Sunday 5 April 2015

130 The Addams Family



First  watched  :  1973

It  was  round  about  this  time  that  our   neighbour  Mrs  M  became  a  bit  less  bothered  about  us  playing  indoors  so  this  is  the  first  of  a  string  of  programmes - almost  invariably  on  ITV - that  were  first, if  not  exclusively, glimpsed  next  door.

The  Addams  Family  was  made  between  1964  and  1966  , inspired  by  the  satirical  cartoons  of  Charles  Addams  in  the  New  Yorker  magazine  ( whose  proprietors  were  less  than  enthusiastic  about  having  a  popular  TV  show  tied  to  their  upmarket  publication )  about  a  family  with  a  pronounced  taste  for  the  Gothic  and  macabre.  All   subsequent  adaptations  are  based  almost   entirely  on  this  series  rather  than  the  original  cartoons  where  the  family  members  weren't  even  named.

The  appeal  of  the  series  was  always  the  contrast  between  the  horror  trappings  and  the   good-natured  family  comedy  underneath. They  were  all   likeable  characters  with  great  affection  for  each  other. The  enduring  appeal  of  the  series  can  be  judged  its  continuing  use   as  a  source  for  not-always-kind  nicknames. Any  girl  with  long  straight  dark  hair  is  likely  to  get  called  Morticia  particularly  if  her  clothes  are  less  than  colourful  while  any  over-sized  but  apparently  slow-witted  guy  has  a  good  chance  of  being  likened  to  the  lugubrious  butler, Lurch.

The  most  notable  member  of  the  cast  was  Jackie  Coogan  as  the  creepy  Uncle  Fester  who  achieved  early  fame  as  "The  Kid"  in  Charlie  Chaplin's  film  of  the  same  name  and  later  became  the  catalyst  for  legislation  protecting  the  earnings  of  child  stars  when  he  sued  his  parents  for  squandering  his  earnings.  John  Astin   ( Gomez )  was  the  last  member  of  the  original  cast  to  be  involved  with  the  franchise  voicing  his  character  in  the  animated  series  of  1992. Apart  from  Lisa  Loring  who  played  Wednesday  he  is  the  only  surviving  member  of  the  cast  at  the  time  of  writing.  

My  only  gripe  with  the  series  was  that  the  child  characters   Wednesday  and  Pugsley  (  who  was  originally  to  be  called  Pubert ! )   were  not  always  involved  in  the  storylines.



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