#300 Celebrating The Munsters with Butch Patrick

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Jeff Dwoskin 0:28

All right, Lily, thank you so much for that amazing introduction. You get this show going each and every week, and this week was no exception. Welcome, everybody to Episode 300 of classic conversations. As always, I am your host, Jeff Dwoskin. So excited to have you back for what's sure to be an amazing conversation to celebrate number 300 Butch Patrick is here. That's right Eddie monster himself talking the monsters, lids Ville and so much more. That's coming up in just a few seconds. And in these few seconds. Comedian Dan Smith was here last week. Do not miss that amazing conversation. All right now we're going full Munster. I had such a great time talking to Butch Patrick. Can't wait to share it with you and celebrate number 300. Here we go. Enjoy. Alright everyone, I'm excited to introduce you to my next guest loved him in Leesville, real McCoys. And of course, Eddie monster from the monsters please welcome to the show direct from 1313 Mockingbird lane, Butch Patrick. Hey,

Butch Patrick 1:39

that guy still alive.

Jeff Dwoskin 1:40

There's a rumor here. How are you? I am good. I feel like we're besties we've talked so many times on the phone now. Thanks for hanging with me on my podcast.

Butch Patrick 1:50

No problem. Not a problem.

Jeff Dwoskin 1:52

All right. So, you know, like everyone I grew up watching. So it's pretty awesome to be able to hang out with you and talk about the monsters and all the other cool stuff that you've done. Kathy Garver, who introduced us kind of the one thing that I noticed it was like true for both of you, you both carry the mantle of your shows, uh, you and Pat priests probably as well. But like, she's a family affair. Like she writes the book, she does this, she she kind of keeps that going. And you do that too. I mean, that's, you're at all the kinds, you're, you're taking a monster Mobio on the dragonfly, and you're just you're keeping that memory and all the magic of the show of the monsters alive.

Butch Patrick 2:36

You know, I'm very, very lucky, blessed, whatever, however you want to place it that number one, growing up in a period. I was born in 1953, I had a great window of life to work with, you know, my early years were in the 50s. So I had, you know, the kid, I saw the early days of television, and I saw Elvis and I saw a lot of stuff happening. But in the 60s was the transition of black and white to color and the Beatles and music and movies and television. It was a really great pop culture decade. And that's one of the reasons why today 60 years later, people are can't get enough of it. And people respond well to it. And it brings back fond memories and they like kids and their grandkids to hopefully see what they what they enjoyed as a kid because it's something they can all get together on. I just because I had a I was a gearhead and I grew up through muscle cars and dirt bikes, and you know, everything that was cool to do kind of back then is still cool to do now, and it's just the fact that I happen to be you know, 650 60 years old or but I'm still a kid at heart. I still feel young and I mean Oh and the thing is when I go out and 3540 years ago when people started putting together these conventions to ask celebrities to come not performed but to meet greet and and sit and meet with people to help them you know draw attention and attendance. The Munsters was front and foremost a very family friendly show multi generational and me and Al Lewis and Pat pre started doing so with Grandpa Maryland and Auntie out there and then obviously, you know, Al died at oh six and Pat kind of got off the circuit because she's older and she's up in Idaho, but me with my cars I found a very interesting way of I love the road. I love Americana. I like doing what I do, and it just morphed into a very cool thing that I'm still doing today. As you know,

Jeff Dwoskin 4:23

he's a monster coach and the Dracula that you have one of the original ones are they replicas? No,

Butch Patrick 4:28

the original Dracula's in my car club, a car club named Dead Man's curve, which is a New Jersey Ajaan the gentleman named John's pagato as a company called TV show cars. He's got 24 world class cars, some of them most of them are the originals. He's got a number three coach. He's got the number ones regular. My Dracula is an exact replica with more horsepower because modern day technology, the same engine 96 for the generated 300 doors. Today I get almost 500 out of it, but no one would ever know unless I told them my monster Coach it's being built right now I had one but it was a Chevy engine so my two new cars are all very accurate George Barris and there's another key name to be involved with was growing up with the bears family, George Barris Jojje to his her son Jared, the whole Barrows clan. I was very lucky to be around a lot of cool stuff as a kid and still has allowed me to do a lot of things today and especially even in drag racing when I was 15 1617 years old, going to the drag strips and stuff I was I had a very good life I've had a very good life

Jeff Dwoskin 5:29

towards parents. So do you knew George Barris personally?

Butch Patrick 5:32

Oh yeah, I went all over the world George. George was like Uncle Uncle George to me and I was like an adoptive Sunday I am and I'm still like I say I'm still very close to Joe G. And her husband Barry and her son Jared and bread the son. But yeah, it was it was a wonderful time and the shop was only a mile away from the studio. And one of my Wednesday treats was to leave the studio lot to go have a hotdog at toddies which is across the street from George's and then go to the hobby shop because slot cars were all the rage back of the 60s, home slot car tracks and I go get my slot car track and go visit George and have my hot dog and see him on a weekly basis whether the monster code was being brought to the studio or not. That's how close we were.

Jeff Dwoskin 6:11

Did you also hang out with the Batmobile?

