The Addams Family (RECAST)

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's creepy and it's kookie, and it's a podcast. Hope
we can hear that. I hope the noise filter didn't
knock that out. But hello, and welcome to Geek History Lesson.
I am Ashley Victoria Robinson. You have stumbled into the
haunted house that is this podcast where a Canadian comic
book writer myself and a television writer from Kansas, mister

(00:22):
Jason Inman, teach you everything you need to know about
a character in about an hour. And we are on
the cusp of getting Wednesday season two. We love all
things Adams Family here in the Mind University, and so
in celebration of Wednesday Too about season two about to
hit Netflix, we are recasting our og Adams Family, because

(00:47):
did you know that the Adams Family started life as
a comic book before it became a multimedia franchise. We
start with the New Yorker and we go all the
way to the Hollywood Walk of Fame. So we're gonna
get on our cousin at Garb. We're gonna lob some
head off some roses. We're gonna move to that amazing
house up on the corner. We're gonna get a little
creepy and kooky. This episode take it away past Jason

(01:10):
and past Ashley. We're Patty and we're Cassidy and sometimes
texts Gassie your GHL will be on The Adams Family. Hello,
and welcome to Geek History Lesson. I'm Ashley Victoria Robinson,
and I'm Jason the Thing in Men. Welcome to your
Mind University. That is a title because this is a

(01:31):
podcast where you can learn, observe high pot and eyes
and all those crazy scientific terms to figure out things
about pop culture. Because this is the podcast where we
give you everything you need to know about a TV show,
a cartoon, and a couple of live action movies in
a little bit less than an hour. And today we
are talking about who Ashley, We're talking about the Adams Family. Yeah,

(01:54):
so weird.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
They have been cartoons, they have been comics, they have
been comic strips, they have been live action movies, they
have been toys, and now they're going to be in
a new and.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
Animated movie opening at the time of this recording this week.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
Yeah. Are you excited for it?

Speaker 1 (02:10):
Yes, I'm the only person in the world excited for
this movie. You see, It'll be good. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
The Adam's Family is an interesting pop culture construct because
it has been all around and all kinds of mediums.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
It's a term.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
That I mean, everybody knows who the Adams family are.
I think so, but they're not around anymore.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
They're kind of gone.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
They go in these waves, man, because in the nineties
they came back real big.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
They were huge in the nineties, in the early off
and I.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
Think in the world of hot topic they would kill
I agree. Can't imagine how many peop would dress up
as more tishe if that suit the Gomez suit, put
that in a.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
Big square pinstripe suit.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
That's right, Speaking of wearing cool suits and doing all
kinds of things. Guys, we want to tell you if
you are going to Los Angeles Comic Con, which is
going to be this weekend at the time of this
recording October eleventh through the thirteenth, Ashley and I are
going to be there. We have a couple of panels.
We're going to be there on Sunday, October thirteenth, on

(03:10):
twenty nineteen. We have three panels where you can meet us,
talk to us, say hi to us. One of them
is a geek Hisssory Lesson Live Actually, what are these
panels that we're doing on Sunday, October thirteenth at La
Comic Con at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
So the first one is at eleven AM. It is
how to Write Sci Fi Fiction based on Real Science,
where we will be joined by some fellow comic book
writers to talk about our new comic book Science Elements
of Dark Energy and how we crafted that story. We're
answering questions at the end of all of these, so
come with your questions, come with your comments. Then at
one pm you can catch us doing Geek History lesson

(03:46):
Live Flash versus Arrow in Room three six AB. We
are going to be joined by Colleider Staples, Jay Washington,
and John Rocca and Celes Klaus will be joining us.
We're going to be debating which of the shows is
better and why in a friendly way. We're also assuming
everything goes well recording that episode, so hopefully everyone will

(04:07):
be hearing that at a later date. And then in
the same room at two pm, we are doing Indie
Comic Secrets, how to run a successful Kickstarter, where we
talk about making your own comic books in this amazing
new world. And Charlie Stickney, who is famed for his
white ash sherries, will be joining us for that. So
we have three panels almost right in a row on Sunday.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
So yes, if you're going to La Comic Con from
October eleventh to the thirteenth, we will be there on
the thirteenth. I'll also be there on the twelfth. I
have a small panel at five pm. I'm certain I'll
have it over social media. But at the Los Angeles
Convention Center October eleventh to the thirteenth. Who will be
there thirteenth. I know many people have reached out to
us and they're like, Hey, I want to say hi
to you. Hey, can I get a copy of Super

(04:51):
Soldier signed, all the kinds of stuff like that. The
best places to do that would be either before or
after any of these panels. But we also want you
to come to these panels. I think they're going to
be pretty great. Yeah, they're gonna be great.

Speaker 1 (05:02):
So cool. All right.

Speaker 2 (05:03):
Now for that, we're going to move into the ten
cent origin of the Adams Family.

Speaker 1 (05:09):
As Jason.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
That is where we take the cliff Notes version of
everything you need to know about the Adams family and
tell you in case you are invited over to the
Adams family mansion, and at that cocktail party, cousin Itch
goes cousin, who I said, I meant it, My mouth
didn't work.

Speaker 1 (05:27):
Back off internet, Jason, I'm the Internet actually gives the
tenant order. The Adams Family is, of course, a famous
cartoon franchise created by Charles Adams. If you haven't checked
him out, the first image that comes up of him
is him sitting in front of a suit of armor,
but he's wearing the helmet from the suit of armor,
looking appropriately eccentric. Highly recommend fun fact. He is a

(05:50):
distant relative of the United States presidents John Adams and
John Quincy Adams, even though he spells his surname with
two d's and they only spell it with one d.
Here's my favorite fun fact about Charles Adams. In nineteen
thirty three, he joined the layout department of True Detective magazine,
where he had to retouch photos of corpses that appeared

(06:10):
in the magazine stories because they told true crime stories.
And he'd complained that quote there was a lot of
those corpses were more interesting the way they were before
I retouched them, because he had to make them less
gory all right. The Adams Family cartoons were originally developed
for The New Yorker, and they debuted in nineteen thirty

(06:32):
eight and ran until nineteen eighty eight, when Charles Adams
passed away. He drew hundreds of thousands of comics for
The New Yorker. The Adams Family only appear in exactly
one hundred and fifty of them, and they are described
as a satirical inversion of the ideal twentieth century American family,

(06:53):
an odd, wealthy, aristocratic clan who delight in the macabre
and the seemingly unaware, or do not care that other
people find them bizarre or frightening. I guess they are aristocratic,
but I never think rich. They are upper class. I
never think about that. Well, it's because they don't act bougie,
right well?

Speaker 2 (07:10):
Or is it because their mansions never clean? It's full
of cobw in.

Speaker 1 (07:13):
It's that's what they like, right, So again, the inversion
of what one would expect. Okay, cool, Can you name
all members of the Adams family. Okay, I'm gonna ask
you really quickly here, by all members, do you mean
I got a name my grandpa and com like the
main one two, three, four, five, six, the main cast. Okay, cool, cool, cool,
because I was like, there are a lot of weirdos there.
There are hundreds of Adams.

Speaker 2 (07:34):
Yes, it's Gomez is the dad. More Titia's the wife.
Wednesday is oldest, she's older than them, and then Pugsley
is the brother. Then there's Uncle Fester who's not in everyone.
There's Lurch the butler, and then I believe it's Grandma, Grandmama, Grandmama. Yes,
I wasn't certain if that's.

Speaker 1 (07:53):
You're missing one member.

Speaker 2 (07:54):
Well if I mean, if there's two members that I
would consider in listless, but I don't know which one
you're thinking about. I mean there is Thing, the butler,
who is the walking around hand, and there is Cousin it.

Speaker 1 (08:07):
Cousin it would be the other one, but he rarely appears.
So the adams Is have appeared in one short film,
four full length feature films, four network television shows, two
television specials, two musicals, one pinball machine, and one video game.
And do we want to talk about the penm MA
machine now? No, we'll talk about it later, okay. And

(08:29):
Angelica Houston portrayed Martitia Adams twice in live action and
she was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actress
both of those times, which I think is really really cool. Wow. Yeah,
so that is your ten cent origin of the Adams Family.
Now let's move into the meat cute. The meat cute
is where Ashley and I are going to tell you
where we first meeted and cuted this property, the Adams Family.

(08:51):
And you know, it's a term that we stole frommantic comedies.
This has nothing romantic nor comedy. Well, guess a lot
of comedy. Ashley, Where'd you first discover Adams Family? I mean,
for me, it was the nineties cartoon. I be a
familiar to Adams. Yes, I think I'm older than the cartoon,
but I would have been a little, tiny infant when

(09:13):
it started. So that was my first introduction to the family.
And then, like all girls who self identify as weird,
Wednesday became a favorite character of mine in a real
touchstone growing up. But I have consumed I think the
Adams zz is in every medium in which they are
currently available, besides the new movie, which we haven't seen

(09:33):
at the time of this recording. But yeah, it was
the nineties cartoon of course. How about you? What's your
meat cute for the Adams Family.

Speaker 2 (09:38):
Apologies, I was trying to google the year that the
nineties cartoon ninety.

Speaker 1 (09:43):
Two ninety two. Yes, there you go it because it
technically spins out of the first movie. Yes it has
two seasons. Yep.

