THE MUNSTERS Pilot Episode In Colour - "My Fair Munster" (1964)

I accidentally turned to the next page in The Monster Cyclopedia, and guess what comes after Mummy? Munsters! 

Welcome to Alternate Reality Wednesday in The Dungeon sponsored this week by Lord Litter's Magical Music Box!

So, what the heck am I talking about? The pilot episode of "The Munsters was created in 1964, and was only 15 minutes long  in an effort to try and sell it to the network!

This episode wasn't released until 2004, some forty years later!

The first weird thing is that it was shot in glorious colour, unlike the real series which aired in black and white like this!

They changed a few other things too..........

........Like the look of The Munster's house!

The pilot episode was titled "My Fair Munster," and when they completed it with the necessary changes, it was used not as the first episode, but the second episode that aired the first season. The first episode ended up to be about a masquerade party and was called "Munster Masquerade!"

This episode starts with Marilyn coming home from a date, but he runs away when he sees Herman. Grandpa makes a love potion to make Marilyn more attractive, and that's where it ends. When fully aired, Herman and Lily end up ingesting the potion instead with predictable results!

I was watching this without knowing, and everything was fine until it got to the credits, and I was like what the Hell is going on here? Joan Marshall as Phoebe? Who the Hell is Phoebe? Very confused, I stopped watching, and started reading, and trying to figure it all out!

I'm just assuming the network liked the pilot but somebody decided it was just a little too dark, and started making changes!

Joan Marshall was in scores of TV shows in the 50's and 60's, and was in the "Twilight Zone" episode titled "Dead Man's Shoes," but she would never be part of The Munster family again!

Yvonne De Carlo as Lily Munster was nine years older than Joan Marshall, less scary, and much more maternal!

I guess they thought Beverly Owen as Marilyn was just fine in her role, because they kept her, but look, they spelled her first name two different ways! The black and white one is the correct one.

Nate "Happy" Derman's career never took off after this. He was in four other TV shows before calling it quits a a couple of years later!

In 1983 Butch Patrick released a 45 as Eddie and the Monsters called "Whatever Happened To Eddie?" Butch looks younger than Happy, but they were both born in 1953.

Again, why did Happy get axed from the show? For me, he was just a little too over the top maniacal, and maybe the producers felt the same way.

They kept Al Lewis as Grandpa!

 Al was just a little too unique, and I can't even imagine who they could have replaced him with!

Fred Gwynne would have been pretty hard to replace also, but....

.......They did goofy-up his role some I think!

It looks like they changed up his makeup a bit too!

Look how young he looks in this shot!

The more I look at Joan Marshall in this role, the more she looks like Barbara Steele, which just might have been too much for the 60's sitcom fans, but I would have liked it!