apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

The Addams Family mansion was actually taken from a house in LA that is coincidentally on Addams Boulevard. However, they used a matte painting and placed it over the home, which added the famous gable and arched windows and dead trees. This was obviously way before CGI technology, so this was a way for them to cut production costs. The set designer for the show was Ruby Levitt, who did a master job of balancing scary and "home-y". It's interesting to note how she put in lots of taxidermy and persian rugs, giving the home a more "worldly/eclectic/bohemian" feel. More on the Addams family mansion here.

And then there's The Munsters. Personally, I grew up watching The Munsters more so than The Addams family (not sure why that was, but I think they just didn't broadcast The Addams Family on my local tv networks as much). The actual house for The Munsters is still in existence on the Universal Lot, However, today, it's been transformed and cleaned up to be part of "Wisteria Lane", from Desperate Housewives. See some before/after pics here. A highly devoted fan in Texas has actually recreated the entire house (and lives there!) which they open up for tours in conjunction with charity events. They apparently watched all 70 episodes to get the layout and continue to work on it with the goal to make it look exactly as it did in the show. See pics here. They are quite impressive. Interesting to note that The Munster's house was much more typical refined Victorian, and less eclectic/bohemian? as The Addams Family's. Which one is your favorite?

Image of the Munster Mansion from here.