The minute television series was responsible for taking the unnamed characters in the single-panel gag cartoons and giving them names, back stories, and a household setting. It was spearheaded by David Levy, who created and developed the series with Donald Saltzman in cooperation with cartoonist Addams, who gave each character a name and description for the first time.
The series was shot in black-and-whiteairing for two seasons on ABC from September 18,to April 8,for a total of 64 episodes. The show's opening theme was composed and sung by Vic Mizzy. The show was originally produced by head writer Nat Perrin for Filmways, Inc.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer now owns the rights to the series. The Addams family is a close-knit extended family with decidedly macabre interests and supernatural abilities, though no explanation for their powers is explicitly given in the series.
The wealthy, endlessly enthusiastic Gomez Addams is madly in love with his refined wife, Morticia. Along with their daughter Wednesday, their son Pugsley, Uncle Fester, and Grandmama, they reside at Cemetery Lane in an ornate, gloomy, Second Empire style mansion.
The theme song contains the lyric, "Their house is a museum", which is borne out by the variety of objects in the interior scenes, some of which are collector's items and others of which are only bizarre such as the mounted swordfish head with a human leg protruding from the mouth and a stuffed two-headed giant tortoise [2] — all props that were stolen once the series was cancelled.
The family is attended by their servants - towering butler Lurch, and Thing, a hand that appears from within wooden boxes and other places. Other relatives who made recurring appearances included Cousin Itt, Morticia's older sister Ophelia, and Morticia's mother Grandma Frump.
Much of the humor derives from the Addamses' culture clash with the rest of the world. They invariably treat normal visitors with great warmth and courtesy, even when the guests express confusion, fear, and dismay at the decor of the house and the sight of Lurch and Thing.
Some visitors have bad intentions, which the family generally ignores, and suffer no harm. The Addamses are puzzled by the horrified reactions to their own good-natured and to them normal behavior. Accordingly, they view "conventional" tastes with generally tolerant suspicion.
Almost invariably, visitors to the Addamses want to leave and never come back. These relatives made appearances on the show, but members of the family mentioned other relatives in each of the episodes:. Series creator David Levy explained the premise of the show to syndicated columnist Erskine Johnson in August "We have made [the family] full-bodied people, not monsters They are not grotesque and tv play fina familjen manifestations.
At the same time we are protecting the images of [Charles] Addams' 'children', as he refers to them. We are living up to the spirit of his cartoons. He is more than just a cartoonist. He's a social commentator and a great wit.
Perrin created story ideas, directed one episode, and rewrote every script.