Fact: The Munsters Cast, one of America’s favorite television families had some real issues with wardrobe.
The padding had to be in place to keep him looking like Herman Munster, the big man, but while Gwynne, was a huge person , he wasn’t as broad as Herman needed to be and he wasn’t quite as tall. Elevator boots added four inches to his feet and enormous padded pieces were added to the shoulders of his clothing.
At 6 feet 5 inches tall it was a good thing that he was a big man because his costume actually added more than forty pounds to his weight.. He had to be seen as huge so he wore padded clothing. The padding was so thick that when in combination with the heat from the lighting Fred Gwynne began to lose weight fairly dramatically.
The crew kept multiple different items to ensure that he remained healthy. Gwynne, while on set would down glass after glass of lemonade, ate salt tablets and finally had to have an air hose injected inside his costume to allow him to remain cool enough to continue to work.
