I met Al Lewis (grandpa) in NYC some years back. He lived and owned a bar/restaurant on Roosevelt Island and I and a friend happened to stroll in. He was there and very gracious. May he now be resting in peace.

So different from the eventual results. Glad that it was redone as the resulting cast had an excellent chemistry with each other.

"Phoebe" is gorgeous.

Joan Marshall was in a Star Trek TOS episode too. She was a beautiful woman.🌹

I am glade they made adjustments after the pilot. I can understand why the pilot was never shown on tele. It is available on DVD as a curiosity.

Learning color was an option for some shows back then is so weird. I feel there is a timelessness to being black and white

Fred Gwynne was too cool walking at the end.

*Joan Marshall was a Beauty herself too

I think the wierdest thing about this is the majority of the music is from the Doris Day film The Thrill Of It All.

Joan Marshall I Love You R.I.P.

Glad they changed it to Lily....so much better....=)

Yes, but it's a pilot - a test. It's a beginning, not an end result.

Grandpa, you shouldn't try to bite your own daughter. That's incest.

There was a movie made after season 2 called Muster Go Home . I read the from ticket sales was going to be used for to make season 3, but it was not made anyway. Maybe why the author of the book said no one knows why it was canceled while the documentary said the cost of the set was so expensive it was canceled.

I saw that a photo from the original pilot was used for the page about the Munsters in a book about tv shows. I did not know why Eddie looked different thee until I saw the documentary.

I'm happy they changed it...😀😀😀

1:20 My favorite moment!

Actually Joan was pretty hot...she looked the part of a vampire..

This was the beginning of a 15 minute "demonstration film", not the entire pilot (only the first half of the script was filmed). Same with the second attempt...and that was filmed in black and white, as CBS didn't telecast any shows in color at the time they considered the second version....

Very interesting that not only was Joan Marshall replaced with Yvonne De Carlo, the character's name was changed from Phoebe to Lily.

There was another Joan originally chosen to play Morticia Addams, Joan Huntington. The producers had chosen her from all the actresses tested. Someone decided they needed a more prominent actress and Carolyn Jones was brought in.

One other odd thing between the Munsters and Addams family is that the whole family is in the intro credit. In AF, only Morticia and Gomez are credited in the opening credits. Is that odd?

Nah, the actual/final theme song was too good, it's gonna be hard to replace that.

OMG, Joan Marshall is gorgeous! But what's up with the music???

Happy looked like an idiot and he didn't make anyone happy either! ;-)

that's one great thing about pilots .you can make them then change before the series really gets made.i sure am glad that the didn't use the morticia look for the show .nice look .i think it would make the monsters and the addams family confusing

@KayleeKatastrophe66 I prefer the 1964 version, too. But this is interesting, thanks for putting it up!

Also, I watched the test pilot elsewhere on KZfaq. Frankly, I thought Joan Marshall was terrible in this part - too "Halloweeny," if that makes any sense; she's just an actress wearing a weird costume and delivering her lines without any particular flair. (But at least she makes you appreciate more the job Yvonne De Carlo did.)

Music is like the Jetsons

@kitpenguin8 Wanna bet,the original pilot was shot in color but was retooled later as a b&w series and they recast Lily & Eddie,thank god.

Looks like they may have added appliances to Fred Gwynne's cheekbones to make them look larger when the series went into production. They should have done the same to Edward Herrmann, it was the one thing lacking in his portrayal.

Wow, this is pretty bad. No wonder they changed the opening and shifted the cast. This would not have made it at all. Thank you for the bit of TV history though. Always interesting to see how "classics" started out. And Joan Marshall was the Prosecuting Attorney in the Star Trek Episode "Court Marshal."

Finally a munsters theme video without every comment saying “ItWaSaGiThAaLlAlOnG”

The Munsters premiered today (September 24) in 1963 on CBS.

If they’d stuck with this, it wouldn’t have lasted a season.

You mean they put laugh tracks IN the intro?! What a lawless and reckless era

Why are they all blue? It makes sense for Herman, but since when are vampires and werwolves blue? Also, they overuse the laugh track, but I suppose that's just 1960's TV for you.

1:09 Herman's has that incredible hulk look going on.

lol you can see the wig cap on Beverly Owen! Also thank goodness they changed the way Herman looks.

Que versión tan más sosa de éste intro.

I remember rob zombie on howard stern talkin about this and they were dyin laughin about happy derman

September 24, 1964.

They often have similar shows running at the same time the Outer Limits and the Twilight Zone, Lost in Space and Star Trek and when Lost in Space went off the air Land of the Giants was similar. Gilligan's Island has 7 people stranded on an island similar to Lost in Space and Land of the Giants 7 people stranded on another planet.

