Follow The Leader: Episode 14: The Munsters or The Addams Family?
Martinex1: Jump in early and define the topic for the day! It is Tuesday, so Follow the Leader! Who will get us started? And how long will the conversation run? Who says BitBA isn't the land of audience participation? Let the game begin!
20 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Which was better - The Addams Family or The Munsters ?
I enjoy both, but I'm going with the Addams Family. Morticia and Gomez were one of the best couples in TV history and Jones and Astin were perfectly cast. The Munsters is sometimes unjustly labeled "dumber" than the Addams Family, but it was also a fun show. Fred Gwynne was good actor and great as Herman. But I give the nod to the Addamses.
For me it's impossible to choose as they were both terrific. The Addams Family reminds me of Sunday lunchtimes in the mid-Seventies when I used to watch the show while eating a bowl of soup (usually Oxtail or vegetable flavored) along with three slices of bread (it had to be three because two wasn't enough and four was too many). After lunch I and my sister and mother would set off to visit my grandmother where we'd have dinner and I'd get to watch my grandmother's color TV which was always a treat. If I recall correctly The Munsters didn't begin in the UK till November 1982 when the new commercial channel, Channel 4, began broadcasting but perhaps my fellow Brits will correct me on that. But both shows had such memorable characters it's really impossible to choose between them - somebody once called me "Lurch"...because I'm 6' 1" tall not because I look like a zombie !
Colin, I got labeled with that moniker once... I'm now 6'6", but was always tall and slim so I've heard them too. :)
The local stations I could get on our television always showed the Munsters, so I had to grow up with them more. The cool local station in Milwaukee (which I could barely receive in) always had the Addams.., so I missed them more. Plus 'the absence made the heart fonder', so I tend to prefer the Addams as well. The humor just seemed cooler, working on more levels than the Munster clan.
Munsters! I didn't see either until Chicago got a 5th TV station in the early 70s that showed a lot of older material. We kids found Addams Family a little too weird, even a bit scary, to enjoy.
How funny this should come up, as the Munsters is usually on the kitchen television right around time I'm finishing making dinner these days, and I am totally gaining a new appreciation of it.
Both of these shows were mainstays in the 4:30 time-slot re-run rotation on Channel 16 (WNDU) out of South Bend/Mishawaka-- for years and YEARS of my childhood. Cartoons at 4; this slot at 4:30 (also had McHale's Navy in there a lot); Gilligan's Island at 5; I Love Lucy at 5:30. Seriously-- possibly more than 10 years-? Pretty darned easy program director gig, I'd say.
I do think The Addams Family might technically be considered the "better" show, if one has to make a choice. The writing was definitely smarter and sharper (although still rife with groaning puns, make no mistake), its timing was a bit quicker, pace a bit faster, and it relied more on the audience catching innuendo and unspoken humor-- which is honestly why I probably didn't like it quite as much as the Munsters when I was a kid. The Munsters was basically every single "Dumb Dad" sitcom from the 50's (Life of Riley IMMEDIATELY comes to mind), re-cast with Universal's monsters. What I'm really noticing now is that a LOT of their scripts could be done with a "human" cast just as well, as long as the obligatory monster-gotcha references were changed. A lot of the jokes are borscht-belt fodder, lacking only the rim-shot and the stretchy bow-tie. . . BUT the cast, as noted, completely overcomes what should have been a fatal deficiency. It's success (well, two seasons) may have been attributable largely to the fact that Gwynne, Lewis, and De Carlo were able to reduce their monstrous presentations to the level of background amusement, and put their creative energies into breathing life into the characters themselves.
Hunh-- in a way, The Munsters resembled sitcoms as they had been for the previous decade, whereas Addams Family may have been more stylistically in tune with sitcoms coming along (like Green Acres, say).
Listen to Carolyn Jones' and Yvonne De Carlo's voices sometime-- both have surprisingly rich, low alto speaking voices-!
HB, do you also like 'The Munsters Today' ? I only saw one episode of that show so I don't know much about it but it seemed rather pointless to me when the original series was already a classic. I also liked the much darker humour of the two Addams Family movies. Christoper Lloyd was especially good as a creepy Uncle Fester. But I wasn't so keen on MC Hammer's rap theme song.
