They're creepy and they're kooky, mysterious and spooky, and now for the first time, they're on DVD! The Addams Family, America's first family of ghastly giddiness, are here in all of their ghoulish glory in the original TV series based on the delightfully demented imagination of Charles Addams. Tarantulas, torture racks, and tombstones have never been so much fun! Join Gomez, Morticia, Uncle Fester, Lurch, Cousin Itt, and the rest of the gang for a fiendishly funny and altogether kooky experience. It's time to pay a call on The Addams Family!
If The Munsters was a traditional family sitcom as reimagined by Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, The Addams Family is a macabre twist on Father Knows Best. The Munster and Addams clans made their TV debuts in 1964 and lasted two seasons before the networks buried them. The Addamses are now gloriously resurrected in this three-disc set that digs up the series' first 22 episodes (oddly, 12 shy of the complete first season). Inspired by Charles Addams's New Yorker cartoons, The Addams Family is fiendishly funny, with a dead-on cast that indelibly embodies Addams's characters. John Astin brings a demented glee to eccentric, frighteningly wealthy Gomez Addams. Carolyn Jones is bewitching as his pre-goth wife, Morticia, whom the Beatles might have had in mind when they sang, "Baby's in Black." Jackie Coogan is the electrifying Uncle Fester, with Ted Cassidy (who famously took a kick in the groin from Paul Newman in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) is the monstrous butler Lurch, whose "You rang?" entered the pop culture lexicon.
The Munsters was family friendly. The Addams Family is more sophisticated and wickedly funny. As Gomez notes at one point, "There's a touch of madness" in the Addams household, where "every day is Halloween." Bear rugs growl, a disembodied hand, Thing, delivers the mail, and a torture rack is good for what ails you. The children, Wednesday (Lisa Loring) and older brother Pugsley (Ken Weatherwax), enjoy such hobbies as playing autopsy or exploding model trains. Gomez and Morticia were one of television's most passionate couples, with Gomez being driven to arm-kissing ecstasy whenever Morticia spoke French. The last episode included in this collection, "Amnesia in the Addams Family," is a classic in which Gomez is rendered "normal" following a conk on the head. The look of disgust on Morticia and Lurch's face when he asks for a glass of milk is priceless. The "altogether ooky" extras include three episode commentaries, a featurette on Charles Addams, reminiscences from cast members Astin, Loring, and Weatherwax, a segment on the creation of the classic snap-snap theme song ("They're creepy and they're kooky...."), and the inevitable theme song sing-along. The Addams Family at last on DVD? As Gomez might exclaim: "Capital!" --Donald Liebenson
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
fun for the new generation:
This was a great video to show to our kids who were only familiar to the show's opening song...classic!
classic tv:
I grew up watching these shows. Own every season and now my children watch them too. Good classic tv without all the sex and violence. Perfect.
Neat! Complete!:
The Addams Family DVDs were a major hit at this household. The show captured Chas. Addams' quirky style of cartooning and the actors portrayed the various family members to a "T" (A?). For those too young to remember the show, this is a great series to get. Clever, funny, and droll at the same time. One of the best 60s shows.
Well done fun!:
I've ordered the set (both 1 and 2) in a spur of nostalgia and am very glad I did... The show is funny, witty, and at the same time sweet in the innocent lack of true malice--something that is very missing in today's TV shows that are so chok-ful-of terror, horror, and human evil cunning. I still enjoy seeing current TV, but the nicely done set of these older TV shows, with the hilarious and endearing (yes, even with all the stuffed ickies in their house...) cast of characters. I HIGHLY recommend it.
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