I'm Generation X, and I too grew up watching the Addams Family on daytime TV after school. For me, the heart of what the show so appealing was John Austin's masterful turn as Gomez -- powerful, humble, amorous and loving to his partner, intelligent and charming as hell, with a mad gleam in his eye and a smile that let you know just how much fun it was to be him. He was a role model for young me.
What I always found so appealing about the Addams Family is how healthy and stable the family was, within their own context. They pretty much never fought, the parents supported the kids, and any disagreements were usually talked out with relatively little drama. In many ways, they were a model family. For all their quirks, they were functional in a dysfunctional world.
@@jasonblalock4429 And they honestly loved people! Even cold, homicidal Wednesday had a soft spot for folks that could just accept the family on their own terms.
@@unseenphantomamvsytp2186 It is not yet. There are still license holders and hasn't been long enough since last adaptation made for it to enter the public domain.
I never saw them the same way after this origionaly posted, and saw a buncha their old shows. There's one where the boy becomes a boy scout, his parents are mortified, and they swallow their pride, and try to enjoy these new things their son is enjoying because love. I love this show more than ever because of the new shine you put on it. Thanks bob!
Yeah. They were basically a dream family for weird kids. Not only were they weird, but they were completely accepting and loving towards each others' weirdness and always stuck together to overcome problems as a team.
So can we all appreciate that a family that was supposed to be a weird ghoulish twist on the portrayal of a family is generally played as one of the most wholesome and supportive families in media?
An offshoot of this that doesn't get recognized often comes from Ray Bradbury. In 1946, he and Charles Addams became friends and intended to collaborate as writer and artist. But they went their separate ways and Bradbury took his own stab at the concept with the Elliott family in Illinois. The short stories he made around them eventually became the novel From The Dust Returned.
I have learned more about television, pop culture and cinema within five years of watching your content than I have all of my time in film classes. Thank you sire
**Ding!** "Wednesday is getting her own series." As someone with an interest in both the macabre and "Pretty Pastel Ponies", I must now redouble my efforts in finding a store that sells Hidden Dissectibles, so I can have undead MLP characters at my side when I watch this.
In retrospect, the new movie kinda codes the Addams Family as sorta Jewish, sorta Roma, sorta "insert ostracized minority group with traditions outside the mainstream," and their struggle for acceptance is one of the main themes.
Cue music... He's paid to talk pop media With wit and funny bantah From Spielberg to Sandlah Bob Chipman talks movies This channel's vids are must-see But the Algorithm's messy We all ought to engage-ee Tube views aint really free. Upvote. Those coats. And footnotes.
I always liked the Addams more than the Munsters. The Munsters felt more like Leave it Beaver with a ghoul skin slapped onto it. Don't get me wrong it had some funny gags to it and it wasn't a bad show at all but it just felt a little more.... i don't know what over the Addams who were a more realistic down to earth family. Gomez and Morticia were a couple who were clearly into one another and as passionate about each other as they were towards everything else in their lives. I also really like how Lurch is their butler but he's every bit as much family as the children. If I had millions of dollars I'd definitely want to live like Addams. A caring, loving, nurturing family and I can't recall any of the TV series Addams judging anyone negatively. Sure they might look at the outside and think "well that's rather strange of them" or "why would you want to do that" but never in condemnation, just as a curiosity. Like they're thinking "I don't get it myself but whatever works for you". But it's been a minute since I watched the show so correct me if I'm wrong.
"The Munsters felt more like Leave it Beaver with a ghoul skin slapped onto it." Hardly surprising - both shows were created by Joe Connolly and Bob Mosher and share some sensibilities.
I always liked Grandpa Munster (and it turns out he was a comrade!) but Herman Munster just seemed like a big baby and his wife Lili was more like a mom-type and I was not into that. Gomez Addams had the boundless enthusiasm of a very goofy child, but was definitely a grown-up man, as Morticia would testify. And I just liked the energy of the Addamses more. Of course I can't remember a single plot or story or thing that happened on either show.
