As 'Dracula' premieres on NBC, remember Grandpa Munster
Al Lewis in character as Grandpa Munster from "The Munsters" television show in July 1964. Credit: AP
From Barnabas Collins on "Dark Shadows" to Buffy and the crews of "True Blood" and "The Vampire Diaries," TV has seen a spikeful of notable bloodsuckers.
The latest incarnation of Dracula hits TV next Friday when NBC premieres the new eponymous drama that posits Bram Stoker's creation as an American entrepreneur living in Victorian-era London (played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers). But in our mind, the tube's coolest ghoul of them all was Grandpa Munster, played by the one and only Al Lewis on the classic '60s sitcom "The Munsters." Here are five things you need to know about him:
1 His real name was Sam Dracula.
2 He was 378 years old.
3 He was married 167 times.
4 He liked sleeping while hanging upside down.
5 He drove a custom car called the Dragula.
