Product Description
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TRT: 1758 MINS. This 9 disc set serves up every episode from the
entire run of the sitcom The Addams Family, which was based on
the macabre cartoons of Charles Addams, and starred John Astin as
the patriarch of the happy if ghoulish title clan. The Addams
Family – Volume One If The Munsters was a traditional family
sitcom as reimagined by Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, The
Addams Family is a macabre twist on her Knows Best. The
Munster and Addams clans made their TV debuts in 1964 and lasted
two seasons before the networks buried them. The Addamses are now
gloriously resurrected in this three-disc set that digs up the
series' first 22 episodes (oddly, 12 shy of the complete first
season). Inspired by Charles Addams's New Yorker cartoons, The
Addams Family is fiendishly funny, with a dead-on cast that
indelibly embodies Addams's characters. The Addams Family –
Volume Two Based on the original Goth cartoons by Charles "Chas"
Addams that ran for decades in the New Yorker magazine, The
Addams Family television sitcom portrayed a monster family whose
moribund physical appearances were counteracted by each family
member's exuberance for passion and adventure. This Volume Two
DVD contains twenty-one episodes, including the last of season
one and the whole of season two, plus commentaries, and a
featurette about the cinematic impact The Addams Family had on
American television culture. The Addams Family – Volume Three
Product description: The Addams Family is not your typical
family: they take delight in most of the things that "normal"
people would be terrified of. Relive the misadventures of
America’s favorite frightfully funny family. Actors: John Astin,
Ted Cassidy, Jackie Coogan, Ken Weatherwax Format: Multiple
Formats, Box set, Black & White, NTSC, Subtitled Run Time: 1638
minutes Nine(9) Discs, Three(3) Volumes Disc 1- 3: Addams Family
- Volume 1 - Disc 4 - 6: Addams Family - Volume 2 - Disc 6 - 7:
Addams Family - Volume 3.
.com
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The Addams Family Volume One
If The Munsters was a traditional family sitcom as reimagined by
Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, The Addams Family is a
macabre twist on her Knows Best. The Munster and Addams clans
made their TV debuts in 1964 and lasted two seasons before the
networks buried them. The Addamses are now gloriously resurrected
in this three-disc set that digs up the series' first 22 episodes
(oddly, 12 shy of the complete first season). Inspired by Charles
Addams's New Yorker cartoons, The Addams Family is fiendishly
funny, with a dead-on cast that indelibly embodies Addams's
characters. John Astin brings a demented glee to eccentric,
frighteningly wealthy Gomez Addams. Carolyn Jones is bew
as his pre-goth wife, Morticia, whom the Beatles might have had
in mind when they sang, "Baby's in Black." Jackie Coogan is the
electrifying Uncle Fester, with Ted Cassidy (who famously took a
kick in the groin from Paul Newman in Butch Cassidy and the
Sundance Kid) is the monstrous butler Lurch, whose "You rang?"
entered the pop culture lexicon.
The Munsters was family friendly. The Addams Family is more
sophisticated and wickedly funny. As Gomez notes at one point,
"There's a touch of madness" in the Addams household, where
"every day is Halloween." Bear rugs growl, a disembodied hand,
Thing, delivers the mail, and a torture rack is good for what
ails you. The children, Wednesday (Lisa Loring) and older brother
Pugsley (Ken Weatherwax), enjoy such hobbies as playing autopsy
or exploding model trains. Gomez and Morticia were one of
television's most passionate couples, with Gomez being driven to
arm-kissing ecstasy whenever Morticia spoke French. The last
episode included in this collection, "Amnesia in the Addams
Family," is a classic in which Gomez is rendered "normal"
following a conk on the head. The look of disgust on Morticia and
Lurch's face when he asks for a glass of milk is priceless. The
"altogether ooky" extras include three episode commentaries, a
featurette on Charles Addams, reminiscences from cast members
Astin, Loring, and Weatherwax, a segment on the creation of the
classic snap-snap theme song ("They're creepy and they're
kooky...."), and the inevitable theme song sing-along. The Addams
Family at last on DVD? As Gomez might excl: "Capital!"
--Donald Liebenson
The Addams Family Volume Two
Based on the original Goth cartoons by Charles "Chas" Addams
that ran for decades in the New Yorker magazine, The Addams
Family television sitcom portrayed a monster family whose
moribund physical appearances were counteracted by each family
member's exuberance for passion and adventure. This Volume Two
DVD contains twenty-one episodes, including the last of season
one and the whole of season two, plus commentaries, and a
featurette about the cinematic impact The Addams Family had on
American television culture. Premiering the same year as The
Munsters, this short-lived series was one of the first two shows
to take issue with the Leave It To Beaver aesthetic that
dominated television throughout the 50s, in which perfect
families narrowly defined normality in the American home.
Instead, it starred a family feared by neighbors, who within the
boundaries of their haunted Victorian mansion invented their own
thriving, not to mention fun, culture. The Addams Family proved
that outsiders could be extremely gracious, educated, and
interesting, even if eccentricities rendered their looks a
threat.
These episodes include the original cast: Gomez (John Astin) and
Morticia (Carolyn Jones), Uncle Fester (Jackie Coogan), the two
children Wednesday and Pugley, butler Lurch, hairy Cousin Itt,
and the enigmatic hand, Thing, who plays castanets for the
married couples' cha cha parties, and looks up things in phone
books. Macabre humor in each episode reverses average, expected
logic. Flower arranging, for Morticia, involves de-budding and
stripping roses of all but the thorns. In "Morticia, The
Sculptress," Gomez bribes a local art dealer to buy Morticia's
hideous art at the Addams Family's own expense, revealing Gomez
to be a strange but loving husband. In most episodes, such as
"Lurch, The Teenage Idol" and "Cousin Itt and the Vocational
Counselor," The Addams' to help their loved ones succeed, in
these cases Lurch, as a harpsichord-playing pop star, and Itt, on
a career search for an unintelligible, hair-covered little
person. The Addams Family house interior still looks exquisite
forty years later, full of taxidermied animals, antique
furniture, carnivorous s, and medieval charm. One watches
this show not only for its sets and costumes, but also for its
refreshingly wide take on what successful families can look like.
--Trinie Dalton
The Addams Family Volume Three
Product description: The Addams Family is not your typical
family: they take delight in most of the things that "normal"
people would be terrified of. Relive the misadventures of
Americas favorite frightfully funny family.