@@jasonblalock4429 Netflix has actually become something of a cultural backwater these days. Gone are the prestige promotions of House of Cards and Orange Is The New Black. With everybody jumping into the streaming game (and yanking their content back to themselves), Netflix doesn't stand out as much anymore. Frankly, animation is about the only interesting things that I find on Netflix now.
I watched a lot of old Addams Family episodes by way of Nick-at-Nite (among other old shows from when my parents were kids, so understood most of WandaVision's references, and I think they were on with the Munsters following afterward. I also have fuzzy memories of the cartoon, on Cartoon Network.
*Reads the description* Speaking of The Munsters and Disney+ shows, I watched the intro to The Munsters season 2 earlier this week and thought, "Oh so THAT'S where the Agatha All Along song came from!" Despite my issues with WandaVision, it is pretty cool how that show is a nostalgic reference-fest to sitcoms of years past AND a good example of each decade's work through the first seven episodes.
Yeah, my one complaint about the two (and only two) movies is how violent the Addams Family were. Like the opening gag with the boiling oil. I think the whole concept works better when the Addamses are essentially harmless, and the neighbors hate them simply for being weird. Once you have the Family actively hurting and killing normies, suddenly the politics of the situation get a lot more complicated.
Me too. Gags like the stop sign and the family's applause for the resultant crash lost me. The Addamses are supposed to be eccentric, but not antisocial. My understanding of the family was always that they work, attend school, play the stock market, participate in community activities, have aspirations and problems. Their "normal" may not be the same as soap commercials and Good Housekeeping covers, but they get on with their lives thinking there's nothing peculiar about their way. Their sadism within the house is fine, but once they impose it on the outside world, it oversteps the bounds of comedy.
huh never knew John Astin came back for the Addams Family animated series, neat! go figure there's another prequel series in the works, though. hope its good!
I am a super fan of everything Adam's family to the point where I've probably seen mostly every TH-cam video about it as well because there isn't enough content to feed my insane Adams love lol. if Bob decided to make a new Addams family video or two I'd probably rewatch it enough times to make it worth his time financially 😆
For an even better headtrip, my friends have been pointing out to me lately that the original designs for Morticia and Gomez look suspiciously like a lot of trans couples we know, ie. a short built guy on T and a witchy tall goth girl just sick of the world ;)
Any one else remember the Adult Wednesday shorts? I forget the name of the actress who stared in it, but she did Wednesday perfectly. I really liked the one where she went to the woman's clinic
If the 1960s Addamses were satirizing post-war American suburbia, 1990s Addamses were pure wish-fulfillment. Fun, mostly because of the cast and Sonnenfeld being a perfect choice for director, but, even as a fan of those film, they never really grew up with me. There really isn't any more "there" than there was there back then. It's a superficial power-fantasy-by-proxy. The recent Addams Family movie was clearly trying to continue the anti-restrictive conservative theme, but didn't have the inspiration to say anything really transgressive, even if I feel Oscar Isaac was DREAM-tier casting for a live-action Gomez (along with Eva Green as MY dream live-action Morticia). If the Addams must be directly poking fun at narrowminded, parochial small conservatism, given how loudly (and often, violently) such politics are being fought over these days, is there any way they could be relevant without, metaphorically if not literally, taking off the gloves and wading into the fray, unambiguously, fearlessly, letting their freak flag fly for all to see, daring the political right to make a big deal about it? I don't believe for a second that Tim Burton has the guts to do such a thing. Wednesday, obviously, is the best Addams to have leading that charge, with Gomez and Morticia being the not-woke-because-they-were-always-ahead-of-their-time-to-begin-with super open-minded yet fearlessly transgressive parents. I think so. Which really, really makes me wish someone younger, someone braver, someone with a better feel for the pulse on modern youth culture was heading the Wednesday Addams (EDIT: series). Instead, early signs suggest they're going for more of a Goth Harry Potter/Hermione Granger kind of show, solving groovy supernatural mysteries at a boarding school. And that just makes me feels sad. You can, and should, do so much more with a character like Wednesday. A grown Ricci-Wednesday, on the other hand, would be fascinating to follow.
