WHEN....will we see THE ADDAMS FAMILY... (1 Viewer)

[Mark_TS]

it was my favorite-I never liked the MUNSTERS-which seemed to me a 'copycat' program

 

[Patrick Soucy]

I don't know, but they're damn slow...

The VHS is out since many years, and no upgrading to DVD yet... (I have the reunion movie + 5 VHS containing 2 episodes, but stopped, waiting for the DVD Release)

I'll buy the show and the tv movies in a heartbeat if they come out on DVD!

 

[Mark Oates]

Region 2 was supposed to get the first season for Halloween, but the release suddenly appears to have been pulled. It may yet prove to be one of these exclusive releases we're having problems with (there's a UK retailer pulls an exclusivity deal every so often with the Studios, and have had monopolies on titles like the Mel Brooks films, the Tarzan pictures, and they'll have exclusivity on the R2 3-disc edition of Wizard of Oz).

Of course, there's also the snag that in R2, the home video rights reside with Universal UK.

 

[Steve...O]

Are there any issues with the Charles Addams estate holding this up? The show was based on his panel cartoon and I imagine his Estate may have some say in this.

 

[CherylWI]

The Addams Family was a much better show than the Munsters, which I've always felt was pretty one dimensional. The characters in the Addams Family were more fleshed out and had darker humor.

 

[andrew markworthy]

... and is also a lot more expensive than the suppliers I usually use.

Mark, how sure are you that this is the explanation?

 

[DanMel]

The Adams family is much better than the munsters. I use to like the munsters better when I was young, but now that I am 38, I can not even get through an episode of it when it is on TV. I would buy seasons sets of the adams family as the humor is much more my style now.

A munster fanatic by the name of mymunster3 recently posted the below on one of my favorite shows green acres season 3 on Amazon that I think pretty much sums up what I think of his show (Although I wouldn't have been as blunt about it as this jerk was).

"Man, how did this junk ever come to DVD? This has to be THE stupidest show there ever was."

We all have different tastes in humor and mine does not seem to align with this munster fan. The Adams family rules over the lesser copycat show "The Munsters".

 

[FrancisP]

I like both shows equally well. I can watch both with no issues. I think the Munsters was a little more slapstick but that's to its credit. I will have both seasons of The Munsters in little over a week and would love to obtain The Addams Family as well.

 

[Jeffrey Nelson]

Was The Munsters really a copycat show? The Munsters was first pitched to network execs with a 15 minute color pilot in the spring of 1963, finally airing in late September '64. When was The Addams Family first pitched? I know it debuted one week ahead of The Munsters.

 

[Mark Oates]

Andrew, I have no idea whether the R2 release news has been purely a phantom announcement, whether a general release has been cancelled in favour of an exclusive release or what. I deal with PR representatives of the studios who are only given the information they need from the studios. Otherwise everything gets stonewalled under confidentiality clauses. You frequently have to know which PR company is handling a release, as studios don't exclusively use a single PR house, and they won't sometimes even acknowledge direct contact about releases.

In cases like this, you have to make educated guesses from the information to hand, and as far as the Addams release is concerned, it's beginning to look like the set was one of Play's notorious phantom releases. I'd hoped that maybe with it suddenly going "not currently available" on their site (rather than being completely deleted) that it might have been optioned as an exclusive release by one of the high street chains. The bottom line is that not a single episode has been through BBFC approval, and with the street date less than a fortnight away, I'd say the release was dead in the water.

Historically, Jeffrey, an Addams show was being hawked around the studios quite a while before the Munsters was pitched, and when that show was commissioned by CBS, Nat Perrin went back to ABC and told them he had the rights to the original show that CBS had bought a knock-off of. They signed it up on the spot. Munsters aired after Addams because they recast Lily and Eddie after the pilot.

 

[Steve Phillips]

Both THE MUNSTERS and THE ADDAMS FAMILY debuted and ended the same year.

Why does every discussion of one of these shows always end up as a bashing session of the other?

