atlasmb "The Addams Family" is beloved by many for the place it holds in their hearts because they enjoyed it during its original run. That is understandable, but it should be judged for its quality in an objective way. As a fan of "Mad" magazine, I liked humor to be clever and subversive. "The Addams Family" (TAF) tries to be both, but comes up short.Much of the humor is sophomoric. The same can be said of some "Mad" pieces, but the magazine routinely offered very sophisticated jokes. TAF, via Gomez,sometimes tries for a higher plane of comedy, as when he speaks in Latin (which consisted of stringing together Latin phrases that were unrelated).The characters are adaptations from Charles Addams' series of cartoons. The television show tries to breathe live into these (and other) characters by introducing goofiness. But the basis for much of the humor is incongruity, as when a ghoulish figure behaves in a mundane manner. Most of the other humor is derived from the unexpected. For example, their doorbell is a foghorn; they generally like things that most people dislike; their family physician is a witch doctor. Also, they seem to be unaware of how different they are from average citizens.Many comedy shows from the 60s era were rooted in juvenile humor. That is no surprise. Consider "F Troop", "McHale's Navy" or "Get Smart". Goofy ruled the day. Some comedy shows, however, were more original than others. And some had extraordinary talent in their casts.John Astin and Carolyn Jones are certainly talented, but their performances were as limited by concept as Morticia's gait. In the end, TAF was an average comedy show for its time. It's level of humor was average. Viewed from a vantage of about fifty years later, it pales in comparison with "Frasier", "Modern Family" or even "Roseanne". No doubt it will remain a cult favorite for some. It certainly is an effective example of camp. And that is, probably, its main strength.

Cinefill1 -The Addams Family is an American television series based on the characters in Charles Addams' New Yorker cartoons. The 30-minute series was shot in black-and-white and aired for two seasons on ABC from September 18, 1964, to April 8, 1966, for a total of 64 episodes. It is often compared to its CBS rival, The Munsters, which ran for the same two seasons and achieved somewhat higher Nielsen ratings. The show is the first adaptation of the Addams family characters to feature The Addams Family Theme. -The Addams Family was originally produced by Filmways, Inc. at General Service Studios in Hollywood, California. Successor company MGM Television (via The Program Exchange for broadcast syndication and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment for home video/DVD) now owns the rights to the show.

calvinnme The Addams Family TV show was based on a series of cartoons started back in the 1930's and authored by Charles Addams for the New Yorker. Whether or not Addams intended for there to be some kind of Depression-era message on the idle rich being scary in more ways than one I do not know, but it does seem like that is one of the messages trying to come through all the dark humor. What I do know is that a show this offbeat and creative would never get aired on network TV today, and even if it did, the minute it got successful the network suits would start tinkering with it and ruin it.The Addams' are portrayed as a close knit and happy family - in fact they rarely have contact with outsiders other than the children attending school. They appear completely human, but they eat food that seems completely inedible by any normal human being and they each have their own peculiar qualities that seem beyond those of normal humans such as Uncle Fester's ability to generate electricity. If they do have visitors, they are usually other family members from some remote area who display these same characteristics. The show never explains the origin of the Addams' or their great wealth - that's just part of their intrigue. There are a few episodes here and there that reference popular culture as it existed then such as "Lurch the Teenage Idol" which pokes fun of the early Beatles and similar rock bands of the time. For the most part, though, the show is pretty much timeless and thus is still funny today.

bekayess I could enjoy this show (and many others from the 50s and 60s--maybe the 70s and beyond) if that stupid laugh track was not there. Why did the networks think that we at home would not laugh at funny lines, unless they knew that the writers couldn't write humor? Many of the lines in this show are funny, and should be without a canned laugh track. I think of THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW, with a live audience: if a joke fell flat, the cast would try to make it work, but at least the audience's reaction was real and not canned. In particular, I recall Carol's comment in THE LITTLE FOXIES spoof, after Vicki Lawrence's character (Birdie) has just been shot: "Bye bye Birdie." The joke sailed over the audiences' collective heads and Carol made a priceless facial gesture that commented on the audience. All without a laugh track. Canned laughed = boredom. Thank goodness we don't have too much of that today, and more shows are taped or filmed in front of live audiences. (Or are they?)