The
Addam's Family (Animated)

USA
/NBC - Hanna Barbera / 16x30m-e
/ 1973

Charles
Addams's ghoulish cartoons for
The New Yorker magazine became a
surprising source for several TV
shows and movies in the latter
half of the 20th century. The
first was a well-remembered
though short-lived (1964—66)
live-action ABC night time
series starring John Astin as
the laid-back Gomez and Carolyn
Jones as his alluring wife,
Morticia.
Seven years later, the concept
revived in two forms. The first
was a failed 1973 syndicated
pilot called The Addams Family
Fun House, with Jack Riley as
Gomez and Liz Torres as Morticia.
(Ironically, also appearing was
Butch Patrick, who was Eddie on
The Munsters, the other
"monster comedy" which
ran in nighttime from 1964—66,
like the first Addams Family.)
The show set the characters in a
musical comedy format. A Variety
review said, "It couldn't
have been worse if they'd done
it in blackface."
The second Addams try in 1973
fared a little better. Now the
eerie clan appeared in cartoon
form as they drove a haunted
camper with a moat, bats, and
dark clouds overhead across
America on an extended vacation.
Joining Gomez and Morticia were
their fat son Pugsley,
enterprising daughter Wednesday,
gnomelike Uncle Fester,
potion-making Granny, and
lumbering servant Lurch, not to
mention a disembodied hand from
a box they called Thing. Jackie
Coogan and Ted Cassidy voiced
the same characters they had on
the earlier show, but the real
surprise was child actress Jodie
Foster doing the voice of the
male Pugsley.
After the NBC cartoon ended, the
property languished until a
live-action Addams Family movie
appeared in 1991 with Raul Julia
as Gomez and Anjelica Huston as
Morticia. Its success prompted a
cartoon revival on ABC with the
original Gomez, John Astin,
voicing his role, and another
girl actress voicing Pugsley,
now cast as Wednesday's older
brother. The Addams now lived in
Happydale Heights and their
kooky next-door neighbors were
the Normanmeyers, whose
avocations were weird enough
that they sometimes made the
oddities of the Addamses seem
virtually normal.
Voice
Cast
Jackie
Coogan as Uncle Fester / Ted
Cassidy as Lurch / Janet
Waldo as Morticia / Lennie
Weinrib as Gomez / Cindy
Henderson as Wednesday Addams /
Jodie Foster as Pugsley Addams
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