# Addams Family or Munsters? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 10, 1999, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addams-family-or-munsters/16743 "1999-09-10T19:01:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2002, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addams-family-or-munsters/16743/21 "2002-03-14T14:42:35Z")
The Addams Family, hands down. Hard to believe Grandpa Munster is still alive after all these years… born 1910 according to IMDB (real name: Al Lewis). I had thought Yvonne Carlo (Lily Munster) was dead too, but she’s still alive. Fred Gwynne (Herman) died in 1993. Blossom Rock is on the IMDB as Marie Blake, birth name Edith Blossom McDonald. ---
**Author:** ![RiverRunner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/977dab/32.png) [@RiverRunner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RiverRunner)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2002, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addams-family-or-munsters/16743/22 "2002-03-14T18:18:56Z")
I have to go with the Addamses, too, but I did like the job that Fred Gwynne did with Herman Munster. He made him a real lovable big guy. Herman was a child at heart, and that added something to the series for me. Still, ya gotta love Gomez. Anybody who puts his lit cigar into his vest pocket is OK by me. RR ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2002, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addams-family-or-munsters/16743/23 "2002-03-14T20:16:36Z")
Just to get in before this thread is moved to Cafe Society, I’ll say that I grew up with _Munsters_ reruns, and gotta vote for them on that result. Grampa Munster was a hoot, and whats-her-name (the girl) was a babe. 😉 On the other hand, Williams’ _Addams Family Pinball_ (based on the first movie) r0xx0rs. ---
**Author:** ![blowero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/41988e/32.png) [@blowero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blowero)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2002, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addams-family-or-munsters/16743/24 "2002-03-14T21:04:16Z")
Which is better, feces or excrement? ---
**Author:** ![Gaudere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e495f1/32.png) [@Gaudere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gaudere)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2002, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addams-family-or-munsters/16743/25 "2002-03-14T21:17:32Z")
[Moderator Hat ON] Moving to Cafe Society. [Moderator Hat OFF] ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2002, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addams-family-or-munsters/16743/26 "2002-03-14T21:54:32Z")
By theme song alone The Addams Family takes the lead. It had better quotes too “Tish, you spoke French!”, “Caramia!” and “Uhhhhhh.” And they had a better house. The Munsters house always felt so cramped and closed in, like I was in my Grandma’s apartment in NYC. Yet I love the high vaulted ceilings the Adams Family had. Plus sometimes the Munsters felt like … I Dream of Jeannie. ---
**Author:** ![Creaky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e68b1a/32.png) [@Creaky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Creaky)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2002, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addams-family-or-munsters/16743/27 "2002-03-14T22:24:35Z")
Definitely the Addams Family, for me. As a little kid I loved all of the “Crazy Dad” type stuff that Gomez was always doing… grabbing his wife and kissing her when she spoke French; getting all buggy-eyed watching the ticker tape coming off of his home stock market thingie; stalking around waving a cigar like Gothic Groucho; paying for everything by pulling wads of crumpled cash from his pockets, causing heinous train wrecks with his model set, etc. As a “Crazy Mom”, Morticia was right up there, too: cutting the blossoms off of her roses and putting the _thorns_ in a vase; asking “Do you mind if I smoke?” and then literally smoldering like she was on fire; doing a little SM bit with Gomez with the dental equipment (she’d go at him with a drill and he’d groove on it “Ah, Tish! Excellent! You hit a nerve!”). Grammama rocked… who wouldn’t want a practicing witch for a grandmother?? And she carried herself really well. I mean, she may have had funky wrinkled clothes and messy hair, but I bet she was Deb of the Year in like 1905 or something. Uncle Fester was just giggly and weird enough to be a bit scary, but he was so cheerful all the time it was hard to be scared of him for too long. The fact that he could make lightbulbs light up by putting them in his mouth was just the coolest thing to me, too. Lurch of course was awesome. How cool to have a guy working for you who could also play the harpsichord. The kids were okay, but I don’t remember too many episodes where they really stood out. In a way, the way the kids’ roles were treated appealed to me as a kid, because I could really relate to being seen and not heard, and using that relative domestic anonymity to do some really fun stuff when nobody was looking. (Of course, I never got to blow stuff up.) Cousin It was just sort of part of the weird background, but at least he looked kind of scary, so that was okay. I also loved the fact that only the family could understand him. The only character who didn’t do a whole lot for me was Thing. Not sure why. Later on my dad turned me on to the old New Yorker Addams Family cartoons, and they were fabulous. Classic, tasty, macabre, and really funny. Charles Addams and James Thurber, incidentally, were two of the reasons I ended up as a cartoonist at a local newpaper for brief time. ---