Speaker 2 (09:50):
Yes, it's great for me, it's the for me. I
knew about the movie first, but I didn't get to
see the movie until after a cartoon and the same
ninety two ninety three cartoon, and I remember, yeah, like
you know that theme song. It's pretty amazing. Both movies
are great. I remember the If anybody knows what I'm

(10:13):
talking about when I say a syndicated television show, you
know where your local affiliates by a certain number of
TV shows, like The Andy Griffith Show or Happy Days whatever. Frazier,
I don't know why I said Happy Days.

Speaker 1 (10:26):
I don't know. I said it like that.

Speaker 2 (10:27):
Because it's happy anyways. Because of the success of the
first movie, and I will look up. I don't know
if you're going to have the box office totals of that, but.

Speaker 1 (10:35):
Oh I do. I have a lot of stats about
the movie great because they're huge.

Speaker 2 (10:40):
The one of the local stations, I believe there was
the local NBC affiliate. I think it was KSN in Jofa, Missouri,
where I was one of the channels I can come up.
I remember, I believe is them. I remember one of
those stations bought the original black and White Adams Family
TV show and started playing it in the afternoons because
of the success the movie. So I got to see

(11:01):
a lot of the episodes of the Old Adams Family.

Speaker 1 (11:04):
Cool. So there you got very long meet cute. I apologize,
that's fine. Let's move into the history. One on one
is the main meat of the lesson. Some might say pepperoni,
some might say provolonelon is a cheese it. I meant
to appreciate him. I'm sorry. This is where he mainly
talking about the podcast. I'm really screwing this one. This

(11:27):
lesson is going to be about half personal history of
Charles Adams and half the Adams family.

Speaker 2 (11:33):
So strap in, Well, he's technically a member of the
Adams family, the patriarch, so I think it works.

Speaker 1 (11:38):
So Charles Chaz Adams grew up in Westfield, New Jersey,
and he lived in a great, big, old Victorian mansion
on Elm Street. So if you're ever wondering why Nightmare
on Elm Street is set on Elm Street. It's in
an homage to Chas Adams. I did not know that. Yep.
I want to start with this detail specifically because his

(11:59):
childhood house, as well as a specific house a couple
streets over on Dudley Avenue, are the direct inspiration for
the Adams family mansion. He is quoted as saying, we
had a dumb waiter in our house, and I'd get
inside on the ground floor, and then very quietly, I'd
haul myself up to my grandmother's floor, and then I'd
knock on the door, and when she came to open

(12:19):
the door, I would jump out and scare the wits
out of her. He was also known as being quote
something of a rascal around the neighborhood. And I love
these details because any Adams family fan, I think, will
recognize both Wednesday and Pugsley in the childhood reflection of himself.
And if he grew up having his grandmother living in
his family home, then that would explain why Grandmamma is

(12:40):
a classic part of the Adams family lineup. And I
read a couple articles about what this house is like
and whether or not it's been preserved or not. Can
you visit it? You can, it's still standing. It's not
a museum, and it's not really preserved in any way unfortunately. Yeah,
but the Alternative Press dot com visited westba into this

(13:00):
whole write up about it, and they describe, quote the
Presbyterian cemetery that used to fascinate him as a child,
the streets that he played on, the roots that he
walked on to and from high school, and if he
lived near this cemetery. That also explains why in the
Adams family in the early early cartoons they have a
view of the nearby cemetery and they point out that

(13:23):
there is no statue to him in town. They also
described the big Victorian homes and while there might not
be a statue of him in Westfield, New Jersey, the
University of Pennsylvania does have a building called the Charles
Adams Fine Arts Hall in Philadelphia. There's a sculpture of
him out front, and they have a fourteen foot by
four foot mural that the only mural he ever painted

(13:45):
of the Adams family, called the Adams Family Holiday. While
they are going out on vacation and I really really
want to go and see it cool. So he actually
didn't go to the University of Pennsylvania. He attended the
Grand Central School for Art in New York City. His
first cartoon ran in The New Yorker while he was
still a student there, and it features a window washer.

(14:06):
It's kind of boring. Beginning in nineteen thirty seven, his
cartoons were picked up regularly, and one year after that
the first Adams Family cartoon ran, and the Adams Family
ran in The New Yorker for the next fifty years,
exactly until he died. He remained a freelancer the entire time.
He was never offered anything more than a freelancer job

(14:27):
by The New Yorker.

Speaker 2 (14:28):
Yeah, but he showed them. Oh true, he was able
to take these comic strips and make a television show up.

Speaker 1 (14:34):
Yes, but now he didn't like to see the movie.
But I understand your point. Yes, the first cartoon features
Mortitia and maybe Lurch, maybe Gomez and a vacuum cleaner salesman.
I've given Jason a copy to look at of it.
I will also share this on all of our socials,
and I'm going to argue.

Speaker 2 (14:52):
So I'm looking at this right now. The man that
is standing behind Martitia has a very thick beard and
a very thick head of hair. But the way he's
kind of squared off and he's bigger, I kind of
think he's lurch Yeah.

Speaker 1 (15:04):
I don't. I don't know, because Mortitia is obviously Mortitia,
like she came out the womb well and the girl.

Speaker 2 (15:11):
There's a little girl at the top of the stairs
looking down at them. And the little girl doesn't really
look like Wednesday either.

Speaker 1 (15:16):
I don't know if that'supposed to be a little girl
or like, is that Grandmama? And she's like, is she
being held up there against her wind? No?

Speaker 2 (15:23):
No, no, no, it's a kid like peaking. It's is what
it is.

Speaker 1 (15:26):
But it doesn't look like the classic Wednesday. No, but
it has black hair and a bow, yes, which which
our Wednesday attributes. And the caption is the vacuum cleaner
salesman speaking and he says vibrationless, noiseless and a great
time and backsaver. No well appointed home should be without it.
I think the gag is supposed to be because the
manch is quite unkempt. We have all of the spider

(15:48):
webs that are usually in place. A bat flying through
the top of the frame. Yeah, Jason, I'm not super
familiar with New Yorker cartoons, are you? Yes? Is this
a good examp of a New Yorker cartoon? Now, I
know you weren't reading the magazine in the thirties, but
does this strike you? Uh?

Speaker 2 (16:08):
If I had the chance to read The New Yorker
in the thirties, you.

Speaker 1 (16:11):
Can find it all online. It's very excessing, not a
joke like this. See, because I'm gonna I'm gonna argue
that this is not funny.

Speaker 2 (16:18):
Actually, I'm going to give you the secret about the
New Yorker magazine, and I apologize that this offends anybody
who enjoys The New Yorker. Yeah, most of their cartoons
are not funny, Okay, and that's kind of the point
of the New Yorker cartoons.

Speaker 1 (16:33):
Okay, because I have I have, since doing Reacharch for
this episode, read every one hundred and fifty at of
his family cartoons that appeared in The New Yorker. Some
of them are kind of funny. This one's not funny,
so I'm surprised that we got more of it. But so,
this is a good example of a typical New Yorker
cartoon in your opinion.

Speaker 2 (16:50):
Oh, yes, the fact that it makes no sense and
you're kind of like, what am I?

Speaker 1 (16:54):
And it feels like intentionally obtuse, like it's trying to
make you feel done. Everything in the New Yorker is
intentionally trying to make I read a couple of New
Yorker articles about Charles Adams. I thought they were quite good.
But okay, this is so in your opinion, this is
a good example. Yes, I think this is a great example.
It's very you know, as as George Costanza would say,

(17:15):
it's no ziggy fair, He's terrible. The Adams Family was
actually not the only ongoing cartoon project that Charles Adams had.
From nineteen fifty five to nineteen seventy nine, he had
a syndicated single panel comic called Out of This World,
and he was published in many other magazines, including Drawn
and Quarterly, Monster Rally, Mademoiselle. He was featured in calendars

(17:38):
and so much more. In nineteen sixty one, his cartoon
work was granted an Edgar Award, which is an award
given by the Mystery Writers of America, for his body
of work, which I think is really cool. I think
he is the only he's either the only or the
first comic book or comic artists to have received an
Edgar Award. Okay. He even went on to illustrate legendary

(17:58):
science fiction writer Rade Bradbury's short story Homecoming, which is
about the Elliots, a family of vampires living in Illinois.
It's a really fun story. You can find excerts from
it online. They anthologized it in a collection called From
the Dust Returned, which was only printed a few years ago.
Bradbury said in an interview with Indie Bound, quote, I

(18:19):
was twenty six years old when I met Adams in
New York and he had just done a painting for Mademoiselle.
When I saw it, I realized he was a kindred spirit.
So we made plans to write a book together. They
were going to write an ongoing horror anthology, but the
project didn't come to fruition because Adams demanded too much
money and all the publishers would screw you. Go back
to the New Yorker. Fun fact, all of the Adams

(18:42):
family characters went unnamed until the television series was developed
in the nineteen sixties.

Speaker 2 (18:47):
Now, if you don't know this, that's fine. Did the television.

Speaker 1 (18:51):
Show name them. Yes, well he named them for the
developed the tele so they came to him and they
were like yes, they were like they need names and
they're two broad.