Butch Patrick 6:14

That's about the Batmobile now let's do this over. Basically I moved to the Midwest with my grandmother but time I came back to do more work that man was off the air. But I certainly saw the Batmobile around the cars and stuff but you know, obviously No, I never. I wasn't really around the Batmobile. Although it was Saturday, the last day it was being shipped off the when it got auctioned off about I think about 10 years ago. 12 years ago. It was funny. I'd stopped by the shop just to see say hi, the Batmobile was there so I got a chance to jump in and I had no idea was going off to set the record for the most expensive car ever to be auctioned that Barrett Jackson

Jeff Dwoskin 6:48

George Maris had quite a flair for iconic he

Butch Patrick 6:52

really did. He was a he was an innovator and he was a showman and he was a marketing genius. He started with actual real just 50 mercs and you know chopping cars and making customs and then when the you know the black and white movies of the of the drive in movie craze of the late 50s He placed a lot of cars, those dragstrip movies and sweater girls and you know kind of like a sort of a soft T in a TNA and juvenile delinquent cars and this and that they built those but when television came around, he was all over that like putting his his name and his and his stuff on a TD card the more than that he did personal cars for all the famous stars in Hollywood. That's where he really everybody who was anybody in Hollywood whether it was Frank Sinatra or Elvis or Dean Martin all had a Barris customer incredible.

Jeff Dwoskin 7:37

I was just at the Motor City Comicon and they had a monster coach replica there that you can take pictures with and all that kind of good stuff that and kits and

Butch Patrick 7:48

yeah, that's the car. That's that's John's that's, that's a car from my car club.

Jeff Dwoskin 7:52

So before the monsters you were discovered with your sister, was your sister already kind of in the industry. And I know she dragged you along. It's one of the photoshoots No,

Butch Patrick 8:01

I'm older than my sister happened was Mary Grady, who at that time was working for an adult agency, you know, normal agency featuring there was no kid agencies back then she decided to become the first child only agent and her son was on my three sons Don Brady playing Robbie. But when she opened up her own agency, she had no clients that my mom or friend knew Mary Grady and they were looking at my little sister to have some photos taken for modeling and that particular day I guess the babysitter wasn't around or I had nothing to do but for some reason I wound up going on that bride with them to the photographer Amos car up in Hollywood and then it's funny the they were done Amis car lottery to to go I thought I had a good look or an expression or something. But he sent me I think a couple of pictures of decided a mom said yes, he put a picture in the window of his studio. And a couple of weeks later, a producer and director are walking by and notice look, we're still looking for the youngest son of Eddie Albert J. Dwight for a little movie they were doing and they sought me out and went on an interview but no experience told them that of course. They said you got to start somewhere and they hired me on the spot for my first job which was a movie where I work six weeks with Eddie Albert Jane wipes up sales. Brenda Lee was my older sister. She was 15 years old. And by the time the movie was over, I picked up a Kellogg cornflakes commercial and a stint on General Hospital. The first year it was on the first episode ever.

Jeff Dwoskin 9:22

That's quite some early success of the movie was too little bears. Do you still eat cornflakes to this day out of respect for them?

Butch Patrick 9:31

No, I did cornflakes the night of Frosted Flakes that night in Froot Loops. I did a lot of commercials. And back in the early 60s. I was doing a lot of westerns and Ben Casey's and untouchables and executives Edward G. Robinson played my grandfather and anyway I was very busy. I could have been busier but I chose to like pick and choose I like staying home I like going to regular school being around my friends and playing baseball and Little League and this and that so I didn't really do as much work as I probably put up but I did enough to where I was happy And I think that worked out well for everybody. So when

Jeff Dwoskin 10:03

you're seven, and you're in a movie with Eddie Albert and super sales, and you're doing cornflakes commercials, and you're still going to school, this is before the monsters. How are the kids acting with you at school? Like, what's that? What's that engagement? Like?

Butch Patrick 10:17

Yeah, kids in school are our kids. And you know, when you're on TV and you're doing movies and stuff, there will be some that will admire you and there will be some that will want to befriend you. And then there's a lot of them that don't know what to do with you. So they make fun of you. Or, you know, there's, you know, whatever kids, it's, it's difficult to go to school anyway, bullying took place back then, like any like it does today, but I had thick skin and I didn't let it bother me. And once they figure out that they're not getting a rise out of you, it pretty much goes away fairly quickly. So I went about my business and did what I needed to do. And then like I said, I did the real McCoys, which was year before The Munsters then I went live with my grandmother in Illinois. And then I came back from Illinois to do The Munsters. And then I went back and live in Missouri in the eighth grade with my grandma. So I had this balance of Hollywood and Los Angeles with small town America and Illinois, and Missouri, which I think helped me not only achieve a balance, but it also gave me appreciation of Americana. And it also teaches me like today, I enjoy driving cross country and doing stuff on the ground with my cars. But you know, obviously, I can't fly with them. So sort of forced into a balance between road trips and air travel. I'm right now living in Arkansas, and a medium sized city that has a small town feel

Jeff Dwoskin 11:30

back into time where they take your picture, did you want to be an actor or you're like, alright, take my picture. And then you start getting all these things? Is this something that you really wanted?

