'The Addams Family' Theme Creator Dies

By PopEater / Wire Services Posted Oct 20th 2009 06:26AM

Vic Mizzy, a songwriter who composed the catchy themes for the 1960s sit-coms 'The Addams Family' and 'Green Acres,' has died. He was 93. Mizzy died Saturday at his home in Bel Air, his manager Jonathan Wolfson said. He said he didn't know the cause of death. Mizzy is survived by a brother, daughter and two grandchildren.

He wrote songs that were recorded by Dean Martin, Doris Day, Perry Como and Billie Holiday in the '40s and '50s. His hits included "Pretty Kitty Blue Eyes," "My Dreams are Getting Better All the Time," and "With a Hey and a Hi and a Ho-Ho-Ho."

But his most famous work was the theme to "The Addams Family," a tune accented by finger snaps and opening with the cleverly quirky lyrics: "They're creepy and they're kooky, mysterious and spooky, they're altogether ooky: the Addams family."

Mizzy sang the song himself and overdubbed it three times to give the impression of multiple vocalists. He also directed the title sequence where he asked actors who played members of the Addams family to snap their fingers in a bored way.

The enduring tune is often heard during sports game to rally the home team.

"He was smart enough to demand to own the song, which was unheard of at the time. So any time you go to a Lakers game and they play that song, he made money," Wolfson said.

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Mizzy learned to play the piano as a child. In his teens, he teamed up with Irving Taylor and began writing songs and sketches for variety shows. They won a pair of radio contests and toured the East Coast vaudeville circuit. While served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, the pair wrote several hit songs, including "Three Little Sisters" and "Take It Easy."

Mizzy later composed and wrote songs for television and film, most recently a song for "Spiderman 2" which ended up on the DVD version of the movie.

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Vic Mizzy, Sept. 17: The songwriter who composed the catchy themes for the 1960s sit-coms 'The Addams Family' and 'Green Acres,' has died at age 93. His manager Jonathan Wolfson said he didn't know the cause of death. Mizzy is survived by a brother, daughter and two grandchildren.

Mathew Imaging / WireImage

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Everett Collection

Tags: the addams family, TheAddamsFamily, vic mizzy, VicMizzy

Comments

(8)

Tuesday 20 October

By dicksmothersjr

High Rank Vote down Vote up Report this

The Addams Family started
When Uncle Fester f a r t e d
They all became r e t a r d e d
The Addams Family.

By Stephen

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You beat me to it......lol:)

By Libby

that is hilarious. I've always loved that theme. It has a catch to it. And you always snap your fingers along with the actors/actresses. watch yourself the next time the tune plays. you'll see.

By Eternal_Darkness

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RIP Sir, we'll see you on the green acres up there somewhere. *Snap snap*

By Celia

At 93 they don't know his cause of death. Old age, maybe?

By Patricia

I've never heard that before. It's funny, ...I always thought that song was quirky enough. You prove me wrong , my friend, so very wrong. Can you imagine the souls in the Hereafter if he starts singing his song. That would be SOOoooo funny!!

By John Burns

The addams family is my fav show and im only 14 so i saw it as a holloween special when i was 6 and ive been hooked ever since. Surprisingly i never saw the episode where they have holloween but i plan on doing it this year.

John, if I remember right, since their way of thinking was twisted, Pugsley dressed as a business man, (like Gomez) and Wednesday dressed liked a little girl, with a flowery dress and ponytails, no pigtails. (I think). But, you remember how they thought, those outfits were scarey to them. lol

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