Speaker 2 (19:02):
Specify like a sixties Hollywood producer was the one who
named kind of like how the Superman radio show was
the one that named Krypton.

Speaker 1 (19:09):
Yes, no, he named them, but at the behest of
studio executives. So I'm going to give you kind of
a list of traits of General Adam's Family cartoons and
how the characters behaved using the names they did not
have at the time. Wednesday and Pugsley are literally disposable
and die constantly. It's evident even in the early comic

(19:30):
panels that Mortitia does function as the head of the family.
Grandmamma tends to wander off easily. She's led astray, and
her lack of control leads most of the family into
dire situations. The family is extremely tight knit. Mortitia and
Gomez Sherry passionate love. Later in the television show, she
can evoke kisses from Gomez just by speaking French, which

(19:51):
kind of gets condensed down to him going Tish, that's French.
And they are hospitable to strangers, but they won't shy
away from killing someone who gets a their way or
oversteps boundaries. So that's kind of the basics of what
the cartoons are like. Another important detail is that the
fictional Adams family is part of a much larger Adams clan.

(20:13):
We hear about a plethora of other relatives that Jason
alluded to at the beginning, and family events and reunions yep,
going on all over the world basically all the time.
The movie Continuity introduces the family motto sick gorgiamis alos
subjectatos nunk. Do you know what it means? I don't remember,
but I do remember the nunc. Okay, don't feel bad

(20:36):
because it's not grammatically sound in Latin. But it is
supposed to mean we gladly feast on those who subdue us,
all right, So that's kind of fun, but yeah, it's
not functional Latin. In the comics, the Adams family home
is located in Cemetery Ridge. Where's that not a real place?
I was gonna say, New Jersey. I mean, I always

(20:57):
thought it was in New Jersey. I would assume since
he is from New Jersey. Yeah, and they do they
reference New York a lot. But the Broadway musical states
that the house is in Central Park. There's no houses
in Central Parks. Are musical says this is in Central Park.
It's like we're in New York. God forbid we said
this anywhere. It's like a Marvel comic.

Speaker 2 (21:16):
I'm sorry, No, not in Central Park. They're in the
middle of nowhere.

Speaker 1 (21:21):
Yeah. Yeah, because they're in the house. Yeah, exactly. Fun fact.
Filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock owned two original Adams Family cartoons, and
he has Carrie Grant's character in north By Northwest mention
Charles Adams. He shouts, quote, the three of you together. Now,
that's a picture only Charles Adams could draw, except is

(21:42):
carry Grant? Yeah, the three of you together. That's that's
a picture only Charles Adams could draw. That's good. You
need good carry Grant. Okay. So now I want to
kind of veer off a little bit and talk specifically
about Mortitia. Yes, awesome, because she's based on two of
Charles Adams's wife. Oh how many times was he married? Three? Okay?

(22:02):
He wasn't good at being married, all right, got it?
Or having a family.

Speaker 2 (22:05):
Well, I'm just if we know the no pun intended
the Adams Family values. Then I think we can ensure
why he doesn't stay married. Yes, so his first wife
was named Barbara Jean Day. They met during World War Two.
At the time, he was working for the Signal Corps
Photographics Center animating training films for the US Army.

Speaker 1 (22:26):
Oh that was really cool. Wow. Mortitia is rumored to
physically resemble her. You can find pictures of her. She's slinky,
she's got the wavy hair. Okay. They divorce after eight
years because Charles Adams hated children and refused to adopt one,
which is perhaps why Wednesday and Pugsley are evil, evil
little mon die all the time. Okay, So then he
married his second wife, Estelle Barbara Barb in nineteen fifty four.

(22:51):
The New York Times describes her as follows. She quote
combined Morticia like looks with diabolical legal scheming end quote
legal scheme. She was a lawyer. She wound up with
control over the Adams Family TV and film rights. She
rested them away from him. What They divorced in nineteen
fifty four after she tried to convince him to take

(23:13):
out a one hundred thousand dollars in nineteen fifty six
one hundred thousand dollars life insurance policy, and he joked
that she was trying to kill him, comparing her to
Barbara Stanwick's character in Double Indemnity, who winds up killing
her husband for a life insurance policy. But even though
they divorced, she retained control of the TV and film right.

Speaker 2 (23:32):
But they divorced in nineteen fifty six. Yeah, more on
that right before the show.

Speaker 1 (23:38):
So in nineteen sixty four, producer David Levy, who was
most famous for producing a bunch of Adams Family stuff,
developed The Adams Family for ABC. The Adams Family debuted
on September eighth, nineteen sixty four, ten years after their divorce,
and ran for two seasons with a total of sixty
four episodes. The show has a big everybody complains about,

(24:01):
like thirteen episodes too many? Can you imagine twenty eight? Yeah?
So the show was actually supposed to have began years earlier,
but Estelle demanded that she be bought out of the
film and TV rights for a lot of a lot
of money, and ABC ultimately paid her what she asked for.
The number has never been disclosed. Okay, so they divorced
she kept filming TV rights. But how back then, even

(24:23):
before it was oh, the television show was supposed to
happen the okay, I'm saying yeah, But she gave the
rights to them unless she was paid a lot of money,
So it took ten years to get her the money
I want. I was just misunderstanding when they I didn't
realize they actually wanted to make that show ten years ago,
and it was the divorce that made it complation. Yeah, wow, man,
did she got so she probably saw a lot of

(24:45):
money from the movies in the nineties. No, because they
bought they bought her out of the rights to make
the TV show. But for a lot of understanding everybody,
I don't either. It's okay out there. Wow, good for her, Yeah,
good for her. So suddenly all of these characters got
real names, they got personality. So we're gonna go over
them now in case you've made it this far in
your life. I don't know who these spells are. As

(25:05):
we're also going to talk a little bit about the actors,
and we're gonna have a John Aston corner, so hold on, Oh,
yes we are so. Mortitia Adams is played by Carolyn Jones.
She is described as a cultivated and beautiful woman who knits, dabbles,
and art plays. The Sammuson raises carnivorous plants and trims
roses by clipping the buds off and arranging the thorny
stems in a vase. That's one of my favorite things

(25:25):
that she does. She cuts off the roses heads with long, straight,
ebony black hair. She's always attired in a long floor length,
tight black dress, and with her aristocratic bearing and detachment,
she's often the calm center of the chaotic events of
the household. Now. Carolyn Jones, who portrayed her, was so
defined by her role that her premiere biography is titled
in Mortitious Shadow The Life and Career of Carolyn Jones.

(25:49):
Gomez Adams is portrayed by John Aston, father of Sean Aston.

Speaker 2 (25:55):
Who does Sean Aston Blay Ashley Samwise canj Rudy.

Speaker 1 (26:00):
He is a retired lawyer of Castilian descent who is
passionately in love with his wife, often referring her to
her in Spanish pet names such as Caddida and got
a Mea. He is very wealthy as a result of
owning numerous companies and stocks and squanders the money and
cavalier manners while remaining wealthy, and his hobbies consist of

(26:22):
detonating model trains and fencing. He refers to Spain as
his ancestral home, and is regularly dressed in a double
breasted and chalk pin striped suit with a black tie,
almost always seen smoking a cigar. Sean Aston added this
trait of smoking the cigar to the character because he
had already been a scar smoker prior to the show's debut,

(26:43):
but he quit after the series ended, so I think
he got his fill working on the probably smoked so
many cigars over those eight hour days that he forgets
I screw this. Now. I didn't know a lot about
John Assen until this morning, other than being Sean Asson's father,
and Jason has informed me about just what a national
treasure he is. So now we're going to have John

(27:04):
Asson in corner. Okay. So if you guys don't know
who John Aston is, you really need to glan. You
need to look him up.

Speaker 2 (27:11):
He is a actor's actor. He is a great actor.
He's a character actor, and he's in so many things.
I mean, his first film role is in West Side Story,
that great luminary musical film. But the thing that I
brought up to Ashley was that what many people don't
remember is that sean excuse me, John Aston was the
Riddler in season two of Batman nineteen sixty six, the

(27:33):
Adam West series. Now you might be like, wait a minute,
I know Frank Gorshwin, another amazing actor was the Riddler.

Speaker 1 (27:39):
Well, for the.

Speaker 2 (27:40):
Second season of that show. Frank Gorshwin asked for a
pay raise. The producers were like, we're not gonna do this.
What other network was The Adams Family on oh ABC,
which also made Batman nineteen sixty six, So they just
reached out to John Aston. And John Aston comes in
and plays the Riddler for only season two because, just

(28:00):
like what happens with a lot of actors where they
decide to not be involved in a television production for
more money, Frank Gorshman immediately begged to come back, and
Frank Gorshwan plays the Riddler in season three. Yeah, many
people don't, and then there's even a debate about which
Riddler is better. Some people hate the John Aston Ridler,
some people think he's sneakier.

Speaker 1 (28:21):
I don't know. We watched some clips, he was pretty good.

Speaker 2 (28:24):
Yeah, I think we're gonna put up some clips on
our Twitter at GHL podcast. But the thing is is
that ever since then, John Aston has been in so
many television shows. He's murdered, she wrote, gun Smoke, all
these shows. He was in one of my favorite movies
of all time, The Frighteners, which is a really good movie.

Speaker 1 (28:44):
But if you look through his career.

