"How I Fell In Love With:" The Addams Family
OK, so I was planning on this "how I fell in love with" series to focus on my favorite bands. But, in the spirit of Halloween, and in light of recent circumstances, I've decided to open up the realm of possibility and tell you about my introduction to a certain notorious family... The Addams Family! (duh duh duh duh *snap* *snap*)
Back in high school, when I was still very much obsessed with the television show "Twin Peaks" which had already been cancelled, I used to satiate my hunger for all things Peaks by following the various actors from the rather large ensemble cast, keeping tabs of all their current projects. I was particularly fond of the show's main stars, Kyle Machlachlan and Sherilyn Fenn. I also delighted in tracking some of the more obscure characters and the actors who portrayed them, and one such example was Carel Struycken who played "The Giant" in several season two episodes. I discovered he would be playing "Lurch" in a new movie version of "The Addams Family." I hadn't ever actually seen an episode of the television show, or even seen one of Charles Addams' cartoons in The New Yorker (or anywhere else), but being that the premise seemed very cool and even a little Twin Peaks-esque, and the Giant would be in the movie, I immediately developed a fascination with it. Over Thanksgiving weekend 1991, I went to the theatre with my siblings and cousins to watch the movie. It was kind of a foregone conclusion that I was going to love it. I was just looking for something to take the place of my Peaks-mania and, due to the excessive amount of merchandise and press-clippings I would be able to collect, The Addams Family was the perfect fix.
After the success of the movie, the original Television series was released on VHS tape, followed by the 1970's animated series. I started collecting them all, as well as various board games, card games, cereal box collector toys, posters, books, figurines, etc. At one point, I had an entire three-shelf shrine to the family. I was probably one of the few high school boys in the early 90's who would wile away the day playing pinball in my bedroom, listening to Vic Mizzy's Original Television Soundtrack to The Addams Family. I still love that record (even though I can't find it, and tore the house apart looking for it recently - and no, it's not at Amoeba, either.)
I think my fascination with the family can be easily analyzed: first the obvious factors - the huge old mansion, I have always been fascinated by large, haunted looking houses, victorian architecture, etc. Secondly, all the amazing artifacts that decorated their house. But most importantly, I think I was drawn to the way in which they fused wholesomeness and subversion - to the outside world they seemed different and scary, but once you got to see them from the inside, they really were the ideal, loving family. It was everyone else who seemed weird. It's a great lesson to learn that your version of normal and acceptable may be the exact opposite of someone else's, and yet you can both be "right." As a teenager going through puberty and coming to terms with my homosexual feelings, it was very reassuring to see a set of characters who were considered "freaks" or "abnormal" who actually felt a sense of belonging within their own world and thought of the outside world as the weirdos. It was a fantasy I could get lost in; that somewhere, there was an Addams Family for me, and someday I would find them and we'd all live in our big, scary house and make fun of the Joneses next door with the shiny new car and the high school basketball games and the top 40 radio playing in their house. We'd be perfectly happy being the freaks that we were and we would only need each other to feel accepted.
In time, my life moved on and I moved to Los Angeles, where in a way, I am now in that big, scary house, living with a bunch of like-minded freaks who are misunderstood by the outside world, yet function as a perfectly normal family. Call it Los Aangeles; *snap* *snap*.
Back in high school, when I was still very much obsessed with the television show "Twin Peaks" which had already been cancelled, I used to satiate my hunger for all things Peaks by following the various actors from the rather large ensemble cast, keeping tabs of all their current projects. I was particularly fond of the show's main stars, Kyle Machlachlan and Sherilyn Fenn. I also delighted in tracking some of the more obscure characters and the actors who portrayed them, and one such example was Carel Struycken who played "The Giant" in several season two episodes. I discovered he would be playing "Lurch" in a new movie version of "The Addams Family." I hadn't ever actually seen an episode of the television show, or even seen one of Charles Addams' cartoons in The New Yorker (or anywhere else), but being that the premise seemed very cool and even a little Twin Peaks-esque, and the Giant would be in the movie, I immediately developed a fascination with it. Over Thanksgiving weekend 1991, I went to the theatre with my siblings and cousins to watch the movie. It was kind of a foregone conclusion that I was going to love it. I was just looking for something to take the place of my Peaks-mania and, due to the excessive amount of merchandise and press-clippings I would be able to collect, The Addams Family was the perfect fix.
After the success of the movie, the original Television series was released on VHS tape, followed by the 1970's animated series. I started collecting them all, as well as various board games, card games, cereal box collector toys, posters, books, figurines, etc. At one point, I had an entire three-shelf shrine to the family. I was probably one of the few high school boys in the early 90's who would wile away the day playing pinball in my bedroom, listening to Vic Mizzy's Original Television Soundtrack to The Addams Family. I still love that record (even though I can't find it, and tore the house apart looking for it recently - and no, it's not at Amoeba, either.)
I think my fascination with the family can be easily analyzed: first the obvious factors - the huge old mansion, I have always been fascinated by large, haunted looking houses, victorian architecture, etc. Secondly, all the amazing artifacts that decorated their house. But most importantly, I think I was drawn to the way in which they fused wholesomeness and subversion - to the outside world they seemed different and scary, but once you got to see them from the inside, they really were the ideal, loving family. It was everyone else who seemed weird. It's a great lesson to learn that your version of normal and acceptable may be the exact opposite of someone else's, and yet you can both be "right." As a teenager going through puberty and coming to terms with my homosexual feelings, it was very reassuring to see a set of characters who were considered "freaks" or "abnormal" who actually felt a sense of belonging within their own world and thought of the outside world as the weirdos. It was a fantasy I could get lost in; that somewhere, there was an Addams Family for me, and someday I would find them and we'd all live in our big, scary house and make fun of the Joneses next door with the shiny new car and the high school basketball games and the top 40 radio playing in their house. We'd be perfectly happy being the freaks that we were and we would only need each other to feel accepted.
In time, my life moved on and I moved to Los Angeles, where in a way, I am now in that big, scary house, living with a bunch of like-minded freaks who are misunderstood by the outside world, yet function as a perfectly normal family. Call it Los Aangeles; *snap* *snap*.
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