Their house is a museum — and now it's on wheels!
First Animated Adaptation of the altogether-ooky clan. Produced by Hanna-Barbera after their guest appearance on The New Scooby-Doo Movies, this animated series ran on NBC Saturday mornings from 1973 to 1975 and featured an 8-year-old Jodie Foster as Pugsley. It is based off the New Yorker cartoons by Charles Addams and the 1960s sitcom of the same name. In the cartoon, the Addamses travel in the Creepy Camper, a mobile version of their house resembling the Creepy Coupe from Wacky Races.
For the 1992 animated series, see The Addams Family (1992). For the 2019 film, see The Addams Family (2019).
Tropes:
- Accidental Hero: On some occasions, the family is helping people without even realizing it.
- "The Circus Story": though the family agreed to help the struggling owner of a failing circus by being performers, they end up ruining the corrupt competition simply by heading over to that circus and unintentionally scaring away the patrons with their usual behavior.
- "The Addams Family at Sea": Gomez mistook a pair of thieves as the owners of the cruise liner they were on. After they escaped with the passengers' possessions, Gomez wanted to buy the ship and his search to find the thieves caused the authorities to stumble onto them.
- Advertised Extra: Cousin Itt is seen in the opening credits, but only appears in a handful of episodes.
- Animated Adaptation: The first animated series of the Addams Family, following their guest appearance on The New Scooby-Doo Movies.
- Comic-Book Adaptation: Had its own comic book published by Gold Key Comics. It ran for three issues.
- Creepy Family: Well, the franchise is based around the concept of a family that is weird and sinister.
- Creepy Good: As ever, the whole family. As off-putting they can be to those they encounter, they typically befriend the sympathetic characters (be it a circus owner with financial troubles or a roller derby team constantly being cheated) and help them out of jams.
- Laugh Track: Just like the 60s live-action television series (and pretty much almost every other Hanna-Barbera cartoon in the 70's), this animated version has one.
- Mythology Gag: The character designs are based more on how the Addamses appeared in Charles Addams' original New Yorker cartoons than how they were depicted in the 1960's live-action television series.
- Poorly Disguised Pilot: The Addams Family's aforementioned guest appearance on The New Scooby-Doo Movies may have been done to test the waters for this series.
- Snakes Are Sinister: "The Circus Story" zigzags it. The people at the corrupt circus try to trap Gomez and Morticia with a bunch of snakes as part of a blackmail stunt. Though the snakes initially appear fearsome, they turn docile in the face of Gomez and Morticia fawning all over them and playing them charms. The two then collect these nice snakes to show them to others at the circus, leading to a panic.
- Walking the Earth: Well, driving, but each episode has the family arriving at a new location for a new adventure.