Colin-- Gosh, never even heard of The Munsters Today. It would strike me as an entirely unsupportable nostalgia-for-nostalgia's-sake exercise-- how could it possibly sustain? Heck, it was a miracle the original show itself sustained two seasons, given its one-joke premise. Hmm-- have there been any rebooted old sitcoms like that which have been successful? I'm not sure why producers think this would be hot, money-making venture--!
The movies were. . . okay, for me. Not great, I must admit. As much as I love Chris Lloyd in almost everything, the fact that he didn't (or hardly?) speak in the first film bugged me a lot, 'cause Jackie Coogan's Fester was delightfully, gratingly vocal. Mostly, though, not having another Ted Cassidy on Planet Earth was surprisingly detrimental. His Lurch was, for me, sort of the backbone of the show, and while they got a Tall Guy to replace him, that seemed to be the only qualification-- the movie producers didn't seem to have any clue that there was a HUGELY funny, idiosyncratic character missing from the mix. Ahhhh, I'm just an old purist. . .
Hey Humanbelly, the producers of the movie were so out of concept with the tv show that they failed to get the rights to it. They thought that since they had the rights to the characters via the Charles Addams' estate they could use whatever they wanted, including original characters (Cousin Itt and Thing) and the theme music.
The producer of the tv show timed his lawsuit perfectly. It was glorious.
That said, I think I enjoyed the humor of the Munsters more than the Addams but I'll cast my vote for Carolyn Jones' Morticia. Strangely enough I thought that she and Gomez probably had the healthiest relationship on tv at the time.
I saw a little of Munsters Today, but can't remember much about it. My major impression was that it didn't have the budget that it needed in regards to sets and such.
And for anybody who wants to see Deadpool in a musical click the link below when in an environment where you can hear not safe for work language.
I've heard a theory that both shows were some sort of backlash against all the ultra-wholesome sitcoms of the 1950's and early 1960's (Ozzie and Harriet, Leave It to Beaver, etc.)
Also, there's a theory that the shows are a kind of Rorschach Test. Which one you prefer supposedly reveals something about your personality and attitude. People who see themselves as progressive and enlightened tend to prefer the Addams Family, since it was more subtle, and a little more adult-oriented.
The populist in me prefers the working class Munsters to the idle rich Addams family. Herman kissing his wife as he left to go to his job in the morning, as opposed to Gomez leering at his stock market ticker tape.
Loved (and still love) both shows. Two great casts, two great theme songs. But, if pushed to choose, I'd have to go with the Addams Family. The slightly psychotic edginess of the show just appeals to the slightly psychotic edginess in me. Gomez gleefully crashing his trains. Morticia and her plants. Uncle Fester, Thing, and of course Lurch. Just wonderfully twisted, and perfectly cast.
I recall seeing The Munsters more often as a kid, mostly, to my recall, in syndication in the early '70s. The only time I saw the Addams Family was during the few months my family lived with my mother's sister in the small Texas town of Mineola in the spring and summer of 1970. My aunt (and uncle and cousin, who was 5 years older than me; I turned 8 years old that summer) lived in what seemed to me at the time a fascinatingly old, creepy house and their black & white tv could only receive one station, an independent that ran a lot of old shows from the '50s to mid-60s, including Perry Mason, Lost in Space and the Addams Family as well as a lot of '50s horror movies. When my family went back to visit my aunt in 1976, they'd moved into a more modern home, had a color tv and were able to get at least one of the major networks, but it wasn't nearly as fun as that earlier stay. I enjoyed both shows, and appreciated that despite their clear similarities they remained distinct and I can't say I had any real preference for one over the other. Still, I have fond memories of those summer evenings in that old house in Mineola, watching The Addams Family and then hearing the classic theme song of Perry Mason -- admittedly those theme songs and the opening montages have stuck with me but I have no distinct memory of any of the plots of either show. Not sure I would've wanted to stay in Mineola as a teen-ager or adult, but I recall it as a fun time for my 8 year old self.
I pretty much agree with your analysis, Humanbelly. The Addams Family had the more sophisticated humor, and it had more a creepy element with Cousin Itt and Lurch, etc., that I loved, but I also loved the sheer goofiness displayed by Fred Gwynne and Al Lewis in The Munsters.
20 comments:
Which was better - The Addams Family or The Munsters ?
I enjoy both, but I'm going with the Addams Family. Morticia and Gomez were one of the best couples in TV history and Jones and Astin were perfectly cast. The Munsters is sometimes unjustly labeled "dumber" than the Addams Family, but it was also a fun show. Fred Gwynne was good actor and great as Herman. But I give the nod to the Addamses.
