# Addams Family vs. Munsters **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 7, 2012, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addams-family-vs-munsters/640274 "2012-11-07T20:30:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addams-family-vs-munsters/640274/41 "2012-11-09T02:00:08Z")
The Addams family was much more cerebral in its comedy. I prefer cerebral comedy. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addams-family-vs-munsters/640274/42 "2012-11-09T02:12:47Z")
> [@Feyrat](#): > > Definitely Addam’s Family. I had a couple of old books of the original comics when I was a kid, and loved those before I saw either (syndicated) show, so I was predisposed toward the Addams. The Munsters always struck me as a cheap knock-off. Same with me, I had the New Yorker cartoon collections. The Munsters were derping dumbasses. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addams-family-vs-munsters/640274/43 "2012-11-09T02:56:09Z")
> [@DSYoungEsq](#): > > The Addams family was much more cerebral in its comedy. I prefer cerebral comedy. How about a few examples of this cerebral comedy? you mean stuff like Fester with a lightbulb in his mouth? Cousin It being all hair and having a squeaky, unintelligable voice? Addams fans like to claim the show is smarter than the Munsters, but I don’t see it. They had their own set of cornball gags, but they were still corn. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addams-family-vs-munsters/640274/44 "2012-11-09T03:16:42Z")
I did not care for either of them that much, but the Addams Family _was_ slightly smarter (and darker). Most of the gags in The Munsters would have worked just as well (or badly) if they had just been your standard American sitcom family - indeed, they pretty much were that, with weird makeup. Clean off the makeup and dress them normally and you would have had a standard, third-rate sitcom. With the Addams, their being monsters was much more integral to the humor. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addams-family-vs-munsters/640274/45 "2012-11-09T03:32:53Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > The Addams Family was created by artists who knew exactly what they wanted to do, and how to do it. The Munsters was created by people who looked over those artists’ shoulders and said “Ooh, we should do that too!”, but without understanding just what it was they were doing. I doubt it. The shows aired during the same two seasons. AFAIK, there is no evidence that either one was a “me too” of the other. If you have some evidence to the contrary, I be much interested in seeing it. ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addams-family-vs-munsters/640274/46 "2012-11-09T04:07:35Z")
> [@Bambro](#): > > I preferred The Munsters, but among my circle of friends I am the only one. > > Which one did you prefer? You omitted a “liked them both” option, which would be my pick. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Eugene\_of\_Sandwich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c37758/32.png) [@Eugene\_of\_Sandwich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eugene_of_Sandwich)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addams-family-vs-munsters/640274/47 "2012-11-09T04:57:28Z")
“Morticia! There’s skullduggery afoot!” ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addams-family-vs-munsters/640274/48 "2012-11-09T05:17:51Z")
The Munsters was funny. The Addams Family was creepy. I prefer funny, so I went with the latter. Hence why I think the new Munsters needed more explicit humor, rather than leaving me to try to extract humor from certain situations. They didn’t have to be campy like the original, but at least be funny. I don’t remember the Addams family being particularly intelligent, either. I just remember a lot of jokes that relied on creepiness to be funny. And I don’t find creepiness to be funny. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addams-family-vs-munsters/640274/49 "2012-11-09T06:29:44Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > You know, I like The Addams Family quite well, but I think it has an overblown reputation for quirkiness and subversiveness. They recycled a lot of gags. More of the gags than you perhaps remember accurately were just as juvenile as anything on The Munsters. Try watching 2 or three episodes of The Addams Family back-to-back and note just how quickly things start to seem not quite as clever as you remember them. > Now, you want real subversive, surreal humor from the '60s, watch some **Green Acres**. Green Acres was on longer, and had a bigger cast of good characters, so I think I agree. But almost every TV sitcom back then had the same repeated jokes - they could get away with it in those pre-VCR days. Even Green Acres - Oliver up on the telephone poll, the carpenters coming in through the closet, etc. Anyhow, I like shows with true married passion - “Tish, that’s French!” ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addams-family-vs-munsters/640274/50 "2012-11-09T16:38:04Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > It seemed like the Addams Family had unique monsters as well as traditional ones. However, the creators of the Munsters just seemed to have gone down a checklist: vampire, werewolf, witch, etc., plus they threw in the poor “normal” girl who was there to show just how goofy the rest of the family was. I never had the sense that Marilyn was _simply_ a “normal” girl, whose purpose was to contrast to the rest of the family’s goofiness. Rather, the entire family was a Central Casting pool pf Universal Golden-age “monsters.” Marilyn was from the same Central Casting pool; it’s just that her character-type was the beautiful blonde damsel that had to appear in monster movies. That her distress had more to do with not feeling that she was as attractive as the rest of the family (as opposed to being menaced by them), was (I thought) the most subtly clever thing about the show. Still, _The Addams Family_ takes the prize, for me. Morticia had a beauty that, even though 10-year old **kaylasdad** couldn’t articulate his reasons for appreciating, he _could_ appreciate more than Marilyn’s “pretty ingenue” look. And Yvonne de Carlo I just found unappealing. And to this day I remain envious of Ted Cassidy’s _basso profundo_. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addams-family-vs-munsters/640274/51 "2012-11-09T16:48:51Z")
> [@simster](#): > > I liked the munsters - Grandpa had the best cars - but I never wanted to visit them. > > I would pay good money to be invited to the Addams’ House. \ Try not to use the vocabulary of social interaction when discussing matters of commerce, **simster** , old boy! If you’re paying for entry, it’s because you received a solicitation, not an invitation! And of course, if you’ve been _invited_ there isn’t any question of charging you admission! That isn’t the Addams way! \ ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addams-family-vs-munsters/640274/52 "2012-11-09T16:50:20Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Anyhow, I like shows with true married passion - “Tish, that’s French!” I don’t know, Lisa Douglas’ hotcakes looked pretty good to me. ---
