Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - 8. Butch Patrick

Episode Date: July 21, 2014

Child actor Butch Patrick was barely 11 years old when he was asked to screen test for a CBS "family sitcom" and within hours, his life was forever changed. To mark the 50th Anniversary of the debut of one of TV's strangest (and most enduring) shows, "The Munsters," Gilbert rings up Eddie Munster himself to find out how he first landed the part way back in 1964, why the original Marilyn was replaced and if he still has his old "Woof Woof" doll. Also, Butch speaks with surprising candor about overcoming his various demons of booze, drugs and typecasting and tells us where "Lidsville" creators Sid & Marty Krofft found their own "inspiration." All this, plus memories of Chuck Jones, Mel Blanc, Charles Nelson Reilly, Paul Lynde and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by FX's The Bear on Disney+. In Season 3, Carmi and his crew are aiming for the ultimate restaurant accolade, a Michelin star. With Golden Globe and Emmy wins, the show starring Jeremy Allen White, Io Debrey, and Maddie Matheson is ready to heat up screens once again. All new episodes of FX's The Bear are streaming June 27, only on Disney+. Hi, this is Gilbert Gottfried with another episode of Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast. I'm here with my sidekick, Frank Santopadre. Hi, Gilbert.

All right, don't start talking. All right. It's really annoying. And we're here with someone, a TV show I grew up on. I always watched this because I always loved monsters. And so when this show was on, I watched every single episode. And that was the monsters with Fred Gwynn and Al Lewis and Yvonne DiCarlo. and Al Lewis and Yvonne DiCarlo. And now we have with us the little boy of Herman and Lily,

Eddie Munster, Butch Patrick. Welcome to the show, Butch. Thank you very much, Gilbert. Nice to meet you. Now, how did you go about getting the job on the Munsters? Well, in the early 60s, my mom knew an agent who was breaking off to open an exclusively child's agency. Her name was Mary Grady. And her son was already working as Robbie on My Three Sons, Don Grady. And my little sister actually was who they had their sights set on. And I went along for the ride, and they took a few photos of me at the end of the shoot,

and one of the pictures wound up in a Hollywood Boulevard photographer's window, a guy named Amos Carr, who was a very famous photographer back there, and I had this look about me that somebody saw, and it wasn't quite like Lana Turner at the drugstore, but somebody on Hollywood Boulevard saw it, and somebody saw it, and they submitted me for three interviews. And my first three interviews were a commercial for Kellogg's, a movie, and a series called General Hospital in its first year.

So I got very lucky, and I got some credits under my belt. I then went on to do The Real McCoys for a year, a lot of guest-starring roles in some movies. And in 1964, they had cast, they'd gone to a lot of kids in Hollywood looking for Eddie Munster. And they narrowed it down to this one kid had actually hired him and shot a pilot named Happy Derman. But at the last minute, they decided to go a different direction. They flew me in from Illinois where I was living with my grandma. And me and Yvonne DiCarlo did a screen test together.

And they said, don't bother going back to the airport. You've got a job. Wow. Now, this – so – and you've had several parts before The Monsters. Yeah, like the two series. But aside from the two series, I did a lot of movies. I did a lot of – back then we had Mr. Ed's and My Favorite Martians. Didn't you do Bonanza, Butch, and Rawhide?

I did a few Bonanzas. I did a couple Gunsmokes, Rawhide, Death Valley Days, Ben Casey, Alcoa Premieres, just a lot of the Untouchables, things like that. Lots of stuff. You did like every show on the air, basically. Good Lord. Back in the 60s, for a 10-year run from 61 to 71 is really all the time that I worked. I did keep pretty busy, yeah.

Before we jump back to the Munsters, can we ask you any memories of Clint Eastwood on Rawhide? Well, you know, he wasn't really famous back then. He was just a working actor, and I used to get a lot of Westerns because I could ride a horse. My uncle was a jockey, and my other uncles used to supply horses to the studio. So because I was one of the few kids in Hollywood that was comfortable on a horse, I got a lot of westerns. But I remember Clint. He was nice. He was kind of a rugged kind of a guy, a man's man. And you could sense that he was probably going to become a movie star. You could sort of feel there was something about him that had greatness. And what about Walter Brennan on The Real McCoys?

You were a recurring character on there, weren't you? Yeah, that was funny. That was the last year of The McCoys where they had gotten rid of the family, and Kathleen Nolan had left, and they didn't have the kids. And all they had was Pepita, Amos, and Luke. So what they did was they needed a love interest for Luke, and they had a woman, a widow, get the farm next door and I was her son. So basically I would ride my pony over and visit and Luke would take me fishing and I would hang

around with the McCoys as their sort of adopted son. But to answer your question, Walter Brendan was a joy to work with and Richard Crenna, they were like really neat guys. Now here's a question out of nowhere. Back then, everybody, I remember, much like Cagney and Lugosi, that every comedian did an imitation of, they all did an imitation of Walter Brennan. Can you do a Walter Brennan imitation? Well, probably the only thing that I would be close to would be was he would always be calling for Pepina, Pepina. And Pepina would always be out hitting golf balls because when he wasn't on camera, he loved to swing golf balls, golf clubs and hit golf balls. with Fred Gwynn that he was kind of embarrassed by his being known as Herman Munster or doing the show. That is true. After the show wrapped and he went on to do other things, he was constantly compared to, no matter what he did on screen,

he was always, the people in the audience would murmur, oh, there's Herman Munster and Herman Munster this and Herman Munster that. And he did such a good job that it kind of became his, I don't know, Achilles heel somewhat. I mean, people just always remembered him as Herman Munster no matter what he did. Yeah, typecasting, right? Yeah. Now, what do you remember of the relationship, the friendship between Fred Gwynn and Al Lewis. Gilbert and I were talking, Bush, they were such opposites.

