THE ADDAMS FAMILY ANIMATED

USA / NBC - Hanna Barbera / 16x30 minute episodes / Broadcast 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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