Lily Munster (née Dracula) is a fictional character in the

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

sitcom A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...

, ''

The Munsters ''The Munsters'' is an American sitcom about the home life of a family of benign monsters that aired from 1964 to 1966 on CBS. The series stars Fred Gwynne as Herman Munster (Frankenstein's monster),Episodes referring to the fact that Herman is ...

'', originally played by

Yvonne De Carlo Margaret Yvonne Middleton (September 1, 1922January 8, 2007), known professionally as Yvonne De Carlo, was a Canadian-American actress, dancer and singer. She became a Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film star and sex symbol in the 1940s a ...

. The

matriarch Matriarchy is a social system in which positions of power and privilege are held by women. In a broader sense it can also extend to moral authority, social privilege, and control of property. While those definitions apply in general English, ...

of the Munster household, Lily is a

vampire A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead humanoid creatures that often visited loved ones and c ...

. The role was later played by

Lee Meriwether Lee Ann Meriwether (born May 27, 1935) is an American actress and the winner of the 1955 Miss America pageant. She has appeared in many films and television shows, notably as Betty Jones, the title character's secretary and daughter-in-law in th ...

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 June 8, 1991. Plot The series concerns the day-to-day life of a family of benign m ...

'' and by

Portia de Rossi Portia Lee James DeGeneres (born Amanda Lee Rogers; 31 January 1973), known professionally as Portia de Rossi, is an Australian-American former actress. She played Nelle Porter on the American drama series ''Ally McBeal'' (1998–2002), for wh ...

in the unsold 2012

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...

Mockingbird Lane ''Mockingbird Lane'' is a 2012 American horror comedy television special that served as a re-imagining of the 1964–66 television series ''The Munsters''. It was developed for NBC by Bryan Fuller. The pilot episode aired on October 26, 2012, as ...

''. Lily was first introduced in the second pilot episode and is the only family member to not appear in the original pilot episode. In the original pilot Herman was married to another woman called Phoebe Munster. This plan was scrapped as the producers felt she resembled

Morticia Addams Morticia Addams (née Frump) is a fictional character from the '' Addams Family'' multimedia franchise created by American Charles Addams in 1933. She plays the role of the family's reserved matriarch. Morticia Addams has been portrayed by se ...

too much.

Description

Lily is the matriarch of the Munster family. She is a beautiful and slender woman who appears to be middle aged, although she is actually hundreds of years old. Later incarnations of the character, played by different actresses, would change her skin from green to pale white. Lily usually dresses in an ankle-length pale pink gown that appears faded and old, and she sometimes also wears a scarf. Her necklace features a bat-shaped medallion. When away from the Munster house, she often wears a long silver cape with a hood, which in reality is a coffin lining. In the episode "Munsters Masquerade", Lily demonstrates the ability to float in the air while dancing. She is very close with her niece, Marilyn. She has a brother, the Wolf Man, who appears in episode 15 ("Herman's Rival"), and a sister who is Marilyn's mother. Lily is the voice of reason in the Munster household, often relied upon to set problems right, and typically mediates when Herman and Grandpa squabble. Lily also has a fiery temper. While she is deeply in love with Herman, she also frequently gets very angry at him (due to his frequent stupidity and occasional selfishness), and Herman often meekly discloses his fear (to others) of being on the receiving end of her wrath. She also has reprimanded her own father (Grandpa) on several occasions for his own foolish actions and stubborn self-righteousness. Lily treats her niece Marilyn as her own daughter, but shares the family's concern that Marilyn's "hideousness" is going to condemn her to a spinster's life. As such, she is very much in favor of Marilyn dating, and is very accommodating to Marilyn's fleeting beaus despite their "rudeness." (What Lily is perceiving as lack of manners is in fact the young man's terror of seeing Marilyn's monstrous relatives). Lily is very supportive of her son, Eddie, and keeps a close eye on his activities and social circle. Lily is mainly a housewife, and her duties include spreading garbage around the house and "dusting" with a vacuum cleaner operating in reverse so that it blows dirt about in the nine-room-and-a-dungeon house. During the course of the series, Lily works as a welder in a shipyard, a fashion model, and a

palm reader Palmistry is the pseudoscientific practice of fortune-telling through the study of the palm. Also known as palm reading, chiromancy, chirology or cheirology, the practice is found all over the world, with numerous cultural variations. Those w ...

in a tea room. In one episode she forces Herman to give her money so that she and Marilyn can open a beauty parlor, but this soon goes out of business, as Lily assumes her clientele wants to look more like her. These part-time jobs never seem to stick, and Lily would be back to being a homemaker by the next episode.

Development

Lily was not in the original

pilot episode A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie) in United Kingdom and United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television netwo ...

of ''The Munsters''. Instead, Herman is married to a much more Gothic-looking wife named Phoebe, played by

Joan Marshall Joan Marshall (born Joan Schrepferman; June 6, 1931 – June 28, 1992) was an American film and television actress. She is best known for her appearances in ''The Twilight Zone's'' " Dead Man's Shoes", and ''Star Trek's'' "Court Martial" alo ...

, who has a somewhat abrasive bickering relationship with Herman and a strained relationship with Eddie.''America's First Family of Family''. Documentary. 2002. 20th Century Fox Film Corporation. The producers scrapped the Phoebe character after deciding she seemed almost an exact double of the

character on ''

The Addams Family The Addams Family is a fictional family created by American cartoonist Charles Addams. They originally appeared in a series of 150 standalone single-panel comics, about half of which were originally published in ''The New Yorker'' between 193 ...

''. Lily appeared in the second pilot and all other episodes.

was cast for the role in March 1964. When first cast, Gwynne and Lewis went to the producers and complained because De Carlo was a movie star of long standing and they were worried that she would not fit in. However, after a few shows, they had to admit they had been wrong, and all got on well. De Carlo approached the role with

Donna Reed Donna Reed (born Donna Belle Mullenger; January 27, 1921 – January 14, 1986) was an American actress. Her career spanned more than 40 years, with performances in more than 40 films. She is well known for her portrayal of Mary Hatch Bailey in ...

as her primary inspiration.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Munster, Lily Television characters introduced in 1964

Lily ''Lilium'' ( ) is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants growing from bulbs, all with large and often prominent flowers. Lilies are a group of flowering plants which are important in culture and literature in much of the world. Most species are ...

Fictional monsters Fictional vampires American female characters in television

Description

Development

See also

References