I mean, a Harvard guy and a guy from the streets. Yeah, Al was just such a typical New Yorker. I mean, we miss him a lot. When I would go visit him at his restaurant and stuff, I mean, he would walk down the street and just everybody would stop and wave and yell Grandpa. And he loved it. I mean, it's like you, Gilbert. I you're everybody knows who you are and everybody loves you and and al was the same way and uh him and fred to be honest with you having been so different but

having worked together on car 54 i guess they created this on-screen persona and they became friends that i honestly believe some of their comedy routines in The Munsters are as good as any Laurel and Hardy or Abbott and Costello. Oh, wow. Because I know it's like, yeah, they often said, like, Fred Gwynn was from a very, like, well-to-do waspy family, and Al Lewis was this New York Jew of the streets. Right. Yeah, Vaughn, he was basically, he grew up in the circus and in Vaughnville. He was a great character.

We went into Grandpa's restaurant on Bleecker Street many times. I have to tell you, Butch, once I had... What's that? Go ahead. Go ahead. I was going to say, do you know who owned Grandpa's restaurant? Who's that? John Gotti.

Really? I had heard that. Wait a second. That's good stuff. Wait, I had heard that. That was like a ma bone joint. It was. I used to go there for dinner, and it would be, hey, you've got to call me, Mikey, or

Tony. I don't remember things so good. You want to get a table, you've got to talk to me. So it was like Goodfellas. It was. I was a film school student, and I was eating dinner at Grandpa's, and there was a script sitting on the table. And, you know, he used to make the rounds and go from table to table with a little stogie in his mouth and greet everybody.

And he comes over, and he says hello and asks if we're having a good time. And he says, is that a script? And I said, yes, it is. He picks it up in the palm of his hand, and he picks it up and weighs it, and he puts it down, and he says, overwritten. And just twirled his cigar and walked away. It was a great moment. People who, I still have people coming up to me.

I mean, everybody who ever met Al Lewis remembers the meeting vividly. What a wonderful character. And, you know, of course, he's so known for the Munsters, but he did a lot of wonderful things. I mean, he's in this great Sherlock, kind of a comedy about Sherlock Holmes called They Might Be Giants with Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. Was that George C. Scott? Yep, George C. Scott, and he's very funny in a

Kurt Russell comedy called Use Cars. Yeah, he was the hanging judge. Yep. He did a lot of other stuff that people don't talk about him credit for. Oh, and he pops up in one of these episodes I remember so well of night gallery where goffrey cambridge is a failing comedian and he finds a genie played by jackie vernon oh yeah and he wants to be

funny and the club owner is al lewis and i think his agent is, what's his name, from Happy Days. Tom Bosley. Tom Bosley. Right. He turned up in the strangest places, but he was always good. Yeah, he was a strong character actor, no doubt. In fact, the grandpa character, I mean, well, you remember Al. He was running for governor.

He was running for senator. He was a Green Party. He was a political activist. And, you know, he lobbied to have his name on the ballot as Grandpa Al Lewis. Yep. And a basketball expert. And a huge round ball expert. He was actually on the payroll of several NBA teams at the high school level because he would go out and see high school players. And he knew, like, every player on St. John's to the 12th man, you know?

and see high school players, and he knew, like, every player on St. John's to the 12th man, you know? I remember Al Lewis bumping into him a lot during these Al Goldstein, you know, the publisher of Screw Magazine. Screw, yeah. He would have these big luncheons, and there would be Al Lewis there with his smelly cigar and his long fingernails and western clothes.

Yeah, he was a very interesting character. He was very eccentric. And especially, a lot of people don't remember this, but Al was a very big guy. He was like 6'3". And because he was standing next to Fred Gwynn in those shoes at 7 feet tall, a lot of people were surprised when they meet Al that I didn't realize how tall he was. And the fact that he did the long fingernails and the hair sometimes would be in a ponytail, and sometimes it was wildly

out the sides like sideburns. And the cowboy boots. Cowboy boots. Howard Stern used to make huge fun of him, you know. Oh my God. The bolo tie. The bolo tie, you got it. Yeah, just a great character. And they were such a wonderful comedy team.

As you said, they'd had a little background together on Car 54, but they were just a great Mutt & Jeff team on the Munsters. Their timing was just impeccable. Well, you think about something, you know, how a show that only was on two years, which will be 50 years in September, has maintained a popularity, not only with the original viewership, but now kids are watching it with their grandkids and their great-grandkids, and they like it as well.

I mean, sure, the kids like it today just because it's funny and it's humorous, but Conley and Mosher, who did that show, they were pretty slick. I mean, that show had a lot of social overtones that you weren't aware of. And they were the Leave it to Beaver guys, weren't they? They were the Leave it to Beaver guys, and they also did Amos and Andy before Leave it to Beaver. Now, I think the original idea for the show was called My Father the Monster, and that was created by, of all people, Jerry Lewis clone, Sammy Petrillo. I'm not aware of that. If you remember, there was a comedy team of Duke Mitchell and Sammy Petrillo. I'm not aware of that. If you remember, there was a comedy team of Duke Mitchell and Sammy Petrillo who were this

frightening. They, they started in Bela Lugosi meets a Brooklyn gorilla. I'm sure everyone has seen that. A classic. And Sammy Petrillo was this freakish clone of Jerry Lewis. And they said he once wrote a screenplay called My Father the Monster. I had heard that there was something floating around the Universal lot.

