The Addams Family (Series)

Gomez decides to bolster Cousin Itt's failing ego by making him the star of a production aimed as a birthday surprise for Wednesday. He hires the great director, Eric von Bissell, who gives Itt elocution lessons, causing a Hollywood star complex.

While Morticia and Gomez are celebrating their 13th wedding anniversary, she tells Wednesday and Pugsley a bedtime story of how she and Gomez first met. In this episode, Carolyn Jones plays Morticia, Morticia as a 22-year-old, and sister Ophelia.

Wednesday and Pugsley refuse to go to bed until they hear the rest of the courtship story. Morticia resumes the tale via flashback, including the ceremony beginning with Ophelia Frump, Morticia's balmy sister, as the bride.

Romance seems close for Thing, the Addams right-hand-in-a-box, when Gomez's aunt arrives for a visit accompanied by Lady Fingers, her handmaiden. Thing enjoys the visit most because it gives him a chance to hold hands with one of his own kind.

Morticia and Gomez visit Mayor Henson to complain that their property tax is ridiculously low. After the Mayor proves his incompetence by offering a refund, Gomez is persuaded to become a candidate for the office.

During a welcome home party for Cousin Itt, Morticia notices that the diminutive guest of honor seems to be losing his hair. Uncle Fester experiments with his chemistry set to produce a concoction that grows hair and tries the remedy on Itt.

Wednesday and Pugsley return in tears from trick-or-treating because a neighbor has told them there is no such thing as a witch. Morticia and Gomez plan to prove to the children that they do exist--by summoning a witch to a séance.

Determined to correct the dreadful literature that Wednesday and Pugsley are exposed to, Morticia sets out to create a new literary world. Gomez fears that his wife's first manuscript is so good, that once the publisher reads it he will lose her.

In need of artistic fulfillment, Morticia takes up sculpting. An art critic views her first endeavor--a three-eyed Gomez statue--and clubs it with his cane. Gomez, who won't have Morticia's heart broken gets a seedy art dealer to buy it.

Pugsley copies one of his dad's old love letters and sends it to his teacher. Miss Dunbar comes to visit the Addams home and confesses to Gomez that no man has ever fallen so in love with her, leading Morticia to pretend to be the jealous wife.

After Wednesday befriends a new boy her age, Robespierre Courtney, Morticia invites his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Courtney to visit the Addams house for tea. Unbeknowist to them, the Courtney's are hoping to meet a number of the social set.

There is a neighborhood burglar on the loose, and Morticia has reason to believe it could be Gomez. Morticia decides to probe his subconscious mind for a key to his criminality after she and Uncle Fester discover loot hidden in the storeroom.

Morticia's pet plant Cleopatra gobbles up her favorite photo of Gomez from the family album. When the original photographer is found and asked to make a duplicate picture, it is discovered that he is now with the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Gomez plays host to Don Xavier Molines, a family friend during his childhood in Spain, and his daughter Consuella. Morticia's hospitality is put to the test when Consuella reveals that she has been promised in marriage to Gomez since childhood.

When Wednesday's and Pugsley's faith in Santa Claus is shaken, Uncle Fester is chosen to back up Santa in case the real St. Nick is too busy to come. However, Fester-Santa gets stuck in the chimney, so each of the other adults fill in for him.

Fester is so smitten upon receipt of a photo of his love, a bearded carnival lady, that he borrows stamp money to mail her a proposal. Morticia dons a beard and poses as the mother to convince Fester that he will have to work to support a wife.

Because she thinks Fester (Jackie Coogan) and Grandmama (Blossom Rock) are spoiling the children, Morticia (Carolyn Jones) hires a governess. Insulted, Fester paints a white line down the center of the Addams house, dividing it in half.

Morticia and Gomez see Fester conferring with TV muscleman Jack LaGrann (Jack LaLanne), and think that Fester is planning a television career. However, Uncle Fester confides to Lurch that he has to go on a secret diet and exercise.

Morticia and Gomez find Grandfather Pegleg's treasure map and summon Captain Grimby. They hope to charter his boat for the treasure hunt. But after meeting the Captain, Morticia is careful to keep the nature of the mission secret.

Ophelia Frump is madly in love with Horatio Bartholomew, the man who has everything, except the truth about her relatives. Morticia, not convinced by Bartholomew, persuades playboy Cousin Itt to stir the embers of his past romance with Ophelia.

Pugsley shocks his parents when he gives up his new atomic reactor as kid stuff and announces that he wants to find his own job. His first try is as a medical assistant to Dr. Bird. He turns up, scalpel in hand, ready to help during an operation.

Grandma Frump (guest star Margaret Hamilton), comes to the mistaken conclusion that her daughter, Morticia (Carolyn Jones), and Gomez (John Astin) plan to pack her off to an old folks home. Actually, they plan to send her to a beauty farm.

Morticia, in order to be part of the National Beautification Program, decides to become a home decorator and offers her services to the neighbors. Next door neighbor, and insurance agent, Joe Digby hires Morticia in hopes of selling them insurance.

Ophelia taunts Uncle Fester into announcing that he is going to join the Peace Corps. Fester feels he's a cinch to be accepted, because Gomez plans to pull strings in Washington on his behalf. The entire family agrees to help him study for the exam.

Allyn Joslyn guest-stars as Sam Hilliard, a former truant officer who now heads a private school where Wednesday and Pugsley are enrolled. When Hilliard breaks under the strain of dealing with the Addams children, Gomez buys the school.