Speaker 2 (28:46):
He's also in The Twilight Zone and Night Gallery, which
means that Rod Serley must have really liked him. I
didn't know this too, because I was unaware of this fact.
I thought that John Aston had passed away. He's very
much alive at the time of this recording.

Speaker 1 (28:58):
Also just looks like an adorable old man.

Speaker 2 (29:00):
The last role that he has on his current film Agrahy,
which I think is amazing. First, we're going to talk
about this is a little bit of spoilers for actually
he's going to talk about later. He sort of becomes
this voice actor later in his career. In fact, that's okay.
He voices Gomez in the nineteen ninety two to nineteen

(29:21):
ninety three cartoon, which is amazing, and I even remember
liking the Gomez voice back in the Day, even though it's.

Speaker 1 (29:28):
Very different than Raald Julia. But he starts.

Speaker 2 (29:31):
He's a voice on Johnny Bravo. He's a voice on
Pining in the Brain. This is one of the best credits.
He voices Grandpapa Adams in the New Adams Family cartoon
in nineteen ninety eight. Fun fact, he is Superintendent Skinner
in Disney's Recess. And his last role that I can
find his film, agree, which is great, is he is

(29:52):
Uncle Dudley of the Shazam family in Justice League Action. Yeah,
like last year, two years ago, it has this twenty seventeen. Yeah,
so not very long ago.

Speaker 1 (30:02):
But so John.

Speaker 2 (30:03):
Aston is an actor's actor. He is a legend, and
guess what, He's a living legend.

Speaker 1 (30:11):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (30:11):
So if you do not know about John Aston, if
there's anything you should learn about this lesson is go
explore the career of John Asten because he is one.

Speaker 1 (30:19):
Of the I would.

Speaker 2 (30:20):
I would put him as one of the greatest living actors.

Speaker 1 (30:23):
I would. I would definitely agree with that. So we
all kind of know what Gomez looks like a version
of Gomez, whether it's the cartoon, the comics, anyone in
the movies. I want to take a minute to read
you some descriptions from Charles adams biography written by Linda H. Davis.
She describes Charles Adams as quote, sociable and debonair and
a well dressed courtly man with silvery black combed hair,

(30:46):
a gentle manner. He bore no resemblance to a fiend
end quote and I think both of those descriptions could
also be used for Gomez. No penncyl thin mustache, no
pencil thin mustache. He had a mustache. Though Uncle Fester
was played by Jackie Coogan. He's mortitious, exuberant uncle in
the TV show Oh That's James, who's completely bald, dressed

(31:10):
in a floor length fur collared coat, which also kind
of changes later. He likes dynamite and blasting caps. He
reclines on a bed of nails and enjoys torture racks,
and he powers light bulbs by placing them in his mouth.
There you go. That's the most famous fact about Uncle Fester. Yes,
and in later incarnations, specifically in the movies and then
the card basically everything post nineteen ninety he's going as

(31:33):
his brother. Yes. Lurch is portrayed by Ted Cassidy, who
was also in almost everything at the time, including Star Trek,
the Adams loyal butler, who mainly speaks in grunts and groans.
They summon him with a hangman's news bell pull, to
which he immediately appears and replies, What does he say? Oh?
I don't remember you rang? Oh that's right you. Yeah,

(31:55):
we'll get to we'll talk about this show in a
little little bit. But there was a Canadian television show
that came out in the late nineties and I can
rat called I think it was called The New Adams Family. Okay,
and Lurch in one episode gets a record deal and
it's a rap version and he goes live action show. Yeah,

(32:16):
he goes you Rang? Do Do Do Do? Do? Do
You rang? And he becomes a famous musician for the
song you Rang. You have to find this clip and
share it online. Maybe we'llt's see. I don't know if
it exists anymore. I bet it does. He also made
a cameo appearance as Lurch on an episode of Batman,
the TV series, Yes I Know, while promoting a pop

(32:38):
song called the Lurch, which has a dance mover you
kind of shamble along like a like a crazy person.
Grandmamma Adams played by Blossom Rock is Gomez's mother and
a witch. Wednesday Adam played by Lisa Loring, did you
find it? Are you?

Speaker 2 (32:53):
Are you find a stopping place?

Speaker 1 (32:55):
Go ahead? All right, here we go? Here is the
uh you rang? The Adams Family hit you rang? Wednesday's
helping him with his music video copy that this looks

(33:15):
so bad. I love that show so much. That's it.

Speaker 2 (33:26):
The production quality on this show does not look great, Ashley.

Speaker 1 (33:29):
I mean I was eight when it came out, I
think eight or nine. So ever knew that there was
a second live action I think it's only played in Canada. Wow.
Wednesday Adams in the original show was portrayed by Lisa Loring.
Puggly Adams was portrayed by ken Weatherwax, and then the
show introduces Thing and Pugsy's pet octopus Aristotle. Oh okay.

(33:50):
In the comics, you do see Aristotle, and you do
see disembodied Hand. But Thing really only acts like Thing
in the TV show. Yes, he is most often portrayed
by Ted Cassidy's Hand, one of the directors of the
TV show, although sometimes assistant director Jack Voglan would portray

(34:12):
Thing often when Lurch and Thing appear together, and in
this TV show in the sixties, he's usually in a
bell jar or he's on top of a serving trade
because they just didn't have the technologies that we have now.
Like Lurch in the movies looks really, really good. The
show was always intended to be humorous and situational comedy
spun around the Adams Family's disconnection from the outside world.

(34:36):
So in nineteen seventy three, ABC said, you know what,
we need another Adams Family show. So they shot a
pilot called The Adams Family Fun House that was supposed
to be a variety show, and instead of casting the
people from the nineteen sixties show, they recast every single role.
The only person I want to talk about them recasting
is Pugsy. Pugsy was played by an actor named Butch Patrick.

(35:00):
Do you know why Butch Patrick is famous? Is he
the Marlborough Man. He's most famous for playing Eddie Munster
on the Monster Adams Family ripoff, which was a direct
rival to the Adams Family on a separate network that
garnered higher ratings, which was why the TV show The
Adams Family was ultimately canceled.

Speaker 2 (35:21):
Yeah, I think on the CBS TV show.

Speaker 1 (35:23):
I think so, although I think the Adams Family came
out with a more powerful ip in the end.

Speaker 2 (35:27):
They won over at the months. Well yeah, but you
can tell because of the Adams Family comics. That's exactly
where the monsters got their idea. Yes, like kiss.

Speaker 1 (35:35):
The Adams Family crossed over several times into animated Scooby
Doo episodes, with many of the live action actors were
prising their roles in the voices from time to time.
Charles Adams retired with his third wife to a rich
estate called the Swamp say Sky Fall in the eighties,
where he lived until he passed away in nineteen eighty eight,

(35:59):
causing the property to lay fallow. And I actually don't
think didn't lay follow for very long. Well, it laid
fallow for two whole years until the movies happened.

Speaker 2 (36:09):
Yep, four years later. Two years later, ninety two.

Speaker 1 (36:11):
I thought it was ninety Nope, I apologize. Ninety one
is actually when the first movie comes out. Yes you are, So,
let's talk about these movies because Jason and I have
both seen them. We watched them together a few years
ago and we both really liked them. So nineteen ninety
one sees the Adams Family. It deals with Fester returning
to the family and not remembering that he's actually Fester,

(36:33):
but thinking that he's there to pull off a heist
until his memory comes back. It garnered one hundred and
ninety one million dollars at the worldwide box office, spawned
a new cartoon. Do you know what the budget was?
I don't have it written down, but it could very
easily be found, which picked up and told the same
types of stories the original live action movie was laying

(36:54):
down with cartoon levels of violence.

Speaker 2 (36:57):
The budget of the ninety one Adams Family movie was million.

Speaker 1 (37:00):
Dollars, one hundred and ninety one million. I meane, hundred
ninety one million now would be a great It would
be amazing. Yeah. Yeah, So I don't know what inflation is,
so I'm not going to pretend like I can find
that for you. My favorite thing about the animated live
action show, besides John Aston coming back as Gomez, is
that Carol Channing provides the voice of Grandmamma Adams in

(37:23):
the movie in the animated cartoon. Oh are you on
the animate cartoon? Now? Well, I'm just talking about how
it's spun out of the movie. I was like where
are we Going? Jesus and the Adams Family Movie. The
live action movie spawned careers or revitalized careers for a
lot of really powerful actors. Christina Ricci plays Wednesday Adams,

(37:46):
a role which defines her to this very day. The
thing that's punched by mic I'm so excited. The thing
that people are always asking for is another live action
Adams Family where she is playing Mortitia. Yeah. I think
that would also be great. I would be more than
happy for that. And Jelica Houston plays more Titia. Like
we said, she was nominated for Golden Globes because she
was just that good. While Julia plays Gomez. Gomez actually

(38:09):
winds up being the last role he ever plays because
he doesn't. We'll talk about when he passes it. Actually
technically incorrect, is it, yes? Because the last role he
played was the street Fighter. It was a street fighter or
the other one, no street Fighters, well, one of the
last role because if you watch well, I think if
you watch Adam's family values, you can tell that it's

(38:29):
not well. He's not well, and then in street Fighter
he looks really sick. Yeah, but he only did street
Fighter because he said, and I quote my Son was
a big fan of the video games. I'm Christopherlloyd plays faster.
That's the last thing I wanted to do. Yes, and
it revitalized Christopher Lloyd's career post back to the Future. Yeah,
these movies shouldn't have been hits.