Butch Patrick 11:40

No, it was something that came very naturally and easy to me. I never took an acting lesson. I wanted to be a racecar driver. And I was smart enough to know as a kid that the money that I was making would come in handy. If I ever wanted to do that was never a career. It was always a temporary series of temporary jobs. And I think that's another reason why I did well, because I never took it too seriously. Memorization was easy. And hanging around adults was easy. Riding a horse was easy. So I had a lot of luck. And you know, they say when you get into the businesses, there's a lot of rejection, which I'm sure there is for a lot of people but I was lucky and you know, I did I did a reasonable amount of work but like, you know, I was no bill movie mean Bill movie was like really, really working a lot and a few other kids that Corkers over Disney and there's a few kids that were played, but I you know, I did pretty good for 15 years. My credit list is pretty, pretty solid, pretty solid.

Jeff Dwoskin 12:28

Indeed. What other kid actors were you hanging out with at that time?

Butch Patrick 12:33

00 I lived a long way away from the studios and there were no other Paul Peterson happened to live in Gardena, but I never met him until we were in our late 30s. So no, no, I didn't hang around with kids, kid actors, you would go on interviews, it would be the only time you would see them. And then I would drive back home or you'd go to work in the studio. So it was a very much of a dual situation. I was living in the in the beach district of Los Angeles called the South Bay Area, which was a very nice area 25 miles out of the Hollywood area. But at the same time, there was a long drive to interviews in which probably kept me from going on more interviews than I would have that my mom would have liked me maybe to have done more but it was a lot to give up a baseball game, get in the car, drive an hour traffic, do the interview, come back and do more traffic. I kind of was selected to the ones that I did got it.

Jeff Dwoskin 13:21

And then along comes the monsters they call you in you do a screen test with Yvonne. You

Butch Patrick 13:27

will there's a little bit more backstory to that. They had actually cast the show. I was living with my grandmother as I said in Illinois up the real McCoys. My mom had married a baseball player with the California Los Angeles Angels back then for they were the California Angels and they got married and they basically he was traded to the Washington Senators. So my mom, my sister and my two infant brothers from Kenny all moved to Washington DC. We kept the house in California. But since I was the only one there I went with my grandmother to go live in Illinois, which was fine. I was I look forward to it. And then the interview but we after they hit cast the show, Ronnie to me below me was their first choice and he turned it down because he had other plans to do something else. So that that he said thanks but no thanks. Then they cast the kid named the happy Durmand mate happy Derman. They into it. The pilot the network saw the pilot they greenlit it for production. They said we want to change the mom she looks too much like Morticia from the Addams Family, their name was Joan Marshall. And they also didn't like the kids characterization of Edie. So they go bring in Yvonne DeCarlo and bring in another kid and my agent caught wind of that Mary Grady convinced them to fly me from Illinois to the studio for a screen test. So I didn't even go I didn't even have an interview or reading or anything. I went directly to a screen test which was pretty unusual. At that point for a 10 year old kid. They said Okay, make arrangements to report to work. I had nobody out there except my uncle Woody and I had moved in with him and we hired a woman to take me to work every day. So that's pretty much how it went for the next two years and once a month. But I would fly back to DC to go visit my mom and my family

Jeff Dwoskin 15:03

incredible story. They had the original pilot when they were filming the pilot for the monsters then Were they very aware that the Addams Family was in full production because the debut of both your shows were like within a week apart

Butch Patrick 15:16

they were aware of the people that did that. Leave it to Beaver were looking for a new project. The Munsters, a comedy of families of monsters had actually been a cartoon idea by Bob Clampett in the 50s. He had conceptualized that never saw the light of day and then when they caught with the Addams Family and they were looking for a project they decided to resurrect that idea the Universal Studio was known for monsters they were the monster Studios 30s and 40s so what they did is they took the Leave It to Beaver family friendly scripts and kid friendly ply them with a Universal Monsters and makeup and special effects and took the best of both worlds that created this very offbeat a one off family unique one of a kind show that turned out to be a hit. Yeah,

Jeff Dwoskin 15:57

that's it. I didn't realize when I was kind of researching like so that you had the first pilot with Joan and then they replaced her with Yvonne and then happy made it to those two and then you replaced him and a third pilot and then they made a fourth pilot you know what I read? Was it the fourth pilot had you less spoil your character? No

Butch Patrick 16:16

I don't believe I did the fourth point i don't think i That's the first I've heard of that. All I know is we went I went directly into the first episode we went into production full on and the only thing they did they stopped up first day because they didn't have a widow's peak and I didn't have bushy eyebrows and there's only one scene with me without that makeup artist where grandpa's Love Potion a man from Maryland maybe it's not a man from Maryland maybe it's sleeping cutie whatever the first episode they showed them the love potion Herman next door neighbor loves Herman John Fiedler, that mailman falls in love with Lily and I come running home school with a bunch of girls chasing behind me. And if you look really closely, you'll see me without a widow speaker without my eyebrows. They stopped production they go we need him to look more believable as an offspring of Herman and Lily. He looks to normal the ears aren't enough. So Mike Westmore made a hairpiece and then eyebrows on me. That's the new Edie. That's how that went. And there was no pilot it was strictly a full 24 minute episode.