**Author:** ![Doubting\_Robert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e495f1/32.png) [@Doubting\_Robert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doubting_Robert)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2002, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addams-family-or-munsters/16743/28 "2002-03-14T23:16:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by plnnr \* > \*\*Ed Wynn (a Yale graduate) did a pretty good job with the material as Herman Munster \*\* **plnnr** , you meant to say Fred Gwynne, of course. And if the IMDb is right, he went to Harvard, not Yale. Personally, my favorite TV show with Fred Gwynne was “Car 54, Where Are You?”, which costarred Joe E. Ross. Al Lewis (Grandpa Munster) was in it, too. Back to the OP: I much prefer The Addams Family, but I have to admit, I watched them both when they were new. ---
**Author:** ![Doubting\_Robert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e495f1/32.png) [@Doubting\_Robert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doubting_Robert)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2002, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addams-family-or-munsters/16743/29 "2002-03-14T23:29:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tracer \* > \*\* > BTW, there was a modern Munsters series on TV just a few years ago, called _The Munsters Today_. It made the old black-and-white Munsters episodes look like cinematic classics by comparison. > \*\* Yeah, I saw part of one episode once. That was all I could stand. What a waste of John Schuck’s talent! ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2002, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addams-family-or-munsters/16743/30 "2002-03-15T01:05:12Z")
addams family hands down. for so many reasons… they have a butler. lurch is the ultimate. i want lurch at my house. they have an awesome house. i could live there. morticia is the perfect woman. i always thought she was too good for gomez. they have a pet lion. they have a foghorn door bell. who couldn’t use an extra hand…er… thing around the house. i do the “mail’s in” noise when delivering things at work. some people get it. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2002, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addams-family-or-munsters/16743/31 "2002-03-15T01:16:04Z")
Even as a small child I felt that _The Munsters_ was a very ordinary sitcom about very ordinary characters who simply looked weird. _The Addams Family_ was about characters who really were weird. ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2002, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addams-family-or-munsters/16743/32 "2002-03-15T02:12:30Z")
Just has to be the Adams Family, Moricia is my ideal woman. ---
**Author:** ![jab1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ee7513/32.png) [@jab1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jab1)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2002, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addams-family-or-munsters/16743/33 "2002-03-15T02:42:20Z")
The original _Addams Family_, no question about it. Even the '90s Hanna-Barbera [cartoon series](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0222517) was better than the original Munsters. (They managed to get John Astin to play Gomez!) H-B also made an Addams series [in the '70s](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0069554). Here’s a trivia tidbit for you: The voice of Pugsley in that series was Jodie Foster. But, heavens to Cecil, that recent series that was on the Fox Family channel was lame garbage. I’m glad it’s gone. John Astin appeared as Grandpapa Addams and I didn’t see it and I bet it would have been painful to see him in a pale shadow of a great series. As for Munster actors, there was a Munster [made-for-tv movie](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0113296) made in 1995 that starred Edward Herrmann as Herman and _Hill Street Blues_’ Veronica Hamel as Lily. That has to be one of the worst made-for-TV flicks in history. ---