Speaker 2 (38:51):
They're so good, they're everything about them shouldn't work. These
movies are also we got to talk about a big
factor in why these movies great. Barry Sonenfeld, great director,
also directed Men in Black. He did the Tick live
action series. Weird, kooky director that doesn't get enough credit,
I think.

Speaker 1 (39:09):
And kind of for the pool of talent at the time,
the perfect person to take this on. I know everyone
wants Tim Burton to do these movies. He was supposed
to do an animated movie that fell through and fell
through and fell through. I don't think I would have
wanted to see Tim Burton's take on the Adams Family though.

Speaker 2 (39:27):
Just some fun facts here I found. Angelici Houston said
that during the filming of Adam's Family Values and became
increasingly clear that role Juliet was sick. He had trouble eating,
and he actually died a year within a year after
the film was released.

Speaker 1 (39:48):
Yeah, they were in pre pro on the third movie
when he passed. Yeah, it was his death that I
think stopped the third movie. Yeah, well absolutely, he'll talk
about it.

Speaker 2 (39:57):
He's can we talk about the movies now or you
want to wait?

Speaker 1 (40:00):
What do you feel? Well? I was going to talk
about the cartoon next and let you do what you
wanted to bring up during the cartoon and then move
on to the second movie. Okay, let's do that then. Okay.
So we talked about how the animated series spun out
of this first movie. They it's basically the same types
of stories. There's just different physics and violence. And Jason
wanted to bring up our new ongoing segment action figure spotlight.

(40:24):
Yeah cartoon. Oh yeah right, lay down with your big spotlight.
Jason just watched Rick and Morty for the first time.

Speaker 2 (40:35):
The theme song is going to change every single time.
I think previously it was like a bit beep beat.

Speaker 1 (40:39):
I don't know what. I don't know.

Speaker 2 (40:40):
It's going to change every single time until somebody makes
me a lyric that I'll never play.

Speaker 1 (40:44):
You can email us a sound bite at Yes, actually,
bigger spotlight here.

Speaker 2 (40:49):
I did not know this until recently because I'm a
big fan of the Adams Family nineties animated series as
well playmates. The famous toymakers who famously make these nineties
Star Trek figures did a line of the Adams Family
action figures that tie into the cartoon, and they have
all the cartoons designs. Now I can find all of

(41:11):
rebase sets of Lurch and Fester and Granny and Pugsley
and Mortitia and Gomez, but I cannot find a Wednesday atoms.
They're actually on the back of the card. You can
see that they made an action figure of thing. They
made an actual figure cousin it. They made an action
figure of Wednesday. But it makes me wonder if that
was the second line and they never released it. These

(41:34):
figures look kind of cool. Uncle Fester looks creepy as hell,
but it's just kind of cool because I didn't realize
that they had these action figures and they're such great designs.
Another thing I want to bring up is during one
of the movies, whether it was the first movie or
the second movie, I can remember seeing way back in
my days of looking at the toys during Christmas in

(41:54):
the J. C. Pennies catalog, there was a remote control
thing what and it would actually like.

Speaker 1 (42:02):
Walk and move. I think a lot of it was
had wheels in their fingers. I think, actually now they
actually do have a actual fingers walking thing. But I remember
wanting that so bad. I want that for you. So
there you go. There is an action figure.

Speaker 2 (42:15):
Oh yeah, action figure Spad.

Speaker 1 (42:19):
The original Adams Family movie also spawned a popular pinball machine,
which has become the highest selling pinball machine of all time,
with more than twenty thousand units sold since nineteen ninety
two when it debuted.

Speaker 2 (42:34):
Yes, and it's also considered by many to be the
greatest pinball machine of all time.

Speaker 1 (42:40):
So then in nineteen ninety three, a year after the
Pinball Machine came out, Adam's Family Values came out. Loosened
content restrictions allowed for the film to use more grotesque
humor that strove to keep the original spirit of the
Adams Family cartoons. In fact, several gags are lifted straight
from the single panel cartoons. Good they should be. It

(43:01):
tells the story of a serial killer trying to marry
Uncle Fester. Also, if you were only familiar with the
Adams Family movies from the gifts, this is the moment
where they send Pugsley and Wednesday two Summer Camp and
it gets real bloody, real fast. Yeah, but it's it's
it's it's the weakness of Adam's family values.

Speaker 2 (43:20):
Is that the camp storyline is so funny. Yeah, but
the downside is that Mortitia and Gomez a storyline is
exactly the same storyline as as one.

Speaker 1 (43:32):
Yeah, they have no growth.

Speaker 2 (43:34):
It's well, and to me, as a huge fan of
Uncle Fester, I don't like that we got two Adams
Family live action movies where Uncle Fester basically doesn't act
like Uncle Fester.

Speaker 1 (43:45):
Yeah, where he's kind of a dufis the whole time. Well, well,
the first movie he doesn't know he's actually Uncle Fester. Yeah,
he doesn't spend a lot of time freaking out in
his bedroom yep. And then the.

Speaker 2 (43:53):
Second movie is he doesn't act like Uncle Fester because
he wants to marry this girl.

Speaker 1 (43:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (43:58):
So I'm like, we don't get either movie wrong.

Speaker 1 (44:00):
Fester gets to act like Uncle Fester, which is a
he's a psychotic man. Yes. It was not as successful
as the former, but it was successful enough for a
third movie to go into development. It was called The
Adams Family Reunion. The movie was cast great title and
it was an active pre production in nineteen ninety four,
but ultimately scrapped due to rawl Julia's death the same year.

(44:22):
So now we can circle back to that if you
would like to.

Speaker 2 (44:24):
Yeah, well, I didn't know how much we wanted to
talk about the movie. I don't know if anybody else
remembers too legit to quit from the Adams Family one.

Speaker 1 (44:31):
The did roll that up earlier, so too too legit
to quit? Hey, hey, yeah, they love to pay a
lurch with bad music. Well a lerch, that's where you here,
as Lurch is driving through. Let me ask Lurch is
the prime role man. You don't got to learn no line.
Can we talk about the movie for a little bit. Yeah, yeah,
it's such a weird movie. It is such a weird

(44:51):
movie that somehow works. Like there's so many like when
you think about the first movie with Gomez and Uncle
Fester and the dance Seene and they do the bush guy, Yes,
that is such and that carries on for which which
is also they're Katilano and they're not Ukrainian, so they
would not it would not be called bush because Ukrainian

(45:11):
or Russian word like it's not a Spanish word. Such
a weird movie. Also, Gomez is the only Adams is
an English name. Yes, Gomez is the only one who
is visibly ethnic, like Grandmamma is white, Fester is white.
Very strange. Yeah, yeah, I don't know. All right, we
can move on, Okay. So in nineteen ninety five they decided,

(45:39):
let's just make out of this only reunion anyway, so
they made it. It went direct to video. It seems
to be better left forgotten. I've not watched it. The
reviews of it are terrible. She talked about who plays Gomez. However,
Tim Curry plays Gomez and Daryl Hannah plays more Titia
in this movie. Actually think Tim Curry is an inspired
choice for Gomez.

Speaker 2 (46:00):
To be honest with you, I'll tell you this. The
problem is is that I honestly think that if they
had kept the cast of the movies and then just
recast Gomez, just recast Tim Curry is a great choice
for that part.

Speaker 1 (46:14):
And he was. It's not like he wasn't a name
in the mid nineties. I mean, but the problem was is.

Speaker 2 (46:20):
That in the mid nineties Tim Curry kind of went
through a little bit of a career fallout. Tim Curry
in the nineties, started being in all these really bad movies.
I mean, he's in Congo. I mean, he's been in
a lot of them. So I think that the studio
probably didn't think that he could carry it.

Speaker 1 (46:38):
I just think it's crazy that they recast the whole thing. Well,
I understand that their budget would not have been anywhere.

Speaker 2 (46:44):
Near Yes, that's the reason why the rest of it, Like,
you wouldn't have gotten Christopher Lloyd, you wouldn't have gotten
Angelica Houston. You probably could have gotten the kids. But
I wonder if the whole cast kind of banded together
and was like, if we can't do it wrong, we're
not going to do it at all. Yeah, which I
kind of admire.

Speaker 1 (47:05):
Yeah, it also seems like the people who play Gomez
all dies, so I mean, we need to form a
human change around John and protect it. So in nineteen
ninety eight, we saw a new live action show produced
in Canada called The New Adams Family. When you were
talking about I used to watch this on YTV youth television.
I loved this show so much. I loved it so much.

(47:29):
It has an all new cast. Of course, Gomez Adams
is played by Glenn Toronto and Mort t A R
A N t O Okay, Taranto Toronto, I don't know.
Martisha is played by Ellie Harvey. I think Ellie might
be French because she kind of has a funny that
a funny accent. She has an accent, but that works.

(47:49):
That's fine for Mortitia with me. The show reworked several
storylines from the original series while incorporating modern elements, jokes,
and references to episodes from the original series. As Jason mentioned,
John Aston has a recurring role as Grandpapa Adams. Well
o recurrent of two episodes. Well he must have had it.

