Al “Grandpa Munster” Lewis brings unbridled joy to a weather forecast
In the decades following the 1966 cancellation of The Munsters, actor Al Lewis devoted himself to becoming a raconteur (especially as a frequent guest on The Howard Stern Show), a restaurateur (at his Munsters-themed Greenwich Village eatery), a politician (he ran for governor of New York in 1998), and just generally an all-around delightful human being. Evidence of the latter can be found in a vintage TV clip that has resurfaced on YouTube just in time for Halloween, thanks to the pop-culture curators behind the Funny Local News Bloopers channel. In the two-and-a-half-minute video dating back to roughly the late 1980s, an unreasonably excited Lewis serves as a guest “celebrity weatherman” on a local New York newscast, replacing absentee forecaster Bob Harris. The Car 54, Where are You? actor, then in his late 60s and mysteriously wearing an unexplained “used car salesman”-type cowboy hat, does discuss the current weather conditions and what New Yorkers can expect for the next few days. But he largely turns his guest-casting spot into a bit of impromptu, high-energy performance art, combining some grandfatherly noodging, a few giggle fits, and plenty of vampiric joie de vivre. A representative example: