The Addams Family TV show had a laugh track and a tone more in line with The Munsters than, say, My Three Sons, Family Affair or The Courtship of Eddie’s Father (which kind of define the “semi-serious sitcom” vibe you describe).
I grew up watching both in syndication and I would disagree.* The Munsters* would occasionally swell up the sympathetic music and have some kind of a ‘message’ scene. They were more of your traditional TV family. The Addams Family never ever really dropped the subversive, insane ‘schtick’ to be even a little poignant. And if it seemed like they were about to, it always turned out to just be part of a bigger joke!
For me, that’s why Addams was much better than Munsters…
MacGruber was an SNL skit before it was a movie, of course it was making fun. And probably for about 3-5 times as long as it needed to be.
Apparently the original pilot for the comedy “McHale’s Navy” was a drama called “Seven against the Sea” on ABC’s “Alcoa Presents” series. Which makes sense since in the 1950s Ernest Borgnine was a dramatic actor (“Marty”) and heavy (“From Here to Eternity”). The people turning into a series had worked on Sgt Bilko so it became Bilko-in-the-navy-in-WWII". Borgnine wrote in his autobiography that a college student selling magazines who failed to recognize him made him realize he had to start working.
Batman..Serious drama serials in the 1940s, 60s tv campfest, 90s boring dramatic moviesThe Dukes of Hazzard, when it was on TV, was mostly family-friendly comedic, but it had its dramatic moments, mostly early in the run IIRC.
The movie, on the other hand, had Johnny Knoxville and it came from the Super Troopers guys. 'Nuff said.