DVD Review: “Marineland Carnival” and Other “Munsters” Rarities

Nobody does classic TV on DVD like MPI Home Video. My library is thick with their releases of “The Jackie Gleason Show”, “Here’s Lucy”, “The Mothers-In-Law”, Perry Como specials, Doris Day specials, all kinds of goodies. Their latest release is a genuine rarity, with MPI’s usual outstanding array of bonus features.

In Spring of 1965, “The Munsters” was rolling through its first season on CBS. The series, which was created by Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher of “Leave It To Beaver” fame, was a traditional family sitcom with the minor exception that the family consisted of a Frankenstein’s monster (and his bride), a vampire, a fun-sized werewolf, and the black sheep of the family–a beautiful girl who had no monster characteristics.

On Easter Sunday of ’65, CBS aired “Marineland Carnival”, a special presentation. Specials used to be such a big thing on network television. Comedy specials, music specials, animated specials, travelogue specials, and intermingling of those various genres. These days you’re bound to see specials at Christmastime, and maybe once in a blue moon aside from the holiday season. But for decades, specials were…everywhere. “Frank Sinatra: A Man And His Music.” “All Commercials: A Steve Martin Special.” “The Bugs Bunny Mother’s Day Special.” “Circus Of The Stars.” If you are of a certain age or older, this little ditty will still bring on the nostalgia:

“Marineland Carnival” is a typical variety special of its era. Videotaped on location at Marineland Of The Pacific, the show features several musical numbers from The New Christy Minstrels along with extended sequences of live shows involving whales, porpoises, sea lions, seals and the like. More on that shortly. The connecting thread of the hour is provided by Herman Munster and family, who mistakenly believe Marineland to be a “fish store” and seek a new pet for little Eddie.

The special is certainly historically interesting. The Munsters material is pretty hokey, but the cast do a fine job selling the story.

Now…about the Marineland acts. I am conflicted, because the shenanigans enacted by the porpoises, seals etc, are very entertaining. However, I know animal acts (or fish acts, or sea mammal acts, or whatever you call this) were not always treated very well, particularly back in that era. There are some acts that seem like they would be stressful or dangerous, like a dolphin leaping out of the water to catch a fish out of a trainer’s mouth. (That doesn’t seem terribly safe for the trainer either, come to think of it.) Also, they have Herman Munster do the fish catching trick. (Herman holds the fish with his hands and not his teeth.) The perfect example of having conflicted feelings over this material comes at the very end of the show. The Munsters decide to get a seal for Eddie. And as they’re doing their final scene, the seal barks to beat the band…tossing its head around and barking, seemly agitated about something. Now part of me feels concerned over what would make the poor seal agitated in that way. But another part of me thinks it’s hilarious that the seal basically steps all on the Munsters’ dialogue and completely steals focus…and that the production company was either too cheap or out of time to take another swing at that scene.

As I mentioned earlier, MPI Home Video always gives the buyer great bang for their physical media buck. The special features on this disc begin with two guest appearances on “The Danny Kaye Show” by “Herman Munster.” I love me some Danny Kaye, and these segments, to my recollection, are not elsewhere on DVD. Before I move on–God bless Fred Gwynne. He sat in the makeup chair for hours every day for two seasons of “The Munsters”, then was booked on variety shows to play the same character. It had to be frustrating at some point, even just on the level of “Jesus, I gotta sit here and get this makeup on AGAIN!?” Gwynne was a great actor, who worked with Al “Grandpa” Lewis in the Nat Hiken sitcom “Car 54 Where Are You?” And his gentle nature really helped make Herman Munster such a likeable character. His gentle nature also sold linoleum:

And, oh sure, gotta throw this one in:

The next extra on the DVD is a complete sketch from a black and white episode of “The Red Skelton Hour” in which Freddie the Freeloader uses Herman Munster’s ability to scare people senseless for his own gain. Again, not only is this the first time on DVD for this material, it is quite possibly the first time a black and white Skelton Show segment has been available on DVD from original master tape.

There’s a “Red Skelton Museum” YouTube account that has the full episode! YouTube does not appear to be beholden to the music licensing and other issues that befoul some DVD releases:

Next in the bonus category, a late 60’s segment from “The Joey Bishop Show”, the former Rat Pack member’s ABC late night show, with Yvonne DeCarlo, who played Lily on “The Munsters.” There is some discussion about the trials of hair and makeup to be a Munster, and DeCarlo admits the series ending after two seasons was probably just about right. There’s also a Q and A session with the studio audience. Again, this is very rare material. Somewhere in this apartment I have a “collector-to-collector” DVD of one of these Joey Bishop talk shows in color…and that’s the only full episode I’ve seen. There’s virtually nothing of the series on YouTube.

Next, a video monologue from Butch Patrick, who played Eddie on “The Munsters.” Patrick is an entertaining speaker as he talks about being a kid wandering around the Universal Studios lot, including the home of previous “Universal Monsters” films. Butch Patrick shows up in quite a bit of TV and movie roles in the post-“Munsters” years; just the other day I saw him on “Adam-12” as a no-good rotten punk kid. A big change from kind, lovable Eddie!

The disc wraps up with CBS promos for “Marineland Carnival” and “The Munsters”, and a couple of cereal commercials featuring Butch Patrick.

I did not get the disc because I’m a Munsters fan. As I mentioned in a previous blog, neither “The Munsters” nor “The Addams Family” are favorites of mine. I got this disc because I knew it would be historically fascinating, and loaded with extra goodies. MPI is on the nose on both counts.

Random Notes:

-“Marineland Carnival” was originally videotaped on location at Marineland of the Pacific. The actual master copy of the special is apparently lost to the ages, so MPI’s source for this release is a kinescope…not bad as they go but boy is it a shame the original copy is apparently gone.

-Marineland closed in 1987. It’s a long story of buyouts, promises made, promises unkept, bomb threats and dolphins being renamed.. Hit up Wikipedia if that kind of thing interests you.

-I feel like, where food and drink are concerned, the definition of the word “rich” has changed over the years. As long as I can remember, “rich” tended to describe a decadent, high-calorie food item. Like the enormous piece of chocolate cake I got at the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver last October. When I can’t finish a piece of chocolate cake….well, damn, that’s a rich piece of cake!

And yet…on old Jack Benny radio programs Don Wilson sings the praises of Jell-O’s rich flavors. Huh? And on the Munsters Marineland special, the sponsor billboards (I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE when DVDs include things like that) promote both Minute Maid Orange Juice and Hi-C Punch as “rich” drinks. Any elder readers out there wanna try to connect the dots on this?

-I have never had lofty expectations for this blog. But boy, if there’s one thing I’d love to see happen, it would be for MPI to see all the glowing articles I’ve written about their releases, and start sending me review copies! That would save me mega bucks!