Jeff Dwoskin 17:12

The iconic willows pee. Yeah, I think Grandpa was making that love potion for Marilyn.

Butch Patrick 17:17

Yeah. And she didn't need breakfast that day. Right. So they poured it back into the families. The family pot. They

Jeff Dwoskin 17:22

were worried that gorgeous Marilyn wouldn't be able to land demand.

Butch Patrick 17:26

Yeah, Beverly was shooting the QD I had such a crush on her.

Jeff Dwoskin 17:29

Why did Beverly ended up leaving she was and then pat priests replaced after 13 episodes.

Butch Patrick 17:35

She was told by she was a New Yorker. She was in love with the guy that was producing Catholic kangaroo. And her agent told her to go out and take the paycheck that the show would never get picked up. It would be a week's work and she'd be back in a week, or he lied to her. Maybe didn't lie or but kind of convinced her that there was no chance to show would be successful. And it was successful. And then Beverly was stuck in LA, kind of like me. And she moved in and live with Fred Gwynne and his wife foxy she needed a place to stay because she was totally caught off guard by the success as well. And then after 13 weeks of her being miserable, Fred and Al told the producers you need to let her go back to New York. This is like literally partially unusual punishment. They said no way. She's an integral part of the success of the show. We're not letting her go and threat analysis. If you don't let her go, we'll quit and then you won't have a show at all. So they pretty much went to her defense and strong arm the producers into letting her go. Pat precept in close fit the week went on and although no, Pat was a blonde, Beverly or the wig, you know, the pretty easy transition. A lot of people weren't even aware there were two Maryland's

Jeff Dwoskin 18:39

Yeah, I'm not sure I was either. I guess it depends which episode you watched. You know, like in syndication, it was only the first 13. So if you only caught like those other episodes, it would probably just depend how much and then as a kid noticing one block?

Butch Patrick 18:54

Well, there's a definite difference in the 13 episodes of storyline and plot development of how that went. Because originally, it was very much structure that Beverly was front and center about the storylines were always about trying to find blood and boyfriends coming to the house and running away and being scared and you know her thinking that she was the problem. And when she left the show, that became a little more of a backstory at the more of the day to day existence of Herman and Lily and Grandpa in the dungeon getting into mischief and Patrese the Maroma character took a few steps back and wasn't quite the center of attention, as it was with Beverly did it.

Jeff Dwoskin 19:32

So you mentioned that Beverly Hills agent or publicists lied to her to take the job but what was the expectations? I imagined they must have been pretty high. I mean, Fred, and now we're coming off car 54. So there have there had to have been some kind of heat there. They have this great chemistry team coming into this, this new show.

Butch Patrick 19:53

On paper. It's funny that you get never really like lightning in a bottle. You never know when it's going to hit The show's success there was a lot of things that went on. I mean, there was good writing there was good acting there was there's a lot of good stuff but the bottom line was in my opinion that it was actually believable family unit people actually felt like that was a family. They were having the trials and tribulations that there was like they I get it all the time people felt they tell me they go I wanted so much to be part of your family. You guys had the coolest house and you had the coolest list but it was mainly a believable family unit. Aside from the fact that he looked like Frankenstein you never thought in this Frankenstein didn't miss Herman Munster and Lily monster and Grandpa most There was never Dracula Vampira. Anything uncle Gil was not the creature uncle Lester wasn't the wolf man. It was it was very amazing how the characters resonated through the makeup and you forgot all about the visuals. You enjoyed it because it was funny. And it made for interesting storylines. And it made for an interesting, you know, people, they could write scripts that would be very funny. That work really wouldn't be funny outside of fact that the monsters were the monsters that that's what made it funny. It had this very unique dynamic and it was wonderful. And it did that I watched it because now because I like listening to the music and I like listening to the sound and the foley artists and all the stuff that went along with it. The secondary stuff is what I find interesting and there was not a weak link in it. I mean, it was a strong lead. Well done produce show quality.

Jeff Dwoskin 21:18

Oh, absolutely. I and I agree with you. It's I think you don't think of them as monsters because like Al Lewis, he just seems like a crazy grandpa crazy relative. Just he happens to be able to make things float and make potions. Yeah,

Butch Patrick 21:33

it made for great writing. There was a good time for comedy writers. It was a good time for comedians to come on and guest star we had a lot of top notch comedians Paul Lynn Don Rickles, Harvey Korman, Jesse white, Frank Gorshin. We had, there was no shortage of really good people on the show. Yeah,

Jeff Dwoskin 21:49

I was I was watching at his nickname episode again. And Paul Lynn was the doctor. Dr. Dudley. Yep. Now that was a great episode. Get a beard. You got a full on beard. You got to

