Herman Munster, 5th Earl of Shroudshire (born "Herman" alone), is a fictional character in the CBS sitcom The Munsters, played by Fred Gwynne. The patriarch of the Munster household, Herman is an entity much like Frankenstein's monster along with Lurch on the show's competitor The Addams Family. Due to the thickness of his costume and the heat of the studio lights, Gwynne continually fought enormous weight loss from perspiration, even after consuming gallons of lemonade and salt tablets and using an air hose inside of his costume.