‘The Addams Family’ Turns 60, With Scary Secrets That Made Things Creepy For The Cast

The Addams Family has crept up on 60 years since its television debut and it’s the ultimate testament to its staying power that it’s still revered decades later. For its first run, viewers enjoyed 64 episodes across two seasons, which doesn’t sound like much but the entire cast and crew made every minute count – and they did it while navigating some surprising road bumps and setting up some big TV firsts along the way.

The real founder of the Addams family is cartoonist Charles Addams, who penned both their appearances and their misadventures—though, for a time, not their names or backstories. That all got fleshed out in the show to great effect, making The Addams Family show that premiered in 1964 incredibly influential to this day thanks to the gothic subculture, plenty of revenue opportunities, and iconic stock characters who shared some surprising similarities with their respective actors. Here’s what makes The Addams Family so special 60 years later.

‘The Addams Family’ remains a treasure 60 years later thanks to its cast, but almost looked quite different

For many, Carolyn Jones remains the definitive face of the willowy Morticia Addams, and it’s easy to see why Gomez was so head-over-heels for her. This enduring affection all around was actually something of a foregone conclusion. That’s because Carolyn was Charles Addams’ personal choice to play Morticia. The fondness was mutual, as Carolyn was a huge fan of his cartoons and the two managed to spark an earnest friendship.

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While it’s too often fans hear that on-screen couples loathed each other when the cameras stopped rolling, this was blessedly not the case for The Addams Family when it came to the lead couple. John Astin, known as Gomez Addams, became fast friends with Carolyn, making it easy to portray his tireless compassion for her.

In fact, sincerity was a huge factor in how Astin played Gomez. While teaching theater students in 2014, he admitted that he injected much of his own personality into Gomez. He advised the next generation of thespians to “go into yourself so that what you say is genuine.”

This makes it all the more shocking that Astin, so earnest and fitting a Gomez, “originally tested for the role of Lurch,” according to Edward K. Cooper, author of It’s the Addams Family: Tribute to the Kooky Series. Developer David Levy saw who Astin was meant to play, however, and redirected Astin, then said they would cast the rest from there. Ultimately, the role of Lurch was in good hands with Ted Cassidy, who ad-libbed the memorable “You rang?” line; on top of that, his deep voice was so unique that the showrunners made sure to keep it around as much as possible.

The series was creative, groundbreaking, and influential, despite having some dangerous moments

As iconic as the character designs were, so too were the props they handled, from Wednesday’s dress to Morticia’s shamisen—those melodious strings are as scarily good as ever. Of course, there was also Gomez’s cigar, which Astin would pocket while it was still lit. But fear not; the prop department coated the pocket in a substance that would extinguish the fire: good old toxic asbestos.

Astin ultimately dropped cigar-smoking after the show’s own flame went out—for a time, anyway. But there was another profound dilemma from the program that was much harder to ignore, but even this wasn’t quite as big an issue for the passionate cast as it would be for others. Reruns, residuals, and episode payments generated about $141,276, or $1,073,074 in today’s dollars. However, the actors only benefitted from part of that; Astin revealed that the actors did not profit from reruns. “In those days, we got paid for five reruns, and that was it,” he explained. “People ask me, ‘Aren’t you disappointed?’ You know, one is an actor primarily—at least, I am—because he wants to communicate with people. I want to spread whatever feeling or message or encouragement there is. Who can ask for more than that if it continues? That’s much more important than money.”

The Addams Family flipped the script on horror, making the normal people the outsiders and frightening oddballs of the Addams’ world. It shamelessly depicted a married couple still as openly in love as the day they said “I do,” without any hint of that saddening regretful, miserable spouse brand of humor. This makes it at once understandable and shocking that The New Yorker didn’t want to be associated with the show and refused to run the cartoon while it was on air, despite hosting the characters since 1938.

Fortunately for us fans, The Addams Family proved to be so much bigger than anyone could have even imagined, even after the 1964 original show ended, and to this day it is perhaps one of the most iconic, recognizable live-action programs out there. Here’s to another 60 years of spooky, kooky greatness from The Addams Family.