Pop Focus: The Addams Family

This week we begin a series of Halloween-themed posts with a look at TV's first family of macabre comedy, the Addams.

Today we know them well: Gomez and Morticia; their children Pugsley and Wednesday; Grandmama; Uncle Fester and their cavern-voiced manservant, Lurch.

But before being adapted for television in 1964, none of the characters had names. They were simply a collection of ghouls who appeared occasionally in Charles Addams' twisted one-panel cartoons in The New Yorker.

On TV, the Addams introduced a whole generation to dark humor and irony. There wasn't much else like it on television at the time. This family was subversive and non-conformist in a time when everyone else on the tube toed the line. Compared to all the perfect families on other shows, the Addams were -- as odd as they got -- more real, and more perfect, because they were true to themselves.

The show ran from 1964 to 1966 and has appeared in syndication pretty much ever since. I'm sure I saw those reruns from an early age (I was born in 1965), but my first exposure to the Addams clan was likely in animated form. In 1972, they guest-starred in a Saturday morning "Scooby-Doo" movie and, from 1973 to 1975 in their own weekly animated series.

In the 1990s, of course, the Addams appeared in a trio of feature films with Raul Julia and Anjelica Huston at the helm, and in a few sporadic animated series, as well.

Here's a look back at the original show, Charles Addams, the first animated series and related memorabilia.












Charles Addams





















Video Find: The Standells perform "I Want to Hold Your Hand" on "The Munsters," 1966


Pop Culture Roundup: Mœbius; Marvel movies; Superman's suit; Edgar Rice Burroughs fanzine art; Marvel Comics puffy stickers

Heads up: Dark Horse Comics has announced plans to publish a series of hardcovers collecting the fantastical comic art of Jean Giraud, the French creator who went by the pseudonym "Mœbius." Giraud passed away in 2012 and much of his work has been out of print for years.

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Having trouble keeping track of all Marvel's upcoming films? There's a handy timeline here.

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A new exhibit at the Ohio History Center charts the evolution (or devolution) of Superman's suit.


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The Golden Age shares artwork by Russ Manning, Jeffrey Jones, William Stout and more from the 1970s fanzine, ERB-dom.

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Via the Mego Museum, 1970s Marvel Comics puffy stickers.

New Music Friday: The Zombies; Small Faces; Christmas classics, more

Click the links to order discounted CDs, vinyl or downloads from Amazon.










Remembering John

John Lennon would have been 75 today.