They were trying to do something with the Universal Monsters, because, as you know, every studio had somewhat of a special niche. MGM did musicals, and Fox did disaster films, and the Universal was the monster studio. They did all the monster stuff, and I knew that they were trying to – or at least I had heard that they were trying to figure out what to do with this Universal monster emblem that they had. And I guess back in the 50s they thought of something, but it never took hold. And then when the Addams Family was going into production, they hurried to fast-track something into play and Colleen Mosier had just closed production on The Beaver

and this is what they came up with, I've been told. Interesting. And you were starting to say that there were social overtones to The Monsters that people might not know about. Oh, very much so. Don't judge a book by its cover, people living on the block that you don't want them there. I mean, it was the 60s, there were civil rights.

I mean, you think about people of color. Well, hell, we were green. And, of course, the movie was in color, Munster Go Home. Yeah, the movie was in color. It's funny. I was watching a screening of it the other day, a new print with some people, and Kevin Burns, who's a filmmaker

and probably the biggest Munster knowledgeable collector, informed me that I didn't know why. He said, you know, the reason they made that movie was the fact that they were going to syndicate the Munsters around the world, but nobody had ever seen it. So they released this feature to introduce the Munsters to the world, and then it made it easier for them to sell the syndication packaging. Interesting. Yeah, it was.

Now, you as Eddie, I mean, that looked like, for the most part, just like a widow's peak and some white makeup and eye makeup. How long did Fred Gwynn's makeup take? He came in at 6, and he was done by about 8.30, about two to two and a half hours. And then during the day, the constant touch-ups and the fact that he was in that big rubber suit. I mean, it was really a difficult part for him to play. But if there was a saving grace in the whole thing thing it was the fact that we were only in makeup three days a week we would read on monday we would rehearse on tuesday which were very short days and then wednesday thursday and friday they would they would really you know put out a lot of effort

to get them to get it finished in three days and he wore like a big foam rubber undersuit under yes he did he was a very skinny guy very very, very much of a string bean, 6'6 1⁄2", probably didn't weigh more than 150 pounds. So it's hot. You guys are under lights. You're in the San Fernando Valley, or at least Los Angeles, and he's wearing, what, 40 pounds of rubber and clothes? Because I've seen Al Lewis in documentaries talk about how much weight he would lose. Yeah, he did. and clothes? Because I've seen Al Lewis in documentaries talk about how much weight he would lose. Yeah, he did. He had his own special little air hose to cool him off, and he had

gallons and gallons of lemonade that was on top of the honey wagon that he would go over that he could only reach. It was his own private stash. But even with that, he was still losing a lot of fluid every day, and his boots would just be filled with sweat at the end of the day. Wow. Good job. Tell us, Butch, too, we talked before about why the original Lily was replaced, and in fact, I don't think she was even called Lily Munster in the pilot. Phoebe. They had her called Phoebe, yeah.

Honestly, I don't know. I just know that me and Yvonne, well, I think Yvonne was an addition to the show because of her name. She was actually a movie star. Sure. Ten Commandments. And she was coming in when really movie stars weren't doing television. And the reason she did it, my belief, was that her husband, who was a stuntman, had been hurt and terribly maimed on the How the West Was Won train accident that went bad. His name was Bob Morgan.

And I think that she actually took the job, or at least part of the reason she took the job, was to bring in some money to be the breadwinner. And she did a fantastic job. She was up against Al and Fred, who were practical jokers, extraordinary, who really made her life difficult in the beginning. And she survived, and she did comedy much better than anybody thought she could. Because I saw something in a documentary about the show that Joan Marshall, the original actress, they were speculating that she too closely resembled Carolyn Jones, who was playing Morticia on The Addams Family, and that was something that was working against her. That's true, too. I think, honestly, the fact that they just looked at me and Yvonne,

the name recognition of her, the way Eddie was portrayed by me, and I just thought at the last minute they just tweaked it a little bit. And lucky for me, you know, that they didn't find the right kid until I came in from Illinois. And Bill Mooney actually was offered the part and turned it down long before I came west to take it. And his mother didn't want him in the makeup. And then he went on to do Lost in Space. So lucky for me. And Bill and I are still good friends, you know.

And then he went on to do Lost in Space, so lucky for me. And Bill and I are still good friends, you know? What I remember is like, Yvonne DiCarlo in movies would always be very sexy. But the difference in the Munsters, in the pilot episode, that actress was sexy, and Yvonne DiCarlo just made it like a typical mother. Yeah, beautiful.

It was almost like a very attractive house mom, almost like Audrey Meadows on The Honeymooners. Here's a very attractive woman in a very normal atmosphere just doing the ho-hum, cleaning, cooking, doing this thing. And Lily did the same thing. She was a very good mom, cleaned the house, took care of the dungeon, and did this and did that. We all sat down and had... When you think about it, one of the reasons I tell people it's still so popular is it's still family values.

We were all eating dinner every night. Herman, he held a job. He wasn't a womanizer. He paid the rent. It was... It's funny. People tell me, well, they get the Adams family and the Munsters mixed up, and I go, it's very easy to know who's who. The Addams Family were monsters that looked like people, and the Munsters were people that looked like monsters. That's well put.

And did you ever see Spot, your pet in the basement? spot your pet in the basement. Only his head and only his tail and the remnants of what he would eat when he would get out. Yeah, it would always look like, I always got the impression that was supposed to be Godzilla was spot. It was actually

a T-Rex. Oh, okay. Close. Now, you have a favorite episode of The Monsters. I have actually a couple. One I really enjoy Now, you have a favorite episode of the Munsters. I have actually a couple. One I really enjoy was when I grew a beard in Eddie's nickname. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. Okay. That's a great one. And you have to dip it in the soup. That episode was so funny because of the trip to Dr. Dudley. Paul Lind was one of my favorite guest stars on the show. Oh, wow. His routine of looking through the peephole and seeing Herman Munster out there and taking

a handful of sedatives before he could see us was hilarious. And then I also liked the one where I won a TV show contest to go visit Zombo. Oh, Louis Nye. Who was Louis Nye. Exactly. Oh, Louis Nye was one of my favorites. I used to love him as Sonny Drysdale. He was so funny.

