The Addams Family SECRETS FROM THE SET

CLOSER LOOKS BACK ON THE BELOVED TV CLASSIC AS IT MARKS A MAJOR MILESTONE

- Ron Kelly, Lindsay Hoffman

They ’re mysterious and spooky, and The Addams Family will soon be celebrating 60 years of charming audiences come September. “Kids are drawn to the kooky characters,” Edward K. Cooper, author of It’s the Addams Family: Tribute to the Kooky Series, tells Closer, but “there’s a lot of subliminal humor that goes on that I think makes it appealing to lots of different audiences.”

While its clever setups — thanks to producer/head writer Nat Perrin, who’d worked with Groucho Marx — still tickle audiences today, there’s a lot about the series many fans might not know. For example, Charles Addams, the illustrator whose New Yorker cartoons came to life in the series, had some wild name ideas for his characters. “He wanted Rapelli for Gomez,” Cooper shares, “and he suggested Pubert for Pugsley, but the censors and the network felt that wasn’t a great name for a family show.”