Image: The Everett Collection

Long before comic book adaptations were all the rage, Hollywood looked to the pages of daily newspapers for ideas. Half a century ago, comic strips like Blondie and Dennis the Menace became sitcoms. Peanuts kicked off a string of iconic animated Charlie Brown specials. A Saturday Evening Post strip called Hazel became a TV hit NBC.

Of course, one of the greatest adaptations of a comic strip from the 1960s was The Addams Family, a gothic comedy inspired by one-panel cartoons in The New Yorker by Charles Addams. Premiering on small screens in 1964, the Addams Family have never really gone away. Cartoons followed in the 1970s. A Halloween reunion came later that decade. A trilogy of films revived the characters for a new generation in the 1990s. There have been Broadway shows, video games and an incredible pinball game based on the Addams.

In 2019, a new animated Addams Family will arrive in theaters, featuring Charlize Theron, Oscar Isaacs, Bette Midler and the kid from Stranger Things.

So, let's look back at the classic. Here are 13 kooky, spooky things you might not have known about The Addams Family television series.