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A much better TV series (and funnier comedy) than its
rival series “The Munsters”, “The Addams Family” based on
Charles Addams comic is an underrated marvel. Perfectly
cast the series sadly wasn’t available for a number of years
although it did have a successful syndicated run after the
show was cancelled. If you’re familiar with the two theatrical
movies, direct-to-video sequels and short lived revived
TV series, you really haven’t seen “The Addams Family”.
The goofy original may lack much of the dark edge that was
a highlight of the two theatrical films but it has inspired
insanity and a brilliantly zany performance from John Astin
(best known by contemporary audiences for his goofy turn
in “Brisco County Jr”)and an understated but slinky performance
from the late Carolyn Jones. ***
Gomez (Astin), his loving wife Morticia (Jones), their
children Wednesday, Pugsley, Uncle Fester (Jackie Coogan),
their goofy grandmother and the butler Lurch (Ted Cassidy)
live in a dilapidated old mansion are a wacky brood. They
enjoy torture devices, blowing things up, have a house plant
that eats everything, have family members that are essentially
giant hairballs (Cousin It) and another servant that is,
well, just a hand and is named Thing. They see the dark
humor in everything and practically gave birth to the popular
goth moment (although not the nastier side). Their peculiar
behavior and interaction with normal society fuels the humor
of most of these episodes. Unlike a lot of 60’s shows, “The
Addams Family” seems quite fresh today with its weirdly
subversive humor. ---
Image & Sound:
Looking remarkably crisp with sharp black and white
images, “The Addams Family” has aged extremely well. MGM
has done a marvelous job of making sure that the show looks
as good as possible (now if they would only do the same
thing for cult classic “The Outer Limits” I’d be a happy
camper). The audio sounds quite good with a crisp, clear
mono presentation although there is an occasional problem
with minor distortion that I noticed which is probably due
to the source material itself.
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