Growing up in the 1970s with a black and white television, I was no stranger to The Addams Family. Though the episodes were repeats from the mid-1960s, I always found them to be creative and fun. And the television theme song still bounces around in my head from time to time, finger-snaps and all.
So before I talk about the animated series, I want to provide a bit of context based on the television show...
The show (and the New Yorker cartoon series it was based on from cartoonist Charles Addams) focused on an eccentric family living in an old Victorian mansion near a graveyard. The house appeared a bit run-down with numerous items that would probably be more at home in a museum than in a domicile. It's not the kind of place you'd really want in your neighborhood because the family is a bit strange and the house sticks out like sore thumb.
Led by patriarch Gomez Addams (John Astin) and his wife Morticia (Carolyn Jones), the family seems to exist in its own little bubble, only finding out what's going on in the world when outsiders come to visit. Gomez likes to blow up model trains, dabble in financial markets, and smoke cigars — while Morticia tends to her garden, pruning the blossoms from roses, and making sure her various carnivorous plants are well fed. Their kids — Pugsley (Ken Weatherwax) and Wednesday (Lisa Loring) — share their parents' eccentricities; the pair constantly seeks more and more creative ways to kill themselves or learn of gruesome deaths throughout history.
In addition to the four main members of the family are Grandmama (Blossom Rock), skilled in witchcraft, and Uncle Fester (Jackie Coogan): a large, bald man with the ability to light a lightbulb by sticking it in his mouth. When you add in Lurch (Ted Cassidy), the Frankenstein-like butler; Thing, the disembodied hand often sent to get the mail; and Cousin Itt, the short walking wig, you get the impression this house is full of a bunch of crazy people (and it most definitely is).
Though the black-and-white TV series only lasted a couple of seasons and 64 half-hour episodes, the world of The Addams Family had its own unique charm about it.
.jpg?t=20130517094513)
Article comments