And did Paul Lynn ever come on to you? No. He never said, Eddie, come here. We'll leave that for Charles Nelson Reilly on Linzville. We'll get to that. We'll get to that. So you worked with every homosexual in the world. The funny part was I didn't know it. So you worked with every homosexual in Hollywood, actually.

The funny part was I didn't know it. Well, you know, the funny thing is, back then, nobody knew it, sort of. It was like you'd watch Paul Lynn, and he'd have, like, shows and movies where he had a wife and kids. And you said, oh, he's this, like, eccentric. That's true. I mean, it was very much, it just wasn't really addressed like it is today, no doubt about it. So we have to get to more of the homosexual actors

who made past this. Because you were a cute boy. Yeah. It had to have happened. Which is funny, because we wrote down on a card, we had some notes, and I wrote down possible favorite episodes, and I just wrote down Zombo and Eddie Grows a Beard,

having no idea of which two. Those were the two that I was going to mention. Wow. Those are two of my favorites. I also enjoyed the one where we went to the drag strip because any time the Munster coach was involved in a show, I would really enjoy it because of my favorites. And I also enjoyed the one where we went to the drag strip, because any time the Munster coach was involved in a show, I would really enjoy it because of two things. Number one, I was a kid who enjoyed cars.

And number two, it would get us outside. Because after being in that dark, dingy soundstage day in and day out, any time you'd see the light of day, it was a good day. And Gilbert and I were talking about John Carradine, who played Mr. Gateman. Yep. And Gilbert was lamenting the fact that no other classic horror stars did the show. I couldn't believe that Boris Karloff and Lon Chaney Jr. never appeared on the show. Yeah, that's true.

They didn't. I don't know why that is. But the creature from the Black Lagoon made an appearance. Do you remember the creature's name? He was standing and put on a mask, and he was Uncle Gil. Oh, wait. Who was the actor? He wasn't an actor. It was Al Lewis' stand-in. Oh, okay.

And we did have Uncle Lester come on one time, and that was the Wolfman. But I remember, as a kid, kid watching it and at the end the creature of the black lagoon comes in and water is dripping out of his clothes yeah and they go uncle gilbert that's it let me get out of these dry clothes let me get out of these dry clothes it is something wet yeah and i was so excited that his name was Uncle Gilbert. They didn't miss a trick. Yeah, Gilbert, I like that. So, Butch, it's 1964. The series is a hit, and you're Eddie Munster. You're on a runaway hit. I mean, are you going to school at this time? Are you homeschooled? Are other kids reacting to this?

I mean, what is your life like? It was pretty crazy, but, you know, when you're working, you have a tutor on the set. So, I was out of public school from all of the fifth grade, all of the sixth grade, and a little bit of the seventh grade. So when the show got canceled, I reentered school in the seventh grade, junior high school. And it was pretty difficult for a few days because I was in a very large junior high school. There was 3,400 students. And I was extremely small. And everybody knew that Eddie Munster lived in Gardena. So when I went to school, I actually got tossed out a couple times for creating a disturbance. And my disturbance was the fact that I sat on a bench with my honey bun and my orange juice, and 3,000 kids surrounded me and didn't go to their class.

So the boys' vice principal, Mr. Brenner, I'll always remember his name, gave me the boot, and I had the choice of either going back to school or going to a private school. And I really wanted to be in public school because I wanted to be accepted as a regular guy. So I went back to school, and I befriended a couple of ninth graders, and they protected me. And after a few weeks, they kind of let up. But to this day, we still have – my mom still lives in the same house, and she still has people come knock on the door you know does eddie munster live here it's been 50 years people now let's let's move on to lidsville oh goodness That spoke an hour right there. The summer of 71, I was offered a role in this. Sid and Marty Croft had contacted my mom about doing a show. My mom was working for the agency.

And I really turned it down three times. I thought it was silly. I didn't really get the idea of doing it. But they offered a very big paycheck. And they had said one thing to me. They go, well, Jack, this made Jack, Puppet Stuff made Jack Wilde a star. And I go, well, hold on right now. Jack Wilde was a star because he was nominated for Oliver as the Arkville Dodger.

Now, he did your show, but let's keep things in perspective. So I did think The Bungaloos was kind of a cool show. And when I was out doing the interview, the little girl that was on the show was really a cutie, this English girl. So I thought maybe if I did this show, I might run into her once or twice. And that was really the deciding factor of doing Linzville was the money, and it was just one summer, and it was going to be on at 1030 in the morning when I thought most of my friends would still have hangovers, and nobody would ever be up to see it.

It's funny you say hangovers because everybody thought that Sid and Marty Croft were on LSD. Sid was. Oh, well, he was. Okay, we have a scoop. Sid, it's really funny. There were actually three brothers. Sid would come up with the concepts

however he came up with them. Marty would implement them into a production value thing. They had the studio. They had the plant where they manufactured all the things that they did. And then there was a third brother that I'd never met, but he signed all the checks when I would get my paycheck. It was a Harry Croft. And it was like, where is Harry Croft, and how come nobody knows who he is? And to this day, I don't know if there was actually a fake person or a structured accountant somewhere that did this.

But apparently, the world of Sid and Marty Kropp had Harry Kropp signing the checks. We will return to Gilbert Gottfried's amazing colossal podcast after this. Now, I heard a weird Sid and Marty Kropp story. I heard someone who was working for Sid and Marty Krofft story. I heard someone who was working for Sid and Marty Krofft, their father was shot one night. Really? So then the next day, they came in to work, and right after their father was just announced dead,

and Sid, no, Marty said, hey, you know, he looks a little off today. He's not doing a good job. He's being really slow. I'm going to get rid of him. And Sid goes, but Marty, you can't fire him. His father died the night before. He was shot.

