Dan'l Boone vs. The Munsters
by Aleene MacMinn (Unknown TV Magazine)

Daniel Boone in all of his adventures probably never came up against anything like The Munsters, yet that's what Daniel's modern-day portrayer, Fess Parker, has to face each week.
     Dan'l got off to a slow start against The Munsters, admits Fess. "The columns weren't saying we were about to expire," he recalled. "They said we were dead."
     But old Daniel isn't one to give up. The series started gaining ground and now, Fess says, "we have retrieved a large part of the great lead they had on us in the beginning."
     Fess said the slow start didn't worry him too much. "I felt so confident of the interest of people all over the country. I do a lot of traveling and I've found a solid adult interest in the show. Davy Crockett (the character which shot Parker to prominence) created a great area of good will. The same seems to exist for Daniel Boone."
     He mentions that shows such as The Munsters are "this season's fad . . . a sign of the times. But I think it's too bad children have to look at the macabre when they could be looking at their national history.
     "If Daniel Boone isn't as entertaining as The Munsters, then no should watch us. But I think we are. For example we did a s how that had Ben Franklin not as a cameo but as an integral part of the story. We have another one about Thomas Paine . . . and out pilot show touched on Boone's friendship with George Washington. What we're doing is creating a commercial TV show out of historical figures.
     "The area around 1776 is so rich and so colorful, yet in my experience as an actor, it has been the least productive commercially." Fess hopes that Daniel will change all that and apparently his hopes are going to come true. NBC has re-newed the series for next year--and will show it in color.