Butch Patrick 22:03

at the hilarious that's a very funny episode. And and I tell you, the funniest thing about it is when I'm sitting in the dress in the waiting room with Herman and he's reading this paper bag over my head with a little beard, stick it out. And in, he picks out he sees them and he goes, Oh my goodness. Mr. Buster had the guts to have a son. Could you imagine what he must look like if they have to cover his face with a paper bag? It's like, oh my god. It was a very funny episode too far

Jeff Dwoskin 22:27

and and touching as well. I mean, just the whole speech that Herman gives you about people accepting people no matter. Oh, that one? Yeah,

Butch Patrick 22:35

that's 150 million views. Oh my gosh, that's so yeah, that's probably one of the most words of wisdom father and son. Even at the end of the day, Grandpa that always ribs me goes Herrmann ain't perfect. You're all right. Give them the all year. All right. I some moral moral, something to be learned some Eddie, Father had some wisdom handed down. It's always a good stuff. Yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin 23:00

That's another great example of what you were saying earlier, where he's, you know, Lilly tells him to go speak to Herman to go speak to you, Father, Son, because you're upset? And he does. And he's awkward about it. You know, it's like, it's very relatable, very relatable. Yeah,

Butch Patrick 23:14

what happened was is, a lot of times in series kids, sometimes they like there's a lot of times in the series, a kid gets buried behind the adults, he doesn't really have the same amount of dialogue and screen time. It's just the way it is. Sometimes there are exceptions to it. And this was one of them. Because what they did is they found that he was my hero. He never wanted to disappoint me. And I was he was the large child like seven foot tall monster, and I was the adult like half size is little boy. So they wrote scripts that allowed us to meet in the middle and have conversations and a lot of times it would be me being the student. And sometimes it would be him being the student and me being the teacher. And they wrote a lot of scripts that way because I can handle dialogue. And they found that the father and son dynamic was strong and they liked that. And then grandpa, sometimes it would be grandpa on me. So I was very lucky that because I can handle it and it worked out well. And it was believable that they wrote several scripts that feature that

Jeff Dwoskin 24:11

he it's it's really cool that they could hone in kind of take advantage of of all your all your talents and everyone's strengths. Sorry to interrupt, have to take a quick break. We want to thank everyone for their support of the sponsors. When you support the sponsors. You're supporting us here at Classic conversations. And that's how we keep the lights on. And now back with Butch Patrick. What was it like just being on duty? I was a kid. Well,

Butch Patrick 24:34

it was great. Uh, you know, when I did the book, monster memories, they got around to ask my memory for content. I said, you know, my memory of The Munsters was, that was kind of like my job and I enjoyed going work. But my favorite memories of that two year period is when I had free time, and I could go wander around the studio and go see what everybody else was up to. Because you know, universal takes about three months to do a movie We had like 12 soundstages going active. So that's 50 movies a year for two years. So during my stay, there was 100 movies that were produced on the lot not to mention three westerns, Gunsmoke, Virginia and Laredo, Alfred Hitchcock, maybe another series of two that I can recall. So that was my favorite thing to do was to go wander around and go through a mike Westmore was making in the lab at the makeup department go see what the special effects guys were doing and go see what everybody else was up to. Can you imagine how much fun that would be for a 1211 12 year old little boy in full makeup knowing that I go anywhere on the lot because I'm supposed to be there. It's not like anybody's gonna step up and say hey, you know, go away.

Jeff Dwoskin 25:34

Right and half of them probably excited to see Addy monster. Oh, it

Butch Patrick 25:38

was great. It was the one that was the most fun that I had like go to stage 28 Gold Phantom of the Opera soundstage largest soundstage in Hollywood and climb up. You know where you're not supposed to go and be in the catwalk six storeys up. That was cool.

Jeff Dwoskin 25:52

That sounds amazing. Yeah, that must have been quite a just a playground for like a 12 year old. It's a Yeah,

Butch Patrick 25:58

it was it was fun. Good times, you got to do your job. You had to be prepared. But you had a little free time. It was wonderful.

Jeff Dwoskin 26:05

I read that Batman played a role in sort of the cancellation of it like yeah, because Batman screwed up not just then your show and also kind of messed with Lawson space, you know where both of you guys were in black and white. And then this colorful, new show comes along. And like they had to change that's their third season became color. What did you think the direct impact of Batman was on the monsters

Butch Patrick 26:29

we were prepared to go to color. But the issue was, who was going to pay for it, whether it would be the studio, the network or the producers? And honestly, I think three things came into play. I think number one, Fred an hour from New York, I think they were ready to go back home. I think the show was starting to the scripts were getting a little thin, best was behind us. And the solution was to do months ago home in color and color today. After two years, which I think was a wise thing to do. I don't think the monsoons would have worked well in color. It was a black and white genre that once the great monster movies were in black and white, and just because the technology was there and everybody was buying color TVs, I think it worked out really well the way it should have and whether Batman caused it or whether the finances caused it. I'm happy the way it worked out. We did a color movie they showed it around the world everybody knew who the monsters were they started watching it black and white and everybody I think it worked out just great.

