Rare Holiday Flix: Halloween with the NEW Addams Family

 Yes, this is a thing.

In 1977, they attempted to revive the Addams Family Show with an update.
That brought the Old Cast (together for the last time), new Jokes and...Color?!?

Yes, the Addams Family is back in this TV Movie/Backdoor Pilot.

Now you can see how tan John Astin was.
Now you can see how odd Lurch looks with more visible detail.
Now you can see...how old Jackie Coogan has gotten.

Anything else?

We get a pretty simple Plot at first.

Gomez is called away by his Lodge Brothers, so some bad guys make plans.

Nice and concise?

Not so fast!

You see, the NEW Addams Family features a NEW Pugsley and Wednesday, who are creatively-named Pugsley Jr and Wednesday Jr.

Yes, THIS family just repeated names for their kids.

The other kids show up at about the halfway point...and don't exactly do much.

Wednesday plays the Piccolo, while Pugsley is now a Witch Doctor.  
Nothing is done with the latter- no joke!

Can the family stop the bad guys who want to steal their fortune?
Can they run the 'Morticia speaks French and Gomez gets horny' joke into the ground?

Did we need a Subplot with Morticia's Mother wanting to fly?
Did we need random Muscle Men?

Will they explain why we need a Fake Morticia and Fake Gomez (as part of the heist) when we already have Gomez's Brother?

This is...kind of disappointing.  They have some good jokes.  Granted- they are firmly-established jokes from the Show.  There's not much new here.  They make the characters into caricatures of themselves.  There's not any nuance here.  I don't like being negative here, but...it's not good.

Seeing the Characters in color is a neat addition though.  All of the Actors try, to be fair.

Other than that, this is about 17 random things thrown together and it's just plain bizarre.  I can kind of see why this didn't become a Series.  Sorry.

A true rarity- no question.  That said, it's...not good.  *snap snap*