**Author:** ![Billy\_Rubin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/billy_rubin/32/3622_2.png) [@Billy\_Rubin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Billy_Rubin)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2002, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addams-family-or-munsters/16743/34 "2002-03-15T03:31:21Z")
Morticia has that smoldering, dark sensuality which percolates my hormones. Gomez has a nonchalance about the ridiculous and the sublime which is stunning. I want to be Gomez. I want to be maried to Morticia. I want to lose all self control when she speaks french and maul her in front of whoever is around. Mostly, I want Lurch to be my butler. Fester? Thing? Cousin it? Okay, whatever. But Wow, Morticia. Of course Fred Gwyne was a riot- comparing the two is sort of like comparing hamburgers and steak. I sometimes like a hamburger. b. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2002, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addams-family-or-munsters/16743/35 "2002-03-15T04:11:04Z")
Addams Family, no question. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by rocking chair \* > i do the “mail’s in” noise when delivering things at work. some people get it. I use the Addams “Mail’s In” .wav on my PC. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_Bowe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df788c/32.png) [@Doug\_Bowe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_Bowe)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2002, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addams-family-or-munsters/16743/36 "2002-03-15T06:31:32Z")
Addams. I even think the way Lurch in real life got buired in a back yard and forgotten kind of fits in to the show he played in. ---
**Author:** ![Fionn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Fionn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fionn)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2002, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addams-family-or-munsters/16743/37 "2002-03-15T16:43:57Z")
Even though both shows have good theme songs, the Addams Family is vastly superior to the Munsters. Even when I was younger, I couldn’t stay interested in a Munsters episode much longer than the theme song. I loved the Addams characters, and their house looked like the greatest place in the world to live. I even loved the two Addams movies, though the second one was much better than the first. Where else could you find a situation like Morticia saying to Fester’s new wife “You have enslaved Fester. You have taken him from us. You have put him under some strange sexual spell. All that I can forgive. But, Debbie…pastels?” ---
**Author:** ![roadrunner70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e19b73/32.png) [@roadrunner70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roadrunner70)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2002, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addams-family-or-munsters/16743/38 "2002-03-15T17:06:36Z")
Morticia: Gomez, do you know what the penalty for bigamy is in this state? Gomez:(reading the stock quotes, not missing a beat): I should imagine it would be having two wives. BWAAAAHHHAAAAAAHHAAAAAA!!! ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2002, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addams-family-or-munsters/16743/39 "2002-03-15T20:07:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tracer \* > \*\* > The one thing the Munsters did have going for them was that their theme music had baritone saxophones in it. > \*\* So? The Addams theme had low reeds too! It had bass clarinets. ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2002, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addams-family-or-munsters/16743/40 "2002-03-15T23:30:28Z")
There was a feature film of the Munsters produced and released back in the sixties. I don’t recall the title, but I clearly remember watching it in the theater. It wasn’t a made-for-tv thing, though it was low budget. I seem to remember that the plot revolved around Herman Munster having to win some kind of race with the family’s hot rod hearse to save the family’s estate back in Europe. I watched both _The Addams Family_ and _The Munsters_ and enjoyed them, but I much preferred the Addams Family. The only point on which the Munsters were clearly superior to the Addams family was that Herman drove that really cool hot rod hearse mentioned previously. It was available as a model kit, and of course I had it (and wish I still had it). It was designed by some famous custom car builder out on the West Coast. (Wasn’t the designer’s first name Boris?) It was a real, functional car, too, not just a prop. My favorite bit from _The Addams Family_: Towards the end of a show, Morticia and Gomez have just done something that will save the local school system from going under. Gomez says brightly, “Just think, Tish, we may have saved the world!” Morticia smiles, and then a look of deep concern comes over her face. “Oh, dear,” she says, “do you think we did the right thing?” Our family had a cat named Morticia.🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addams-family-or-munsters/16743.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addams-family-or-munsters/16743.md?page=3)