@@louisduarte8763 I swear, ANY film where the two of them are lovingly/passionately pawing and necking and rubbing on one another................. .....What? I...Jesus...I......*ahem*.....anyway, I'm sure that would set a new standard for POSITIVE examples of Public Displays of Affection. And after Covid, the world needs everything it can get to get back in the positive groove.
Someone was actually doing something with a character like Wednesday, until MGM dropped the corporate hammer on them in advance of the unmitigated "meh" of the 2019 movie. So taking that into account, that movie goes negative.
@@damien4197 The TH-cam Adult Wednesday Addams series. Pretty fun, a true labor of a fan's love, but not exactly cinematic. That said, I'm far from convinced that the new Wednesday series will be noticeably better. It might be co-produced by Hot Topic.
@@andrewklang809 See, why did it need to be cinematic..? Like you said, a true labor of a fan's love... either that energy or something matching it could be put into something with the budget to be cinematic, and we'd be getting a lot better than what we've got lately.
What'd be the point? You find a billion unfunny conservative comedians do that schtick on podcasts and TH-cam. Doing 'woke\ jokes is not as cutting as you think it is.
I am here to say good bye to moviebob i had fun with you're video for years buy after 2016 you are not the kind of TH-camr . I need in my life so good bye moviebob it was fun
Was it not clear to everyone what the Adams Family was? Morticia is clearly Dracula's first wife living it up after she got Frankenstein's monster (Lurch)and Igor (Fester) in the divorce. Gomez is framed as a more successful version Of Dorian Grey, but really he's just the stereotype every Republican has in their head of what every "European" man is supposed to act like. And the kids are what you get if you let a vampire and an immortal madman breed. Also Cousin It is a bathtub drain clog that gained sentience after absorbing too much vampire blood and the runoff from Fester's attempts to replicate Dr. Frankenstein's "elixir of life."
I'm Generation X, and I too grew up watching the Addams Family on daytime TV after school. For me, the heart of what the show so appealing was John Austin's masterful turn as Gomez -- powerful, humble, amorous and loving to his partner, intelligent and charming as hell, with a mad gleam in his eye and a smile that let you know just how much fun it was to be him. He was a role model for young me.
What I liked about Gomez is that, no matter what outrageous thing I could tell him about, he'd not only keep his cool but he'd get it.
What I always found so appealing about the Addams Family is how healthy and stable the family was, within their own context. They pretty much never fought, the parents supported the kids, and any disagreements were usually talked out with relatively little drama. In many ways, they were a model family. For all their quirks, they were functional in a dysfunctional world.
@@jasonblalock4429 And they honestly loved people! Even cold, homicidal Wednesday had a soft spot for folks that could just accept the family on their own terms.
These are all great points, and well-said.
"woke as hell and extremely violent about it" would make a fantastic epitaph
It's certainly better than the modern "woke as hell but extremely wishy-washy about it".
Not even really pissed off about is Wednesday Addams. It's more like "this is wrong, someone should do something about this, no one is, guess I will."
I have already decided this is my new T-shirt. :)
The series that would not die, kill them, boil them, break their IP, they will come back for more. And why?
Because they like it.
So is the adoms family public domain I got two different answers on google.
@@unseenphantomamvsytp2186 It is not yet. There are still license holders and hasn't been long enough since last adaptation made for it to enter the public domain.
@@mesektet5776 That's disappointing...
I never saw them the same way after this origionaly posted, and saw a buncha their old shows. There's one where the boy becomes a boy scout, his parents are mortified, and they swallow their pride, and try to enjoy these new things their son is enjoying because love. I love this show more than ever because of the new shine you put on it. Thanks bob!
They advertised the Addams Family as "the most well-adjusted family on TV" and when you broke it down, THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT THEY WERE. Crazy huh?
Yeah. They were basically a dream family for weird kids. Not only were they weird, but they were completely accepting and loving towards each others' weirdness and always stuck together to overcome problems as a team.
@@jasonblalock4429 Makes Bob's X-Men/Harry Potter analogy even more on point, doesn't it?
So can we all appreciate that a family that was supposed to be a weird ghoulish twist on the portrayal of a family is generally played as one of the most wholesome and supportive families in media?
