I know the yet-to-be named characters first appeared in Charles Addams’ wonderfully weird cartoons in The New Yorker. But how did they go from there to television? Did Addams pitch the idea for the series to ABC himself? Did a suit at the network hit upon the idea one day while reading the magazine? Or were Charles and/or ABC approached by a third party who realized the comedic potential of such a project?
David Levy was a programming exec at NBC when he approached Addams in 1962 about adapting the strip for TV. I’m not sure whose idea it was to have Addams work as closely as he did in development (like coming up with the character names). That wasn’t generally how it worked back then; all the network usually wanted from a creator was the license. But Addams’ name was literally in the title.
Interesting that Levy worked at NBC, since I’m certain the series was eventually aired on ABC. I watched it religiously through all of fourth and fifth grade, and was very disappointed when it wasn’t renewed for a third season.
As an aside, I’ve seen Carolyn Jones as a cute little blonde in a couple of episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, filmed years before she put on a black wig and became Morticia Addams.
She’s also in the 1956 Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
and The Seven Year Itch (she’s the wife)
She actually appeared in many movies and TV shows over the years:
Last night, I saw John “Gomez Addams” Astin in The Twilight Zone’s "A Hundred Yards Over the Rim.”
Best I can make out, Levy left NBC just before or after his meeting with Addams. He apparently left because he sided with a senate committee aimed at regulating violence on TV. The comedic violence of The Addams Family makes his next endeavor an odd one.
Hey, what’s wrong with blowing up a toy train every now and then? 
Before The Addams Family he was in a series with Marty Ingels called “I’m Dickens, He’s Fenster” about two carpenters. Not bad, but The Addams Family was much better.
Amazingly, John Astin is still alive (at last report) at age 96.
He and his co-star (Carolyn Jones) were born less than a month apart, but sadly, she died of colon cancer over 40 years ago.
I saw that when I looked her up the other day. I knew she had passed away, but I can’t believe it was that long ago.
Carolyn Jones had one of the funniest gags ever on the show in this early episode:
i would be so happy to be their neighbours. i love lurch.
It was one of the sitcoms in syndication (like McKeever and the Colonel, Dobie Gillis, and Car 54, Where Are You?) that I watched between third and sixth grade. Unfortunately, this episode (“The Joke”) is the only one I remember:
Astin is also the last surviving male villain from the '60s Batman series. I also believe that he has outlived all of his TV children. (The Addams kids and Judge Harry Stone.)
This smoking gag aside, I know it was likely kept a bit ambiguous on purpose, but I always kind of wondered to what extent, exactly, the Addams were supposed to actually be supernatural, over and above just creepy and kooky. ‘Thing’ was probably the most unambiguously supernatural part of the show. Then There was Cousin It, but he could have been simply a speech-impaired little person with hypertrichosis. Grandmama was supposed to be a witch, I think, but did she actually perform any working spells? It’s been a long time since I actually watched the show. Uncle Fester was a weirdo, and probably psychotic, but other than being able to make a light bulb glow in his hand (magic trick?) I don’t remember if he displayed any supernatural ‘powers’. And Lurch-- Frankenstein-style monster? Undead ghoul? Or just creepy, laconic servant?
The core nuclear family group (again, Morticia smoking gag aside) could have just been Goth cosplayers, as far as one could tell, I think. But they really played their parts well. The other ‘creepy’ TV family, the Munsters, despite being actual supernatural movie monsters, were much more tame and suburbanized by comparison (other than Grandpa and his dungeon experiments, maybe).
Both seasons are on YouTube, Fester could also make a light bulb glow by sticking it in his mouth.
The humor on The Munsters was very different, much more the traditional “blended family” sitcom kind, probably because it was produced by the creators of Leave It to Beaver. Morticia would never have suspected Gomez of philandering and asked Fester to keep an eye on him.
I liked both series and got this record as a Christmas present in 1964, along with the soundtrack of Mary Poppins. (I have very eclectic tastes in music.)
Trivia Challenge: Which villain did Mr Astin play on Batman?
I guessed the Riddler, because I could picture him in the Riddler costume in my mind’s eye. But I also remember a skinnier, more manic guy who played that villain.
So I checked my guess, and apparently John Astin filled in for a couple of episodes due to a contract dispute with the other guy.
I was curious about what the gag was, so I used that as an excuse to watch an episode of the original Addams Family show for the first time. Some observations:
- Coogan as Fester sounds goofier than I was expecting–well, it’s a sitcom, I should have expected it.
- I’ve read Ted Cassidy used to switch what hand he used as Thing to see if anyone noticed, and here he does it within the same episode. Is Thing just a hand, and not a multi-limbed being using tunnels throughout the mansion? Gomez implies that he is, observing that he can’t smoke, but do we ever see his box lifted or carried anywhere?
- The most unnerving thing in the whole show is the opening credits, with the family silently staring at the viewer (especially the maniacal Astin).
- I’d heard about the “May I smoke” gag, but was pleasantly surprised by the fish trophy (which genuinely feels like something out of a Charles Addams panel) and the painting that Gomez hangs.
No one could have topped “the other guy” (Frank Gorshin) when it came to playing a homicidal maniac.
Gorshin was, BTW, an amazingly versatile actor. I once saw him in an episode of Combat! where he played a GI who assumed credit for a dead buddy’s act of heroism. You could see his sense of guilt graually eating him up as the show progressed.
Likewise, I half expected him to burst onto the Bridge of the Enterprise shouting “Riddle me this, Captain Kirk!” when he was Commissioner Bele on Star Trek. 