General Information

Director: Joseph Pevney

Writer: Douglas Tibbles

Cast: Fred Gwynne, Yvonne De Carlo, Al Lewis, Pat Priest, Butch Patrick, Joan Staley, Chet Stratton, and Eileen O’Neill

Composer: Jack Marshall

Air Date: 2/24/1966

Overview

Parlor employee Clyde Thornton, the practical joker from “Herman’s Peace Offensive,” falls head over heels in love with Clara Mason (Joan Staley). Unable to impress Clara on his own, Clyde relies on Herman’s poetry to spark the interest of his new crush.

For its effective use of a comedic misunderstanding trope, “Cyrano De Munster” should be praised by fans of this series. Especially worth noting is the love rectangle involving Herman, Lily, Clyde, and Clara, which, in addition to being quite humorous, teaches a valuable lesson about the dangers of jumping to conclusions.

Pros

Arousing the suspicions of Lily, Herman sneaks out in the middle of the night to feed poetic lines to Clyde, now struggling to kindle the affections of Clara. Sometime later, a jealous Lily decides to confront Clyde at his apartment, causing Herman to assume that his wife and co-worker are having an affair. Clyde, on the other hand, believes that Herman has stolen Clara from him; yet in reality, Clara is the one who pursues Herman after discovering that he, not Clyde, had written the poetry in question. Needless to say, hilarity ensues when Lily, Herman, Clara, and Clyde encounter one another in the climactic sequence.

Cons

“Cyrano De Munster” operates on an implausible premise, namely that any woman would be enamored of Herman’s cringe-inducing poetry. (In all fairness, Grandpa himself draws attention to this fact.)

Analysis

Though strictly asinine, “Cyrano De Munster” rightly implies that in order to avoid conflict, husbands and wives should always communicate their true intentions to each other. Specifically, if Herman had initially explained to Lily the reason for his poetry writing, she might never have doubted the loyalty of her husband. (That being said, longtime viewers may question why Lily continues to accuse Herman—a faithful partner of one hundred years—of philandering with women despite lacking evidence to indicate as much.)

Concluding Comments

“Cyrano De Munster” contains an amusing mix-up scenario that will appeal to enthusiasts of The Munsters. It should be mentioned, however, that Douglas Tibbles’ main narrative concept (i.e. Lily’s paranoia regarding the mysterious behavior of Herman) had been thoroughly exhausted by this point in the series.

Overall Quality: 7/10

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