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"The Addams Family" (1964)

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40 out of 41 people found the following comment useful :-
A work of art., 26 May 1999
Author: Chrissie from Incheon, Korea

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.

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21 out of 22 people found the following comment useful :-
Classic macabre fun. Forget the movies, the original and the best., 6 January 2002
Author: Infofreak from Perth, Australia

'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!

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16 out of 17 people found the following comment useful :-
Gomez Addams was my childhood hero!, 8 December 2003
Author: Baroque

Believe it or not, as I watched this show in syndication when I was a tyke, I wanted to be Gomez Addams. Gomez was rich, happily married, dripping with Old World charm, had loving children, kind relatives, a devoted butler, lived in a great house, and the whole family did everything THEIR way, convention be damned!

He made wild, passionate love to his wife (and could turn his libido on and off like a light...yet all Morticia had to do was speak French!), and instead of drinking with the boys, he'd unwind with either yoga, juggling Indian clubs, bouncing on his trampoline, or blowing up his train set. His only vices were smoking cigars and drinking brandy, yet he seemed to do both in moderation.

I loved the little touches the show had. The coffee table with bundles of $100 bills in the drawer ("Petty cash, my good man!"), Lurch's Basso Profundo groan, the Butler's Chime that shook the entire house (with the pull cord a full-sized hangman's noose), the torture chamber turned into a "play room", the quirky decor of the house and the family taking in the moon while others took in the sun.

Gomez and Morticia were the first TV sitcom couple to have an implied sex life (a rather kinky one at that!), and the whole family was healthy and happy...if rather detached from established norms. It was a cleverly subversive program that shows one could be happy without fitting into society's standards. It was so touching to have the family thinking of OTHERS as being troubled and confused, while their own world was so blissful and joyous...even if everything around them was either Gothic or draped in black.

A show like this deserves to be re-issued onto DVD...and if possible, with the laughtrack removed (That would make it even MORE surreal!).

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17 out of 19 people found the following comment useful :-
Excellent High Level '60s Satire: (foghorn) "Mail's In..Thank You Thing", 1 November 2003
Author: Adam Bernstein (mendips_1999@yahoo.com) from Northwest, USA

John Astin and Carolyn Jones brought the Charles Addams cartoons to life in this excellent counter-cultural '60s show. They each brought their own qualities to the characters, Astin his Zen Yogi Buddhism and his Shakespeare, Jones, her knitting and great looks. If you pay attention to the dialogue it's subversive on many levels which may be why ABC cancelled it after 2 years of great success.

Carolyn Jones is gothically georgeous with a great sing-songy voice that brings the dialogue to life, and a figure perfect enough to fit into that black widow dress. I always love how she says "Mail's In...Thank You Thing" when the foghorn sounds. Lurch is great when he moans all the time, and Fester with his gun "I'll shoot 'im in the back!".

I think the most poignant episode was when Rocky, a biker beatnik comes and the Addams' accept him as he is and teach his staunch father a lesson. His father tells them, "If there's a kook here, it's probably me". And at the end after everyone says "right", Morticia says, "reet"...a subtle message that she learned to be different from Rocky.

This hinted at the explosion of youth rebellion that was to come...and this series may have precipitated it on some level. The '60s had counter-culture all of a sudden injected into popular culture and it had an impact on the development of the actual counter culture of the late 60s...and even present day the "gothic" look can be traced directly to here.

Another memorable thing is Cousin Itt's tiny room everyone else had to crouch in and they hit their heads on the ceiling (now you know what Being John Malkovich was a rip-off of). And the moonbathing is great. But most important is the sexual chemistry between Morticia and Gomez: "Querida, that's French!" as he kisses his way up her arm. They never fought and prompted a psychologist to comment, "This is the healthiest show on TV". I myself grew up in an abusive disfunctional environment like many Americans, and this show was one of my respites as a kid because I knew Gomez and Morticia would never get mad at me or each other.

This show carried that je-ne-sais-quoi that a lot of '60s culture did, and there's nothing today that even comes close. There were alot of subtle things in the script you had to look for, like when Lurch always has whatever is requested on hand, Gomez' numerous Shakespeare references, and how they have to turn off the cave echo with a switch.

