They're All Together Ooky

When I was a kid, television shows came in pairs: The Partridge Family versus The Brady Bunch, Star Trek versus Battlestar Galactica, All in the Family versus Sanford and Son, and The Munsters versus The Addams Family. For the sake of simplicity, if a show was popular, the formula would be re-drawn and modified only ever-so-slightly. But to come up with a lasting brand that was capable of multiple re-imaginings, that was gold.

Obviously, the sci-fi shows were incredibly successful in that regard. Still. But we never saw a Sanford and Son spin-off, did we? Certainly no movie. Sad as that is.  

The Addams Family, though, that's a solid product line right there. And it was always my pick over those silly old Munsters. Starting out as a cartoon, created by Charles Addams and printed in The New Yorker beginning in 1938 until he died in 1988, the original The Addams Family TV series actually only ran for two seasons, 1964-66. A weak, re-cast pilot for a spin-off, The Addams Family Fun-House, aired in late 1972, but we can just skip right on over that misstep. A 1977 reunion show, Halloween with the New Addams Family, brought the original cast back together save an ailing Blossom Rock (Grandmama).

Two Addams-related films made bank in the '90s and a third was in the works when Raúl Juliá (the contemporary Gomez) passed away. There was also a direct-to-video piece that was supposed to be a pilot for a new series, but ended up not being and so like that. But then there was a new version for television in 1998. Creatively titled The New Addams Family, it reworked a bunch of storylines and aired on Fox Family. Add in two animated shows, a pinball machine, and six – count them, SIX – video games, and, well, you see why buying some stock in the brand might have been a swell idea back in 1938.

But, nooooo, that's not enough Addams' world domination. Now there's going to be an Addams Family musical debuting on Broadway next March. I totally get Bebe Neuwirth as Morticia, but I'm not sure I'm buying Nathan Lane as her lusty spouse. I mean, I like him fine, but he's no John Astin. And he's certainly no Redd Foxx (who, I've just learned, was actually named John Elroy Sanford).

Despite my casting critique, I hope this musical does the original series proper justice. Or maybe not. It could be a bad harbinger because I'm not sure I want to see Star Trek on the Great White Way.