VINTAGE 1965 THE MUNSTERS METAL LUNCH BOX & THERMOS KIT

 1965 The Munsters Metal Lunchbox & Thermos

Made by King Seeley Thermos

Rarity R-7

Price Value Guide $1050.00

44 years old

The Munsters is a 1960s American television sitcom depicting the home life of a family of monsters. The show was a satire of both traditional monster movies and popular family entertainment of the era, such as Leave It to Beaver. It ran concurrently with the The Addams Family. Although the Addamses were well-to-do, the Munsters were a more blue-collar family. The Munsters also had higher Nielsen ratings than The Addams Family.

The idea of a family of funny monsters was first suggested to Universal Studios in the late 1940s by animator Bob Clampett, who wanted to do a series of cartoons. He never got a reply.

In the early 1960s, a treatment or 'format' for a similar idea was submitted to Universal Studios by Rocky & Bullwinkle writers, Allan Burns and Chris Hayward. This format was later handed to writers Norm Liebman and Ed Haas who wrote a pilot script Love Thy Monster. For some time, there were executives who believed the series should be made as a cartoon and others who wanted to see it made using live action. Finally, a presentation was filmed by MCA Television for CBS, using live action.

The show aired at night once a week in black-and-white on the CBS Television Network from September 24, 1964 to May 12, 1966, for 70 episodes. It was cancelled after ratings dropped to an all-time low due to the premiere of ABC's Batman, which was in full color. The Munsters has continued in syndication ever since. It was popular enough to warrant a clone series and several movies.

The Munster family

The family, while decidedly odd, consider themselves fairly typical working-class Americans of the era. Herman, like many husbands of 1960s, is the sole wage-earner in the family, though Lily and Grandpa make (short-lived) attempts to earn a little money from time to time. While Herman is titular "head of household," it is Lily who actually makes most of the decisions.

Despite superficial similarities of eccentric characters incongruent with their communities and a generally gothic look, this and Addams Family have some differences in the style of series, and the characters. Overall, the characters of The Addams Family were eccentric people with a gothic look, while the Munsters were a regular, blue-collar family of legendary monsters.

The costumes and appearances of the family members other than Marilyn were based on the classic monsters of Universal Studios films from the 1930s and 1940s. Universal produced The Munsters, as well, and thus were able to use these copyrighted designs, including their idiosyncratic version of Frankenstein's monster for Herman. Other studios were free to make films with the Frankenstein creature, for example, but could not use the costume and makeup originally created for the 1931 Universal Studios film, Frankenstein

Original Thermos - Complete