NEW Vol. 2 (DVD)

Picking up where Volume One left off, The Addams Family - Volume Two ends the show's first season with the remaining 12 Season One episodes, and starts the second season with the first 9 Season Two episodes. The 2nd of 3 cost-friendly volumes, The Addams Family - Volume Two is a 3-disc (546 min.) set which features Full Frame (1.33:1) video; English, French (on select episodes) and Spanish mono audio; English and Spanish subtitles. Here are how the discs will be configured, plus a list of extras:

Disc 1 Side A:
1. Thing is Missing
2. Crisis in the Addams Family
3. Lurch and His Harpsichord
4. Morticia, the Breadwinner

Disc 1 Side B:
5. The Addams Family and the Spaceman
6. My Son, the Chimp
7. Morticia's Favorite Charity
8. Progress and the Addams Family

Disc 2 Side A:
9. Uncle Fester's Toupee
10. Cousin Itt and the Vocational Counselor
11. Lurch, the Teenage Idol
12. The Winning of Morticia Addams

Disc 2 Side B:
13. My Fair Cousin Itt
14. Morticia's Romance, Part 1
15. Morticia's Romance, Part 2
16. Morticia Meets Royalty

Disc 3 Side A:
17. Gomez, the People's Choice
18. Cousin Itt's Problem
19. Halloween, Addams Style
20. Morticia, the Writer

Disc 3 Side B:
21. Morticia, the Sculptress

Special Features:
* Commentary: On select scenes by Thing and Cousin Itt
* Commentary: On "Morticia Meets Royalty" by Steven Cox, author of "The Addams Chronicles"
* Featurette: "Mad About The Addams"
* Tombstone Trivia: On "Morticia's Romance" (Part I)
* Bonus: Guest Star Seance with Parley Baer, Milton Frome, Vito Scotti, Elizabeth Frazer, Richard Deacon, Sig Ruman, Margaret Hamilton, Elvia Allman, Eddie Quillan and Peter Bonerz

The Addams Family - Volume Two
March 27th!

Two Snaps Up!

I have reviewed a fair number of DVD sets that collect TV series, and have tried to focus on the original content while disregarding the larger aspects of the DVD package. After all, the majority of fans buy these packages for the original episodes, and DVD bonus items are usually inconsequential gravy. I even discussed this same matter in my review for Addams Family Volume 1. But alas, for Volume 2, I am compelled to break my own rules and dock the DVD package one star for reasons that have nothing to do with the greatness of the original episodes. MGM must be criticized for stretching the two original seasons into three DVD releases, regardless of their PR about making each set more affordable. What really creates the expense is the addition of modern bonus material, and here, that material is so thin and weak that it reveals, harshly, MGM's real motives for putting the Addams Family show on DVD. The key bonus item is a brief and poorly-produced documentary on a squishy subject - the influence of the show on pop culture - with most of the commentary coming from C-list cronies and hangers-on who crowd out the under-utilized John Astin. The other bonus items here are even less useful, including unfunny "commentary" on a few episodes by stand-ins for Thing and Cousin Itt, and a feature called "Tombstone Trivia" on a couple of episodes, which is merely pop-up tidbits that appear on the screen an average of once every several minutes.

So beware that your love of the classic Addams Family show is being manipulated by modern cheaply-created corporate filler. As for the show itself, hopefully it will still be easy for you to love the episodes that are presented here. Rest assured that these episodes still brutally satirize the typical middle-American sitcom family and subversively reveal much deeper family values. These episodes also feature many crucial character developments. Important advancements include "Morticia Meets Royalty" in which Thing falls in love, and "Lurch the Teenage Idol" in which our faithful butler accidentally becomes a rock star. The highlight of this package is surely the two-part "Morticia's Romance," in which the sexy Carolyn Jones manages to be fetching in three different ways - as the present Morticia, the younger Morticia, and her sister Ophelia. That episode also features Margaret (Wicked Witch of the West) Hamilton as Morticia's mother. As noted above, I have broken my own rule about ignoring modern DVD packaging practices while assessing only the original content. But here, try not to let your love for the episodes be damaged by the weaknesses of the package. [~doomsdayer520~]

The Addams Family TV show was based on a series of cartoons started back in the 1930's and authored by Charles Addams for the New Yorker. Whether or not Addams intended for there to be some kind of Depression-era message on the idle rich being scary in more ways than one I do not know, but it does seem like that is one of the messages trying to come through all the dark humor. What I do know is that a show this offbeat and creative would never get aired on network TV today, and even if it did, the minute it got successful the network suits would start tinkering with it and ruin it. If you need an example of this phenomena, I point you in the direction of Lost. Back in the mid 1960's, TV seasons were actually so long - basically running week in and week out for nine months - that you would often end up with over 30 episodes a season, thus the odd format of the Addams Family DVDs not breaking at individual seasons.

The Addams' are portrayed as a close knit and happy family - in fact they rarely have contact with outsiders other than the children attending school. They appear completely human, but they eat food that seems completely inedible by any normal human being and they each have their own peculiar qualities that seem beyond those of normal humans such as Uncle Fester's ability to generate electricity. If they do have visitors, they are usually other family members from some remote area who display these same characteristics. The show never explains the origin of the Addams' or their great wealth - that's just part of their intrigue. The standout episodes in this volume are "Thing is Missing", which appears to be a spoof of The Maltese Falcon; "Lurch The Teenage Idol" which pokes fun of the early Beatles and similar rock bands; "Cousin Itt's Problem" in which Itt is losing his hair; and "Halloween - Addams Style" which shows us how the Addams' celebrate this holiday and all the misunderstandings that come along when trick-or-treaters show up at their house.