Random Charming And Intriguing Behind-The-Scenes Stories From ‘The Addams Family’ TV Show (20 items)

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  (#19) Lisa Loring Learned To Memorize Lines Before She Could Read

  Lisa Loring was just five years old with limited acting experience when she was cast in the role of Wednesday Addams; she learned later that she was chosen in large part because she looked like Carolyn Jones, who was to play her character's mother, Morticia. She was so young that she learned to memorize her lines before she could read. According to Loring, at her audition, the executive producer David Levy read her lines to her, and after the second time through, she was able to repeat them back to him. She later did a screen test and Levy and John Astin chose her for the part.

  As of October 2019, Loring is one of the three surviving cast members of The Addams Family television series; the others are John Astin and Felix Silla (who played Cousin Itt).
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  (#3) John Astin Claimed That He And Carolyn Jones Were Genuinely Attracted To Each Other

  John Astin has admitted that he and Carolyn Jones were immediately attracted to each other but kept things strictly professional. They used their personal chemistry to give Gomez and Morticia "a grand romance" as an antidote to the virtually sexless parents then common on television shows. In an interview for the Television Academy Foundation , Astin said that while he and Jones had different comedic styles, those styles blended very well.

  “There’s a playful sexuality between Gomez and Morticia, the kind you wish your parents would’ve exhibited,” said Andrew Lippa, the Tony Award-nominated composer and lyricist of the Addams Family Broadway musical . “Here I am watching reruns after school every day of a beautiful couple who lets you know it’s okay to touch.”

  "We used to do joke promos for the show, where I'd say 'My wife and I are the best-adjusted couple on television,'" Astin told the Baltimore Sun in 2012. "I think we influenced the tone of the '60s with that kind of freedom and warmth - you know, peace and love. But the fact that Gomez and Morticia got obviously excited about one another was something the studio got letters on, which was kind of stupid."

  In James Pylant's biography of Jones , her stepdaughter Deborah Greene was quoted stating that Jones had complained about Astin always trying to upstage her and hog the camera. But the people Pylant interviewed who had worked with Astin and Gomez on The Addams Family denied having ever seen any tension between the actors. And when Jones passed, it was Astin who delivered the eulogy at her funeral.
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  (#18) John Astin Was A College Student When He First Discovered Charles Addams's Cartoons

  John Astin graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 1952. It was as a college student that he first discovered Charles Addams's cartoons, even decorating his room with them. But it wasn't until he was cast in the television series that he really took a deep look at the work.

  "There was nothing morbid about them, in my view," Astin told the Baltimore Sun in 2012. "The cartoons implied violence against a cliché or a habit of modern human beings. There's a line in Waiting for Godot: 'Habit is a great deadener.' My conclusion - I never discussed this with him - was that Charlie was trying to wake us up to the joy and wonder of life, which is so much more than what we experience through stale habit."
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  (#20) Ken Weatherwax Was Allergic To The Clothes The Costume Designers Made For Him

  Ken Weatherwax, who played the quiet, inventive Pugsley on The Addams Family, came from a show business family; he was the nephew of '30s film star Ruby Keeler, as well as of the man who worked as Lassie's trainer. Prior to being cast on The Addams Family, he had become a familiar face on television due to a series of commercials for Gleem toothpaste.

  His health issues caused some issues on the set; he was allergic to a multitude of things, including the 100% wool clothes the costume designers made, so his mother bought the clothes he wore on the show. 
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  (#7) The Pockets Of Gomez's Suits Were Lined With Asbestos

  In the television series, Gomez Addams is often seen holding or smoking a lit cigar, which he then often put in his suit pocket. In order to protect John Astin getting singed or the costumes having holes burned in them, the show's prop masters lined the suit pockets with asbestos.

  Although the character occasionally smoked in the original Charles Addams cartoons, he became a heavier smoker on the television series. Astin was a cigar smoker in real life and thought it would be a good character quirk for Gomez. "We never wanted Gomez to use a short cigar," Astin told Stephen Cox. "It wasn't elegant. If we got to take two, three, four... and the cigar ash was getting too long, I would have to light up another cigar."
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  (#10) Ken Weatherwax And Lisa Loring Were Not Allowed On Set When There Were Scenes Involving The Family's Pet Lion

  Named "Kitty Kat," the Addamses' pet was in reality said to be a retired circus lion. Although there was a trainer named Steve Martin on set, the people running the show were very careful to try and keep the set as safe as possible in any scenes involving the lion. In fact, the actors playing Wednesday and Pugsley (Lisa Loring and Ken Weatherwax) were not allowed on set when they were shooting scenes with the lion.

  To minimize the danger to the cast, they filmed the scene of the lion coming down the stairs just once, then they reused the footage when needed.

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