'Eddie Munster' got into showbiz by accident thanks to his sister
Butch Patrick told Fox News Digital he never planned to be an actor, but a Hollywood photographer taking shots of his sister liked his look.
Butch Patrick says he never considered himself an actor.
This is despite the fact that he was a central part of a hit show that ran on TV for two years, and he also acted in several other shows, like "I Dream of Jeannie" and "My Three Sons."
Patrick played adorable werekid Eddie in "The Munsters," which began 60 years ago in 1964 and ran until 1966.
His career started by accident when he went with his older sister while she was getting photos taken by a Hollywood photographer who was the "go-to" for child actors at the time. He said the photographer liked his look and took a photo of him that was placed in the window of his office.
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Butch Patrick, 71, played Eddie on "The Munsters" from 1964 until 1966. (Butch Patrick)
"It's interesting the stories that are shared and the memories that are shared with me about how important ‘The Munsters’ were and TV of that period especially," he said, looking back on the show. "But for some reason, ‘The Munsters’ comes front and center to a lot of people that I was an important part of their childhood."
He said even though the characters "were in makeup, and we were monsters and this and that, we were actually a real functioning family unit, it was believable. You know, Herman [Munster] went to work at the parlor and Lily kept the house and Grandpa got up to mischief in the dungeon, but…it was real. It was like real stuff."
"Even though we were in makeup, and we were monsters and this and that, we were actually a real functioning family unit, it was believable. You know, Herman went to work at the parlor and Lily kept the house and Grandpa got up to mischief in the dungeon, but…it was real. It was like real stuff."
Patrick said that children today still love the show.
"There's definitely a younger generation now," he explained. "But that's because they've been introduced to it by their parents or grandparents. But that's the neat part about it, is there's a very good chance that if a kid today is introduced to it, even though [the show is] old, they don't have to be forced. If they're introduced to it, they usually wind up binge-watching it and -- they don't quite understand the black and white, but they get around that really quickly."
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As well as being a well-written comedy with talents like Fred Gwynne (Herman Munster), Yvonne De Carlo (Lily Munster) and Al Lewis (Grandpa), Patrick said the show was also relevant during the social upheaval of the 1960s.
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Butch Patrick was on "The Munsters" with Fred Gwynne, Yvonne De Carlo, Al Lewis and Pat Priest. (Butch Patrick)
"So you had a very much of a moral, don't judge a book by its cover, beauty is in the eye of the beholder thing going on," Patrick explained of the show's premise. "And then, you know, you got to remember, too, in the ‘60s, you had a lot of social upheaval and there was a lot of stuff going on. So the monsters living on your street could be considered to be like a very soft-handed approach to integration."
"So you had a very much of a moral, don't judge a book by its cover, beauty is in the eye of the beholder thing going on, and then, you know, you got to remember, too, in the ‘60s, you had a lot of social upheaval and there was a lot of stuff going on. So the monsters living on your street could be considered to be like a very soft-handed approach to integration."
Patrick also remembered a friendly set with a cast he spent more time with than his own family because they were living in Washington, D.C. and Illinois while he was in Los Angeles.
"It was interesting because when ‘The Munsters’ was being cast, my mom had married a baseball player with the Angels in Los Angeles, and he was traded to the Washington Senators. So my mom and my sister and my three younger brothers all moved to Washington, D.C. and I went with my grandmother to go moving to a small town in Illinois," he explained.
Patrick said he eventually moved in with his uncle in Los Angeles.
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"So yeah, that's my TV family," he added. "Actually, I spent more time with them than my real family, and they all had children about my age. It was a kid-friendly set because it was done by the people that created ‘Leave It to Beaver.’"
He added that he, Gwynne and Lewis all had "great chemistry," which led to "some good father and son scripts for me. So it turned out to be a really good thing."
Parick also remembered his favorite part outside "The Munsters" fondly.
In 1967, he was cast as a boy who The Monkees helped have a good Christmas on their 1966 to 1968 show.
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"I had missed meeting the Beatles when they came to visit Hollywood, and about a year and a half later, the Monkees came to town and I got ‘The Monkees’ Christmas episode, which is one of my favorite weeks for an eighth grade kid to be on a show and not only just be on the show, but be a pivotal character that spent a lot of time with the guys on camera," Patrick explained.
"And one of the favorite things about that particular episode, which I think is one of the best, if not the best, was at the end of the show. They sang their number one [hit] "Riu Chiu" a cappella to really show off their talents, which they had plenty of, but they also then introduced the crew from behind the camera and brought them front and center to share with America what everybody who was on set knew, that they were a great bunch of guys."
Riding in the back of the ancient Munster Koach, which Patrick calls "the coolest car on TV," was also one of Patrick’s favorite memories of the show.
Butch Patrick in his Munster Koach. (Butch Patrick)
As a self-described "car guy," Patrick is also building his own accurate Munster Koach after having sold a pervious own he owned.
A year from now, he plans to drive the coach down Route 66 to celebrate the iconic highway’s 100th anniversary. Next summer, the 71-year-old will work with the Drive-in Owners Association to help save the nostalgia of drive-in movies "because I was a drive-in movie kid."
Patrick said only 400 drive-ins remain from the 4,000 that used to entertain audiences in the U.S., and he plans to work with them to run double features midweek "that kind of do a throwback to the movies of yesterday's past."
Aside from his cherished memories of the show, however, Patrick was not immune to the struggles that many child stars go through.
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"When I was 16 years old, Woodstock was happening and there was, you know, the summer of love and the hippie movement and everybody smoking weed and, you know, dropping acid," Patrick told Fox News Digital, adding that "the counterculture was in full swing, and I was very much interested in it."
After doing other small parts, including "The Real McCoys," "General Hospital" and "Rawhide," Butch Patrick was cast as Eddie on "The Munsters," which he has fond memories of and continues to connect with fans, both old and young. (Butch Patrick)
He said he must have had the addict gene "because I couldn’t wait to go out and party, and when I did party, it allowed me to be accepted by my peers because I never really felt comfortable being in the Hollywood scene."
His anxiety about fitting in led him to "throw parties and drive fast cars and surf, and it just became a lifestyle and led on for way too long."
After 41 years, he decided that "enough was enough" and he entered a program at Oasis Treatment Center in California in November 2010. He stayed in the program for 90 days and lived at a sober house for another two years.
Butch Patrick holds Eddie's werewolf doll, Woof Woof. (Butch Patrick)
Patrick told Fox News Digital he "never looked back, never have had another drink, another line of coke," and has been sober for almost 14 years, and "it’s been great."
He said the realization he needed to get sober "sneaks up on you."
"I had a couple of friends who had gotten sober that I would call every once in a while after a bad bender or a week down, and then I’d sort of tiptoe around it," Patrick explained. "But I wouldn’t drop the rock and make the commitment."
He continued, "I never really hit bottom to the point where I didn't have money and I didn't have a house, you know, I wasn't like in an alley with a brown paper bag type of thing. But I knew that I was really sick and tired of being sick and tired. You know, I was tired of feeling like crap."
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Patrick added he never thought he would stay sober forever, but "my life improved dramatically very quick that I took to it like a fish to water and never looked back and helping others and giving, you know, paying it forward is just what I do now. And I'm sure that I wouldn't be with friends, with a lot of the wonderful people that I am friends with now had I not done it. So, I gave up a little bit, but I gained a whole lot."
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