And Marty said, we didn't fire him. His father died the night before. He was shot. And Marty said, we didn't fire him, Sid. We didn't shoot him, Sid. That sounds like Marty. Marty was funny. When Charles was chasing me around and giving me kisses when and i was trying to oh wait wait wait wait hold on hold on hold on this is charles nelson reilly the the other the other homosexual in butch patrick's life what charles would do what would happen every day when i would go to work is i basically was not into the gay community and I didn't really understand all this. But Charles would sneak up behind me and he would give me a big bear hug and give me a big kiss on the cheek every morning. And he'd go, I love you and I don't care.

Who knows it? So this became an ongoing spoof on a daily basis. And then finally, I got upset and I said, would you stop it, Charles? Please, just leave me alone. It's becoming uncomfortable. And I got upset, and I said, you know, would you stop it, Charles? Please, just leave me alone. It's becoming uncomfortable. And I went to Sid and complained. Here you are, a little kid, telling an adult homosexual, stop it. Stop it.

You're coming on to a little boy. Stop it. Well, I went to my guys that I was doing records with. I go, why is he doing this to me? I go, do I look gay? Do I walk gay? Am I doing something to entice him? And they go, no, he doesn't care whether you're gay or not.

He just likes you. He don't care. And I said, oh, all right, that's how it works. So I went to complain to Sid Croft about it, and then Sid was gay, and I didn't know that. Oh, wow. This is like invasion of the body snatchers. Finally, Sharon Baird, who was one of the

Mouseketeers who had been working with the Crofts for years, took me aside and she finally grabbed me and said, she pointed everybody out of the set and told me what their sexual preferences were, what the real people were, everything I needed to know in a crash course of about 20 minutes. And from that day on, I was okay.

So what? What homosexual men? Who was who and who was what and what was going on. And finally after that, I understood the whole dynamics of it. Wow. You should steer clear of. Let me put it this way. That was the last show I did.

Who knew there was so much going on on the set of Lidsville? It was crazy. It really was. Butch, tell our listeners the premise of Lidsville again, because now that you've pointed out that... Was it Sid that was on acid? Okay. It was a kid goes to an amusement park,

which actually was Six Flags Over Texas. I see a magician, who was Charles Nelson Reilly, perform a show. I then sneak back after everybody leaves to check out what's coming out of the top hat when i see the top hat it turns into colors it starts growing and growing and growing wait wait wait hold on a second the idea now everything has a double meaning when you said I had a look to see what was in his top hat. Right.

So when I set the top hat down on the floor, it starts growing. I lean into it. I fall into it. I fall like Alice in Wonderland down the rabbit hole. And when I hit the bottom of this hat after about 30 seconds, I come to and I'm attacked by a bunch of little hat creatures. If you're a gangster, you have a gangster hat. If you're a cowboy, you have a cowboy hat – if you're a gangster, you have a gangster hat. If you're a cowboy, you have a cowboy hat. If you're a vampire, you're a vampire hat.

Everybody's character was basically simulated by a hat that they were in. See, I had grown up in Hollywood with all the people that were stand-ins all my life were little people because they don't have another kid stand in for another kid because of the mental issues or whatever. So they always had little people. So I knew little people in Hollywood, so I was actually working with all my friends. When I worked on Problem Child, they had a mentioned Problem Child. Yeah. There was a vampire hat named Bella, which Gilbert would appreciate, right? Oh, yes.

Yeah. It was a very difficult show to do. It was the first year. They used chroma key from a technical standpoint. It was very cutting-edge stuff. It was the first time that chroma key had ever been used. We did three cameras. We shot about 15 pages a day. We had people that were doing three voiceover people that were doing the 20

or so odd voices that we would hear over a loudspeaker. And then I was supposed to be able to look around at the hat creatures and figure out which one was doing which. And sometimes it got very confusing because you weren't hearing them speak. You were just hearing a loudspeaker with voiceover people doing the characters. Do you remember the other voiceover people? No, I don't. Now, you also, what was the movie you were in? Oh, The Phantom Tollbooth.

Yes. No, that was a great experience. That was working with Chuck Jones in 67 and 68 with, oh, God, we had Mel Blanc and Dawes Butler and Jude Foray. Wasn't Hans Conrad? Hans Conrad. All the people that were the best of the best were involved in that movie, and I really enjoyed that because to this day,

I have people come up to me sometimes and say, that's my favorite book and it was my favorite movie. And then working with Chuck, I actually work now with his grandson, Craig and I, and Linda Jones, his daughter, will do screenings of The Phantom Tollbooth, and I'll go join them and greet people, and it's very nice. I enjoy it a lot. Yeah, because Chuck Jones was the animator of all of the great classic Warner Brothers. Yep.

Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, and Dars Butler. Wasn't he droopy? I believe so. I believe he was. Yeah. And you played Milo. You played the main character who finds us for our listeners that don't know the movie, and you really should check out this movie.

You get a gift-wrapped toll booth that leads you into a parallel universe. Yeah, I'm a bored little boy. I'm bored with life, and I'm just going through the motions, and all of a sudden this thing plops in my room, and I jump in this little car, and I turn into an animated character. And an hour later I come back out and I've seen Digitopolis and Dictionopolis and all the things that make you want to enjoy life and value things. And it's a great book. And it just turned – the book was 50 last year.

And you worked with all those people? Yep. And what were they like to work with? They were great. They were all very nice people and it was funny because sitting across from mel blank i mean until you actually are in the same room with this guy and see the voices coming out of this little body incredible it's incredible now you you mentioned like how most of your friends would have had hangovers yes Yes. So now I hear stories

you had a sip or two in your day. I had more than a sip or two. Let me put it this way. I did my best to keep kids off of alcohol and drugs by consuming as much as I could. Bush, who could blame you? Look at the material you were doing.