For me it's impossible to choose as they were both terrific. The Addams Family reminds me of Sunday lunchtimes in the mid-Seventies when I used to watch the show while eating a bowl of soup (usually Oxtail or vegetable flavored) along with three slices of bread (it had to be three because two wasn't enough and four was too many). After lunch I and my sister and mother would set off to visit my grandmother where we'd have dinner and I'd get to watch my grandmother's color TV which was always a treat. If I recall correctly The Munsters didn't begin in the UK till November 1982 when the new commercial channel, Channel 4, began broadcasting but perhaps my fellow Brits will correct me on that. But both shows had such memorable characters it's really impossible to choose between them - somebody once called me "Lurch"...because I'm 6' 1" tall not because I look like a zombie !
Munsters, grampa and the cars were cool! Awesome theme too
The Addams Family also had a great theme tune
Their house is a museum,
Where people come to see 'em,
They really are a scree-um,
The Addams Family.
Colin, I got labeled with that moniker once... I'm now 6'6", but was always tall and slim so I've heard them too. :)
The local stations I could get on our television always showed the Munsters, so I had to grow up with them more. The cool local station in Milwaukee (which I could barely receive in) always had the Addams.., so I missed them more. Plus 'the absence made the heart fonder', so I tend to prefer the Addams as well. The humor just seemed cooler, working on more levels than the Munster clan.
Munsters! I didn't see either until Chicago got a 5th TV station in the early 70s that showed a lot of older material. We kids found Addams Family a little too weird, even a bit scary, to enjoy.
How funny this should come up, as the Munsters is usually on the kitchen television right around time I'm finishing making dinner these days, and I am totally gaining a new appreciation of it.
Both of these shows were mainstays in the 4:30 time-slot re-run rotation on Channel 16 (WNDU) out of South Bend/Mishawaka-- for years and YEARS of my childhood. Cartoons at 4; this slot at 4:30 (also had McHale's Navy in there a lot); Gilligan's Island at 5; I Love Lucy at 5:30. Seriously-- possibly more than 10 years-? Pretty darned easy program director gig, I'd say.
I do think The Addams Family might technically be considered the "better" show, if one has to make a choice. The writing was definitely smarter and sharper (although still rife with groaning puns, make no mistake), its timing was a bit quicker, pace a bit faster, and it relied more on the audience catching innuendo and unspoken humor-- which is honestly why I probably didn't like it quite as much as the Munsters when I was a kid. The Munsters was basically every single "Dumb Dad" sitcom from the 50's (Life of Riley IMMEDIATELY comes to mind), re-cast with Universal's monsters. What I'm really noticing now is that a LOT of their scripts could be done with a "human" cast just as well, as long as the obligatory monster-gotcha references were changed. A lot of the jokes are borscht-belt fodder, lacking only the rim-shot and the stretchy bow-tie. . . BUT the cast, as noted, completely overcomes what should have been a fatal deficiency. It's success (well, two seasons) may have been attributable largely to the fact that Gwynne, Lewis, and De Carlo were able to reduce their monstrous presentations to the level of background amusement, and put their creative energies into breathing life into the characters themselves.
Hunh-- in a way, The Munsters resembled sitcoms as they had been for the previous decade, whereas Addams Family may have been more stylistically in tune with sitcoms coming along (like Green Acres, say).
Listen to Carolyn Jones' and Yvonne De Carlo's voices sometime-- both have surprisingly rich, low alto speaking voices-!
HB
HB, do you also like 'The Munsters Today' ? I only saw one episode of that show so I don't know much about it but it seemed rather pointless to me when the original series was already a classic. I also liked the much darker humour of the two Addams Family movies. Christoper Lloyd was especially good as a creepy Uncle Fester. But I wasn't so keen on MC Hammer's rap theme song.
Colin--
Gosh, never even heard of The Munsters Today. It would strike me as an entirely unsupportable nostalgia-for-nostalgia's-sake exercise-- how could it possibly sustain? Heck, it was a miracle the original show itself sustained two seasons, given its one-joke premise. Hmm-- have there been any rebooted old sitcoms like that which have been successful? I'm not sure why producers think this would be hot, money-making venture--!
