Eddie Munster is a

fictional character In fiction, a character (or speaker, in poetry) is a person or other being in a narrative (such as a novel, play, radio or television series, music, film, or video game). The character may be entirely fictional or based on a real-life person, ...

on the

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...

The Munsters ''The Munsters'' is an American sitcom depicting the home life of a family of benign monsters. The series starred Fred Gwynne as Frankenstein's monsterEpisodes referring to the fact that Herman is Frankenstein's monster include #55, "Just Anoth ...

''. He was portrayed by

Butch Patrick Butch Patrick (born Patrick Alan Lilley; August 2, 1953) is an American actor and musician. Beginning his professional acting career at the age of seven, Patrick is perhaps best known for his role as child werewolf Eddie Munster on the CBS comed ...

in all episodes of the original series except for the

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

, where he was portrayed by Happy Derman. The only child of

Herman Herman may refer to: People * Herman (name), list of people with this name * Saint Herman (disambiguation) * Peter Noone (born 1947), known by the mononym Herman Places in the United States * Herman, Arkansas * Herman, Michigan * Herman, Min ...

and

Lily Munster Lily Munster (née Dracula) is a fictional character in the CBS sitcom, ''The Munsters'', originally played by Yvonne De Carlo. The matriarch of the Munster household, Lily is a vampire. The role was later played by Lee Meriwether in ''The Munste ...

, Eddie is a

Dhampir In Balkans folklore, dhampirs (sometimes spelled ''dhampyres'', ''dhamphirs'', or ''dhampyrs'') are creatures that are the result of a union between a vampire and a mortal human. This union was usually between male vampires and female mortal huma ...

werewolf In folklore, a werewolf (), or occasionally lycanthrope (; ; uk, Вовкулака, Vovkulaka), is an individual that can shapeshift into a wolf (or, especially in modern film, a therianthropic hybrid wolf-like creature), either purposely or ...

. The role was later played by

Jason Marsden Jason Christopher Marsden (born January 3, 1975) is an American actor, director, producer and YouTuber, who has done numerous voice roles in animated films, as well as various television series and video games. He has been the official voice of ...

in ''

The Munsters Today ''The Munsters Today'' is an American sitcom and a revival of the original 1964–66 sitcom '' The Munsters'' that aired in syndication from October 8, 1988, to May 25, 1991. Plot The series concerns the day-to-day life of a family of benign m ...

.''

Description

Eddie is a typical

all-America The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed upon an amateur sports person from the United States who is considered to be one of the best amateurs in their sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an All-Am ...

n boy apart from being a

and, in some episodes, showing some signs of being part vampire. Most noticeable is the fact that he sleeps in a coffin, which is never shown but whose creaking lid is heard occasionally. He is once depicted asking to sleep in a chest of drawers in the episode "Far Out Munsters" when the house is rented by the rock group The Standells, and the family is put up in a hotel. He has a stuffed toy werewolf named Woof-Woof, which bears an uncanny resemblance to

Lon Chaney Jr. Creighton Tull Chaney (February10, 1906 – July12, 1973), known by his stage name Lon Chaney Jr., was an American actor known for playing Larry Talbot in the film '' The Wolf Man'' (1941) and its various crossovers, Count Alucard (Dra ...

's portrayal of

Larry Talbot Lawrence Stewart "Larry" Talbot, also known as The Wolf Man, is a title character of the 1941 Universal film '' The Wolf Man'' and its sequels, created by Curt Siodmak. He was portrayed by Lon Chaney Jr. In the 2010 remake of the film, he is po ...

in the 1941 feature film, '' The Wolfman''. He attends

elementary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...

, and aside from his pointed ears, severe

widow's peak A widow's peak is a V-shaped point in the hairline in the center of the forehead. Hair growth on the forehead is suppressed in a bilateral pair of periorbital fields. Without a widow's peak, these fields join in the middle of the forehead so as t ...

, green skin, and Fauntleroy suit, he is a normal-looking kid. Eddie is very proud of his father, to the point of bragging about Herman's abilities and deeds to his friends. In fact, Eddie volunteering Herman for a heroic deed (which is clearly beyond Herman's capabilities, but one Herman nonetheless undertakes for Eddie's sake) is a central theme in many episodes.

Production

In the unaired pilot episode, the part was played by Nate "Happy" Derman, who played a more aggressively wolfish boy. Butch Patrick was reportedly cast out of over 500 boys in March 1964, and would appear in all episodes broadcast on CBS. When asked how he was selected to portray the role of Eddie, Patrick recalled, "I had a lot of experience. But maybe it was because my fangs were my own teeth. My teeth were so bad, that even when I closed my mouth they stuck out. I was about a head smaller than the other kids, and they liked that because it played off Herman's height." By the time ''The Munsters'' ended its run, Patrick was 13 years old, which coincidentally was Jason Marsden's age when he took over the role for ''The Munsters Today''. In the first season of the sequel series, Eddie was depicted as being 10 years old and in the fourth grade. He wore the same outfit that Butch Patrick wore. In seasons two and three, Eddie was now depicted as being high-school aged and his wardrobe became increasingly modernized. Marsden would likewise appear in all episodes produced for first-run syndication.

References

External links

Eddie Munster
at Munsters.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Munster, Eddie

Eddie Munster Eddie Munster is a fictional character on the CBS sitcom ''The Munsters''. He was portrayed by Butch Patrick in all episodes of the original series except for the pilot, where he was portrayed by Happy Derman. The only child of Herman and Lily ...

Fictional monsters Fictional werewolves Child characters in television Television characters introduced in 1964 Male characters in television