Jeff Dwoskin 27:21

Yeah, I think there's a brilliance to that show being in black and white especially as as an homage to the all the universal characters that it's there are enough monsters go home. That was the movie they did sort of for syndication, right for other countries to kind of introduce people to the monsters. Did you keep up with any of the reboots? I know you weren't in them, but I mean, did you watch them? Did you

Butch Patrick 27:41

know I had seen them while I was in them. One of the you know we all did a cameo in the one in the early 90s with Edward Herrmann and Lee, that lead Merryweather with the girl from illustrate blues I can't think of her name at the moment, but that was was Okay The Munsters today the series with John shockingly Merriweather and Jason Marsden. You know, it was it was what it was, you know, it was it served a purpose. It was the 80s it was in color and people liked it. And you know, it was on for three years the guy Arthur Schwartz's Sherwood Schwartz, his son did the Gilligan and the Brady's put it together, so they knew what they were doing. And the other movies scary little Christmas, the ROB zombie movie I was involved with. That was probably the best one of the group because of the going back and doing the history of how Herman and Lily met. You know, there was actually a purpose to it.

Jeff Dwoskin 28:32

Right, right. Right. One little thing I found totally irrelevant trivia. But you know, Ben Stiller, love doing Eddie monster on?

Butch Patrick 28:40

Oh, yeah. The Saturday Night Live thing? Sure. Yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin 28:43

I think Christine Taylor's wife was was Maryland and in here come the monsters in

Butch Patrick 28:49

95. Yep. Absolutely. Also, Marsha and the Brady's. Right?

Jeff Dwoskin 28:54

Right. Exactly. I just thought was funny. They might sit around loving the monsters in that household. Do you remember doing marine land carnival with the monsters?

Butch Patrick 29:02

I'll tell you I do it. I'll tell you why that was done down at Marine land, which before SeaWorld and all the various places that was the only place in the country that had anything like that. And it was down by where I live. It was near it was near my house. And I was a big fan of an old TV show called Sea hut with Lloyd Bridges as Mike Nelson. And that was all done in Greenland. So that was for me. It was not only close to home, but it also was the home of the series that I really enjoyed. So I yeah, I remember it very vividly. I

Jeff Dwoskin 29:33

just I found it. I just I was searching and I stumbled on it. And I was like, all right. Some funny stuff with Al Lewis with on top of flagpole, but we're not him but that made you think about it being him. So oh, you know another show that you were in. I love one of my favorite shows. The monkeys. You're in the Christmas special of the monkeys.

Butch Patrick 29:52

Yeah, you know, a couple of things jump out on my resume. One of those is the monkeys Christmas episode. I was in the eighth grade the Beatles that I'm in the set of the monsters I missed them. And I was bummed that I didn't get a chance to beat them. Monkeys at the time when I did the episode, they were as popular as the Beatles were maybe even more so in America, because of the nature, they had the TV show, the music was solid, and I really, I normally wouldn't really care if I got a part when I went on an interview didn't really matter to me one way or the other. I tried my best. Usually I would get the part but this one I really put a little extra effort into it because I really wanted to do it. And I want to getting it and I normally would school I wouldn't tell anybody what I was up to. But that particular week, I told everybody what I was doing. The funny part about it was it was like the episode was really all about Melbourne being taught the meaning of Christmas by the monkey so it was like I got to work with a lot. You know, it wasn't just a little walk around like Oh, I love the monkey than I need you there I am back though. This was like Britain center dealing with the monkeys and being like they're, you know, they're equal for the for the three day shoot.

Jeff Dwoskin 30:57

Yeah, they were like babysitting you or they were right there. Yeah, that was great.

Butch Patrick 31:00

It was it was it was one of it was one of my favorites. And then another one that comes to mind that happened around the same time was The Phantom Tollbooth, which was Chuck Jones, the crazy great animator of all the cartoons that I loved as a kid and a teenager working with him and all the voiceover people in this great movie called The Phantom Tollbooth that is based on doorman gestures, book, mandatory reading, and a lot of schools, a lot of a lot of classrooms. I get a lot of people when I go to conventions, they bring out their books, and they go, I love that movie. That's one of my favorite books and movies. Thank you for being my low. So that was kind of cool. That kind of falls into the thing. And then you got a little later down the road. I did nine episodes of my three sons. I was just the most of any guy guest star any male guest star on the series. That was the most episodes anybody ever did. Then I did lids Ville a little bit after the last my three sons for sin barley crop, which at the time I didn't think was really much to do. But in hindsight, I guess that was a very lucky break for me because Charles Nelson Reilly and Billy Hayes, and the crops are huge, you know, then I wasn't aware of a time but no, not Well, I did it.

Jeff Dwoskin 32:08

Let's Ville is I mean, I, I mean, you gotta really be on something to be watching. Like, you jump into a hat, you go into a land of hats. The crafts had an imagination like I like no one

Butch Patrick 32:21

else. Yeah, no, it was definitely like Alice in Wonderland falling down the rabbit hole. It was cool. The funny thing about all the little people that people I knew most of them, because growing up as a kid, you get a lot of standards, you know, standards for you. They don't have another good standard for another kid. You always have little people. So when the hats came off, but three or four of those people I already knew. So that was fun.

