Here Come the Munsters, a 1995 TV movie that served as a reboot of the classic 60s series, is available to watch after years of obscurity. The entire film, which originally aired on the Fox, was recently uploaded to Universal’s YouTube channel. Film historian Joe Ramoni shared the news on Twitter.

Universal just uploaded an HD copy of 'Here Come the Munsters' in full to the official Munsters YouTube channel after it had been unavailable in the US for years: https://t.co/NKQAUoypom In my opinion, it's the BEST Munsters remake project!

— Joe Ramoni (@joeramoni) November 17, 2023

As Ramoni pointed out, Munsters fans often cite the TV film, which originally aired on Fox on Halloween 1995, as the best of the slew of reboots of the beloved sitcom Monster Family.

Here Come the Munsters starred Edward Herrmann as Herman, Christine Taylor as Marylin, and Veronica Hamel as Lily. It also stars Mad Men‘s Robert Morse as Grandpa. Rounding out the cast is Mathew Botuchis as Eddie. Serving as an origin story, the film shows the Munster family’s arrival in the US from Transylvania. 

As seen in the promo below, the TV film manages to capture the madcap spirit of the original The Munsters sitcom from the 60s.

Christine Taylor, who would star in another sitcom movie reboot of The Brady Bunch the same year, perfectly embodies Marilyn. Meanwhile, The Lost Boys alum Edward Herrmann is the most game Herman Munster since Fred Gwynne. Part of the appeal of the core cast in the TV film is that they channel and pay homage to the original sitcom’s stars rather than simply do impressions of them.

Original ‘The Munsters’ Cast Members Appeared in the 1995 TV Movie

In a nice hat-tip to the original Munsters series, the surviving cast members – Yvonne De Carlo, Al Lewis, Butch Patrick, and Pat Priest – made a memorable cameo appearance as a bickering family in an Italian restaurant. Edward Herrmann as Herman serves as their waiter in the scene. Original Herman actor Fred Gwynne had passed away two years prior.

Unfortunately, a sequel with this cast never materialized in the form of another film or TV series. The following year saw another TV film, The Munsters’ Scary Little Christmas. However, it featured an altogether different cast that didn’t quite match the cast of the previous installment.

The Munsters remained dormant until October 2012 when NBC aired Mockingbird Lane, a Halloween special that served as a pilot for a reboot series. Directed by Bryan Singer, the cast included Jerry O’Connell, Portia de Rossi, and Eddie Izzard as Herman, Lily, and Grandpa. Developed by Bryan Fuller, the future creator of Hannibal, the show retained many elements of the original but with more mundane appearances for the characters. Despite the talented creative team, the concept never progressed beyond the pilot.

The film had all but fallen into obscurity over the years. It rarely re-aired on cable and only saw limited home video release. Until Universal posted it on its YouTube channel, it was not available to stream. You can watch the entire film in high-definition on Universal’s YouTube channel.