21. The Munsters spoofed the Universal Monsters in 1964
The American sitcom The Munsters debuted in September, 1964, unabashedly spoofing the Universal Monsters and other American television shows such as Leave it to Beaver, and other shows featuring wholesome families. The family head, Herman, was a Frankenstein’s monster in the Boris Karloff vein. His son Eddie was a young half-vampire and half-werewolf, his father-in-law a Dracula-style vampire and mad scientist. His wife was a vampire, and they all worried about the future of their unfortunate niece, who was a normal American stereotypical girl next door. The show’s concept was based entirely on the normalcy of the monsters.
As with the majority of the Universal movies it spoofed, the show was broadcast in black and white, with most of the action set in the dingy, dusty, and gloomy classic “haunted house”. The Munsters, as with the Abbott and Costello movies, eliminate any sense of fear or horror from the characters, and presented them as comic foils. The Shock Theater presentations were in their heyday at the same time. The contrast between the by-then-considered classic horror movies and the comic display of the Munsters was stark, and the Universal monsters fell deeper into the morass of being quaint stereotypes of a bygone age.