**Author:** ![mo50](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@mo50](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mo50)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addams-family-vs-munsters/640274/53 "2012-11-09T16:54:17Z")
> [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](#): > > Morticia was hot. Think I mighta gotten my first boner because of her, or maybe it was Catwoman. As mentioned previously, at the time I was watching these shows, the Munsters appealed to me more because it was more basic kids stuff. Looking back now as a semi grownup, obviously the Addams Family was far more sophisticated and adult. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addams-family-vs-munsters/640274/54 "2012-11-09T17:03:15Z")
“Smarter” “Sophisticated” “Cerebral” These adjectives as applied to The Addams Family would be more convincing if they were backed up by actual examples from the show. ---
**Author:** ![mo50](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@mo50](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mo50)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addams-family-vs-munsters/640274/55 "2012-11-09T17:28:12Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > “Smarter” > “Sophisticated” > “Cerebral” > > These adjectives as applied to The Addams Family would be more convincing if they were backed up by actual examples from the show. You’re right. For my part, I didn’t provide an example. I think I was more just trying to give a general retrospective impression. I watched these shows too long ago to really remember specific episodes. (Except when Herman Munster gets a tryout with the Dodgers, and hits the ball out of sight). I guess I just remember liking the Munsters more, and not really “getting” alot of the Addams Family jokes at the time I was watching. Plus, as I’ve gotten older, realizing the New Yorker Magazine (intelligence/sophistication/class, blah blah blah, at least in many people’s minds)-Charles Addams connection and so forth, may have influenced my perception of the differences. ---
**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:** [November 10, 2012, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addams-family-vs-munsters/640274/56 "2012-11-10T01:37:04Z")
addams family. they have a butler! and a harpsicord! mr. cassidy as lurch, love, love, love. one thing i wondered about, was mr gwynne of the munsters related to the gwynne that married into the vanderbilts? ---
**Author:** ![Sycorax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@Sycorax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sycorax)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2012, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addams-family-vs-munsters/640274/57 "2012-11-11T06:10:16Z")
I preferred the Adams Family. I saw only a few of the Munsters episodes and thought them cartoonish and low-brow comedy that I did not consider amusing. Adams family was a cut or two above the Munsters – more sophisticated and witty, more to be taken seriously (yes, seriously). Watching the original broadcasts, I found myself wanting to be a part of the household (at the time, I was a depressed mess who hated everyone “normal” and felt I’d fit in with the Adams). I loved it when Gomez had romantic thoughts and tried to get it on with Morticia. For awhile, I even had a crush on Gomez (John Astin); he was so suave and obviously enamored with Morticia. I liked “the thing,” a disembodied hand that appeared out of a box, and of course Lurch. ---
**Author:** ![BMax](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bmax/32/4267_2.png) [@BMax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMax)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2012, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addams-family-vs-munsters/640274/58 "2012-11-11T12:04:29Z")
as a kid, I preferred the Munsters. I already knew the characters from the old Universal monster movies: Frankenstein’s monster, the bride of Dracula, her father and old Dracula, and the son, a little werewolf. I identified with them because they were a blue-collar family. Grandpa had his lab in the basement and a really cool car, Herman was a typical sitcom dumb dad married to a [smoking](http://www.latimes.com/includes/projects/hollywood/portraits/yvonne_de_carlo.jpg) [hotty](http://media.mademan.com/chickipedia/uploaded_photos/5/5c/Yvonne_De-smoking-hot-babe-stunning-chickipedia-before-skin_thumb_585x795.jpg). Herman worked at the shipyard and they worried about paying the bills. Except for the werewolf part I could identify with Eddie Munster. Pugsley Addams? Not so much. Now as an adult, I recognize that Gomez Addams seemed much happier than Herman Munster, had a hotter wife and inherited wealth. The Addams family were weird because they could afford to be. The Munsters were immigrants from Transylvania. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2012, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addams-family-vs-munsters/640274/59 "2012-11-11T20:01:52Z")
Word on Yvonne Decarlo being a smoking hottie. Carolyn Jones was, too, of course. Yet I think it worth mentioning that one of them being smoking hot doesn’t mean that the other one can’t be and which is hotter comes down to taste. Again, I like The Addams Family very well. I’ve seen every episode of the original series several times over and I own the movies with Raul Julia and Anjelica Huston. I don’t think, though, that one can actually make a case that The Addams family tv show was actually any smarter, more sophisticated, or “cerebral” than The Munsters. I think a better description is that Addams partisans like to believe that is the case because that means that they are smart, sophisticated, and cerebral. **BMax** rather neatly summarized both shows in the conclusion to his post above. Now, if you enjoyed the chemistry between Astin and Jones more than that between Gwynne and Decarlo, then that is just taste and there is no debate to be had. Similarly, if you enjoy the conceit of idle rich weirdoes more than that of weirdoes-as-immigrants, no discussion is to be had. Now, if somebody can come up with some examples of the supposed sophistication and cerebrality of The Addams family, I’m still willing to be persuaded. ---
**Author:** ![alfonzos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4bbf92/32.png) [@alfonzos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alfonzos)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2012, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addams-family-vs-munsters/640274/60 "2012-11-12T05:18:30Z")
Not yet mentioned in this thread: _The Munsters_ was created by Bob Mosher, the same man who created _Leave it to Beaver_. _The Addams Family_ has the better pedigree, IMHO. Morticia and Gomez had the healthier relationship. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addams-family-vs-munsters/640274.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addams-family-vs-munsters/640274.md?page=4)