(48:10):
Must say recurring because his credit must have been recurring
guest star. Okay, sure, probably because yeah, two episodes hardly
returning and Glenn Tarante, who played Gomez, stated that he
patterned his performance off of Aston's original version of Gomez.
One of the notable differences from the original show is

(48:30):
that Wednesday and Pugsley are get expanded roles. Because it's
really this is on a kid's network aimed for children.
Wednesday is played by an actress named Nicole Fugere, who
has done almost nothing since then. She played Wednesday in
Adam's Family Reunion the direct to video movie, she replaced
Christina Ricci and I have not watched this as an adult.

(48:51):
I remember having a humongous crush on her as a giant.

Speaker 2 (48:55):
Can we talk about something real quick? We should talk
about there is an interesting idea that the portrayal of
Wednesday changes. In the original TV show and in a
lot of these strips, she's kind of considered to be happy,
go lucky, even though she's quite young, even though she
has murderous intent, and she smiles.

Speaker 1 (49:12):
She's the only one smiles always. Gomez smiles a bit too,
but Pugsy never. That doesn't change until the movies. It's
the opposite. Pugsy becomes the softer, more easygoing one and
Wednesday is evil. But yeah, I wanted to bring that up. Yeah,
she becomes stonefaced in the movies. Well, let's be honest,

(49:33):
it's funnier if the little girl is the mean one
because it plays against type.

Speaker 2 (49:38):
Sure, but there is something to be said to her
being happy about killing me.

Speaker 1 (49:40):
There is I shared this weeks and weeks ago when
we were when this is released, I have shared picture
weeks us go on the Patreon lens. There is a strip.
It's my favorite of the original strips where Gomez is
pushing Wednesday on a swing and swing is a broom,
so she looks like she's flying on a witch's broom.
And they have they've reprised this in a promotional image

(50:04):
for the Adams Family movie, and to me, that's classic
Wednesday Adams. And then yeah, Christina Reachie turns her into
homicidal Manias, which is fine. The show reembraced the humor
in the Ya sensibilities whether rather than the horror elements
that the movies were moving closer and closer towards. Then,
a musical based on the original cartoons started being worked

(50:27):
on in two thousand and seven, written by Broadway veterans
Marshall Brickman and Rick Ellis, with Andrew Lippa providing the songs.
Andrew Lippa is like such a good writer. Why do
I know that name? I mean, let me pull up
his credits for you, because he's worked on so many
Broadway things that you love. He did the music for

(50:49):
Big Fish. That might be what you specifically know him.
I mean, sure, I guess he wrote the music for
The Little Princess The Wild Party. He's worse on all lists.
I believe you. You've probably listened to something that he composed.
Nathan Lane was the original Gomez in the Broadway. In
the Broadway show which opened in Chicago that went to Broadway.

(51:11):
Babe Newarth was more Titia. Chris Christen, great choice. Christa
Rodriguez was Wednesday, who was aged up to be eighteen
in the musical That's Fine. Adam Riegler is Pugsley, who's
around eleven years old. Kevin Chamberlain is Uncle Faster, and
Zachary James is Lurch. I saw this show in New
York City.

Speaker 2 (51:27):
Okay, I have not seen this show. It closed down right.

Speaker 1 (51:31):
Oh, yes, okay, I saw all of the original casts
except Nathan Lane. Oh who is your Gomez? Do you
remember Roger Reese? Okay who West Wing fans will know? Yeah,
I think he's passed on Roger Reese. Yes, I mean, well,
he's a great actor. If you know he's Lord Marlberry
on the West Wing. Yes, he's a great actor, great

(51:51):
choice for Gomez. I kind of imagined that. Yes, he
passed on in twenty fifteen. He's a great actor. If
you don't know who he is, uh Goolan.

Speaker 2 (52:00):
Well, the Lord mabbout a episode of West Wing is
one of the greatest.

Speaker 1 (52:03):
It's on Flix. She's also one of those actors who
in the seventies when PBS was filming all the Shakespeare's
He's in a whole bunch of them. Yeah, he is
an actor. He played I believe.

Speaker 2 (52:14):
I'm pretty certain he is the Sheriff of Nottingham and
Robin hood men in time.

Speaker 1 (52:19):
Yes, you are a thousand pero, so that's what people
might know him. Great choice for Gomez, I imagine Nathan
Lane probably would have made the show a little bit better.
I don't know, But what did you think? Give you
a review. It's bad. I've heard that's so bad. And
that's crazy because you know what I think the Adams Family,
with that cast you could work. You could one hundred million,
thousand percent, right, a great Adams Family. Abut right, well,

(52:40):
they don't even do the Adams Family theme. By the way,
have you seen have you ever seen the musical bat Boy? Yes,
that's what the styles ever been to Broadway. That's what
a style of the Adams Family musical needs to be.
Because Bat Boy the musical is great. Yes, yes, needs
to be that tone. No, it's too much of a
classic musical, it's too schlocky, fest falls in love with
the moon, It flies up to kiss her? What it's

(53:02):
so stupid, so dumb. And even Christa Rodriez who played Wednesday,
I really liked her, like I was excited to see her.

Speaker 2 (53:09):
Bibon North's Great Lilithon Fraser classically.

Speaker 1 (53:13):
Yes and cheers. Yeah, the musical cheers fans. I just
I don't know people know cheers right. The musical tells
the story of Wednesday falls in love with a normal
neighbor boy and we don't know what to do about
a bad idea story Embrace it? Or did you know
they come up with the parents come over to meet them.
It's that's not a bad story on paper. Yeah, it's

(53:33):
all good. The reviews were mostly negative. It closed after
seven hundred and twenty two performances, so about about two years.
At the time of this recording, it is currently playing
in the West End in the UK. And here's just
a fun fact about my life. One of my auditions
go to audition songs is Wednesday's first solo song called

(53:55):
Pold So whenever I get a singing audition, which is
pretty rare, that's the song that I go to because
it's the best song. It's a really good song, the
only one I would truly recommend going and listening too.
And then, of course, there is an upcoming animated adaptation
starring Oscar Isaac as Gomez Adams and Charlie's Theren as

(54:18):
Martitia Adams that opens on October eleventh, twenty nineteen. So,
my dear friends, this brings us to the end of
our Adams Family lesson.

Speaker 2 (54:29):
I just want to give us a brief review here.
I found one of the Broadway reviews by Matt WindMan
for The Adams faily Us set Out says, considering the
insane amount of hype that this show has received, the
Adams Family would appear to be the biggest disappointment of
this year's theater season. This was in twenty test so bad.

Speaker 1 (54:48):
Wow. Yeah, I saw in twenty eleven. I paid twenty
five dollars for a student ticket. Yeah, and at the
end of it, I was like, it wasn't worth it.
I'm really some people are really great and it's just
it's bad. It could be so great. Wow. We like
the Adams Family. Everybody we do like the Adams We
just don't like the musical. I do a movie respective
with all of the tips on the movies. If people

(55:08):
want it great, If yeah, you got Adams Family, yes, yes,
But something else that people should say yes to, Jason, Yes,
is your book super Soldiers, because it's awesome. Yeah. Before
we get.

Speaker 2 (55:19):
Into recommended reading, where we recommend books that are related
to the Adams Family, I thought i'd recommend my book.
We talk about it a lot in this podcast. But
super Soldiers a salute to the comic book heroes and
villains who fought for their country. It's available on Barnes
and Noble, Indie Bound, and Amazon right now. It's my
book that I wrote, put a lot of heart into,
and I think everybody listeners out there would enjoy as well.

(55:40):
You know, it's over two hundred and twelve pages. One
of the characters I talk about in here is Batwoman.

Speaker 1 (55:45):
If you don't know.

Speaker 2 (55:46):
From the title the book, my book super Soldiers. It's
about relating the ideas, the common ideas between comic book
superheroes and military real life heroes. And I was in
the military as well, and I use a lot of
my career in there to examine these COMBA characters. And
you know, the Honest family are spooky, and a spooky
hero is also a batwoman. So I thought i'd read

(56:06):
you a little bit from the Batwoman chapter. This chapter
I titled define Definition. Many people think the world of
Batman lends itself to a military structure. Batman is the general,
while all of his various sidekicks and allies are the lieutenants.
They execute his vision of a Gotham safe from crime. However,
once you dive deep into the stories, you reveal the

(56:29):
truth of Batman. For all his order giving and structured training,
Batman is essentially a free agent vigilante, roaming around Gotham
and punching anyone in the face without due process or
the legal system to protect him or them. No Miranda
rights for you, chum, says Batman. Many stories present him
as a rule breaker who is willing to do anything

(56:50):
to serve his preferred outcome as long as no one
is killed. The Dark Knight's no killing rule is the
one rule he will not bend. For all the pompous
ideas for around inside his cow, Batman would make a
terrible soldier. There is one colleague in his menagerie who
has been a soldier still acts like a soldier. And
is a perfect exploration of the combination of military and

(57:13):
comic book superhero storytelling. Let me tell you all about
the Batwoman, Kate Kane. So there's a little taste from
my Batwoman chapter. If that intrigues you, go check out
my book Super Soldiers on Amazon and Barnes and Noble
right now. Put a lot of heart into it. And
I think i'd you like this podcast.

