Tin Can Man

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“Tin Can Man”
The Munsters episode
Episode no. Season 1
Episode 7
Written by Norm Liebmann, Ed Haas (story by Robert Lewin)
Directed by Earl Bellamy
Guest stars Arch Johnson, Richard Simmons
Original airdate October 15, 1964
Episode chronology
← Previous Next →
"Low-Cal Munster" "Herman the Great"
List of The Munsters episodes

"Tin Can Man" is an episode of The Munsters from the show's first season. It guest-stars Arch Johnson as Mr. Taggert.

[edit] Plot

Herman discovers three letters hidden under Eddie's bed from the Board of Education telling him that Eddie is flunking science at Mockingbird Heights Elementary School. Upset, he grounds Eddie and tells him to get to work on his project for the school science fair. Overnight, Eddie and Grandpa build a robot from spare cans around the house.

Meanwhile Mr. Taggert, the "juvenile investigator" of the school, is sent off to find out what kind of an environment Eddie is living in because of the Munsters' delinquency in replying to the letters.

The next morning Herman is late to work because he's been reading a book of chauvinistic jokes. Because he is late to work, Herman is not allowed to take time off for Eddie's meeting, and since Lily is away, Marilyn goes to speak with the principal about Eddie. When the principal is sated by Marilyn's poise, she hints that Eddie's grades may have been falling because of his hard work on his science project.

When Mr. Taggert arrives at the Munsters', the only person at home is Grandpa, who begins giving the investigator a tour. After seeing the dilapidated state of the house, Charlie (the raven), the carnivorous goldfish, and Eddie's "tin can man", Mr. Taggert vows to write a letter to the Board calling for Eddie's expulsion. Angry, Grandpa runs him off the property with the tin can man.

When the family goes to Eddie's science fair the following day, Mr. Taggert drops a wrench into the robot's gears. When Grandpa and Eddie see that the robot is malfunctioning, they perform an emergency "carburetorectomy". Unable to find the source of the problem, they send Herman out to stall by telling some of his jokes to the audience. When Herman enters the stage, the audience takes him for the robot and he is none the wiser.

Meanwhile Grandpa finds the wrench and correctly assumes that it's the doing of Mr. Taggert. When they try to work the robot again, however, it explodes. Eddie goes out on stage to tell the audience, and they assume he refers to Herman. He is awarded the Special Prize but tells the audience he doesn't deserve it since his grandfather helped him build the robot.

When the Munsters' get back home, Grandpa and Eddie rebuild the robot and teach it to tell jokes and do vaudevillian acts.

[edit] Characters

[edit] References

  • "Tin Can Man"
  • A Trip Down Mockingbird Lane


Preceded by
“Low-Cal Munster”		 The Munsters Episodes Followed by
“Herman the Great”
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The Munsters
1964 – 1966
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