Legacy
The "Madman" method pioneered by Muntz was later copied by other retailers, including California car salesman Cal Worthington and New York area electronics chain Crazy Eddie. In Crazy Eddie TV commercials, radio personality Jerry Carroll leapt at the camera and jumped around while jabbering at high speed, always ending with the line, "Crazy Eddie: Our prices are insaaaaaane!". As a result of his Crazy Eddie commercials, Carroll became a significant 80s icon, even appearing in the film Splash.
Muntz' cultural impact was such that he was mentioned in novels, including children's book The Neddiad: How Neddie Took The Train, Went To Hollywood, And Saved Civilization by Daniel Manus Pinkwater, The Lost Get-Back Boogie by James Lee Burke, and Franklin Mason's Four Roses in Three Acts .
A production called Madman Muntz: American Maverick was screened at film festivals through 2007. Directed by Dan Bunker and Judy ver Mehr, it was produced by Jim Castoro, an owner of an original Muntz Jet. The film was an official 2005 selection at the San Fernando Valley International Film Festival and the Ole Muddy Film Festival. The film documents Muntz's life, paying particular attention to his colorful career, and includes interviews with people who knew him and home movie footage contributed by his children.
The KCET 1997 documentary More Things That Aren't Here Anymore has a segment on Muntz and is broadcast by the station regularly during pledge periods.
In 2001, Madman Muntz was posthumously inducted into the Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame.
Read more about this topic: Madman Muntz
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“What is popularly called fame is nothing but an empty name and a legacy from paganism.”
—Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)