Halloween with the New Addams Family

After being off the air for so many years, it was nice to see ANY new Addams Family adventure. Their first (and only) appearance in color, unfortunately helped to show how old many of them had grown. Being shot on video and the low budget special effects (cousin Itt spoke 'garbled' dialog not his usual high speed reverse English) were disappointing, but it is a GREAT watch at Halloween. A moment to look for: In order for Carolyn Jones to be able to march up the staircase for the finale, it was necessary for her tight fitting dress to be slit up the back all the way up to her spine. Watch for John Astin's ear-to-ear grin as he stares at her butt while walking behind her & you'll see that this is a TRUE story!

There does seem to be something about the 1970's that leads to awkward TV movies and specials. Just one year later the Star Wars holiday special was inflicted upon the public. But anyway...this reunion of the original cast is the best thing going to recommend this show. The direction is very slow. Many scenes just sit there leading to nothing as the gags have long since worn out their welcome. Still however I do enjoy watching this thing no pun intended. The daylight scenes have a bleak gray sky background which lends an odd almost sad air to the proceedings. And the laugh track sounds as if it can't decide whether to join in or sit this one out. So there you have it. I can't imagine anyone is going to finish this movie and declare it a triumph of TV comedy but it will do for a Halloween nostalgia trip. I recall seeing this when it ran the first time and then seeing it on afternoon movie slots during Halloween weeks for a few years after.

This low-budget, color video followup to the 1960s Addams Family series was a hardcore stinker. The original series, which in my opinion was never as clever as the original Charles Addams cartoons which inspired it, nevertheless had a certain charm and atmosphere that made a big impact on me as a kid. This special had none of that, and was little more than a chance to point the camera at the same group of actors (or at least the surviving ones). I mean, it ends with the family singing a Halloween carol! How lame is that? I had the good fortune to meet Charles Addams shortly before he died in 1988. While he was politely dismissive of the original series (he called it a kids' show, but not a bad one), he mentioned the reunion show as being singularly terrible. I agree.

During the 1970s and into the 80s, a ton of classic TV comedies were brought back through made for TV movies. What revivals of "The Beverly Hillbillies", "Leave it to Beaver", "The Andy Griffith Show", "Green Acres" and other programs have in common is that the reunion shows were painful to watch. Much of it is because you simply cannot recreate the magic and much of it is because the writing was so bad and much of it is because several of these revivals were ruined by dead cast members. For example, with the "Leave it to Beaver" special, Hugh Beaumont was dead so scenes with him were done by having June talk to Ward at his grave!! In the case of "The Beverly Hillbillies" too many old cast members were dead or refused to do the reunion...so they did it anyway!

So how does this "Addams Family" reunion stack up with the rest? Well, in some ways it's quite a bit better. The only missing cast member was Blossom Rock (Grandmama) and she was not a pivotal member of the cast. In addition, several very familiar old 60s TV guest stars (Parley Baer and Vito Scotti) were there as well. So at least in this sense the show achieved something...though the house set was gone and the Addams' new house just isn't the same. As far as the most important part goes, the show is only fair...at best. The writing and pacing of the show TRY to recreate the magic but cannot. The plot is only okay at best and the laugh track didn't work because the laughs and goofiness were just not there. Overall, mildly interesting for die-hard fans but like all the reunion shows I mentioned, it's still a mistake...albeit a better than usual mistake for the genre. A score of 4, while not good, is lightyears better than the "Green Acres" and "Beverly Hillbillies" reunions...and slightly better than the others I mentioned.

I remember this when it came out. I loved the Addams Family and had seen it in re-runs all the time as a child. So imagine my surprise when they were coming out with a Halloween movie starring the original cast.

And... it wasn't that good. The characters were the same and I love John Astin's Gomez but the rest of it felt a little flat. You could see that it was done cheap meaning it was shot on video and the special effects were no better than they were back in the 60's. The set lighting made it seem too bright and why didn't they make Lurch green? He always struck me as being green during the black and white days.

The story is, pretty basic. It's Halloween and the entire Addams clan is getting together. Wednesday and Pugsley have moved out. She's studying the picolo and he's training to be a witch doctor in Nairobi. Just go with it, it was the 70's. But Morticia and Gomez have had two more children that look suspiciously like their older siblings. They're Wednesday Jr and Pugsley Jr. Rounding out the cast are the rest of the Addams clan as well as the newcomer Pancho, Gomez's brother.

There's a bunch of thieves that are trying to rip them off, doubles of Morticia and Gomez resulting in a lot of mistaken identity and a bit of unrequited love.

Overall it's not that bad as there are parts of it that work but in the end it feels rather empty and is best left as a curio of failed revivals.