Your Daily Dracula – Al Lewis as Grandpa, The Munsters (1964-66)
This show was Universal’s major 1960s use of their ‘famous monsters’ IP, and continues to be a semi-active franchise. Just as Herman Munster (Fred Gwynne) was the Frankenstein Monster as sit-com Dad, Grandpa (Al Lewis) is the Bela Lugosi version of Count Dracula as an embarrassing relative. Grandpa does occasionally identify himself as the original Dracula, which – of course – means Lily (Yvonne de Carlo) is Dracula’s daughter. Appearing in seventy episodes, plus a movie, a cartoon, a TV movie and other revivals, Lewis might hold a record for giving the most performances as Dracula in any recorded medium.
Al Lewis as Grandpa, Munster, Go Home (1966)
Al Lewis as Grandpa, The Mini-Munsters (1973)
Al Lewis as Grandpa, The Munsters’ Revenge (1981)
Al Lewis as ‘Vernon Cooper’, Moonrise (aka Grampire, My Grandpa is a Vampire) (1991)
Howard Morton as Grandpa, The Munsters Today (1988-91)
Robert Morse as Grandpa, Here Come the Munsters (1995)
Sandy Baron as Grandpa, The Munsters’ Scary Little Christmas (1991)
Gavin Wells as Grandpa, This Ain’t the Munsters XXX (2008)
Eddie Izzard as Grandpa, Mockingbird Lane (2012)
With respect, though Grandpa is indeed identified as the original Count Dracula, Herman is NOT the original Monster. That would be his older, crankier brother Johann, who we do meet in the original series.
Posted by Craig | August 23, 2021, 2:30 pm