Vindication! More on My Continuing Search for Spooky Smokin'

I am vindicated! Somewhat.

I've posted before about my search for a clip from the original ADDAMS FAMILY television series, in which Morticia and Gomez smoke from a hookah. For years, I told people about this, in the hopes that someone might remember more details about the particular episode...only to find that no one believed it ever happened!

Then, a few days ago, while watching a program on TV Land, there is was...the clip! The hookah! Jonathan and I saw it in all its glory.

A Google image search failed to turn up a picture of the infamous Addams Family Hookah. A regular Google search turned op these two links, however, proving that I'm not the only person to remember the elder spooksters puffin' out. The first:


FCC Slaps Anti-Drug TV Shows


"For all those who think what the networks have done is anything recent, I have a news flash: it's been going on for a lot longer than you think.
For example: It's been many years since the old 1960's TV series "The Addams Family" has been on the tube. I am old enough to remember when it was first on (yes, children, I am an old fart; I've earned my scars and wrinkles, and wear them proudly).

In several of the episodes, the two main characters played by John Astin and Carolynn Jones, were seen smoking a big Turkish hookah. In one episode where this happens, Astin's character disgustedly throws down the hookah hose and irritably complains that 'nothing seems to calm my nerves' after having witnessed something severely aggravating to them.

He then gets up to light a cigar.

You don't have to be Einstein to figure out that what they were smoking in the hookah probably wasn't tobacco. Else, why the cigar?

But in later re-runs of the syndicated show, these scenes are edited out. This none-too-subtle redacting began back in the early 1980's and these episodes are rarely ever shown in their entirety, which causes no end of frustration as it severely affects what little plot the shows had."


Well, that explains why so many people hadn't seen the Addams' hookah scene: it was edited out for fear that someone might think Gomez and Morticia were hopheads. Which should go without saying, anyway....


Now, for the second link:


Female Celebrity Smoking List: Reviews - "Addams Family, The" (1964)


"Smoking a Hookah pipe with Jon Astin towards the end of one episode"


Well, now I know the scene is at the end of an episode...and I also know that I'm unlikely to see it in syndication, as the offending scene was probably edited out. In addition, I'm not going to be able to find it on DVD, because to the best of my knowledge, the two seasons of THE ADDAMS FAMILY are not yet on DVD in their entirety, and even if they are...will they be the originals, and unedited?

My search continues: for the name of the episode, for a photograph of Morticia and Gomez sparkin' up, and for the episode itself on DVD. Keep your fingers crossed!

I get obsessed over the strangest things.....