Speaker 1 (57:28):
I think you like the book. I'm going to be
very honest. The bat Woman chapter, I think is one
of your best chapters. Oh, thank you, thank as much.

Speaker 2 (57:35):
And if it's in with the new CW show Bad Woman,
imagine that I'm the CW out a plug. Let's speak
about recommended reading, recommended reading, where's your reach reading?

Speaker 1 (57:44):
Where? If you go over to.

Speaker 2 (57:45):
Geeksh lesson dot com slash recommended reading, you can get
some more materials on the Adams family. Click on our
little widget, you go over to Amazon, you purchase it,
and a little bit comes back to support the mind University.
In fact, if you buy anything on Amazon through those links,
that will go back to support the myne university.

Speaker 1 (58:03):
Helps us keep our cob webs in tiptop shape. That's right.
The first book that I want to recommend is Chas Adams,
A Cartoonist Life by Linda H. Davis. This is his
official biography. I read a lot of excerpts from it.
I found it really, really fascinating, and I mentioned a
couple of the instances here in the lesson about how
his art imitated his life, and I found him a

(58:23):
very charming and interesting creative. You kind of joked about
this in the beginning. I think it's a real shame
that there's not a Charles Adams museum, the way that
there's a Charles hem Schultz museum, or that there's not
a great bio video or biopick about Oh.

Speaker 2 (58:38):
Yeah, there should be a Charles Adams biopic. His life
sounds fascinating. Yeah, so read that book. It's really really great.

Speaker 1 (58:44):
Should be a John Aston biopic, just saying yeah, but
you got to die before they make your biopick. The
second one I'm going to recommend I also talked about
during the lesson In Mortitious Shadow, the life and career
of Carolyn Jones. It talks a lot about the show,
talks a lot about her evolution as Mortitia and the
power were and mystique of that role. For good and
for ill. And then I want to recommend the Adams

(59:05):
Family and Evolution. That's E V I l U T
I O N. What's it is the collection of Adam's
Family New Yorker comics. Oh cool. And there's little anecdotes
and there's stories and commentary and they had a bunch
of them.

Speaker 2 (59:20):
There was the local library in Walnut, Kansas when I
was growing up, had like some sort of a family
collection collection boat.

Speaker 1 (59:28):
Yeah, this is kind of the most accessible one, the
easiest one to find, So that's why I want to recommend.
And then lastly, I want to recommend the DVD two
pack of The Adams Family and Adams Family Values because
it'll mean Ashley, I don't know, we don't know what.
I don't know if they're in but not everything's in
Blue Ray. Oh my god, I'm going to look this

(59:48):
up right now. I'll just open the link that I
put in my notes. But in a lot of ways,
in my opinion, the movies are the are the best versions.
Oh I found the well, I only found them in DVD.
So you send me that, Lincoln. We will give people

(01:00:09):
the Blu Rays. Okay for my money. This is the
easiest best way to consume the Adams Family. So if
you haven't seen those movies, they're also not streaming anywhere.
I think they are more than worth the price of
admission and they are worth having in physical media. Yes, Jason,

(01:00:30):
I want to ask you to discussion question. Ah, he's
a member of the Adam's Family honorary. I'm certain.

Speaker 2 (01:00:38):
Oh, he's actually in it. It's a big family.

Speaker 1 (01:00:41):
Here's the easy question. Who is your favorite Adam's Family character?
Uncle Faster Gomez is a close second. Yeah. They're all
very charming in their in their way. Yeah. And do
you think that Adam's Family works in modern media or
are they too much a staple? I'm I mean they
come out of the American ideal light picket fence. Yeah,

(01:01:04):
and they are the antithesis of that. Is lampooning that
edgy anymore? Or is it expected?

Speaker 2 (01:01:12):
Well, you know, that's an interesting conversation because if you
go back to the nineties, there were a lot of
television adaptations that were made into movies that.

Speaker 1 (01:01:22):
There are today as well. Well.

Speaker 2 (01:01:24):
I don't know, it really seemed like there were a
lot in the nineties. Because there's the Adams Family, there's
the Beverly Hillbillies. There's the Brady Bunch movies, which you
got a sequel as well.

Speaker 1 (01:01:33):
The Rugrats got a full length movie. That's not quite
where I'm going with my point.

Speaker 2 (01:01:39):
You know, my favorite Martian got an adaptation. There's a
bunch of them in the time I remember that Chris
lloyd Is is the Martian, So there were a lot
of them in that time period. And that was thirty
years ago. And I think the Adam's family movies really work.
But are we too far from that nuclear family fifties? Look,

(01:02:01):
I think it could work. The thing is is, though,
the thing you have to do is you will have
to update the Adams family. You will have to bring
them into the modern world.

Speaker 1 (01:02:10):
Because Wednesday and Pugsley with smartphones.

Speaker 2 (01:02:13):
Or their version of smartphones, or their mom and dad
won't give them smartphones because xyz. But those nineties movies
all made fun that these characters like the Beverly Hill
Place and the Bradys and the Adams family were not
of the day, and I think that that joke is
played out. I think you have to I think you could.
You'd have to update them a little bit, but they
would mostly work.

Speaker 1 (01:02:34):
I think I want that to be the case. I
hope you to just make them more gothic. I will
say that earlier this year I did go to an
Adams's family art show that was pretty well attended, so
you know people want it. They're good. Great. Then let's
move into the teaching tweet, which sometimes we forget to do,
but I didn't forget to do for this one.

Speaker 2 (01:02:54):
Look, I'm gonna say to everyone out there, because we
have some new segments. We have the John Aston Corner,
now return, we have we might, we have the Action
Figure Spotlight, we have all these other things. I'm of
the opinion to kill the teaching tweet, to get rid
of it. But listeners, you let us know hashtag teaching.

(01:03:15):
I think we tried to till it twice. Now, Oh
I don't like it. I guess in a world where
Twitter can use two hundred and eighty characters, what's the point.

Speaker 1 (01:03:24):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:03:24):
So anyways, actually, what you teach, you tweet. This is
where you're gonna do a tweet that we might put
on Twitter.

Speaker 1 (01:03:29):
We will because I'll do it. The Adams family, the
first family of Spooky. We love, they love each other,
and we love them. Can't snaps say it like the
song it doesn't scan. Oh, it doesn't. It doesn't, So
I thought you were doing no oh all right, yeah,
all right, let's move to the honor Roll. What's that?
The honor roll?

Speaker 2 (01:03:47):
Whereas if you go to Apple Podcasts and leave us
a five star review, you literally can write you hate
our faces, and we'll read it on the air. Because
you're helping us with the Apple algorithm, and we appreciate
all the myn university students.

Speaker 1 (01:03:58):
That have done it.

Speaker 2 (01:04:00):
We're leading a new algorithm right now that if you
live in a country outside of the United States and
you write us a five star review on your Apple
podcast platform of choice, email it to us at Geek
casser Lesson at gmail dot com.

Speaker 1 (01:04:14):
We'll read it on the air. That's right. So we
have a whole bunch of people joining the on Roll today.
First of them is Beatles and Comics. Hey me too,
who says top two? This podcast is in my top
two of all time favorites. Whoo, what's number one?

Speaker 2 (01:04:26):
I don't think they say. I'm gonna guess. Puppet Hour.

Speaker 1 (01:04:32):
Professor Ashley introduced me to my other Oh, okay, which
one was it? Professors Jason and Ashley are the coolest
and the nicest. They sparked my love for Daredevil hashtag
Reds my boy and re sparked my love of comics
hashtag Tex Willerman's my boy. I'm going to guess my
Beatles and comics that maybe it's a screw that we're
just going to talk about the Beatles. Thank you Beatles

(01:04:52):
in comics. They are joined by the Vladman, who says
a service to the comic book community. This is the
first podcast I ever follow, really, and I discovered it
right as I started buying single issues weekly again. Working
in West la and living in the Valley Hey, I
would drive about three hours daily and listening to these
two charming, quirky, creative and dedicated professors made the drive enjoyable.

(01:05:14):
Thank you. It's like having a comic shop conversation in
my car and that's pretty rad. Here's too many more
and hopefully Lobo and Godzilla Lessons would love to help
with the Godzilla one. Oh send us an email and
remind me. Thank you Ashley and Jason Jupiter jet rocked.
This podcast is definitely slap worthy.

Speaker 2 (01:05:32):
Glad Man Lobo. I've talked about Lobo, you know, it you.
I would also be up for doing a Sheriff Lobo episode.

Speaker 1 (01:05:41):
I would be up for doing it. We almost did
a Godzilla one this year. They are also joined by
Will Banks, who says one of the best podcasts you'll
ever listen to. What can I say to get you
to listen to this show? Ashley and Jason are some
of the smartest, funniest, and most endearing hosts out there.
They played great off each other, are honest and bob
all else. You can tell that they have an incredible
love for the show and every topic they cover on it.
Think of this as an indispensable encyclopedia of all things

(01:06:03):
pop culture, or as they put it, I hope you
will to your mind university. I can't tell you, oh sorry,
how many amazing books or shows I've gotten into friends
I can impress with comics or movies that are enriched
by the cleverness and passionate lessons taught every episode. If
you want to learn more about it, there's an episode
on it. Jason and Ashley have absolutely earned all five stars.