We absolutely can. And I absolutely do.
An offshoot of this that doesn't get recognized often comes from Ray Bradbury. In 1946, he and Charles Addams became friends and intended to collaborate as writer and artist. But they went their separate ways and Bradbury took his own stab at the concept with the Elliott family in Illinois. The short stories he made around them eventually became the novel From The Dust Returned.
I have learned more about television, pop culture and cinema within five years of watching your content than I have all of my time in film classes. Thank you sire
Hmmm... *snap snap*
This and the Munsters were go to shows for me when sick at home when I was younger.
**Ding!** "Wednesday is getting her own series." As someone with an interest in both the macabre and "Pretty Pastel Ponies", I must now redouble my efforts in finding a store that sells Hidden Dissectibles, so I can have undead MLP characters at my side when I watch this.
In retrospect, the new movie kinda codes the Addams Family as sorta Jewish, sorta Roma, sorta "insert ostracized minority group with traditions outside the mainstream," and their struggle for acceptance is one of the main themes.
60s Morticia was so fine
The vicious, understanding mom Norman Bates always wished that he had.
EVERY Morticia
I actually model my marriage after what Gomez and Morticia have. It's worked pretty well so far. 8 years and counting.
"Cara mia! Speak French to me again!"
Cue music...
He's paid to talk pop media
With wit and funny bantah
From Spielberg to Sandlah
Bob Chipman talks movies
This channel's vids are must-see
But the Algorithm's messy
We all ought to engage-ee
Tube views aint really free.
Upvote.
Those coats.
And footnotes.
When Wednesday smiled in Addams Family Values I became a man.
The "She's scaring me!" smile? Or the "I have decided to scalp you and burn your village to the ground" smile?
@@andrewklang809 yes...?
@@andrewklang809 The first one!
I always liked the Addams more than the Munsters. The Munsters felt more like Leave it Beaver with a ghoul skin slapped onto it. Don't get me wrong it had some funny gags to it and it wasn't a bad show at all but it just felt a little more.... i don't know what over the Addams who were a more realistic down to earth family. Gomez and Morticia were a couple who were clearly into one another and as passionate about each other as they were towards everything else in their lives.
I also really like how Lurch is their butler but he's every bit as much family as the children.
If I had millions of dollars I'd definitely want to live like Addams. A caring, loving, nurturing family and I can't recall any of the TV series Addams judging anyone negatively. Sure they might look at the outside and think "well that's rather strange of them" or "why would you want to do that" but never in condemnation, just as a curiosity. Like they're thinking "I don't get it myself but whatever works for you". But it's been a minute since I watched the show so correct me if I'm wrong.
"The Munsters felt more like Leave it Beaver with a ghoul skin slapped onto it."
Hardly surprising - both shows were created by Joe Connolly and Bob Mosher and share some sensibilities.
@@voltijuice8576 wait what?! I didn't know that.
I always liked Grandpa Munster (and it turns out he was a comrade!) but Herman Munster just seemed like a big baby and his wife Lili was more like a mom-type and I was not into that. Gomez Addams had the boundless enthusiasm of a very goofy child, but was definitely a grown-up man, as Morticia would testify. And I just liked the energy of the Addamses more. Of course I can't remember a single plot or story or thing that happened on either show.
I'm curious to see what Rob Zombie does with it.
I didn't realize this was a reupload until you got to the 'upcoming' animated movie. XD
Dang Bob, if it wasn't for you I wouldn't even HEAR of projects like Tim Burton's Wednesday.
Yeah, I'm a little surprised that one got in under my radar. Is Netflix just not promoting it yet?
@@jasonblalock4429 Netflix has actually become something of a cultural backwater these days. Gone are the prestige promotions of House of Cards and Orange Is The New Black. With everybody jumping into the streaming game (and yanking their content back to themselves), Netflix doesn't stand out as much anymore. Frankly, animation is about the only interesting things that I find on Netflix now.
I watched a lot of old Addams Family episodes by way of Nick-at-Nite (among other old shows from when my parents were kids, so understood most of WandaVision's references, and I think they were on with the Munsters following afterward. I also have fuzzy memories of the cartoon, on Cartoon Network.
