POP! Television: Herman Munster

I have a mixed relationship with horror parodies. I love the Evil Dead series, but was never really sold on Shaun of the Dead, for example. I suspect this is in part because the genre is often so unintentionally silly that sometimes (though not always) throwing parody into the mix can really undermine genuinely good horror in the eyes of the wider public*.

Another part is simply because we never, ever need to see a scene from The Exorcist parodied in any film ever again. It’s been done, guys – leave it alone.

But The Munsters – at least the little I’ve seen of it – is one of the good ones. It managed to successfully poke fun at both horror and family sitcoms without ever being condescending. So today we take a look at a POP of their patriarch, Herman Munster. Oh Goody!

A childish but ultimately kind and caring character, Herman Munster endeared himself to kids and adults alike back in the 1960s. Though clearly based on Frankenstein’s Monster, he was just a regular sort of working class guy of the era – one of the running jokes of the series was that the Munster family was actually quite normal, in spite of their appearance. No doubt there’s a life lesson in there somewhere.

This POP isn’t a bad likeness of the character, but of the four they released of the family it’s probably the weakest. But it’s not without positive features; its paint is certainly better than plenty of other POPs I own, and it does look great as an addendum to the Universal Monsters series that was released back in 2014. So Herman may not be totally essential, but he is fun.

Sadly, The Munsters isn’t quite as big a presence on the pop culture landscape as it once was; it’s not as well-remembered as its contemporary The Addams Family, and the franchise has been relatively dormant through my lifetime. 

It was last revived just a few years ago, with a pilot called Mockingbird Lane. I haven’t watched it, but reviews suggest that much like Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows, it seemed to miss the mark; not funny enough to be a comedy, not enough supernatural drama to try and capture a Penny Dreadful vibe. It’s a shame, but perhaps not surprising. Still, if you’ve never the original before, you should make an effort to check out an episode if you get the chance.  

*To be fair, horror often deliberately shies away from mainstream acceptance anyway. It’s no coincidence that there’s so much overlap between horror fans and heavy metal fans.