The Addams Family

The Addamses are a delightfully ghoulish family. Father Gomez (John Astin) clears his throat with a sword, mother Morticia (Carolyn Jones) owns several carnivorous plants, and servant Lurch (Ted Cassidy) somberly replies "You rang?" whenever someone rings the bell. And of course, there's their pet, a severed hand named Thing. The family spends their days engaging in activities that most would find weird (to be certain, everything that's normal to us is weird to them). For example, Uncle Fester (Jackie Coogan) likes to rest on a bed on nails. They go through their everyday lives (uh, lives?) doing the sorts of things that most people do, just differently (to say the least).

Among other things, "The Addams Family" was actually better than "The Munsters" (it was cleverer and not so silly). This truly represented a break from the "ideal American family" mold that had previously dominated TV, especially since Gomez and Morticia often got slinky with each other. Definitely watch it whenever it's on (TV Land is currently rerunning it).

The Addams Family comes from a very cultured place: the nimble mind and pen of Charles Addams, a cartoonist whose work appeared in the entertainingly droll "The New Yorker" magazine. Charles' "family" were a macabre and quaint set of well to do people who just happened to take pleasure in pain and who dressed in dark colors. This means that the cartoonist was the unofficial Grandaddy of Goth! When the concept of converting these ink doodles into a live action television program took place, the timing coincided with another "odd" family who also arrived on our Television doorsteps that same season: "The Munsters." In a way, that was a disservice to both programs, since the common traits they shared made them a constant comparison. Personally, though I don't believe they are in the same league.

Where "The Munsters" went for the slapstick schtick nearly every time, "The Addams Family" used more wordplay and more clever, witty attempts to bring a laugh. But even that wasn't the main difference between the programs.

The secret ingredient that The Addams Family had over their Mockingbird Lane counterparts was a single word: PASSION. Yes this was a family with a creepy home, kooky hobbies, mysterious eating habits, and spooky pets. But at the root, at the heart, at the altogether ooky core of the story was this one, great, huge love between Gomez and Morticia and the love they shared for all of the people in their lives. John Astin and Carolyn Jones were incredible, and for my money, are still the sexiest couple in TV history.

Though it was often played for laughs, as when the matriarch uttered a word in French and Gomez couldn't resist kissing up her arm, it was very palpable, in the pet names they called each other, in the way they tangoed or in how the pair chatted in each other's company. This was a family that cared about all of its members deeply, and that read as clear as a full moon over a cemetery.

The laughs of the program were just the spider on the web, and the laughs were plentiful and great. A stellar cast, very good special effects and smart story lines, plus a great set of music cues from Vic Mizzy that added just the right finish to a fantastic program. Next time you have a chance to view an episode, keep that love story in mind as the show's centerpiece and see if you don't appreciate it in a new and deeper way.

'The Addams Family' was one of my favourite TV shows growing up because of it's overall weirdness, which appealed to my sick sensibilities having been raised on a diet of Mad magazine and Hammer horror movies, and because it was genuinely funny. And all these years later it still is. As an adult I appreciate it on even more levels. With hindsight it manages to look like one of the most subversive shows ever shown on TV, while simultaneously showing one of the most loving, and well adjusted families in TV history! How ironic is that?

John Astin as Gomez Addams shows outstanding comic flair, and is still a delight to watch. (Try and track down the ahead of its time comic western 'Evil Roy Slade' for another wonderful Astin performance.) The chemistry between Astin and on-screen wife Morticia (the lovely Carolyn Jones) is smoldering AND hilarious, and the two are backed up by a fine supporting cast, especially former child star Jackie Coogan as the bizarre but lovable Uncle Fester.

Forget the hit and miss movies, these are the original and still the best Addams family. Wonderful fun!

One of the funnier and more enjoyable series of the period about a ghoulish family that just seems to be totally unaware of their strangeness. Led by John Astin and Carolyn Jones, the group included the two aforementioned performers as the parents to two creepy youngsters and the odd voices of reason to various other family members. Jackie Coogan definitely stole the show as the creepy Uncle Fester. A short run of success for three seasons ended in 1966 with only 64 episodes being made. Used to have a home in syndication, but is harder to find on television these days. The series had a renaissance in the early-1990s with two theatrical installments starring Raul Julia, Christopher Lloyd and Anjelica Huston. The movies are not on par with the series, the main reason for this is the fact that the situations and characters play out so much better on the boob tube. 4 stars out of 5.

The Addams Family was, in its own strange way, the healthiest TV family ever presented. The mother and father are utterly smitten with one another. They dote on their children and pay meticulous attention to their upbringing. The children, for their part, are respectful of their elders but brim-full of curiosity and mischief. The grandmother and uncle are loved and respected. Extended family members are admired and included. The butler shows great devotion to his employers, who repay him by providing a loving family. Thing (whatever it is) is appreciated for his omnipresent helpfulness. And visitors are always welcome and treated with the utmost courtesy.

The macabre touches are fun, and provide the fish-out-of-water running gag of outsiders trying to cope with the Addams' ghoulish world, but it's the relationships that make The Addams Family tick. Current sit-coms, with their focus on deception and underhanded tricks, would do well to emulate the Addamses.