*Reads the description*
Speaking of The Munsters and Disney+ shows, I watched the intro to The Munsters season 2 earlier this week and thought, "Oh so THAT'S where the Agatha All Along song came from!" Despite my issues with WandaVision, it is pretty cool how that show is a nostalgic reference-fest to sitcoms of years past AND a good example of each decade's work through the first seven episodes.
kind of glad the addams are an american institution that will never go away cause the reality is we are always going to need them to some degree
Yeah, my one complaint about the two (and only two) movies is how violent the Addams Family were. Like the opening gag with the boiling oil. I think the whole concept works better when the Addamses are essentially harmless, and the neighbors hate them simply for being weird. Once you have the Family actively hurting and killing normies, suddenly the politics of the situation get a lot more complicated.
Me too. Gags like the stop sign and the family's applause for the resultant crash lost me. The Addamses are supposed to be eccentric, but not antisocial.
My understanding of the family was always that they work, attend school, play the stock market, participate in community activities, have aspirations and problems. Their "normal" may not be the same as soap commercials and Good Housekeeping covers, but they get on with their lives thinking there's nothing peculiar about their way. Their sadism within the house is fine, but once they impose it on the outside world, it oversteps the bounds of comedy.
Tim Burton doing his take on the Addams Family; a dream proposal! Maybe one day, Jordan Peele can take a crack at it too.
Between the Addams Family and The Munsters, its no wonder a whole generation grew up with a thing for goth women.
One should also remember goth ladies like Vampira, Elvira and (on the comics side) Vampirella.
MAMUSHKA!
I miss the days where tv sitcoms could get away with having a live lion on set
Well… yes and no.
With the second movie, I absolutely hated the A plot with Fester and the baby sitter, but absolutely love the B plot with the kids at summer camp.
huh never knew John Astin came back for the Addams Family animated series, neat! go figure there's another prequel series in the works, though. hope its good!
Wow 😮 This a blast from the past. I still remember all the copycats. Like the flintstones own gruesome family
I am a super fan of everything Adam's family to the point where I've probably seen mostly every TH-cam video about it as well because there isn't enough content to feed my insane Adams love lol. if Bob decided to make a new Addams family video or two I'd probably rewatch it enough times to make it worth his time financially 😆
I expected next week there will be a video with the words "The Munsters" and/or "Rob Zombie movie adaption" being mentioned in that video.
For an even better headtrip, my friends have been pointing out to me lately that the original designs for Morticia and Gomez look suspiciously like a lot of trans couples we know, ie. a short built guy on T and a witchy tall goth girl just sick of the world ;)
When I was a kid I had a massive crush on Wednesday Addams.
You don't still? Christina Ricci's still next-level hot today.
@@wratchedlore5015 Oh yeah.
What's the 'SOCEITY' gag about? I've seen others use it in relation to the latest Joker film. Would love a video on that.
It's VERY simple: "We live in a society...", the ONLY memorable line from the Joker movie.
I absolutely love The Addams Family
Any one else remember the Adult Wednesday shorts? I forget the name of the actress who stared in it, but she did Wednesday perfectly. I really liked the one where she went to the woman's clinic
I liked the interview one best, where she absolutely destroyed the interviewer.
That's Melissa Hunter and she's awesome.
Love this episode!
Don't mind me, I'm just commenting to combat the unholy TH-cam algorithm.
Society... you're living in it
If the 1960s Addamses were satirizing post-war American suburbia, 1990s Addamses were pure wish-fulfillment. Fun, mostly because of the cast and Sonnenfeld being a perfect choice for director, but, even as a fan of those film, they never really grew up with me. There really isn't any more "there" than there was there back then. It's a superficial power-fantasy-by-proxy. The recent Addams Family movie was clearly trying to continue the anti-restrictive conservative theme, but didn't have the inspiration to say anything really transgressive, even if I feel Oscar Isaac was DREAM-tier casting for a live-action Gomez (along with Eva Green as MY dream live-action Morticia).