THIS VIDEO IT'S REAL!!!! THIS IS THE ORIGINAL PILOT!!! LOOK.. Joan Marshall appeared in the 15 minute unaired pilot of The Munsters as Phoebe Munster (who strongly resembled Morticia Addams). Before the series was picked up, The Munsters was retooled and Marshall was replaced by actress Yvonne De Carlo. (this is from wikipedia so you know) :)

Production costs quickly prohibited filming in COLOR and it became B&W or nothing.

I want hair like Phoebe's.

Yeaaah, just way too Morticia. And fortunately we were spared Happy Derman.

This is a note I find for how much time they put into it. Back then the idea of spending a ton for a 30 minute TV show was apart of there problem. They had problems including most of the caste, and well they had the right guy, for Herman but wasn't looking convincing. Said and done it took them 6 hours to get there Herman ready. LOL

@DoctorPorkenfries Most people maybe 90 some % of the original audience were more than thrilled by the blue color of the Mumster.

When me and my brother first watched this we were confused

Agreed!

This intro is better than the whole Rob Zombie trailer. By like, a mile.

1:32. She’s like “yup still got it…”

I second just about everyone else's comments about Joan Marshall, and would add another objection: She looks too young. According to the IMDb, Joan Marshall was in her early 30s when she did this pilot; Yvonne De Carlo was about 40 and much more convincing as a mother figure. Here, Marshall looks about the same age as Beverly Owen (which was in the fact the case). Yes, I know they're supposed to be aunt and niece, but still...

This is weird on so many levels, most notably the different actors. Although, Joan Marshall in this role is like my ideal look in a woman. But the color vs black and white, the weird makeup for Herman, and him laying one on Phoebe would have made for a much different show. I like the more innocent approach they took with it.

thank god they improved it

This was the pilot episode. Its on the complete 1st season DVD.

Gorgeous lady as well

I wanna meet blow fire monster monster under stairs again! When on air at Japan he called“Godzilla”

I can see why it was unaired

where's the whole episode?

It's possible for a aunt to be younger than a neice but then they would have to constantly explain it so to avoid that an older aunt made more sense.

Al Lewis and Fred Gwynne made the same appearance in the other years

Not necessarily the greatest, but it was kinda cute in a way. Guess it did not work too well with the test market, so they went with the one we're all familiar with today.

i saw ths for the first time when i brough the first season of the munster if i didn buy it then i wouldn have knw about ths pilot plus after the shot they replaced eddie and lily a

I wanna meet monster under steer again! when on air at Japan he named “Godzilla”

@kitpenguin8 Do a little research, the original pilot WAS shot in color.

Yah when I'm e and my brother watched this last year when I got the series we were like what is this

What happen With Lily????

Phoebe was HOT!!!

Phoebe looks like Moon Zombie

Interesting, but I never want to see that again.

@MrFortuBass How do you know?

Oh wait, I found it.

Thank god they put Yvonne in. Joan doesn't look like a mother , Yvonne does 3

Well, they have originality for one thing.

John Kerry as Herman

😲😃👍

Horrible theme music...and terrible make-up on the actors. I am glad that they decided to film this show in black-n-white, even though color was becoming more available to everyone. The black-n-white format just gave it a certain charm and atmosphere...they have tried several times to redo and renew this show, but nothing will ever beat the original...or what I thought was the original.

I actually like this music more than the actual theme. Is it original? I'd love to have a version without the laugh track.

spelling Beverley Owen's name wrong with different font than the rest. I would really like to know the reason. maybe it was so rushed.

phoebe is so hot xD

Phoebe (Lily) looks like she's going to rub one out at the end.

So Al Lewis and Fred Gwynne are the only ones that made the cut. Good thing, the others sucked

Joan Marshall looks way sexier and classy here than the one they finally chose. I wouldn't have cared if she looked like Morticia Addams.

Why did they change it to Black and White?

Phoebe is a copy to morticia Adams..?

LA PRIMERA FAMILIA MONSTER....!! JOAN MARSHALL FUE REEMPLAZADA POR IVONNE DE CARLO Y A FRED GWYNE (HERMAN MONSTER) SE LE VE MAS JOVEN...!!!

It HAPPY DERMAN NOT PERMAN

Happy derman doesn’t look very happy

Wow!

What's with the goofy laugh track in the intro? Bad idea.

Thi opening us what yhey b as we d the meters movie rob zombie did bc you can tell how fresh out of the lab yhin Herman was not to mention grandpa and how bourgeoisie the Lilly prototype was aka Phoebe munster.

Hey The Addams Family has nothing compared to The Munsters!

@kitpenguin8 If you look at the entire clip you'll see Bevery Owen still has the "mop" hairdo w.w.w.kzfaq.info/get/bejne/oJ-TjaqIu52mXZ8.html .

Lily was HOT!

If I was Herman, I would have kept Phoebe on. If you know what.. Phoebe could and very well be Morticia's twin. Good clip.

the show would have been better off if it had stayed in color

Paulo

I thought Grandpa Munster was Lily's dad.