I love silly, goofy and absurdist humor. That's one of the reasons I love "The Munsters" in general (and many other television comedies of the 1960s). Well, episode 6, "Low-Cal Munster", is even silly for a "Munsters" episode. So much that it almost goes off the rails, but not quite.
The episode is narrowly focused on a single idea--Herman Munster (Fred Gwynne) is trying to lose weight. He wants to attend a reunion of his old army buddies (Herman being in the army is a very funny idea in itself), but he can't fit into his military uniform and he doesn't want to go in his civvies, so he decides to shed some pounds. That's a problem, as Herman loves to eat, he only has a week to lose weight, and this just happens to be Thanksgiving week.
There are a number of highlights in this episode: The beginning is one of the best, most extended "Munsters"-as-serious-horror scenes in the series. If someone didn't know about the show and turned it on at the beginning, they'd think they're about to watch a horror film. Herman trying to eat a scant dinner is very funny. A later scene featuring Herman surprising a family becomes close-to-the-edge silliness. And there are two great scenes featuring Paul Lynde as Dr. Dudley, the family doctor. I'm watching "The Munsters" in the airdate order (since that's all the information I have and that's the order of the episodes on DVD), but this episode seems that it was written and maybe produced prior to episode 4, Rock-a-Bye Munster, as this is where the Munsters first meet Dr. Dudley.
The episode is narrowly focused on a single idea--Herman Munster (Fred Gwynne) is trying to lose weight. He wants to attend a reunion of his old army buddies (Herman being in the army is a very funny idea in itself), but he can't fit into his military uniform and he doesn't want to go in his civvies, so he decides to shed some pounds. That's a problem, as Herman loves to eat, he only has a week to lose weight, and this just happens to be Thanksgiving week.
There are a number of highlights in this episode: The beginning is one of the best, most extended "Munsters"-as-serious-horror scenes in the series. If someone didn't know about the show and turned it on at the beginning, they'd think they're about to watch a horror film. Herman trying to eat a scant dinner is very funny. A later scene featuring Herman surprising a family becomes close-to-the-edge silliness. And there are two great scenes featuring Paul Lynde as Dr. Dudley, the family doctor. I'm watching "The Munsters" in the airdate order (since that's all the information I have and that's the order of the episodes on DVD), but this episode seems that it was written and maybe produced prior to episode 4, Rock-a-Bye Munster, as this is where the Munsters first meet Dr. Dudley.