I finally saw the Addams' Family movie and it doesn't measure up to the original in any way. If you've never seen this show, you're in for some first class high level satire and memorable characters. Carolyn Jones' epitaph reads, "She gave joy to the world"...that cannot be denied.

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9 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
Sometimes It Is Okay to Be Different., 31 October 2003
Author: tfrizzell from United States

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.

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9 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
AMERICA'S FIRST FAMILY TRUTH BE TOLD!, 14 July 2001
Author: Wolf (alphaspace) from Baltimore, Maryland

The Addams Family was supposed to be an odd ball rich excentric family of near monster almost circus type people who instead of be cound by all societies conventions lived by their own values. They were decent wonderful people with hearts understanding compassion the equal of some and, better than most in so called normal society. The Addam's so secure in their sense of self individually and as a family unit were completely unknowing or caring of the reactions of normal polite society. Indeed members of the Addams family to a person / it and, thing were so secure in themselves they oftebn felt it was the people of normal society who were weird and, that was the core of its comedic genius. Yes the props are all old the special effects are all painfully obvious to us sophisicated folk of the new millennium but the jokes the reactions of the people the whole Addams aura is still as alive in each of those episodes as it was they day they were shot.

You can not go wrong buying all these episodes each on a treasure in itself. Never has learning about human psychology and, seeing shallow superfical people for the fools they are ever been so much fun. I can not recommend anything more highly than getting these Addam's family episodes you will never regret it if you know how to laugh at all.

Real america beyond the fake and, plastic families who waste their lives trying to reach today's artifical moving traget ideal are just like the Addams Family. The Addams family said and, did those things that we all think of doing and, want to do if we were free of our conformist shackles of what makes a pretty house, a nice car, a beautiful gardenm, well adjusted children. Some might say the Addam's Family with their odd ways flouted societies conventions where I feel they lived up to each in its fullest.

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6 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Best Of The Best!!!, 27 October 2005

Author: jeuk from United Kingdom

This was the Best show of the best era for American situation comedies, the 1960s. John Astin was incredibly zany as the good natured, yet macabrely devoted husband Gomez, and the lovely Carolyn Jones played the sexily Gothic Morticia. I find it almost obscene that the show was cancelled after only two seasons, as along with the Munsters, it was still very popular with the masses.Was there an agreement by fundamentalists at both CBS and ABC TV networks to end both these shows? We'll never know! I only know that I much preferred the Addams's as it was just a little more sinister, and like most other teenage boys I was completely in love with Morticia.Jackie Coogan was great as the irrepressible Uncle Fester, causing massive explosions and coming up with weird, inconceivable experiments week after week.Then there were the children of the union, Wednesday and Pugsley. Wednesday was a cute little bag of nuts, her mother in the making, but Pugsley was a reminder to me of the boy who used to chase me home from school when I was about six!Then there was Ted Cassidy as Lurch with his darkly deep "You Rang?" voice, who also had his hand play the part of "Thing" when he was not on camera. Then there was of course, cousin Itt, that hairy little mischief maker that turned up from time to time. Gomez was very musical and of course full of energy, as demonstrated by his working out on the trampoline, and his constant overtures to the Beautiful Morticia. I could only ever give this show a conservative ten out of ten.There will never be another one like it!

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5 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
this proves that macabre can be funny, 12 May 2005
Author: Lee Eisenberg (eisenberg.lee@gmail.com) from Portland, Oregon, USA

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).

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5 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Pure Genius And Ahead Of Its Time, 7 June 2004
Author: gulmatan from United States

This show had it ALL--the original thinking man's unconventional humor, sex appeal, the breaking and questioning of the conventions of conformity as well as looking at the world in a unique, offbeat frame of mind!! This show perfected the genre of "looking at the world from the opposite side of the lense."

Innovative, without a doubt--the one-liners, sight gags, catch phrases!

Carolyn Jones and John Astin were the consummate performers in every way--the sex appeal, the humor, the acting ability, their natural chemistry.

You just couldn't help but feel sorry for Lurch though. No matter what happens, he opts for the misery.

Night Court, Get Smart and The (1964) Addams Family--The perfect trio!

Matt A.

