Digging About the Roots
Sep. 15th, 2025 12:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
setsuledMGM has a bunch of episodes of The Addams Family series from the 60s up on YouTube. The other day, I watched an episode called "The Addams Family Tree" which has racked up over two million views since it was uploaded in 2019.
In this one, Pugsley and Wednesday go to a neighbour kid's birthday party but, as usual, the Addams Family clash with the normies and barely seem to notice. It's so nice to see John Astin as Gomez. He and Raul Julia had that mad intensity the character requires and Luis Guzman utterly lacks. It's so sad everyone has to pretend Guzman was great casting.
The family is unambiguously wealthy in the old series and a number of gags depend upon their wealth. One moment I found interesting is at 2:30 in the video, when Gomez and Morticia are sending the kids off to the birthday party.
GOMEZ: "Remember children, not every family is as fortunate as we are. Not everyone has a beautiful old house like ours. A car with all the right sounds and smells."
MORTICIA: "You must be modest about our advantages."
The joke is that no normal person would envy the Addams Family home or lifestyle but the dialogue is based on a then standard morality. I read the 1911 edition of The Boy Scouts Handbook recently which cautioned Scouts against resenting the wealthy. I'm reminded, too, of the scene from Kurosawa's Stray Dog of the girl complaining about how expensive dresses are flaunted in front of people like her, with little or no money. At one time, managing resentment for the advantages of others was part of the work ethic and civility in general. I guess it was easier to maintain these principles when a tall drip coffee at Starbucks only cost a dollar.
In this one, Pugsley and Wednesday go to a neighbour kid's birthday party but, as usual, the Addams Family clash with the normies and barely seem to notice. It's so nice to see John Astin as Gomez. He and Raul Julia had that mad intensity the character requires and Luis Guzman utterly lacks. It's so sad everyone has to pretend Guzman was great casting.
The family is unambiguously wealthy in the old series and a number of gags depend upon their wealth. One moment I found interesting is at 2:30 in the video, when Gomez and Morticia are sending the kids off to the birthday party.
GOMEZ: "Remember children, not every family is as fortunate as we are. Not everyone has a beautiful old house like ours. A car with all the right sounds and smells."
MORTICIA: "You must be modest about our advantages."
The joke is that no normal person would envy the Addams Family home or lifestyle but the dialogue is based on a then standard morality. I read the 1911 edition of The Boy Scouts Handbook recently which cautioned Scouts against resenting the wealthy. I'm reminded, too, of the scene from Kurosawa's Stray Dog of the girl complaining about how expensive dresses are flaunted in front of people like her, with little or no money. At one time, managing resentment for the advantages of others was part of the work ethic and civility in general. I guess it was easier to maintain these principles when a tall drip coffee at Starbucks only cost a dollar.
