“Tish. That’s French!”
Those ooky, kooky Addamses return for another go round of macabre family fun. The special features department feels a little light this time around, but heck the show is still fun after all these years.
From my first review: “The Addams Family is the creation of cartoonist Charles Addams. They’re a delightful bunch of creeps that enjoy the macabre, much to the dismay of anyone who happens to visit them. Morticia (Carolyn Jones) and Gomez (John Astin) are the parental units and Wednesday (Lisa Loring) and Pugsley (Ken Weatherwax) are the kids.
The extended family consists of Uncle Fester (Jackie Coogan) and Grandmama (Marie Blake). The household help consists of the looming Lurch (Ted Cassidy) and the ever helpful disembodied hand called Thing (also played by Ted Cassidy for the most part). Together they’re the Addams Family (snap, snap).”
Disc 1, Side A:
Disc 2, Side A:
Disc 2, Side B:
Disc 3, Side A:
Disc 3, Side B:
The show is still a darn good entertaining family show. Though they may gravitate towards the more macabre in the world, the Addams Family still form a perfect family bond in a way all their own. The show still is extremely fun to watch and John Astin is a hoot as the wild-eyed head of the household. Carolyn Jones is his perfect counterpart and they make a wonderful team.
Ample support is given by Jackie Coogan as the ghoulish, electrified Fester and Marie Blake as Grandmama. The show continues to be a hilarious throwback to the days of quality television. Where this set might be a little light is in the special features department since they’ve decided to spread the show across two volumes.
If both of these sets were released as one volume then it would seem pretty good, but spreading out this way has thinned out the special features. Although there are some good things to be found here, but there are some other silly things that might’ve been left off all together.
The Addams Family is presented in fullscreen as it was originally shown on television. Special features include the 13 minute “Mad about the Addams” featurette. It has interviews with film/television archivist/fun guy Bob Burns, author of the “Addams Family Chronicles” Stephen Cox, fan Devin Tait, Professor Didnah Winter (of Cinema and Television Arts at Northridge), John Astin, and webmaster Jon Davis (of www.addamsfamily.com ).
Four episodes (Thing is Missing, My Son, The Chimp, Cousin Itt and the Vocation Counselor, and My Fair Cousin Itt) feature a commentary with Thing and Cousin Itt. At first I thought it might be a commentary with Felix Silla who played Itt, but it turns out to be a comedic recreation of the two characters and these run under a minute apiece.
The better commentary edition is author Stephen Cox on the episode Morticia meets Royalty. Morticia’s Romance, Part 1 has “Tombstone Trivia” in which various bits of trivia pop up throughout the episode. There’s also a “séance” for this seasons guest stars in which a narrator reads a little (very little) bio about each. These include Vito Scotti, Peter Bonerz, Parley Baer, Milton Frome, Margaret Hamilton, Sig Rugman, Elvia Allman, Eddie Quillan, Elisabeth Fraser, and Richard Deacon.
You’ll be buying this set for the episodes and not the special features, but the show still holds up and is fun to watch. Addams Family fans will definitely want to get their “Thing” on this set and anxiously await further volumes in the series.
The Addams Family - Volume 2 is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
Your Talkback on this Story