Why do THE MUNSTERS fight so much crime?
Continuing our look at how much the Fantastic Four and The Munsters have in common.
Both monster families deal with a LOT of bad guys!
Why do The Munsters always find themselves dealing with bad guys? You know, bank robbers, smugglers, con artists, and even a murderer? I mean, this is a sitcom about a family living in the suburbs. But they have several episodes where they fight crime!
Well, I’m going to talk about some of these episodes—and, more importantly, explore why it shows how much they have in common with the Fantastic Four. I don’t mean Batman. I don’t mean the Avengers.
There is something very specific about The Munsters—AND the Fantastic Four—that they have in common! I talk about that on this episode of Monster Complex™…
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WATCH: Both the Fantastic Four and The Munsters are not crime fighters—but deal with a lot of bad guys!
The Munsters on the Monster Complex Show playlist
The Munster fought a lot of crime!
This episode of the Monster Complex™ show is actually the second part of a series that started with the question, “Why do the Fantastic Four and The Munsters have so much in common?” And as soon as it came out, some of the feedback made me think that perhaps—for some viewers, at least—I did not frame the big picture clearly enough.
Now if you watched that episode and you did understand what I was talking about, bless you. But just to make this clear for everyone else, I’m going to step back for a second.
First of all—I am a huge fan of the Fantastic Four. And I am a huge fan of The Munsters. I have loved both of them since I was a little kid and have continued to be a fan of both my entire life.
So none of this conversation is about one of them being a winner and one of them being a loser. I’m a huge fan of both—by which I mean the Fantastic Four comic books and The Munsters original TV show.
Please don’t think that I’m saying that one is better than the other. That is NOT what is going on here. As far as I’m concerned, both series are great.
What brought up the original question comparing the Fantastic Four and The Munsters…
So, this whole thing started a few months back, when I decided to read the Fantastic Four comic book series from the very beginning. Now, at the time of this recording, there are already more than 700 issues of the Fantastic Four comic book.
I decided to go all the way back to its beginning and read the whole series straight through. My wife and I have been buying reprints of the old issues so that for the first time in my life, I can start at the beginning with Fantastic Four #1 and read all the way to what’s coming out right now.
When I started reading those comic books from the early 1960s, around the same time I was also rewatching the original episodes of The Munsters TV show. Also from the early 1960s.
Now, even though I have been a fan of both of these series for years—for the first time in my life, I was looking at the early years of both series at the same time. And I started to notice they had SO MUCH in common. And it’s a BIG LIST of things they have in common.
But—and this is what really got my attention—a couple of these things actually made me start asking questions. Now, there are parts of The Munsters TV show that we all take for granted. I’ve been watching this show my entire life, and there are things they do that I just take for granted.
But then I started seeing some of those details in a new light. And I found myself wondering where those ideas came from.
And since those elements are so similar to parts of the Fantastic Four comic books—and since both of those series started in the early 1960s within a couple of years of each other—what I’m asking, is it possible that the Fantastic Four was actually one of the influences for The Munsters?
Previously about The Munsters…
Now look, I have written lots of times on Monster Complex™ about The Munsters…
If you want to know why the creators of The Munsters actually wanted the show to be more like the Addams Family, I wrote about that: The Munsters: 13 Secrets Every Fan Should Know
If you want to know why there are so many different actresses who play the part of Marilyn Munster, I wrote about that: Why Did They Change Marilyn Munster?
If you want to know about the various Universal Monsters that showed up on the series, I wrote about those: The Munsters: 7 Classic Monsters in the Family
If you want to know about all those episodes where Herman applied for a bunch of different jobs or tried out for different kinds of sports, I wrote about those too:
What we discussed in the last episode
Now, in the previous video we started out with some of the basic things that the Fantastic Four and The Munsters have in common. For example, both series are about FAMILIES of MONSTERS. And while you might say, “We already know that,” I’m just asking you to remember that in the early 1960s—that was unusual. Because we’re talking about a superhero comic book and a family sitcom.
So it’s the Fantastic Four. (Not Batman. Not The Avengers. Not Superman.)
And it’s The Munsters. (Not the Dick Van Dyke Show. Not the Andy Griffith Show. Not My Three Sons.)
So the Fantastic Four and The Munsters are unique because both series is about a family of monsters. We also talked about how they were unique because they were living in the real world. And they were public figures. These are all elements that they did have in common, but that also made them different from so many others.
Now let’s try a new one…
Today’s comparison—why do the FF and The Munsters fight crime?
Both series are about people who are not crime fighters—but who fight crime. Think about how unique that is for BOTH of them. This is another example that THEY have in COMMON—but very few others would also have this in their description.
Let’s look at this: The Fantastic Four are not crime fighters. They are explorers. They are science people. If you have read the actual comic books, then you know that they don’t go out looking for bad guys. They’re not Batman. They’re not the Avengers. They’re not the Justice League. It’s not their job to fight crime.
However, there are several stories where they ran into bad guys and then had to deal with them. Mole Man. The Frightful Four. Galactus. And, of course, Doctor Doom—they don’t go looking for Doctor Doom all the time, but he certainly has shown up a bunch. All of which is to say, the Fantastic Four don’t go looking for bad guys. But they do have to deal with them.
Now let’s look at how The Munsters are doing this, too. The Munsters are not crime fighters. They’re just a family living in the suburbs. It’s not their job to fight crime, either. But every few episodes, they have to deal with bad guys, too. Bank robbers. Smugglers. A mugger. Insurance scam artists. A crooked dance school. A car dealer who is selling stolen cars. A marriage scam involving a murderer. For a show that was only on for two seasons, The Munsters have had to deal with a lot of bad guys.
More from Monster Complex™:
More about The Munsters
![Munsters’ Scary Little Christmas [Flashback]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e613d28fefad366b93ece35/1665507869456-K5XEXGSXD823KEGH7SLI/Munsters-Christmas-promo.gif)
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About Monster Complex™
Monster Complex™ explores monster fiction in all its forms—books, movies, TV, comic books, games, and anywhere else you can find stories about monsters and those who hunt them and/or love them. Whether it’s stories about science gone wrong, vampires, werewolves, spirits, folklore, mythology, cryptozoology, or anything of the like—Monster Complex™ will be right there with interviews, lists, roundups, and discussions.
Monster Complex™ is hosted by Chris Well, author and friend of monsters. (Well, the good ones.) Chris Well has been a writer pretty much his entire life. Over the years, he’s worked in newspapers, magazines, radio, and books. Now the chief of the website Monster Complex™, he celebrates monster stories in classic fiction and pop culture. He has also started writing horror comedy stories that embrace Universal Monsters, 1960s sitcoms, 1980s action movies, The X-Files, and Marvel Comics.
Monster Complex celebrates our articles that got the most views in the past year! Looking back at our most-read monster stories from 2024, including stories about monsters in books, movies, TV, music, comic books, and more.