Jeff Dwoskin 32:42

I mentioned earlier, kind of like how you keep monsters alive and the cons and all that kind of stuff. I found a clip from something called Christina's court. Yeah. Yeah. Where you were suing Mickey Keats, and you won the URL rights for monsters.com. Yeah, thing I found funny about this show is it's a courtroom drama. But you know, and it opens up and it says, Christina is direct and fair, blah, blah, blah. But then she's like, Oh, my God, it's Eddie. Munster. We have a clip from the show. Yeah, I just thought it was so funny.

Butch Patrick 33:17

That was it was you know, it's funny, too. It was it was it was so scripted. First, Mickey wanted to be the defendant that he wanted to be the plaintiff and it was you know, was all pre Dawn it was you know, the verdict was in whatever happened, you know, I get my sight back it whatever the damages are, they pay it was very much but it was funny as Mickey was, he's just such an idiot. I'm fairly savvy with how to you know, handle yourself in a courtroom situation. There's certain and he was he just came off as a buffoon, you know, so it was it was hilarious. Yeah,

Jeff Dwoskin 33:46

it was finding like old gems like that just randomly on YouTube. It's like one of the greatest

Butch Patrick 33:51

Well, the funny part about funny part we had a lot of mutual friends and they use that clip when they when he said I have a crush on which Patrick then that was that was a little clip that they kept putting into the trailers for and watch Christina's court I have a car shot which Patrick and he got so ridiculed by everybody over that.

Jeff Dwoskin 34:10

So punching after the monsters people always talk about you know, Kid stars and you know, in drugs and all that kind of stuff in and you had your your go round with that. And you you're a survivor, right? I mean, you after decades of battling all that blue came out, you're not one of those cautionary tales, you're a positive outcome story. What do you credit? Who do you credit like for helping you get out of that and get sober and all that?

Butch Patrick 34:37

Well, you know, it was the 60s and to start with you get into it for the party situation and the fun and the games and all the good stuff that went along with being in that cool seen that time. But again, remember back then, well, you weren't old enough to remember this probably. But it was accepted behavior. back then. I was when I did the Phantom Tollbooth, we were up in San Francisco shooting a live shot. So I mean Haight Ashbury the Grateful Dead and Woodstock and this was this was this was America it was the hippie movement, make love not war, everybody was getting stoned, everybody was getting high. Cocaine came into play and shortly after, but it was just the way things were, you know, and get started up into it. Some people found that not to be something they liked, I enjoyed it, I was good at it. And I also living wanting to be accepted by everybody around me, instead of being an actor, I threw the best parties and always had stuff around and just became a lifestyle that unfortunately lasted longer than it should have. But I survived it and wasted a whole lot of money and never be got my never became a racecar driver and probably did some things that you know, if things had been different, I'm sure things you know, obviously, we wouldn't be talking about this than the text here. But there are no, there are no mistakes. When you get sober. You have to accept your your fate, and you're right where you're supposed to be. And good news is I got it'll be 13 years coming up total sobriety of everything, from alcohol, to straws, to pills to smoking, anything and everything I ever did. I never did needles, never did heroin, but everything else I pretty much dabbled in, and some more so than others. But, you know, I found that I just got tired, kind of sick and tired of being sick and tired. And they got into a 12 step program with the Oasis treatment center sponsored me gentleman named Jim a, who was the original interventionist on the TV show for a&e and always wanted to get a child actor sober if he could. And he chose me, I was lucky enough to be the guy that he put his faith into. And we're still in contact, I'm still doing speaker meetings and I go to I don't really work a normal program. I can't sponsor people because I'm on the road a lot. I do do a lot of people into the program by example. And I kind of let them know where to start and how to get help and try to guide them to take that first step. That's kind of what I do. It's

Jeff Dwoskin 36:55

great, inspiring others to be able to follow in that positive path as well. And congratulations on 13 year so it's quite an achievement.

Butch Patrick 37:04

Yeah, it was it's It's definitely my biggest issue but

Jeff Dwoskin 37:09

it's I'm sure it's addiction something that it's always kind of there somewhere maybe so I know it's something that you have to really focus on. So it's an amazing it's amazing.

Butch Patrick 37:18

I got very lucky apparently because I really had like a burning bush experience for some reason I just have to be you know, thank God for that one. But I literally they explained it to me that some once in a once in a great while that you get lucky and everything is just sucked out here that causes you to crave and Jones and want to do stuff that are you know, you're one step away from a meeting or you're one step away from church. I just have been very, very lucky that I work on a program but I do it. I'm pretty much on my terms. And it's allowed me to go about it and have a great, great second half. So I'm happy that I made I did 41 years. I figured it out that if I lived to be 82 I'll have 41 years of sobriety total and 41 years of non sobriety so if I make it to 83 I'm over the 5050

Jeff Dwoskin 38:02

There you go. I'm sure I'm sure well. Oh yeah, you mentioned the Phantom Tollbooth Mel Blanc, in that now is the raven and the monsters the voice at least a short period of time.

