When Fred Gwynne started working on “The Munsters,” he did his own stunts. For a while, it worked well, and then one stunt ended in his headpiece breaking off after he fell on his back.
The studio then got a professional stuntman named Bill Foster to do anything similar in the future. Interestingly, the two met when Bill, who was a Universal Studios security guard at the time, saw Fred trying to play the guitar. Foster, who was also a musician, then offered to give him some lessons.
Drag-U-La's Final Resting Place
Since creating Drag-U-La was such an ordeal, there could only be one. This means it had to be involved in some pretty epic filming adventures. After the show wrapped, the dark funeral car was stationed at different places, one of which was being suspended from the ceiling in Atlantic City in Planet Hollywood.
While there was only one car used for the show, replicas of it have been built after "The Munsters" were off the air. One of the restorations is currently in Florida, somewhere around Orlando.
The Leave It to Beaver and The Munsters' Connection
If you really put some thought into it, outside the fact that all of The Munsters' characters belonged to a clan of monsters, you won’t find any kind of stark contrast with "The Munsters" and "Leave it to Beaver." The two television shows revolved around working-class families who had normal day-to-day family problems. A lot of this had to do with the fact that both shows shared the same producers.
The two writers who made the script of "Leave it to Beaver" and "The Munsters" followed the mantra, “write what you know.” Recognizing that they both had families and were knowledgeable of the real intricacies and meaning of raising a family, both series plots conformed to their lives as family men and used their own experiences as inspiration for the making of both shows… with a handful of apparent distinctions of course.
Al Lewis: Political Activist by Day, Vampire by Night
After engaging in the restaurant business, which turned out to be a big success, by the way, Al Lewis would eventually enter into the world of politics. In 1998, Lewis ran for Governor of New York under the Green Party versus George Pataki, who was the incumbent Governor of New York during the time. The American actor-turned-politician ended up with a total of 52,000 votes, which amounted to roughly 1% of the total votes of that election.
Even though Al Lewis lost in the electoral campaign, the event did not prevent the famed actor from pushing his political views. Following his defeat in the elections, Lewis would continue his work as a strong advocate for prison reform, the legalization of marijuana in the United States, and putting a stop to police brutality.
Grandpa's Heritage
Lily Munster is a vampire. That much we know. Her father, granted, is also a vampire. This makes their lineage pretty easy to track — Transilvania, Romania, although the place is referred to a little differently in the show.
Whenever Grandpa talks about the good old days (which is quite often), he refers to his birthplace as the Holy Roman Empire. You know, the same Holy Roman Empire where Dracula was born.