My daughter was watching TV last night, and when I went by, she said, "I didn't know Christopher Lloyd was the uncle in The Addams Family!"
I asked her what she was talking about, and I looked, and it was the movie version. Aahh. Reality restored. Then she started asking me questions about the TV show, and I said, "I don't know. We watched The Munsters."
But even though I didn't watch the Addams Family, I knew enough about it to know that the movie was all wrong. Angelica Houston was too... (unable to find the right word). She just wasn't Morticia.
The 1960s broadcast schedule offered us choices. For creepy viewing, we had the Addams Family and the Munsters. For westerns, we had many options. Here's some of what my family (not always the parents) did and didn't watch:
The Twilight Zone, not The Outer Limits.
The Wonderful World of Disney, not The Ed Sullivan Show.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E., not I Spy
The Virginian, not Bonanza. Forget Little Joe--I had a crush on Trampas.
Have Gun Will Travel
The Wild Wild West
Daktari
Mission Impossible
Batman
And yes, it's shameful, but we watched My Mother the Car.
So much culture that my kids missed out on...
3 comments:
When I was a little boy, our dentist's office had a book I loved. It featured the drawn cartoons of the Addam's family which preceded, and I assume inspired, the TV series. In the drawings, Lurch looked much more like the movie version guy.
One of my favorite Christopher Lloyd characters was when he played "The Calico Kid" on the early 80's "Best of the West", a very funny, if short lived sitcom, which also featured Leonard Frey.
And I'm sorry Pupster, but the Addams family was way cooler than the Munsters.
You were probably too young to appreciate subtlety over slapstick... which basically defines the difference between the two shows.
Chris,
You mistake me. I cast no aspersions on the coolness of the Addams Family. I only said we watched the Munsters. As a little kid, I had no control of the remote. Strike that. I had no control of the knob.
Everybody knew the Addams Family was cool.
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