The Addams family was much more cerebral in its comedy. I prefer cerebral comedy.
Same with me, I had the New Yorker cartoon collections. The Munsters were derping dumbasses.
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.
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.
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.
You omitted a “liked them both” option, which would be my pick. 
“Morticia! There’s skullduggery afoot!”
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.
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!”
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.
<John Astin voice> 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! </John Astin voice>
I don’t know, Lisa Douglas’ hotcakes looked pretty good to me.
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.
“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.
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?
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.
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 hotty. 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.
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.
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.