A Tim Burton Addams Family TV Show? We’re Interested …

The Addams Family has a very special place in the cold dead hearts of goths and other spooky and kooky types across the nation, nay, the world. The original Addams Family cartoons and television show, as well as the beloved 90s films and even the recent animated version, are the peak of a certain aesthetic, and the only other cinematic oeuvre that comes close to it is that of Tim Burton. So the news that Tim Burton is working on an Addams Family TV series seems like a confluence that’s been forever in the making.

Deadline reports that Tim Burton is shopping around a new Addams Family series what would be his first-ever television project. Burton is on as executive producer and might even direct all the episodes, with Alfred Gough and Miles Millar (Smallville) on as writers and showrunners.

The owners of The Addams Family rights, MGM TV, are financing the development of the project and Deadline claims that the new series, quite understandably, already has many buyers vying for the chance to have this on their channel or streaming service. Netflix of course is supposed to be at the top of the competition.

This sounds, frankly, great.

Like any goth worth my circle of salt, I love The Addams Family and Tim Burton, and the idea of this property as interpreted by such an iconic director? It’s almost too perfect.

Yes, of course, there are doubts to be had. In recent years Burton has been a bit off his game, and yes, his last adaptation of a beloved TV series, Dark Shadows, was not a hit or very, um, good. But I’m very excited about the prospect of Burton seeing what he can do in a television format where he has more room to tell a more complete story, and where we the viewer have more time to explore all the textures and creepy corners of the world.

I’m willing to give Burton a chance here, especially because The Addams Family has always been a creepy comedy, which is where Burton excels. I think sometimes we forget in all the spirals and skeletons just how funny Tim Burton’s work can be and what sort of great things he can do when he’s just given a great cast and a world to play in. I’m thinking about Beetlejuice here or Mars Attacks! 

Now, of course, we have to talk about casting, but I think that Twitter has already done it for us with the amazing art of Oscar Isaac and Ruth Negga as Gomez and Morticia we saw last week. I’d love to see Doug Jones in there as Lurch. Oh, and for Uncle Fester, I’d pick one of my favorite character actors: Dominic Burgress. You’ve seen him in everything from The Magicians to Supernatural to The Good Place (he was the one with the boots!). Hopefully, we can get some newcomers as Pugsley and Wednesday, and I do hope that original iconic Wednesday Christina Ricci can make an appearance.

What do you think of this news? Excited or scared?

(via: io9/Gizmodo, image: Paramount)

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