guttural sounds (similar to Boris Karloff's Frankenstein's monster), usually when he's hungry, impatient or getting annoyed over a minor problem (such as finding his Sunday newspaper). In keeping with his childlike personality, Herman loves balloons, candy, and especially his wife Lily's pancakes. He plays with toys, such as his son Eddie's cowboy hat and cap pistols (in "Herman's Happy Valley"). He loves to read comic books despite Lily's annoyance at such childish behavior. Despite being of German origin and having been raised in England, Herman speaks with a cultured American accent. He does however read German newspapers, which is subtly shown in at least one episode: He is reading a paper, conversing about an unrelated topic, and as the camera gets close enough to his face, it can be seen for a fraction of a second that it is Die Zeit. In episode "My Fair Munster", he reads Die Welt. Merchandising In 1964 Mattel released a Herman Munster doll that featured Gwynne's voice and spoke ten phrases at random with the pull of its "Chatty Ring" cord. This was a spin-off of their highly successful Chatty Cathy doll, for whom the talking mechanism had been invented. References Television characters introduced in 1964 Herman Fictional characters with superhuman strength Fictional World War II veterans Fictional monsters Fictional undead Male characters in television Fictional German people Adoptee characters in television Fictional immigrants to the United States