

Remember the dual-sided discs? Gone. Remember the flimsy, gimmicky, craptastic "Herman's Head" box you had to fight with to get the discs out of? Gone. Instead you'll find...

For your convenience and viewing pleasure, Universal has repackaged from the Season 1 and Season 2 sets every classic episode from the series (and respective special features) on 12 single-sided DVDs (including two bonus features) all in an exclusive collectible box set with nice package art for hours of eerie Munsters fun, and for a very reasonable price!

Special Features include:

* "America's First Family of Fright"
* "Fred Gwynne: More Than a Munster"
* "Yvonne De Carlo: Guilded Lily"
* "Al Lewis: Forever Grandpa"
* The Munsters Unaired Pilot
* The Munsters "Family Portrait" Episode (Color Version)

(Note: If you own the original separate season sets then you already have The Munsters - Complete Series episodes and special features minus the previously unreleased The Munsters "Family Portrait" episode (color version), and should consider The Munsters - Family Portrait separate single disc release which also features both the color and original B&W version before deciding.)

Bonus Features:

* Munster, Go Home! (1966)
* The Munsters' Revenge (1981)

Season 1:

Munster Masquerade
My Fair Munster
A Walk on the Mild Side
Rock-a-Bye Munster
Pike's Pique
Lo-Cal Munster
Tin Can Man
Herman the Great
Knock Wood, Here Comes Charlie
Autumn Croakus
The Midnight Ride of Herman Munster
The Sleeping Cutie
The Munsters' Family Portrait
Grandpa Leaves Home
Herman's Rival
Grandpa's Call of the Wild
All-Star Munster
If a Martian Answers, Hang Up
Eddie's Nickname
Bats of a Feather
Don't Bank on Herman
Dance With Me, Herman
Follow That Munster
Love Locked Out
Come Back, Little Googie
Far Out Munsters
Munsters on the Move
Movie Star Munster
Herman the Rookie
Country Club Munsters
Love Comes to Mockingbird Heights
Mummy Munster
Lily Munster, Girl Model
Munster the Magnificent
Herman's Happy Valley
Hot Rod Herman
Herman's Raise
Yes, Galen, There Is a Herman (aka My Friend Herman)

Season 2:

Herman's Child Psychology
Herman, the Master Spy
Bronco Bustin' Munster
Herman Munster, Shutter Bug
Herman, Coach of the Year
Happy 100th Anniversary
Operation Herman
Lily's Star Boarder
John Doe Munster
The Man for Marilyn
Herman's Driving Test
Will Success Spoil Herman Munster?
Underground Munster
The Treasure of Mockingbird Heights
Herman's Peace Offensive
Herman Picks a Winner
Just Another Pretty Face
Heap Big Herman
The Most Beautiful Ghoul in the World
Grandpa's Lost Wife
The Fregosi Emerald
Zombo
Cyrano de Munster
The Musician
Prehistoric Munster
A Visit from Johann
Eddie's Brother
Herman the Tire Kicker
A House Divided
Herman's Sorority Caper
Herman's Lawsuit
A Visit from the Teacher

That's a LOT of Munsters!
Great Value!

43 of 44 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars STILL NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR TRUE MUNSTERS FANS November 8, 2008

By JACK LOBO

Format:DVD

If you're an owner of the previous 2 box sets and the Two Movie Fright Fest, this new package will probably disappoint. Aside from the colorized bonus feature of Family Portrait, which I would classify as acceptable not stellar, is exactly the same thing. The Menu boards are exactly the same. Season 1 has scene select, Season 2 doesn't. Plus every episode of season 2 still has that long get on your nerves UNIVERSAL STUDIOS fanfare. No you can't skip it. It'll just go to the next episode with that same fanfare. The true Munsters fan will quickly cringe at the inferior musical cues substitutes that were not corrected from the previous release. Even the episode Knock Wood, Here Comes Charlie still has a low volume. Very little effort went into correcting the shortcomings of the previous sets. In fact, aside from the convenience of being transferred to single sided discs there was really no effort at all. Universal studios should fire their lawyers. They should have had the courage to say " This is how the show was made. This is how the show is presented on TV and this is how we will present the dvd. We will keep all the original musical cues intact". I guess people with guts are becoming more scarce every day. Really, doesn't Universal have the faith that the profits of a properly made Munsters set would have more than covered the costs of monies owed to other entities that hold the rights to the music. I can understand Disney being difficult to deal with for "Someday My Prince Will Come" because they are a heartless company. But The Standells? Come on now! What possible power could they have that Universal was afraid to use "Just A Little Bit" instead of that sickening music that wasn't the Standells at all, when Eddie played them on the phonograph in the opening of Far Out Munster. Go figure. The final insult, to us the buyers, instead of using the inexpensive yet convenient thin snap covers, they created two triple fold outs that holds 2 discs per side overlapping each other. If you don't own the previous set then I recommend you get this. If you do own the previous set, don't be in too much of a hurry. Why did I give this 4 stars? Because 80% of the set is pretty good. The 20% I gripe about is like a black hole that just sucks the good right into it. I guess even badly released Munsters is better than no Munsters at all.

51 of 56 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars This is What You've Been Waiting For August 24, 2008

By Mark Ebert

Format:DVD

If you're a fan of the Munsters and haven't purchased the Seasons as individual sets, this is what you've been waiting for. This box sets not only includes all 70 originally aired episodes, but comes with every bonus feature available on the original two sets. Additionally, this set contains the motion picture "Munster, Go Home" and the TV special from 1981. "The Munsters: Family Portrait"--sold separately for those fans who did purchase the other sets--is also featured in this collection.

This set features twelve one-sided discs (unlike the two-sided discs from the original individual season sets that some find hard to deal with and annoying).

This set is truly a dream come true for any fan of this unique '60's sitcom. Available October seventh (2008) it should arrive in time to be a wonderful Halloween treat!