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8 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :-
The Addams Family:Commentary, 16 June 2004
Author: raysond from Chapel Hill,North Carolina

On television,there were two kinds of people that we've loved to see each week,but there were options based on what we liked to watch on certain channels.

There were two kinds of people: People who liked "The Munsters",and people who liked "The Addams Family". You couldn't choose one without the other and to me it made some decency into this because during my childhood around my place of residence it sparked huge debates. However,"The Munsters" was on a rival network-CBS,and it starred Fred Gwynne and Yvonne DeCarlo and produced 63 episodes,all in black and white and was produced by Universal Television and Kayro-Vue Productions and filmed at Universal Studios in Hollywood. That series ran from 1964-1966.

"The Addams Family" starred John Astin and Carolyn Jones was on ABC-TV and ran for two seasons,producing 64 episodes,all in black and white from September of 1964 and ending its run in September of 1966. The show was produced by Filmways Productions in Hollywood. Based on the cartoon characters created by Charles Addams,this series was indeed hilarious but very interesting to captured the surroundings involving the characters in the Addams' household. This was an excellent-counter cultural 60's show. First off,actors John Astin and Carolyn Jones brought Charles Addams' cartoon characters to life in this series in which they brought there own qualities to the characters they portrayed. John Astin brought his Zen Yogi Buddhism and his Shakespeare while Carolyn Jones was just gothically gorgeous with her knitting and great looks not to mention a great sing-songy voice that brings the dialogue to life,and a perfect figure to fit brilliantly into that black widow dress. Astin's character was Gomez Addams,a successfully wealthy tycoon who was happily married,dripping with Old World charm, was very devoted to his loving kids and was very loving to them,kind relatives(who were strange at times),a devoted butler,and the whole family did everything there way,including times where Gomez had the knack to blowing up train sets in his house and other weird stuff! Then,you have the children Wednesday and Pugsley(played with perfection by Ken Weatherwax and Lisa Loring)who were always into something or another,and also the butler Lurch(Ted Cassidy)with his Basso Profundo groan everytime Mr. and Mrs. Addams would pulled the chime that shook the entire house(with a pull cord a full sized hangman's noose)when he would answer,"You rang?" There were other little touches that the show had,which was something that its rival "The Munsters" never had....The coffee table with bundles of $100 bills in the drawer,the torture chamber turned into a play room for the children and for Uncle Fester,the quirky decor of the house and family taking in the moon while others took in the sun. Also there was times when Morticia and Gomez had a implied sex life(and the first sitcom couple to do that...which you would never seen that on other sitcoms during the 1960's)which was rather kinky and outrageously funny.

Then there was the unpredictable Uncle Fester(Jackie Coogan)who was always experimenting on different things,and was the strangest character of them all,but in perspective,Jackie Coogan brought that role to life and the results are absolutely brilliant to what he did with the character. Then,there was the Grandmother or Grand ma-ma,and the strangest characters imaginable...Thing(which was a hand inside a box that delivered the family mail),and not to mention Cousin Itt(a relative of Morticia's with lots of hairy features)who would speak and communicate with unmentionable terms,and by the way,what would Cousin Itt be like without all that hair? something I would not like to find out.

This series came out at the explosion of the youth rebellion that was to come...and this series along with its fierecest competition,"The Munsters",which was on a rival network may have precipitated it at the level of total of the psychedelic movement that was to come after that series went off the air in 1966. The 1960's had a lot of counter culture and developed an impact to the actual culture which sparked an explosion of "hippie" freedom and expression of the mid to late-60's and to the "gothic" look and it can be traced directly to here. Also, to point out there is a lot of subversive dialogue that was in the series on many levels and check out some of the episodes where this has occurred. However,the musical theme by composer Vic Mizzy was brilliant on all levels,since Mizzy was a jazz composer who went big with many of the TV-themes of its era including "Green Acres",and several theatrical features starring Don Knotts from the mid-1960's and composed themes for several Saturday Morning cartoons.

However,when The Addams Family went off the air in 1966,they network executives at ABC-TV brought them back in 1973 for their own Saturday Morning cartoon show featuring John Astin,Carolyn Jones,Jackie Coogan,and Ted Cassidy from the original series which also ran for two seasons from 1973-1975.

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