Thursday, June 14, 2012

Addams Family and the Munsters

A new Munsters movie is in the works. The Addams Family had its turn at the movies two decades ago. Originally, they competed with each other.

The 1960s was a time of high concept TV. Several shows included leading characters that can only be described as unusual. This included the Addams Family and the Munsters. There was also My Favorite Martian (also made into a movie), Bewitched (another movie), I Dream of Jeanie, The Living Doll (about a life-like female android), The Ghost and Mrs. Muire, and My Mother the Car. In addition, Gilligan's Island and the Monkeys had occasional supernatural episodes. On top of that, there were the straight, hour-long science fiction shows, Star Trek, Lost in Space, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Time Tunnel, and Land of the Giants.

Some of these did a better job than others at finding an audience and none were huge hits.

The Addams Family was based on the cartoons of Charles Addams. The Munsters were inspired by Universal's monsters.

The two shows had some similarity. Both featured unusual families that did not seem to realize that they were anything but normal. On the other hand, the Addams Family was higher class in every way. The family itself was rich. Morticia was the embodiment of the genteel matron and one of the sexiest mothers on TV. The family had some quarrels but in general they went out of their way to support each other. They also had a large extended family.

The Munsters were working-class. They were often quarrelsome and could be petty. Herman was childish and given to tantrums. Herman and Grandpa didn't seem to like each other but regularly conspired with each other because they didn't have any other friends. A standing joke was that their niece (who looked normal) thought that she was plain. The Addams never let a woman think that she was plain. If it came up, they whipped out some X-rays to show that her beauty was on the inside.

Previous attempts have been made to revive the Munsters as a TV show.  They never worked.

I suspect that the new remake will have more in common with the Bewitched movie than the Addams Family.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Mark, love the blog! I was just looking for info on the Addams Family musical when I ran across this. I had no idea they were bringing the Munsters back, and I cringe. I agree with you 100%, the Addamses were higher class all the way; the Munsters always just seemed like the cheap knockoff they were by comparison. To gear up for the musical, as a customer and employee at Dish I’ve been watching the show at dishonline. There’s over a hundred episodes, and it’s free. Love it!