 

[Jeff Willis]

I liked both but I preferred Addams Family a little better. Munsters fans should be happy that their series has been released

"The mail's in. Why, Thank You, Thing"

 

[Mark Oates]

Who's bashing? I adore both shows and intend to have them both whenever the Addams set surfaces. I've already got S1 of The Munsters and when finances permit I'll be after S2.

Munsters always seems to be the show that gets the slagging-off. Maybe it's because it's more of a traditional stupid-dad sitcom, but that's part of its charm. I also like to think of it as the finishing chapter of Universal's Classic Horror cycle - all the monsters emigrated to the US and lived happily ever after. The Addams Family is a lot more subversive and (tbh) stylish, but I'd be stuck to decide which was better of the two. Both franchises have suffered from reimaginings, though and I really don't think Stephen Cox's book on The Addams Family pointing out identical storylines between the two shows (although he professes to love both) helps.

Don't you get a Star Trek - Space:1999 vibe from it all? (When Gerry Anderson brought out his UK series Space:1999, Trek fans were ready to burn him at the stake until Gene Roddenberry said there was room for both shows in the universe.)

 

[Mark_TS]

I loved the the sinister smile Gomez and Morticia get when they suddenly feel aroused for each other-it showed just how deeply they cared for and loved each other-rare on television.

John Astin was a hoot!
NOTHING could faze him-he was always near maniac happy!

One of his lines ill never forget-He had a real-estate agent(?) looking for some property with just the right specs. A few days later, Gomez cheerfully accepts a call from the frustrated agent: "Ive looked ALL over the country for you, and am having no luck"
without missing a beat, Gomez, ever optimistic, with a cigar in his mouth, and a wide smile shoots back "Well , try checking in the CITY, too!
I busted a gut on that one.

and Morticia-the original Vampira/Goth Girl=she was sexy as hell

I dint really mean to slag the Munsters, but I never liked it as a kid, and have a hard time sitting through it today.

But I agree-TAF was subversive;

at any rate, I hope this gets a decent big-studio release.

 

[Peter M Fitzgerald]

One of my favorite exchanges from the classic 1960s series~~~

Morticia:
"Gomez, you know that you're all thumbs..."

Gomez [examining his own hands, with a happily crazed expression]:
"Wouldn't that be interesting!"

 

[Ethan Riley]

Now why would the Charles Addams estate hold up a dvd release? How can they make money if they don't release any product?

I'd also like to see Special Editions of the two Addams theatrical movies. Good stuff. Those movies were probably the best tv-to-screen adaptations ever. (IMHO). They both must have endless deleted scenes sitting around. I'd especially love to see the deleted "Mamushka" dance number from the first movie. I once knew a man who was an extra in that scene. He said it was something quite phenomenal, but feels it was deleted because it simply stopped the show!

 

[Mark Oates]

I don't think it's the Addams estate holding up a DVD release but who's currently got the tv rights to the original series.

I mean, how the hell would Universal get the R2 rights when AFAIK the show (as a Filmways property) should be in Sony's hands (via Orion and MGM).

 

[PhilipG]

You mean there's an extended sequence of that?

 

[Jeff Willis]

I've been waiting for this one as well. Hope it gets released soon.

"The mail's in".

"Why, Thank You, Thing"

 

[Ethan Riley]

PhilipG: Oh, yes, "the Mamushka" was a complete song/dance number. The "sword dance" scene is still in the movie, as well as the finale of the song, when Gomez starts with "Maaaaaamushka! Mamuska!" etc. But the sequence originally began with Raul Julia and Christopher Lloyd singing the entire number. Song was written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, of all people! The extra I met raved about the number; it must have been something to see, but it probably did stop the show. The complete number can still be heard on the soundtrack cd of this film. Here's some lyrics, as I recall them:

"We dance it in the graveyard where the maggots bill and coo--
It's perfect for beheadings when the head says, "howdy do?"---"