Munsters or Addams Family? My boy wants to know...

Addams.

 

.............................You oughta alternate Lurch saying "You rang?" with Bob Denver as Maynard G. Krebs(as the beatnik bongo boy on The Dobie Gillis Show) and his trademark "You rang?" on your sound file.

 

I found that the Munsters were goofy whereas the Addams Family were cool.

 

MUNSTERS were best in my book.

 

For some reason "The Munsters" seems less dated to me than "The Addams Family".

 

Addams Family because they were not "monsters" merely eccentric in the extreme. They had more of an edge because it was not clear how they became the way they were.

The Munsters were fun, but more predictable.

 

Halloween bump for the eternal question.

My breakdown:

Herman = Gomez
Lilly < Morticia
Grandpa = Fester
Eddie > Pugsley and Wednesday (both Addams kids were absent or downplayed in many episodes)
Munster's home < Addam's home
Munster's car > Addam's car (barely seen)
Spot < Thing
Munster's theme > Addam's theme

Lurch and Cousin Itt have no real counterparts and they were awesome. Bonus point for the Addams.

Marilyn #1 turning into Marilyn #2 mid-season? Bonus point to the Munsters for unintentional weirdness.

Munsters had better cameos (Paul Lynde, Harvey Korman, Leo Durosher, THE STANDELLS). Bonus point.

Munsters shot five more episodes and had the decency to change up their theme song arrangement (from gothic to surf!) and opening sequence for the second season. Bonus point.

Munsters by a nose.

 

So cool that he likes both. I give the slight edge to The Munsters.

 

When I was a kid is was definitely the Addams Family. Now I appreviate the Munsters more and it's a tie, which is odd because the Addams Family is more adult humor.

 

I own The Munsters on DVD. I don't even want TAF.

 

I watched both, I loved both, but then and now the Addams Family easily comes out on top as most consistently entertaining. Getting past the great theme song, I can pretty easily pare down The Munsters to about 4 or 5 episodes I enjoy seeing multiple times.... most of them involve showing the vehicles off. Almost every Addams episode is enjoyable in its own right with extra bonus points when Cousin It shows up, or Lurch plays harpsichord.

 

You know, Munsters is more slapstick, but Addams Family is more bizarre. They're both pretty good.

I'm amazed that Charles Addams and ABC weren't able to sue the crap out of CBS over Munsters, but I think the idea of a weird horror-character family is impossible to copyright. As Wikipedia says:

There are some superficial similarities between The Munsters and Addams Family in that both were shows with a Gothic look that featured families of horror-movie characters incongruent with their mainstream suburban communities. However, the two shows were quite different in tone and characterization. Overall, the characters of The Addams Family were wealthy eccentrics who generally stayed at home, while the Munsters were a blue-collar and generally outgoing family of legendary monsters.

Universal might actually have the edge, since the article says that animator Bob Clampett approached them with an idea to do a cartoon family based on all the classic Universal Monster characters in the late 1940s. On the other hand... New Yorker cartoonist Charles Addams had been doing his strange cartoons about the family since 1938, so his idea might beat them.

I have to agree that the funniest bit in The Munsters is when Marilyn will introduce her new boyfriend to her strange family, and the moment they enter there's a blur, a whoosh, and the door slams... and the boyfriend is gone. Very funny running gag.

 

I loved the Munsters, but I never found The Addams Family funny . . . at all.

 

THE MUNSTERS for me -- yesterday, today, and always!

 

The Addams Family.
I never really cared for The Ministers, even as a kid.

 

Munsters was more fun

 

Loved em both, like SHOKHEAD said...Both had HOT!! Wives...

 

Both. But Herman was my favorite character.

 

I prefer The Munsters.

 

That then begs the question; which wife was hotter?

 

This should have been a poll!
I always liked the Addams Family better. Much wittier then The Munsters.
The Addams family was Mad, the Munsters were Cracked. <- Oldster reference

 

both and they both had movies too

 

Well, that's because the Addams' were rich and the Munsters were decidedly middle class.

I think I prefer the Munsters. The car and the comedic duo of Fred Gwenn and Al Lewis push it over the top.

 

Very hard to choose:

The Addams Family: Actually based on cartoons by Charles Addams, so it has a sort of "authenticity" to it. Most of the characters are hilarious and memorable, particularly Gomez, Morticia, Lurch, Uncle Fester, Thing, and Cousin Itt (When I was a toddler, I used it put my blanket over my head and then put on my Dad's glasses over the blanket and pretend to be Cousin Itt). The excessive familial affection and genteel manners of the family, especially Morticia, is such a brilliant contrast to the horror-movie appearance.

The Munsters: To me, Fred Gwynne just makes this show. He's hysterical. I just remember his voice in my head and I smile. Then you've got Eddie Munster with the distinctive werewolf hairdo. Al Lewis as Grandpa is an iconic TV image. And the whole contrast with the Addams family (Addams family are wealthy while Munsters are blue-collar) is cool.

I want to say that the Munsters was just sillier than the Addams Family, but when I give it some thought I don't know that I can say that honestly. They were both pretty off the wall. In the final analysis, I have to give the edge to the Munsters because of the brilliant John Astin. His performance is electric and he's one of the very best comedians to appear on television. But I wish to heck that they'd have done an Addams/Munsters crossover - Astin and Gwynne together would have been hilarious!

 

Oh, great. Here I am responding to a thread from 2007. The kid in question is probably in grad school by now.