"THE ADDAMS FAMILY: VOLUME 2"
DVD Review
by Rachel Buccicone
| MOVIE: ***1/2 (out of 5 stars)
DVD EXPERIENCE: **** (out of 5 stars) STARRING Carolyn Jones as MORTICIA John Astin as GOMEZ Ted Cassidy as LURCH Jackie Coogan as UNCLE FESTER Marie Blake as GRANDMA ADDAMS Lisa Loring as WEDNESDAY Ken Weatherwax as PUGSLEY Not Rated Studio: MGM Produced by David Levy Back to DVD Review Home |  |
They’re baaaack! Volume two of “The Addams Family” provides the next 21 episodes from seasons one and two during 1965. The show only continued to increase in hilarity as it developed further during this year.
Based on the cartoons of Charles Addams, “The Addams Family” is an ordinary 60’s show about an absolutely unordinary family. Their large Victorian home may be filled with strange and morbid oddities, but to the Addams it’s home. Gomez and Morticia live with their children Pugsley and Wednesday, Uncle Fester, Grandma Addams, Lurch the butler, and animated hand called Thing.
Although their daily lives are based on normality, this family is anything but. Gomez’s hobby is playing with train sets…and blowing them up. Morticia takes pride in caring for her poisonous plants. Aristotle is Pugsley’s pet octopus. Wednesday delights in her pet spiders and decapitated Marie Antoinette doll. Lurch looks more like a corpse than a butler, Uncle Fester’s mouth functions like an electrical outlet, and Grandma Addams has a talent for cooking with cyanide.
The thirty-minute episodes feature the family’s adventures and encounters with the outside world. Everyone with which they come in contact is reasonably frightened but the Addams only think their behavior strange. Several episodes during the second year are focused on specific members of the family: Thing, Lurch, Uncle Fester, and Cousin Itt. We see some real Addams talent with Lurch’s stint as a pop star, Gomez and Fester’s perfect imitation harpsichord, and Morticia’s interest in sculpture.
“The Addams Family” is a clever and funny American classic. Having inspired movies, animated series, and additional live-action series and specials, “The Addams Family” has a considerable fan following. The stories are comical, often reflecting occurrences that every family encounters, but because the Addams aren’t every family, hilarity ensues.
ABC’s “The Addams Family” ran during the same three years as CBS’s “The Munsters”. Unlike its competition, “The Addams Family” was more sophisticated than “The Munsters” slapstick.
This second volume of “The Addams Family” comes with plentiful bonus material. Several episodes may be viewed with commentary by Cousin Itt and Thing, while others offer commentary with Stephen Cox, author of “The Addams Chronicles”. Mad About the Addams is a featurette of experts who discuss the social impact of the show. Guest Star Séance is an interactive extra that allows the use of a crystal ball to conjure trivia and guest star clips. Lastly, the episode “Morticia’s Romance, Part 1” contains Tombstone Trivia.
Anyone who enjoyed “The Addams Family” as a child would consider this DVD a keepsake and it certainly offers bonus material any fan would cherish. This would also be worth the buy of anyone who has enjoyed the movies and more recent series, but who were unable to witness the show first hand. “The Addams Family” is a timeless classic and is certainly still funny today.
Specifications: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. Full Frame (1.33:1). English, Spanish and French Language Tracks. English and Spanish Subtitles.