Believe me. I mean, you're falling in at a hats and magic soul boots. Here's what happened. When I was 16 years old, I went to Brazil to do a movie with no teacher and no guardian. My job was that I was there for three months. All I really had to do was show up for work and do my job. And after that, I could do whatever I wanted to do, which I proceeded to.

As my sister spoke at my CHIP meetings when I got sober, she says he left as Richie Cunningham, and three months later he came back as John Lennon. So were you doing other drugs too, or was it just mainly drinking? No, I did everything except needles. I never shot heroin. The different decades were the 60s. I was drinking in the 60s. When I was 16, I started. In the 70s were a lot of weed and pot and quaaludes and things of that nature.

The 80s were coke. The 90s was speed. You were topical. Yeah, whatever was around. Whatever I could lay my hands on or whatever I could get a good deal on. I haven't cleaned a sober for over three and a half years now. Good for you. Congratulations.

Great. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Life has taken a really good, I was lucky enough to survive it. And for some reason, I'm here and I'm in good shape and I survived cancer. So it's all good. Yeah. How are you feeling?

I'm feeling great. Thanks for asking. Good, good. What type of cancer? Prostate. Wow. But you caught it in time and things are good. Just, it was so lucky for me because when I went into treatment, I happened to have a world-class doctor in there that I befriended.

And he fast-tracked me up to his rock star ninja buddies and they caught it right in time. And had I not gotten sober, I'd be dead. I wouldn't be talking to you. Well, good for you, man. Now, what was the final deciding vote when you were smoking and doing all that crazy stuff to quit? Was there any one thing? Well, I was back east. I had just completed.

This was in 2010. I had just completed my Halloween tour. Relationships had fizzled. I wasn't feeling well at all. I was going through my money pretty quickly. And a friend of mine who had spent a lot of money on a pilot that I did, that I felt very bad that I didn't give him a very good performance, and I felt bad. treatment center in California that'll take you in. They'll sponsor you. The guy's a huge fan of the show. And he wants to prove that he could get TV kids sober because it's such a curse that so many kids have died from it that went through Hollywood. So on that level, I wanted to go home. I knew something was wrong. I thought I'd get a little bit of an education because I've always

thought I was pretty smart. And maybe by learning something, I could figure out why I was doing what I was doing. So there's a lot of lingo that goes along with it. But I could figure out why I was doing what I was doing. There's a lot of lingo that goes along with it, but I was teachable. I was open-minded. I went in, and after about a month or so, I started figuring out what was going on and why I felt better and why I wasn't doing the things I was doing anymore. One thing led to another. Before I knew it, I'd had a year. Then I had two years and three and so on and so on. So literally, it was just a suggestion from some friends that maybe I might want to take this offer up in California and see and reevaluate things.

It wasn't pressure. It wasn't an intervention. It was just somebody that cared about me suggesting something. So three years now, clean and sober. Three years, seven months. Good for you. I mean, everything. I mean, I haven't touched a joint, a line, a crack pipe, anything. Nothing at all. Stay away from those Lidsville episodes. Well, you know, the funny part about the whole thing is it's literally, I wish I would have known this a long time ago, but, you know, you don't live in the past. You move forward.

And I went in just for alcohol, and everything else just kind of fell into place. And now I've never felt better. And literally, you know, I was out there. I was doing it for 41 years. else just kind of fell into place and now I've never felt better and literally, I was out there, I was doing it for 41 years so that's a really long stint so I had my share, I'm done, I'm ready to move on. Because I heard a story,

not to stay on this for too long, but that you were on a plane with Al Lewis and you would do these like Halloween things. You'd get hired for a Halloween and then you were kicked off the plane at one point? Almost.

I knew what was happening as soon as they came my way. I felt like Bob Euchre. Oh, I must be in first class. They walked me past first class out the door. Wow. And I went, oh, shit. And I was heading down to Budweiser for spring break is what it was.

And I had a layover in Atlanta, and I was at the bar for about six hours. I got so drunk that I was giving people fashion citations on the plane. Hilarious. Yeah. That was the same spring break where Danny Bonaduce got caught for crack. A bad week for child stars. A bad week for everybody.

1990, spring break 1990. Boy, I wish I had been on that spring break. It sounds like a fun one. Going back, Butch, what was the movie in Brazil? It was a movie called The Sandpit Generals, and it was made by a gentleman named Hall Bartlett who was married to Rhonda Fleming. It's funny because their divorce actually spawned the script, The War of the Roses, with Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas. Yeah, I know that name, Hall Bartlett. Hall Bartlett made films in the 60s.

He did a lot of good stuff. He did Jonathan Livingston Siegel. That's what I know. I did made films in the 60s. He did a lot of good stuff. He did Jonathan Livingston Seagull. That's what I know. I did a voice in that for him. But they had this huge, bitter divorce after the movie was completed. And unfortunately, Rhonda got the rights to half the money of the movie, the earnings of the movie. And he was so mad at her that he shelved the movie before he would let her make a penny. Wow. So the movie fell he was so mad at her that he shelved the movie before he would let her make a penny wow so the movie fell by the wayside now are you working a lot now yeah that's funny i just yeah it's funny um it's like the first year when he gets over everybody's kind of like wondering

if you're if it's real the second year they kind of start coming up to you and the third year for some reason this particular year into my fourth year i've actually just completed 25 episodes for uh something up a guy in carmel who makes uh he invented his wife invented the airborne product for uh colds and stuff oh yeah and he's now got another company called uh pine brothers cough throat lozenges and he asked me i did a commercial for him 12 years ago and he remembered me and he asked me if I would be in the show that he's producing for this new television channel, and I agreed. And then we did 25 episodes, and it's basically like a mystery science theater, making

fun of Sea Hunts, Johnny Weissmuller's Jungle Jim, Ramar of the Jungle, and we, I knew the whole thing in a pith helmet from an iron lung, believe it or not. With a really, my sidekick is a foul mouth, a black Muppet,

a Canada Steve. Gilbert's in an iron lung right now. Yeah. So we did it, and it's very, very funny. And then on top of that, I just had a gentleman, believe it or not,

from Canada yesterday call me that wants to do a documentary on my life since I got sober, which is kind of cool. That's great. Now, you had your own band for a while. I don't know if you still do. No.

