The BEST episodes of The Munsters
Every episode of The Munsters ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of The Munsters!
At 1313 Mockingbird Lane, Mockingbird Heights, lived one of America's strangest sitcom families, The Munsters. Strangest looking, that is, for beneath Herman's Frankensteinian facial features, Lily's vampiric visage, Grandpa's Dracula countenance and Eddie's Wolfman looks, lurked possibly the sweetest and most sensitive sitcom family ever to grace the small-screen. This, of course, was the nub of the series: that a family so weird could overcome the everyday problems of modern living - and the fact that people ran away from them, screaming - by their generosity, gentleness and belief in traditional American values.
#1 - Pike's Pique
Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/22/1964
The gas company wants to run a pipeline 25 feet under the Munsters' house. At that height is would run through Grandpa's dungeon lab. When the workers are digging they get extremely frightened by Herman and Grandpa's appearance. Mr. Pike, the manager of the Gas Company, thinks that the Munsters are trying to scare the workers to drive up the cost of construction on the Munster Property. He thinks its a good idea to visit with The Munsters to see what's going on...
#2 - Prehistoric Munster
Season 2 - Episode 25 - Aired 3/10/1966
Herman has his ego flattered twice by his family. First, Eddie wants to enter him in the Father of the Year Contest. Next, Marilyn wants to sculpt a clay bust in his likeness. When she tells her art professor that the sculpture represents a living person, he plans to make a bundle from his discovery of a missing link. Herman is summoned to his office for an examination, but he's under the impression he's about to receive an award and a bunch of neat prizes.
#3 - The Treasure of Mockingbird Heights
Season 2 - Episode 14 - Aired 12/23/1965
While searching for a fuse box in the dungeon, Herman and Grandpa discover a secret chamber and a clue to the pirate treasure hidden on the Munsters' property.
#4 - Big Heap Herman
Season 2 - Episode 18 - Aired 1/20/1966
The Munsters are heading for a vacation in Buffalo Valley when Herman gets off for a rest stop at Indian Flats. He wanders into the village of an Indian tribe that specializes in luring the tourist trade. The tribe's eldest member mistakes Herman for an ancient spirit leader.
#5 - Herman's Driving Test
Season 2 - Episode 11 - Aired 11/25/1965
Herman gets promoted to hearse driver and has to renew his driver's license. This requires him to take a road test, which he fails. Grandpa convinces him that he'd have better luck taking the test in a one-horse town. He turns out to be extremely correct.
#6 - A House Divided
Season 2 - Episode 29 - Aired 4/7/1966
A massive argument erupts between Grandpa and Herman after Herman accidentally destroys a go-cart the two of them constructed for Eddie. Since Grandpa claims to own half of the house, Herman draws a white line down its center and insists that Grandpa remain on his side of the line.
#7 - Herman, the Master Spy
Season 2 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/23/1965
In this Cold War episode, a Russian fishing trawler picks up a scuba-diving Herman in its haul of fish and mistakes him for the missing link. The crew members report their find to Moscow, claiming it puts the Soviets ahead in the ""missing link race."" The response from the Commissar is that Herman is an American spy.
#8 - Underground Munster
Season 2 - Episode 13 - Aired 12/9/1965
The Munsters' pet Spot runs away from home and is mistaken for a dangerous monster when he is sighted in the sewer. When Herman goes down the manhole to search for Spot, he too is mistaken for a dangerous monster. The Mayor vows to rid the city of these menaces by using TNT.
#9 - Zombo
Season 2 - Episode 22 - Aired 2/17/1966
Eddie, an avid fan of ghoulish TV host Zombo, becomes the winner of the ""Why I Like Zombo Contest"" and gets to be on the Zombo show. Herman becomes jealous of Eddie's new hero and wants to appear equally outlandish. But his efforts to impress his son fail. Eddie eventually learns that Zombo is not a real person but a phony character played by an actor.
#10 - Eddie's Nickname
Season 1 - Episode 19 - Aired 1/28/1965
Eddie wants to quit school because all the kids there call him Shorty. Grandpa helps by fixing a potion to make Eddie grow six inches overnight. Instead, the potion causes the young Munster to grow a full beard and mustache.
#11 - Munster Masquerade
Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/24/1964
Marilyn's boyfriend invites Marilyn and her family to a masquerade party. Marilyn goes as Priscilla her boyfriend as John Alden. Lily is Little Bo Peep, Grandpa is Napoleon, and Herman is King Arthur dressed in armor. Marilyn's boyfriend's father (Dressed As Frankenstein) is insulted when Herman compliments him for not wearing a costume :). At the end of the night Herman with a prize for wearing a Frankenstein costume under his suit of armor. Lily and Grandpa feel insulted because that is Herman's real face! However, Herman doesn't realize that he is being insulted.
