6. Thou Shalt Not Bank On Mere Imitation
The Addams Family was a television sensation back in the 1960's, with its macabre yet lightly laughable sitcom sensibilities. If you were to ask any Addams Family fan their opinion when the film was first announced, they would have shrieked as if they'd seen Cousin Itt for the first time. Lucky for them, the film remake was more of a success than a morbid exercise in resurrecting the magic of the original. A major contributing factor to the film's success? The fact that Raul Julia acted like Gomez was a new character that he could play with on his own, instead of studying John Astin's performance and providing a museum quality replica of Mr. Astin's version. In fact, the whole film infused itself with more of the macabre aspects of the source material, but still managed to be funny by trading in sitcom laughs for (sometimes literal) gallows humor. It was respectful of everyone's favorite creepy and kooky family down the street, but acknowledged the fact that this is a family that treats death, the supernatural, and the darker parts of humanity as fun and games. The contrast of the Addams way of life to the rest of the world alone was worth the reinvention, as it mined that particular source of humor in a way that the series never quite got to do. What's more, it saved itself from being a complete rehash of the franchise by making Uncle Fester a missing family member and using that plot to further along the re-introduction to the family's basics. Under textbook terms, The Addams Family should have been an all star slapstick disaster with Pauly Shore as Gomez, Marisa Tomei as Morticia, and Christopher Lloyd as Fester. Thankfully, cooler heads prevailed, Christopher Lloyd was actually cast, and the rest was history. Side note: Imitation should only be approached under the terms of Moe and Curly in the Farrley Brother's Three Stooges remake. Say what you will about the final product, but those two portrayals were dead on.