Butch Patrick 38:13

Well, the Raven was several people joke I think one of the producers did that before Swanson. We had another gentleman from McHale's Navy do the try to think of his name. I can't think of his name. I think yes, yeah. Bob Hastings. Thank you, Bob Hastings as well, that was just actually McHale's Navy was also one of my favorite destinations when I would go exploring because I go on the backlog. My uncle supplied horses to the studios, so I go check Uncle John what where he was with the horses. And while I was out that direction, the lagoon wasn't far away. So I would go see, Ernie Borgnine was a really nice guy and Tim Conway. I didn't really know Tim too well, but I knew that he was extremely funny, and I enjoyed the show McHale's Navy to watch myself so that was fun.

Jeff Dwoskin 38:55

One more question if that's all right, you got time. Okay. All right, fielder's choice Tell me about your time on The Simpsons playing yourself or dive into Monster murder bombshell at Monster Hall.

Butch Patrick 39:06

Oh, god that was that just you know, I used to go to Monster Hall a lot. I mean, I was up there. I looked it up there it was it was you know, the guy had built the cramped Brown and Randy has cars and stuff unfortunately. Can the gentleman who was murdered you know when people do evil things and you know they have no everything you throw somebody's name what happened was just the fact that I was up there going the people the guy who did it was looking to guard the woman this case who did it and oversaw it threw me and tried to throw me under the bus to save herself and I went up I mean it was 16 years later cold case I'm so happy that it happened that they finally found a woman and justice was served but yeah, you know you can you can get sucked into some really weird stuff being a celebrity. That's a perfect example.

Jeff Dwoskin 39:51

Well, you escaped that you got to 13 years sobriety, we're headed to 5050 amazing career, so many great stories, but thanks are hanging out with me. Would you like to share your URLs and where you're hanging out on social media?

Butch Patrick 40:05

Oh, yeah, that's you know, I'm not social media is something that, you know, we have a really fantastic official monster fan group which Lois Grubb is the administrator and you can go to that the official monsters fan group for fun but for personal stuff munsters.com I've owned it for damn near 30 years so that leads you to any emails or any store anything you want to purchase that that thing and then Facebook I got a couple of Facebook pages I've got a Instagram page. I'm not on the ground very much not one of them. I'm not comfortable with that particular stuff, but I do I have a Twitter account BP monster but mostly I'm a Facebook kind of guy. That's pretty much how it works for me fairly easy to find. I travel a lot my schedule is usually posted so if you're interested in running a you know Crossing Paths is a probably a very good chance. You know, as the monkeys would say, hey, we maybe covered through your town you know.

Jeff Dwoskin 40:57

Amazing, amazing, but thank you so much. I really appreciate you hanging out with me. Well, it

Butch Patrick 41:02

got it took us a few times, but we finally made it happen.

Jeff Dwoskin 41:07

Oh boy, one more thing. I used to work at Little Caesars headquarters and I know you did a classic Little Caesars commercial. Yeah,

Butch Patrick 41:14

it's actually that's very interesting thing because Jimmy Walker myself and Evil Knievel did a couple of commercials for little season we were supposed to for they stopped it after two because they had huge response to it. But everybody thought was a pizza commercial. But the deal was was the good thing that came out of it was I became friends with Evil Knievel and I gotta tell you, you know, when I was a kid, my Stingray and you know doing all the things of dirt bikes and doing things Evil Knievel was a god he was he was a god. Let's face it. I mean, the man could ride a motorcycle and fill Wembley Stadium with 100,000 people all want to see the greatest showmen their double one man show PT Barnum rename your name. And this guy was just magical and it was so cool to get to know Him and be friends with them that that's one of the highlights that people say you know who's most interesting, famous people had to be Evil Knievel he had such charisma and such presence that whenever I was with him, I would call people up and say if you really want to witness something, you need to come down here and say hi, and walk in and meet Evil Knievel first in person because there's something about this guy that you'll feel. And it was funny when I went the first time we were in the car together, driving, and I pretty proud of it. But I was intimidated. I said that I go so what's with the Snake River jump? And he goes, You thought I was gonna die but she goes 11 shots a wild turkey put me in the rocket and I thought it was gonna die that day. And I go well, I guess I guess that answers the what happened. You know, you thought it was your, your, your swan song. And he goes, Yeah, it was it was a tough day. But that was that was the first question I asked them. That that was my evil beautiful story. What a great guy. Oh, thank

Jeff Dwoskin 42:51

you for sharing that pizza pizza. All right.

Butch Patrick 42:54

He was wonderful. That's cool. All right, my friend. Take care. Take

Jeff Dwoskin 42:57

care. Thank you so much. All right. How amazing was Butch Patrick? I have so many fond memories of watching the monsters. It was so fun talking to Butch. So many great stories. Can't believe episode 300 has come to an end. Oh my goodness. 300 episodes. Huge thanks to my guest again, Butch Patrick. And another huge thank you to all of you for coming back week after week. I couldn't have done 300 without you. Thank you so much. And I'll see you next time.

CTS Announcer 43:27

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Transcribed by https://otter.ai