#12 - Family Portrait
Season 1 - Episode 13 - Aired 12/17/1964
The Munsters have been chosen by Event Magazine as the average American family. Grandpa is insulted by being labeled ""average."" He disappears, jeopardizing the family's photo opportunity and the large amount of prize money that came with it. When a journalist and photographer arrive at the Munster home, Herman and Lily think they are burglars.
#13 - John Doe Munster
Season 2 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/11/1965
A 300-pound safe drops on Herman's head, causing him to develop amnesia. In order to get him released into her custody, Lily petitions the court to adopt Herman as her son. Until he restores his memory, he is treated as Eddie's brother John.
#14 - Don't Bank on Herman
Season 1 - Episode 21 - Aired 2/11/1965
When Herman and Grandpa go to the bank to make a withdrawal, they are mistaken for bank robbers and handed eighteen thousand dollars in cash. When Herman gets home and realizes the wrong he's done wrong, he can't rest until he returns the money. When trying to bring it back in the middle of the night, Herman and Grandpa wind up locked in the bank's vault.
#15 - Autumn Croakus
Season 1 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/26/1964
Grandpa is feeling lonely and depressed so he contacts a matrimonial agency to find a mate. The agency sends over a nice looking elderly woman who find Grandpa to be delightful. She turns out to be the Black Widow: she makes her living by marrying her suitors, getting them to sign a life insurance policy naming her as beneficiary, and then murdering them.
#16 - Herman's Peace Offensive
Season 2 - Episode 15 - Aired 12/30/1965
Herman advises Eddie to turn the other cheek when he gets pushed around by a bully. Shortly thereafter, Herman is the victim of a practical joke at work. Grandpa takes the situation in hand by teaching both Eddie and Herman how to box.
#17 - Rock-a-Bye Munster
Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/15/1964
Herman and Grandpa overhear Lily and Marilyn talking and somehow get the idea that Lily is pregnant. What's really happening is Dr. Dudley's son, Elmer, is coming to stay with the Munsters while Dr. Dudley and his wife are on vacation.
#18 - Happy 100th Anniversary
Season 2 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/21/1965
Herman and Lily want to buy each other an elaborate gift for their 100th Anniversary. Without telling each other, they both take night jobs as ship welders. Since the job requires them to wear protective helmets that conceal their faces, they don't realize whom they're dealing with when they start flirting with each other.
#19 - Will Success Spoil Herman Munster?
Season 2 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/2/1965
Eddie borrows a tape recorder belonging to the disc-jockey father of one of his friends. Herman records a version of DRY BONES, accompanying himself on the guitar. The following day, the disc jockey plays the song on his radio show - and it becomes an instant hit. Herman identifies himself as the mystery singer and quickly turns into an egomaniacal would-be celebrity. Grandpa comes to the rescue with his Nothin' Muffins.
#20 - A Man for Marilyn
Season 2 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/18/1965
To provide poor unfortunate Marilyn with a future husband, Grandpa tries to turn a frog into a prince. Conveniently, he chooses a nearsighted frog who won't be put off by Marilyn's hideous looks. Not realizing that the potion has failed, Grandpa and Herman mistake a passing stranger for their princely frog.
#21 - Just Another Pretty Face
Season 2 - Episode 17 - Aired 1/13/1966
Herman is struck in the head by a bolt of lightning from one of Grandpa's experiments. It causes him to become so disfigured that he ends up resembling officer Francis Muldoon from CAR 54, WHERE ARE YOU? (or how Fred Gywnne looks without makeup). Lily hopes to restore Herman's old face with plastic surgery.
#22 - Herman's Child Psychology
Season 2 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/16/1965
Eddie is upset that his family does not treat him cruelly because he thinks this means they don't care about him. When Eddie decides to run away from home, Herman employs a little child psychology, which naturally backfires. Various circumstances eventually lead to Herman's getting involved with a dancing bear.
#23 - Herman Munster, Shutter Bug
Season 2 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/7/1965
Herman takes up amateur photography and accidentally snaps a picture of two men making their escape from a bank robbery. Herman has visions of getting a big reward for his evidence, but the bank robbers track him down and decide to hold up with the Munsters until the heat is off. This episode revisits the show's recurrent fascination with criminality, especially bank robberies.
#24 - Eddie's Brother
Season 2 - Episode 27 - Aired 3/24/1966
Eddie longs for the companionship of a younger brother, so Grandpa builds him a robot named Boris. Eddie becomes resentful of this silent, mechanical boy who is so considerate and well-behaved that he garners all of Herman's attention and admiration.
#25 - Operation Herman
Season 2 - Episode 7 - Aired 10/28/1965
When Herman visits the hospital to see Eddie, who is having his tonsils out, he is mistaken for an accident victim and is immediately given a dose of laughing gas. Grandpa rescues him and brings him home, where Lily assumes that Herman has been drinking.