In 1983, basically MTV was all the rage, and we decided we would try to do rock videos for other bands, and we needed to do a video, so we created Eddie and the Monsters. We put lyrics to the Monsters theme. I actually don't sing. My guitar player sang it. I don don't sing. My guitar player sang it. I don't play bass. My producer played bass. I was the original Munster.

I like to say I'm the original Munster Manili. That's funny. But didn't you have a novelty record in the 70s, Whatever Happened to Eddie? That's the one I'm talking to. That was in 83. Oh, 83. In the early 70s, I had a band called Sugarloaf as my studio band. Right after Lidsville, they tried to turn me into a Bobby Sherman.

Metro Media had fired Bobby Sherman, and they were looking for another T-D-Bop star. So my mom pitched me to them, and we did some BG music. We did a song called Ayo Ayo and I Want Sugar, and we actually went on American Bandstand. We toured around a little bit, but we didn't really catch on. But it was fun to be a T-D-Bop star for a year. Everybody should try it. What was the name of the band? Well, Sugarloaf was the main name.

The Sugarloaf, a green-eyed lady? Yeah, they were my studio band. No kidding. So you are like a totally talentless rock star. Absolutely. Couldn't sing, couldn't play an instrument. Couldn't. And I told them that up front, and they knew it.

Didn't you sing your own songs in the Phantom Tollbooth? No. Wasn't that you singing? Really? They dubbed your voice. I like to tell people I'm so bad

I put Metro Media Records out of the record business. So you didn't even have to show up for work half the time. Yeah, I could literally phone it in. Now, what was it like women-wise when you were a rock star? Or when you were Eddie, for that matter? Well, Eddie, I was not doing anybody because I was only 12 years old.

But my first date, I do like to tell people my first date, I had such a crush on the first Marilyn Munster. Her name was Beverly Owen. And she was nice enough one day to come down and pick me up at my house, which was quite a drive. And she took me to go see Mary Poppins. This was your mother? No, no, the first Marilyn.

The first Marilyn. Oh, first Marilyn. Yes, that was the freakishly pretty Munster. Yeah, Bev Owen. And she took me to go see Mary Poppins. So I told people my first date was with Marilyn Munster. But I didn't actually start dating until I was like 15, right when I went to Brazil. And when I came back, that was when I started finding women to be doable.

Brazil must have been a great place to lose your virginity. Actually, I had it right before. Actually, this is funny. I was a good boy down there. I went out with a French camera crew to the red light district, but I never did anything. I was in love with my girlfriend back in Hollywood. That's nice. All I can picture is a guy in a full Eddie Munster outfit in the red light district.

Oh, God. It was actually pretty funny because at 16 years old down there, I was going on the Navy ships and bringing off cigarettes. So I had a cigarette thing going on. I was also doing money exchanges for the sailors. So I had a lot of little side businesses going on while I was down there. Wow. I was buying pot and selling it to everybody in the crew. So you broke every law before you were like 16.

Yeah, and I never did mail home any of my schoolwork. I just told him it got lost in the mail. You were just being an entrepreneur, Butch. I was. It's kind of like risky business, you know? I have to ask you, what's your take on Ben Stiller's Eddie Munster parody, Cape Munster? I love it.

I think it's hilarious. If you guys haven't seen it, check it out. It's on YouTube, and it's a must-see. It's a spoof of the Martin Scorsese Cape Fear with Ben Stiller. Very good stuff. Have you met him? Have you talked to him about it? Did he ever reach out to you? I only met

Ben once, and that was at the TV Land Awards. I was handing out the little statuettes and doing it badly, because I was still high. Wait, wait, where was this again? Where are you? I was at the end of my run, and they haven't asked me back, and I haven't even bothered calling them.

I used to write that show. They don't do it anymore, the TV Land Awards. They retired it. So you had a handout awards? I had a handout awards, yeah. It was pretty sad. And you were totally stoned out of period. I was totally stoned, yeah.

There were some episodes of Lidsville that I've seen that I didn't remember doing. Wow. But you've always been good at kidding yourself and not taking yourself too seriously, but you played yourself in a Simpsons episode and also in the David Spade comedy, Dickie Roberts. Yep. Former child star.

Yeah. Well, you know, it's funny. This guy yesterday that was talking about the documentary, he said, I hope I don't offend you. He goes, but you're talking about a haunted house and that has Munster overtones. And you're talking about your Eddie Munster inks and everything you seem to do has a Munster angle to it. And I go, well, I go, what am I supposed to do? Basically, it's a dog-eat-dog world out there. People enjoy the Munsters.

People have come to me with opportunities. And do I have a problem making people smile and sharing my experience with them? I said no. So literally, it's tough enough to get a break in this world. So if this is my break, so be it. And I'm happy to help. That's surprising because so many actors,

they hate what they're loved for. Like Sean Connery hated being James Bond and all these people. Even Nimoy had a problem with Spock. Yeah, he wrote a book, I Am Not Spock. Right.

