The Addams Family vs. The Munsters: Who Ya Got?

Two creepy television families. The Addams Family, a wealthy, morbid fictional family created by cartoonist Charles Addams in 1938 and introduced to television in 1964. The Munsters, a sitcom about a working class family of monsters in the classic Universal vein, also airing in 1964. Two sitcoms, inextricably linked by their premises and their parallel TV airings, and now the families of fright both have upcoming projects on Netflix. It's a battle that has been waged for almost 50 years, with no discernible winner.

Or, is there a winner? For kicks and giggles, or decapitations and moans, what say we pit the terrifying two against each other in a series of matchups? Now to make things fair, we will compare the original 1964 versions of each show, only bringing in reboots and other media when the matchup calls for it. It's The Addams Family versus The Munsters. It'll be a snap snap.

The Success of the Original Run

The Addams Family capped out at 64 episodes, ranking #23 in TV ratings for its first season and dropping out of the top 30 afterwards. The Munsters had 70 episodes in its original run, was ranked #18 in its first season, and was a nominee for Best TV Show at the 1965 Golden Globes. Batman may have ended the runs of both, but while on the air, the numbers don't lie.

Winner: The Munsters

Theme Songs

Everyone knows The Addams Family theme song, even if they've never seen it. The theme, written and arranged by composer Vic Mizzy, is classic 60s era earworm, right up there with the likes of The Brady Bunch or Batman. The 'snap-snap' is instantly recognizable, and in Paste Magazines list of top 50 theme songs it sits at #15. The Munsters is surf-rock excellence, was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1965, and its iconic riff was sampled in the 2015 Fall Out Boy song "Uma Thurman". Musically, it's the better of the two, but...

Winner: The Addams Family

Sweet Ride

The wealthy Addams clan drove around in a 1933 Packard V-12 limo (not a hearse as most people believe). The Munster Koach was a Frankenstein monster of its own, built by George Barris (who built the Batmobile) using three Model T bodies, a 289 Ford Cobra engine from a 1966 Mustang GT, and a number of other modifications in an 18-foot-long beauty. And that was just one built for the show: Barris also created Dragula, a 1964 drag car made from a fiberglass coffin and powered by a 289/350 hp Ford V8. No contest.

Winner: The Munsters

Mano a Mano

Gomez Addams (John Astin) vs. Herman Munster (Fred Gwynne): Gomez is a lover, not a fighter, and while Herman is a big-hearted, hard-working Frankenstein's monster, sheer size wins here. Winner: Herman Munster

Morticia Addams (Carolyn Jones) vs. Lily Munster (Yvonne De Carlo): Yes, Lily is a vampiress from the Dracula family, reasonable, level-headed, sweet and kind, but Morticia is straight-up frightening. Beautiful, but frightening. Winner: Morticia Addams

Uncle Fester (Jackie Coogan) vs. Grandpa Munster (Al Lewis): Morticia's uncle is bald, dresses in black, floor length robes, likes dynamite, chills on a bed of nails and can power light bulbs by placing them in his mouth. Grandpa is (possibly) Count Dracula himself, but elderly and doting, can shapeshift, makes inventions and potions, and a schemer. Two eccentrics with little to separate them. Winner: DRAW

Wednesday (Lisa Loring) and Pugsley (Ken Weatherwax) vs. Marilyn (Beverly Owen/Pat Priest) and Eddie (Butch Patrick): Wednesday is a macabre, deadpan, and downright frightening little girl who seems capable of horrific atrocities. Marilyn is a plain, ordinary human being, and a beautiful young lady with no monster tendencies. Pugsley is kind-hearted and smart, and lacks the upfront morbidness of his family (for the most part), while Eddie is a mischievous werewolf boy. Wednesday tops Marilyn, Eddie tops Pugsley. Winner: DRAW

The Ick Factor

In addition to its main characters, The Addams Family boasts: Thing ("Itself"), a disembodied hand; Lurch (Ted Cassidy), a large, lumbering, monstrous butler; Cousin Itt (Felix Silia), the small... creature, for lack of a better word, with floor-length hair - all floor length hair, with a bowler hat and sunglasses; and a variety of pets including Aristotle the octopus, Fang the jaguar, Cleopatra the African Strangler man-eating plant, Kitty Kat the pet lion, Tristan and Isolde the piranhas, Homer the spider and, finally, Zelda the pet vulture. The Munsters include Igor, Grandpa's pet Transylvanian bat, Spot, Eddie's pet dinosaur, Charlie the Raven (Mel Blanc), and the height of originality, Kitty the black cat that roars like a lion.

Winner: The Addams Family

Home is Where the Hearts Are

The Addams live in a large mansion at 0001 Cemetery Lane. In the play room are medieval racks, nailbeds, iron maidens and stockades for when they needed to chill. And the house - literally - practically is a museum where people come to see 'em, with odd statues, trophies and other interesting artifacts throughout. The Munsters live in a nine-room Gothic Victorian mansion at 1313 Mockingbird Lane in Mockingbird Heights. There are secret passageways, a trap door in the parlor, a laboratory, and it was built on an old Spanish prison. Too close to call? 1313 Mockingbird Lane only has one bathroom. Eek.

Winner: The Munsters

Legacy

Following the cancellation of The Munsters, the original cast reunited for the 1966 film Munster, Go Home! 1973 saw the release of the animated The Mini-Munsters, where Al Lewis was the only original cast member to do vocals, and 1981 the adult cast reunited again for The Munsters Revenge. Another shot at TV, The Munsters Today started in 1988 with a new cast - and surpassed the original's episode count by 2 at 72. Atari released a video game called Midnight Mutants - and that's all we'll say about that. Yet another new cast gave us the TV movie Here Come the Munsters, and the whole concept of the series was 're-imagined' by Bryan Fuller as the 2012 TV pilot Mockingbird Lane, which did not get picked up by the network. Nothing, though, that really caught the public's attention.

The Addams Family, on the other hand, would grow larger than its rival. The show spawned a dance craze in 1965, "The Lurch." After the show's run, a few attempts were made to keep it alive, including a spot on The New Scooby-Doo Movies, a 1977 Halloween TV movie and, Lord knows why, a musical variety show pilot. Then came 1991 and Barry Sonnenfeld's hit movie The Addams Family. The casting was perfect, especially Christina Ricci's Wednesday, and the 1993 follow-up The Addams Family Values was another huge hit. A Broadway musical, a direct-to-video film, two successful animated films and multiple video games bring us to today.

Winner: The Addams Family

What the Future Holds

As alluded to above, Netflix will soon be airing projects for each property. Wednesday, a series from Tim Burton that brings the family back to TV screens, with a focus on Jenna Ortega's Wednesday (and she looks great in it so far). The Munsters is a film helmed by superfan Rob Zombie, his second love letter to the show after his 1998 song "Dragula." It hasn't had the social media presence or anticipation of Wednesday, though, so until both are released and the people speak...

Winner: The Addams Family