That was her dress. But you never can tell for sure from the cartoons.
The Addamses are what Goths are pretending/aspiring to be.
Hmmm… from widipeia:
Morticia is described as a witch; she is slim, with extremely pale skin and long flowing straight black hair. In one episode she is seen wearing a black pointed hat.
It also notes that in the cartoons, none of the family members had names, so this may be more representative of the TV show. And note that her mother is named “Hester”, harkening back to Hester Prynne (not a witch, but colonial MA).
I always thought Gomez was like a creepily insane version of Groucho Marx, and the rest of the family were likewise all insane.
Also from Wiki:
So in the cartoons Gomez was nothing in particular, just an odd looking character. He became a “latin lover” in the TV show.
Lurch’s mother appeared in the TV show. She was a feisty little spitfire played by Ellen Corby. Lurch had written to her and pretended to be the master of the household, so when she visited, Gomez and Morticia pretended to be the butler and maid so that Lurch wouldn’t be embarrassed. Mama Lurch was dissatisfied with their performances and dismissed them.
As long as we’re updating an old thread…in fact, yes, that character was the basis for “Thing.” That character was named “Thing” or “The Thing.”
(Shame on the movies for formalizing that the hand was disembodied. I always preferred the slight aura of ambiguity involved. The hand might have belonged to someone hiding behind a wall or under a table.)
Of course it was someone hiding behind a wall or under a table, but they did it well. Thing would jump from box to hole almost instantly creating a different effect than can be achieved with the disembodied hand. I preferred to think of the box as another dimension with portals to our own.
More specifically, it was Ted Cassidy’s hand. Most of the time, Cassidy used his right hand, but from time to time, he would switch to his left hand just to see if people were paying attention. For those times both Lurch and Thing were in the same scene, a stagehand would play the part of Thing.
And a much, much hotter mom.
And a better message: The Munsters was about denying your nature in order to fit in; The Addams Family was about embracing your differences.
Neither family believed themselves to be different from everybody else. That is the central joke of both shows. The Munsters thought themselves a typical blue collar family. The Addamses had inherited wealth and lived more lavishly, but still did not consider themselves different from their neighbors.
I loved that episode, especially when Gomez (training Lurch to act thhe part) presumed to tell Lurch the “right” way to read the newspaper. “Not the funnies, Lurch, old boy; you want the stock market listings!” And Lurch’s perfect retort: a cold stare and “I LIKE the funnies.”
Honestly, Ted Cassidy delivered every line he ever got just exquisitely.
You can sy that again.
Although, I was impressed as hell the time Lily sat down with a harp to play and sing Shenandoah.
Morticia was presented as a more overtly sexual character than Lily Munster, it is true. However, Yvonne De Carlo was smoking hot. Her character’s make-up and costume, alas, obscured that she was a beautiful woman. Carolyn Jones, also a hottie, had the benefit of a costume that accentuated her charms.
Here’s a link to a Thread I started as I was re-watching the show a few years back:
1964 Gomez and Morticia Addams: Horniest television couple to date?
…in which Thread, I said:
I always get kinda pissed when I don’t realize it’s a zombie, and I want to post a response and as I’m scrolling through, I see that some doofus already said it… and it was me…
These days I see Gomez as a Dorian Gray character.
Take a look atthese other pics of Yvonne De Carlo. Out of character, Carolyn Jones had nothing on Yvonne.