The movies were. . . okay, for me. Not great, I must admit. As much as I love Chris Lloyd in almost everything, the fact that he didn't (or hardly?) speak in the first film bugged me a lot, 'cause Jackie Coogan's Fester was delightfully, gratingly vocal. Mostly, though, not having another Ted Cassidy on Planet Earth was surprisingly detrimental. His Lurch was, for me, sort of the backbone of the show, and while they got a Tall Guy to replace him, that seemed to be the only qualification-- the movie producers didn't seem to have any clue that there was a HUGELY funny, idiosyncratic character missing from the mix. Ahhhh, I'm just an old purist. . .
HB
The guy who played Lurch, Ted Cassidy, also voice of Galactus in the 1967 Fantastic Four cartoon. So, that would tip the scales to AF.
Yoyo
Voice of the Hulk's "roar" in the Bill Bixby series, too.
He was an awesome fella-! Died much too soon.
Played piano, as well. . .
HB
HB - borscht belt??? Lol!!!
I never really paid attention to either one, but if I had to pick ... Munsters, because Yvonne DeCarlo was pretty hot. (And she was Canadian :))
Hiya,
Hey Humanbelly, the producers of the movie were so out of concept with the tv show that they failed to get the rights to it. They thought that since they had the rights to the characters via the Charles Addams' estate they could use whatever they wanted, including original characters (Cousin Itt and Thing) and the theme music.
The producer of the tv show timed his lawsuit perfectly. It was glorious.
That said, I think I enjoyed the humor of the Munsters more than the Addams but I'll cast my vote for Carolyn Jones' Morticia. Strangely enough I thought that she and Gomez probably had the healthiest relationship on tv at the time.
I saw a little of Munsters Today, but can't remember much about it. My major impression was that it didn't have the budget that it needed in regards to sets and such.
And for anybody who wants to see Deadpool in a musical click the link below when in an environment where you can hear not safe for work language.
I mean that, NOT SAFE FOR WORK!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptKgRecPi1I
Seeya,
pfgavigan
I've heard a theory that both shows were some sort of backlash against all the ultra-wholesome sitcoms of the 1950's and early 1960's (Ozzie and Harriet, Leave It to Beaver, etc.)
Also, there's a theory that the shows are a kind of Rorschach Test. Which one you prefer supposedly reveals something about your personality and attitude. People who see themselves as progressive and enlightened tend to prefer the Addams Family, since it was more subtle, and a little more adult-oriented.
The populist in me prefers the working class Munsters to the idle rich Addams family. Herman kissing his wife as he left to go to his job in the morning, as opposed to Gomez leering at his stock market ticker tape.
Both shows were very funny, though.
Loved (and still love) both shows. Two great casts, two great theme songs. But, if pushed to choose, I'd have to go with the Addams Family. The slightly psychotic edginess of the show just appeals to the slightly psychotic edginess in me. Gomez gleefully crashing his trains. Morticia and her plants. Uncle Fester, Thing, and of course Lurch. Just wonderfully twisted, and perfectly cast.
I recall seeing The Munsters more often as a kid, mostly, to my recall, in syndication in the early '70s. The only time I saw the Addams Family was during the few months my family lived with my mother's sister in the small Texas town of Mineola in the spring and summer of 1970. My aunt (and uncle and cousin, who was 5 years older than me; I turned 8 years old that summer) lived in what seemed to me at the time a fascinatingly old, creepy house and their black & white tv could only receive one station, an independent that ran a lot of old shows from the '50s to mid-60s, including Perry Mason, Lost in Space and the Addams Family as well as a lot of '50s horror movies. When my family went back to visit my aunt in 1976, they'd moved into a more modern home, had a color tv and were able to get at least one of the major networks, but it wasn't nearly as fun as that earlier stay. I enjoyed both shows, and appreciated that despite their clear similarities they remained distinct and I can't say I had any real preference for one over the other.
Still, I have fond memories of those summer evenings in that old house in Mineola, watching The Addams Family and then hearing the classic theme song of Perry Mason -- admittedly those theme songs and the opening montages have stuck with me but I have no distinct memory of any of the plots of either show. Not sure I would've wanted to stay in Mineola as a teen-ager or adult, but I recall it as a fun time for my 8 year old self.
I pretty much agree with your analysis, Humanbelly. The Addams Family had the more sophisticated humor, and it had more a creepy element with Cousin Itt and Lurch, etc., that I loved, but I also loved the sheer goofiness displayed by Fred Gwynne and Al Lewis in The Munsters.
Logical follow-up question... which did you prefer: The Gruesomes or Mr and Mrs J Evil Scientist?
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