15 Things You Never Knew About the ‘Addams Family’

Surprisingly, The Addams Family was only on air as a TV show for two years from 1964 to 1966, but it’s popularity never really dimmed. Back then, two seasons constituted 64 half-hour episodes, so there was enough fodder there for the show to become a cultural icon with the snappiest theme song in TV history. It ended up spawning movies, cartoons, comics, and a Broadway musical. Here are some facts about the original show that you might not have heard before.

1. Before the show there was actually a print cartoon

Prior to the television show, creator Charles Addams had a single-panel cartoon in the New Yorker that began in 1937. Some of the macabre characters would later make their way into the TV show. The ghoulish Addams had a home full of weapons. “I have this fantasy. A robber breaks into my apartment and just as he comes through the door, I get him — right through the neck. Always through the neck.”