If the Addams must be directly poking fun at narrowminded, parochial small conservatism, given how loudly (and often, violently) such politics are being fought over these days, is there any way they could be relevant without, metaphorically if not literally, taking off the gloves and wading into the fray, unambiguously, fearlessly, letting their freak flag fly for all to see, daring the political right to make a big deal about it? I don't believe for a second that Tim Burton has the guts to do such a thing. Wednesday, obviously, is the best Addams to have leading that charge, with Gomez and Morticia being the not-woke-because-they-were-always-ahead-of-their-time-to-begin-with super open-minded yet fearlessly transgressive parents. I think so. Which really, really makes me wish someone younger, someone braver, someone with a better feel for the pulse on modern youth culture was heading the Wednesday Addams (EDIT: series). Instead, early signs suggest they're going for more of a Goth Harry Potter/Hermione Granger kind of show, solving groovy supernatural mysteries at a boarding school. And that just makes me feels sad. You can, and should, do so much more with a character like Wednesday. A grown Ricci-Wednesday, on the other hand, would be fascinating to follow.
Seconded about Isaac as Gomez and Eva Green as Morticia (meow).
@@louisduarte8763 I swear, ANY film where the two of them are lovingly/passionately pawing and necking and rubbing on one another.................
.....What? I...Jesus...I......*ahem*.....anyway, I'm sure that would set a new standard for POSITIVE examples of Public Displays of Affection. And after Covid, the world needs everything it can get to get back in the positive groove.
Someone was actually doing something with a character like Wednesday, until MGM dropped the corporate hammer on them in advance of the unmitigated "meh" of the 2019 movie.
So taking that into account, that movie goes negative.
@@damien4197 The TH-cam Adult Wednesday Addams series. Pretty fun, a true labor of a fan's love, but not exactly cinematic. That said, I'm far from convinced that the new Wednesday series will be noticeably better. It might be co-produced by Hot Topic.
@@andrewklang809 See, why did it need to be cinematic..? Like you said, a true labor of a fan's love... either that energy or something matching it could be put into something with the budget to be cinematic, and we'd be getting a lot better than what we've got lately.
Love you Bob
How could you not mention the BEST SELLING PINBALL of ALL TIME? I ask you.
Ahh, played the hell out of that machine way back when. Raul Julia's audio cues on it made it fun--and funny--as hell.
Wait Wait Wait. ROB ZOMBIE IS DOING A MUNSTERS REBOOT?!?
oh sign me the fuck up
I wonder how scantily clad he'll have Marilyn, and they'll still say she's "the ugly one".
I'm still disappointed that the "Mockingbird Lane" reboot pilot with Eddie Izzard didn't get picked up as a show.
I have always loved the Addams Family, but why does this have #Loki?
for the algorithm of course
Uhhh... at least Tim Burton is in his wheelhouse??? I guess...??
Just like with Dark Shadows.
--Oh, I meant Dumbo.
obligatory comment to feed the algorythm
Man why all the weirdos want to come to New Jersey, first wanda now the Addams
Other way around, pal. Addams were there first.
💜
Imagine if someone made a show that told the woke mob who run Twitter, BLM, and Antifa 'this is how stupid you look'.
What'd be the point? You find a billion unfunny conservative comedians do that schtick on podcasts and TH-cam. Doing 'woke\ jokes is not as cutting as you think it is.
I am here to say good bye to moviebob i had fun with you're video for years buy after 2016 you are not the kind of TH-camr . I need in my life so good bye moviebob it was fun
I tried, but that CG animated flick was just dreadful. (And not in an Addams/good kind of way.)
Was it not clear to everyone what the Adams Family was? Morticia is clearly Dracula's first wife living it up after she got Frankenstein's monster (Lurch)and Igor (Fester) in the divorce. Gomez is framed as a more successful version Of Dorian Grey, but really he's just the stereotype every Republican has in their head of what every "European" man is supposed to act like. And the kids are what you get if you let a vampire and an immortal madman breed.
Also Cousin It is a bathtub drain clog that gained sentience after absorbing too much vampire blood and the runoff from Fester's attempts to replicate Dr. Frankenstein's "elixir of life."