Speaker 2 (01:06:26):
Will Bangs I see him on Twitter a lot. He's
lovely and I believe we've met him in person. Yes,
we have hi, So who are three new stars? Okay,
wait we have one more because this is our first international.

Speaker 1 (01:06:36):
Holy cow, this is this from Perth. This is it's
not this is from Canada. Baby. Okay, I've put it
out there. Shout out to Hayden James. Look, this is
a this is a goal of mine.

Speaker 2 (01:06:47):
I love all our international listeners, but specifically the ones
in Perth. I can see that you're listening in Perth, Australia.

Speaker 1 (01:06:54):
We want your personality.

Speaker 2 (01:06:55):
Please send us your personalities to geekish less energy. We
want to hear from Perth. Yeah, that is the goal
of twenty nineteen.

Speaker 1 (01:07:04):
Now. But my but who's your fellow Canadian? I'm clever, clever,
first international review. We love this countryman. Hayden James left
us a five star review and emailed it to us.

Speaker 2 (01:07:16):
Thank you, Hayden on the Canadian Apple Podcast.

Speaker 1 (01:07:18):
Yes awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:07:18):
They're very friendly and they're very nice podcast.

Speaker 1 (01:07:20):
And it smells like able, sir, Yes it does, Hayden says,
five stars. Disorient Oh it's a limerick. Oh my god,
I remember him saying, oh he went above the one.

Speaker 2 (01:07:31):
Our education system, our educational podcast system sucks.

Speaker 1 (01:07:35):
So it says a disoriented geek may find that a
valuable use of their time is with Jason and Ashley.
Educating on geek history is a way to enlighten their mind.
How cute is that? What's the gentleman's name, Hayden Jones?
Hayden Jones. Wow, we have your email. I'm going to
email you back. That's cool. Send you a very special
thank you, So thank you. Hayden. Who is joining Will Bangs,

(01:07:57):
the Vladman and Beatles and Comics. Welcome to the teacher Slunge,
Beatles and Comics. In the rest of you go sit
in the corner around the table. There's a chess set
on top, and mister Bowman's going to be in to
show you the the krush Chev maneuver. What does mister
Bowman teach chess? Of course, Ashley, I just want to
make sure I ask you every time.

Speaker 2 (01:08:16):
I mean that, and actually specifically a lesson on Dante's Inferno.
You're gonna need to know what the ninth circle is
by Tuesday.

Speaker 1 (01:08:26):
You know who knows a lot about Dante's Inferno. Former
podcast guest David work.

Speaker 2 (01:08:31):
So go to Apple Podcasts in your country of choice
and leave us a five star review and we will
read it on the podcast. Thank you so much for
doing that because it helps promote the podcast. Also, if
you are this is not enough, can guess a listen
for you. You can go over to patreon dot com
slash jowin that's jw ii N. You can support us
over on Patreon. You can join the super Friends Hall

(01:08:53):
of Justice. There's a lot of new things we're doing there,
including Patreon lenses where I almost answer a question every
single day and only the Patreons get to ask me
the questions, and they're over there.

Speaker 1 (01:09:03):
We also don't fail to those we answer all of them.
We answer all of them. We do Crisis Club over there.
But this week's geek hash for us an extra, which
is the extra podcast you get every time there's a
new Keys Rusts an extra episode. We we're talking about Ashley.
We're talking about comic strips that we think should be
adapted into movies. Oh, that's going to be a I
have to get a list for that one. Yeah, well
we have a list. Okay, great, So that'll be a
fun discussion. And you can support the podcast that keeps

(01:09:25):
the podcast free to you gets the podcast going at Patreon,
So go over there and join that. You can follow
me on Twitter and Instagram at Jawin jawii In. Have
been doing a lot of fun trading card things, some
Instagram stories. Ashley, you can follow her at Ashley V.
Robinson on Twitter and Instagram. She does all kinds of
Instagram stories all the time, way more than me. She's

(01:09:45):
better Instagram than I am and still have less followers
than you. Yeah, it doesn't matter. Follow me. And then
if they want to suggest us doing a retrospective on
the Adams Family movie hash Adam's Family.

Speaker 2 (01:10:01):
Yes, where can they do that on social media?

Speaker 1 (01:10:04):
The best place to do that is on Twitter at
GHL podcast. You can also do that at Facebook dot com,
slash geekhistory lesson, physic geekistory lesson dot com, or email
us geekistory Lesson at gmail dot com. I would actually
really love to do those retrospectives, so please request.

Speaker 2 (01:10:20):
Now hashtag stick around the last fan of the podcast
without the last part of the podcast where we want
you to stick around Ashley.

Speaker 1 (01:10:27):
Yeah, what are we talking about? Jason? I think you
may have told the story on the podcast before, but
it's more topical than ever and also adorable. Tell us
about the time that you dressed up as Uncle Fester
for Halloween, so it.

Speaker 2 (01:10:39):
Would have been either ninety one or ninety two. I
have a picture of it. I think I've showed it
to you.

Speaker 1 (01:10:43):
Oh yeah, it's adorable because I loved the movie and
I love the cartoon and Uncle Fester is my favorite character.
So it was the first time I ever had an
experience with a bald cap. How was it? Uh? Not fun?

Speaker 2 (01:10:55):
We also didn't do it that great, and my mom
had to do a lot of them making. I'm sure
your mom did her best. And I think I just
wore I think we bought the black cloak for the
Grim Reaper. That's what I wore, and then but I
painted black around my eyes. My whole face is white,
and that's me. I remember the night, most people not
having any clue what I was. I think they just
thought I was like a google or a demon.

Speaker 1 (01:11:14):
Did you have a light bulb? No? I mean, good
to your mom for not letting you put a light
bulb in your mouth.

Speaker 2 (01:11:20):
But I don't know if I did. I might have
had a light bulb and I put it in my
mouth sometimes the show people. I don't remember no what
I did have though, is I had a fake hand
and that was thing.

Speaker 1 (01:11:31):
Oh that's cute.

Speaker 2 (01:11:31):
So I would like hold him up and I'd be like, oh,
here's a thing, or he would be writing in my
pumpkin pale. What are you call yeah, jack o lantern
candy thing? What do you call those candy bag? I
don't even remember. I'll tell you what. I am excited
to see the Adams Family movie now.

Speaker 1 (01:11:49):
I am so excited. I hope it's good. The designs
are based on the original cartoon designs, which is what
I'm most excited about. And I just think Oscar Isaac
is such a good casting choice, and you had posited
him actually has a live action a great life.

Speaker 2 (01:12:05):
And we've said that Christina Ricci should just play you
know Martisia, Yes, Martitia Bette Midler is is Grandmama.

Speaker 1 (01:12:16):
Great choice. And Alison Janny's in it as well.

Speaker 2 (01:12:19):
I wanted to see who wrote it, Alison, very curious
to see who wrote this movie? Uh, screenplay by Matt
Lieberman and Pamela Pettler. Is that the Matt Lieberman we know?
Surely that can't be the Matt Lieberman that I know. Well,
does he have a photo he doesn't. Well this Matt

(01:12:40):
Lieberman that wrote this movie. But I knew we are friends, acquaintances,
but people would know this the Matt Lieberman from Source
fed Yes, very nice gentleman, very good friend.

Speaker 1 (01:12:52):
I don't think he wrote this movie. Do you have
his number? I think I do have his numbers. I
think he has a Wikipedia page. I don't know. This
is thrilling radio. He doesn't have them.

Speaker 2 (01:13:03):
I don't think it's him. I looked at his Twitter.
I mean, if I had written the Adams Family movie,
I'd be tweeting that over like crazy are sharing it? Yeah,
and I don't mister Matt who is? And it is
an awesome writer. Oh, I found the person who did it.
This is the person who wrote it. I'm going to
turn the computer around.

Speaker 1 (01:13:20):
That's the person who wrote it because his the Aniam's
family tweeted him out. Yes, this is not the mattley
Erman that I know, but it's spelled exactly the same way. Well,
I would say a very common name, but I'm not
sure how common a namely woman is.

Speaker 2 (01:13:33):
Well, that was some fun podcast.

Speaker 1 (01:13:36):
Now the man who co wrote the Adams Family. That's
too bad. I was so going to be like Matt.
Good for you, dude. Yeah, how did you keep this
his secret? Well, you didn't tell us your work on
the Adams Family movie. This is compelling. All right, let's
just leave this all right, this is hashtag Adam's Family. Yes,
I want to talk about guys. I'll tell you what.

Speaker 2 (01:13:58):
There is a lot of fun behind the scenes stuff
with the first movie and we will bring it in
the episode. I know there's some fun commentary tracks, all
this kind of stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:14:07):
Yeah, we obviously couldn't go into super depth on them
here because we had a lot to cover and I
wanted to focus. We always try to focus more on
the original source material comics.

Speaker 2 (01:14:16):
All right, that's it. Thank you so much for listening.
I have been Jason Babushka in them.

Speaker 1 (01:14:21):
I've been Ashley Victoria Robinson and Ashley Wednesday. Adams please
in this podcast. Classes now dismissed. So much better than me.

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