10 US Sitcoms Aussie Kids Grew Up With In The 80s

7. The Addams Family / The Munsters

18 September 1964 €“ 8 April 1966. 2 seasons. 65 episodes / 24 September 1964 €“ 12 May 1966. 2 seasons. 70 episodes They're lumped together here as one because The Addams Family and The Munsters were effectively the same show: spooky families looking like horror-movie characters, living in spooky houses in a contemporary setting. Different names and networks maybe, but only slightly different characterisation and tone and essentially the same basic premise and character set. Basically, then, the same show. The Addams Family started six days before The Munsters and The Munsters ended just over a month after The Addams Family. Both were filmed in black and white. Both featured a spooky old Gothic house where it was almost always night time, or dark and stormy, or both. The Addams were a household of eight comprising parents Gomez and Morticia, daughter Wednesday and son Pugsley, Morticia's Uncle Fester, Gomez's mother Grandmama, Lurch the 7 foot tall butler, Gomez's Cousin Itt and Thing, a hand that lived in a box. Along with the bizarre family the household was also home to an equally bizarre collection of pets, including a spider, a vulture, piranhas, a lion and a man-eating plant. The Munsters were a slightly more mainstream household made up of parents Herman and Lily, Lily's father Grandpa (aka Sam Dracula), son Eddie and daughter Marilyn. The Munsters got about in two vehicles - The Munster Coach and Drag-U-La, both stylised old hot rods made to resemble a hearse and a coffin respectively. Although both families were seen to exist in otherwise average suburbia, The Munsters were the more ordinary of the two, with daughter Marilyn not infused with any horror movie-inspired characterisation at all. Both series' were set in a universe of slapstick and absurdity, but The Addams Family trumped The Munsters with the Addams' obvious wealth and absolute eccentricity, plus its over-the-top set pieces and bizarre characters.