The Addams Family or The Munsters?

The Addams Family and the Munsters were two creepy, weird comedy TV shows of the 1960s - but which was the creepier? Make your mind up with a look at our two Freaky Families, and take the quiz if you dare!

Ran: 1964-1966 Episodes: 64 x 30 minutes Network: ABC

The Addams Family was a comedy show about an unusual family who lived in a spooky mansion at 000 North Cemetery Ridge. They embraced all that was sinister and morbid and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. The series was was based on the cartoon strip in the New Yorker by Charles Addams.

Gomez Addams is a very rich lawyer who looks like a Chicago Gangster from the 1920s. Wife Morticia would cut the heads off flowers and put the stalks into a vase. She also 'smoked' without a cigarette. Children Pugsley and Wednesday played with instruments of torture and dug up the bodies in their own cemetary. Uncle Fester, Gomez' brother, dressed like a monk and lit lightbulbs by putting them in his mouth. Grandma, was a witch, Cousin It was a mass of long shiny hair and unintelligible speech. Lurch the slow moving, Frankenstein's Monster-like butler and Thing the disembodied hand completed the regular cast.

The Addams Family Cast:

Gomez Addams................John Astin

Morticia Addams...............Carolyn Jones

Uncle Fester.....................Jackie Coogan

Pugsley Addams...............Ken Weatherwax

Wednesday Addams.........Lisa Loring

Grandma Addams............ Blossom Rock

Cousin It............................Felix Silla

Lurch................................Ted Cassidy

Charles Samuel Addams, known to his friends as 'Chill', was born in Westfield, New Jersey, and was distantly related to U.S. presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams, also first cousin twice removed to social reformer Jane Addams.

Addams grew up in a town with several old mansions of the kind he was later to immortalize, and had a fascination for the macabre. Drawing was a talent Addams had since childhood; he joined the layout department of True Detective magazine in 1932; his job was to sanitize bloody photos of corpses so that they were acceptable to be published in the magazine. Later, his famous cartoon characters were developed for the New Yorker magazine.

TV Producer David Levy approached Addams to enhance his characters for a TV show he was planning, and so the Addams Family were brought to the small screen.

Charles Addams died of a heart attack on September 29, 1988, at St. Clare's Hospital and Health Center in New York City.

Ran: 1964-1966 Episodes: 70 x 30 minutes Network: CBS

The Munsters was a studio creation by Norm Liebmann and Ed Haas from a script by Chris Hayward and Al Burns. It was a comedy show about an ordinary family at 1313 Mockingbird Lane - except people who met them always ran away screaming! Herman Munster resembled Frankenstein's Monster - and was as soft as he was clumsy. Wife Lily was supportive and encouraging. Grandpa was a vampire - he often hung upside down in a cupboard. Son Eddy looked like a werewolf. Niece Marilyn was - a beauty - and the others all sympathized with her lack of good looks! It was often because she was attractive that brought outsiders into the house - and out again or out cold when they met the rest of the family!

The Munsters Cast

Hermann Munster................Fred Gwynne

Lily Munster.........................Yvonne De Carlo

Eddie...................................Butch Patrick

Marilyn.................................Beverley Owen, later Pat Priest

Grandpa..............................Al Lewis

Which Show Do You Prefer and Why?

Happy Halloween!