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The Addams Family (1964)
''The Addams Family'' is an American macabre/ black comedy sitcom based on Charles Addams' ''New Yorker'' cartoons. The 30-minute television series was responsible for taking the unnamed characters in the single-panel gag cartoons and giving them names, back stories and a household setting. This was spearheaded by David Levy, who created and developed the series with Donald Saltzman in cooperation with cartoonist Addams, who gave each character a name and description for the first time. The series was shot in black-and-white, airing for two seasons on ABC from September 18, 1964, to April 8, 1966, for a total of 64 episodes. The show's opening theme was composed and sung by Vic Mizzy. The show was originally produced by head writer Nat Perrin for Filmways, Inc., at General Service Studios in Hollywood, California. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer now owns the rights to the series. Premise The Addams Family is a close-knit extended family with decidedly macabre interests and supern ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sitcom
A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use new characters in each sketch, and stand-up comedy, where a comedian tells jokes and stories to an audience. Sitcoms originated in radio, but today are found mostly on television as one of its dominant narrative forms. A situation comedy television program may be recorded in front of a studio audience, depending on the program's production format. The effect of a live studio audience can be imitated or enhanced by the use of a laugh track. Critics disagree over the utility of the term "sitcom" in classifying shows that have come into existence since the turn of the century. Many contemporary American sitcoms use the single-camera setup and do not feature a laugh track, thus often resembling the dramedy shows of the 1980s and 1990s rather t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Filmways Television
Filmways, Inc. (also known as Filmways Pictures and Filmways Television) was a television and film production company founded by American film executive Martin Ransohoff and Edwin Kasper in 1952. It is probably best remembered as the production company of CBS’ “rural comedies” of the 1960s, including ''Mister Ed'', ''The Beverly Hillbillies'', ''Petticoat Junction'', and ''Green Acres'', as well as the comedy-drama ''The Trials of O'Brien'', the western ''Dundee and the Culhane'', the adventure show ''Bearcats!'', the police drama ''Cagney & Lacey'', and ''The Addams Family''. Notable films the company produced include ''The Sandpiper'', ''The Cincinnati Kid'', ''The Fearless Vampire Killers'', ''Ice Station Zebra'', ''Summer Lovers'', '' The Burning'', ''King'', Brian De Palma's '' Dressed to Kill'' and ''Blow Out'', and ''Death Wish II''. Filmways acquired famous companies throughout the years, such as Heatter-Quigley Productions, Ruby-Spears Productions and American Inter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 and based in Beverly Hills, California. MGM was formed by Marcus Loew by combining Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and Louis B. Mayer Productions, Louis B. Mayer Pictures into one company. It hired a number of well known actors as contract players—its slogan was "more stars than there are in heaven"—and soon became Hollywood's most prestigious film studio, producing popular musical films and winning many Academy Awards. MGM also owned film studios, movie lots, movie theaters and technical production facilities. Its most prosperous era, from 1926 to 1959, was bracketed by two productions of ''Ben-Hur (1959 film), Ben Hur''. After that, it divested itself of the Loews movie theater chain, and, in the 1960s, diversified ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
General Service Studios
Sunset Las Palmas Studios, formerly General Service Studios and Hollywood Center Studios, is an American independent entertainment production lot located at 1040 North Las Palmas Avenue in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, providing stage facilities and filmmaking services to clients in the film, television and advertising industries. Founded in 1919, it is one of the oldest production facilities in Hollywood and has played host to many notable video productions for over a century. Sunset Las Palmas Studios is one of the three production facilities that make up the "Sunset Studios" sound-stage conglomerate owned by Hudson Pacific Properties, the others being the Sunset Bronson Studios and the Sunset Gower Studios. History In 1919, John Jasper, a former associate of Charlie Chaplin, built exterior sets, three production stages and several bungalows on a 16.5-acre site in Hollywood and named it Hollywood Studios Inc. The first stages resembled hot houses with steel frames, clot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Addams Family Theme
The theme for the 1964 TV series ''The Addams Family'' was written and arranged by longtime Hollywood film and television composer Vic Mizzy. The song's arrangement was dominated by a harpsichord, and featured finger-snaps as percussive accompaniment. Actor Ted Cassidy, reprising his " Lurch" voice, punctuated the lyrics with the words "neat", "sweet", and "petite". Mizzy's theme was popular enough to enjoy a single release, though it failed to make the national charts. The closing theme was similar, but was instrumental only and featured such instruments as a triangle, a wooden block, a siren whistle, and a duck call. See also * Addams Groove - a single performed by hip-hop artist Hammer that was released as the theme song to the 1991 film ''The Addams Family''. * Black No. 1 (Little Miss Scare-All) - a single by goth metal band Type O Negative Type O Negative were an American gothic metal band formed in Brooklyn, New York City in 1989 by Peter Steele (bass, lead vocal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black-and-white
Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. However, there are exceptions to this rule, including black-and-white fine art photography, as well as many film motion pictures and art film(s). Photography Contemporary use Since the late 1960s, few mainstream films have been shot in black-and-white. The reasons are frequently commercial, as it is difficult to sell a film for television broadcasting if the film is not in color. 1961 was the last year in which the majority of Hollywood films were released in black and white. Computing In computing terminology, ''black-and-white'' is sometimes used to refer to a binary image consisting solely of pure black pixels and pure white ones; what would normally be called a black-and-white image, that is, an image containing shades of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sitcom
A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use new characters in each sketch, and stand-up comedy, where a comedian tells jokes and stories to an audience. Sitcoms originated in radio, but today are found mostly on television as one of its dominant narrative forms. A situation comedy television program may be recorded in front of a studio audience, depending on the program's production format. The effect of a live studio audience can be imitated or enhanced by the use of a laugh track. Critics disagree over the utility of the term "sitcom" in classifying shows that have come into existence since the turn of the century. Many contemporary American sitcoms use the single-camera setup and do not feature a laugh track, thus often resembling the dramedy shows of the 1980s and 1990s rather t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black Comedy
Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discuss. Writers and comedians often use it as a tool for exploring vulgar issues by provoking discomfort, serious thought, and amusement for their audience. Thus, in fiction, for example, the term ''black comedy'' can also refer to a genre in which dark humor is a core component. Popular themes of the genre include death, crime, poverty, suicide, war, violence, terrorism, discrimination, disease, racism, sexism, and human sexuality. Black comedy differs from both blue comedy—which focuses more on crude topics such as nudity, sex, and Body fluids—and from straightforward obscenity. Whereas the term ''black comedy'' is a relatively broad term covering humor relating to many serious subjects, ''gallows humor'' tends to be used more specifical ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Macabre
In works of art, the adjective macabre ( or ; ) means "having the quality of having a grim or ghastly atmosphere". The macabre works to emphasize the details and symbols of death. The term also refers to works particularly gruesome in nature. History Early traces of macabre can be found in Ancient Greek and Latin writers such as the Roman writer Petronius, author of the ''Satyricon'' (late 1st century CE), and the Numidian writer Apuleius, author of ''The Golden Ass'' (late 2nd century CE). During the Middle Ages, outstanding instances of macabre themes in English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ... include the works of John Webster, Robert Louis Stevenson, Mervyn Peake, Charles Dickens, Roald Dahl, Thomas Hardy, and Cyril Tourneur. In American lite ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Halloween With The New Addams Family
''Halloween with the New Addams Family'' is a 1977 American made-for-television comedy horror film based on the 1964–1966 sitcom ''The Addams Family''. In contrast to the "new" in the title, most of the original series regulars reprised their roles, including John Astin, Carolyn Jones (billed as a "special guest star"), Jackie Coogan, Ted Cassidy, Lisa Loring, Ken Weatherwax and Felix Silla. Eleven years after the cancellation of the 1960s TV series, it was the only presentation that brought together most of the original cast in a color production, shot on videotape. Plot Gomez's brother Pancho is staying with the Family while Gomez goes to a lodge convention in Tombstone, Arizona. Gomez is jealous of his brother, who once courted Morticia. Halloween is nigh and Pancho tells the legend of Cousin Shy, who distributes gifts and carves pumpkins. Actually, Gomez has been lured off by crooks who have bugged the house in order to steal the Family fortune. The lead crook "Bones" Laff ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Munsters
''The Munsters'' is an American sitcom depicting the home life of a family of benign monsters. The series starred Fred Gwynne as Frankenstein's monsterEpisodes referring to the fact that Herman is Frankenstein's monster include #55, "Just Another Pretty Face," in which Grandpa explains how he came to possess Herman's original blueprint by reading the inscription on it: "To our favorite Count, Dracula - a souvenir from Dr. Frankenstein and all the guys and gals" and #61, "Cyrano de Munster," in which Lily, suspecting Herman of infidelity, tells Marilyn: "I'll take Herman apart so that even Dr. Frankenstein couldn't put him together" and head-of-the-household Herman Munster; Yvonne De Carlo as his vampire wife Lily; Al Lewis as Lily's father, Grandpa, the somewhat over-the-hill vampire Count DraculaEpisodes mentioning that Grandpa is Count Dracula include #55, "Just Another Pretty Face," in which he explains his possession of Herman's original blueprint by reading the inscriptio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