Well, actually, speaking of books, September 24th, I do have a book coming out, and it's called Munster Memories, and literally the reason for it, for the last three years, I've had thousands of people come up to me and say how much they enjoyed the show and how much it meant to them,

and can they take a picture, or can I talk to their father on the phone or whatever. So it's like, all I've got to do is put these stories into a book and it'll sell itself it's not like really my spin on hollywood it's the world's spin on the monsters although i i get suicidal now when they say uh can i can you talk to my father because i'm thinking, wait a minute, I used to watch that show on TV. What's the book called, Butch? Munster Memories. It's coming out in September.

September 24th, 50 years to the day. Terrific. Did I read somewhere that you purchased a haunted house? I'm in the process of it. Hopefully, we'll be closing in the next month or so. No, this is not any haunted house. This is my grandmother's house that she owned in Missouri

that I went back to live in right after the Munsters. She was a big antique dealer, and she bought this beautiful, big Victorian mansion, and I was in town about two years ago just driving through the country, and I wanted to go see the house, and it was vacant and foreclosed upon. Then my sister said, you know, it's haunted.

And I said, well, I never saw the ghost. And she goes, well, you were always gone. But she goes, believe me, that's a haunted house. So one thing led to another. I decided to buy it and make it a base of operations in the Midwest. So wouldn't a house being haunted be reason not to buy it? No, actually, in this day and age, paranormal activity is really popular. A lot of people are interested in it.

I've already lived in a house anyway, so the ghost probably knows me. And it's a female ghost, 23 years old, totally attractive. Does she look like Beverly Owens? I'm going to do a syndicated radio show. Maybe this ghost will be my sidekick. And if it's a ghost and you're Eddie Munster, it's a perfect... I see spinoff. It's a ghost, and you're Eddie Munster.

It's a perfect... I see spinoff. I like to tell people it's like this. It's a small town. Imagine Andy of Mayberry with Eddie Munster in the Twilight Zone. Now, I was talking to Gilbert beforehand, Butch, and I read somewhere, I saw somewhere, that you either still have the Woof Woof doll, or you were marketing Woof Woof dolls?

I did. I sold them originally in my stupor to get high. And didn't get a very good price for them. We did sell 93 of them over a 20-year period for $1,000 to $1,500 a piece. So I did make a few bucks on that one. for $1,000 to $1,500 apiece. Wow. So I did make a few bucks on that one,

and just recently the gentleman who I sold them to downsized and offered, he wanted me to help him sell his collection, and I decided that I had a pretty good year, so instead of helping him sell it, I bought it. So I bought back everything that I'd sold him a long time ago, plus the bicycle that was made by George Barris and Bob Dutch and a few other things. George Barris, who also designed the famous Munster coach.

Yep, and just sold the Batmobile for 4.3 mil. Amazing. So how were you selling the dolls before while you were stoned? Was it out on the street? No, I actually didn't do that. What happened was the gentleman contacted me about the bicycle. He said, do you have anything else? I said, I have the head of a wolf doll.

He said, the head on a stick is all that's left of him. But if you create him, if you buy him and you make him, we can sell him. And he said, I'll take that on. All you have to do is make a phone call and write a little note when I sell one of them. And we sold 93 of them. It was actually a pretty good moneymaker. At $1,000 a pop, it sounds like it. I made about $400 a doll.

Wow. So I made like $36,000 on it. Oh, okay. Now, did you save any of this, or did it all go to getting more rice? No, I divided it up. It went between pot, crack, speed, alcohol, lawyers.

Lawyers. Where do we get our hands on one of these dolls, Butch? They're not available anymore. Too bad. We stopped making them. And now that I'm straight, I don't have to think about making more dolls to support my habit. It's a bright new world. Well, what's the name of your book again, and when's it coming out again?

September 24th, Munster Memories. I actually am still taking some stories if people want to participate. Go to munstermemories.com and submit your story. You may make it into the book. So it can be just a fan of the Munsters. All you've got to do is have a fan, and it's something that you like about the show, whether you had a funny hair. People called you Eddie Munster because you had a widow's beak, or

whether you designed your first car because you were inspired by the Munster coach, or whatever, anything to do with the Munsters. The stories are phenomenal. They're all very warm. Some of them are very sad. A lot of kids with very troubled childhoods watch the show to escape from what was going on at home. It's really heart-wrenching

sometimes. What about my story of Al Lewis insulting me at dinner? There you go. You think that's bad? I went there one time and he was supposed to have a table for me and Kevin Burns and he told us to go get some air. Get some air. The nerve of him. The nerve. Or he'd do this. But you think youch, you think you know, but you don't know.

You think you know, you know nothing. I used to love the way the steam came out of his ears. The episode where you guys rent the house and then you come back. Far out Munsters to the Standells. Right, the Standells doing a cover of I Want to Hold Your Hand. Terribly. Yeah, terribly. to the Standells. Right, the Standells doing a cover of I Want to Hold Your Hand. Terribly. Yeah, terribly.

And, of course, there's that great moment where Grandpa's standing perfectly still so the special effects guys are blowing the smoke out of his ears. They're out of this world. He goes, what's the big deal? I've been there before. Oh, great stuff. Warped my childhood, Butch.

I thank you. No problem. Warped my childhood, Butch. I thank you. No problem. So this has been a surprisingly enjoyable episode. Wildly entertaining. And what's really great to hear, and I mean it, it's like every child star you hear about, you just think,

oh, well, this guy's an inch away from suicide or ODing. And here you're cleaned up and you're working, and the idea that you've got such a sense of humor about your whole life. Well, it's gotten me through some tough times. Thank you. I admire you for being so forthcoming about all of it, Butch, and so, pardon the expression, sober about it. Yeah, no problem there, buddy.

Well, this is Gilbert Gottfried's amazing, colossal podcast. I'm here with my sidekick, Frank Santopadre. And we have been interviewing Eddie Munster himself from the Munsters, the wonderful Butch Patrick. Thank you, Butch. Thank you, gentlemen. I appreciate it.