I was (and still am) a fan of the 1959 movie, so when this series was announced, I was looking forward to it. Alas, it was a major disappointment. This lacked everything that made the movie charming.
The cast just didn't have the spark that was necessary to carry the show. John Astin was excellent and unforgettable as the zany, completely off the wall Gomez Addams, but he was a very poor fit as the subdued skipper here. Meanwhile, Richard Gilliland never gave the impression of the member of high society that the original Lt. Holden was supposed to be. He was a schemer, but lacked even a bit of the slightly smarmy charisma that made the original Holden character believable. With all due respect to these actors, Cary Grant and Tony Curtis had not only very big shoes to fill, they played their characters perfectly, and if you can't emulate them, you might as well just give it up. The rest of the cast was also peculiarly bland. Only on occasion did a talented guest star bring some real comedic acting to the show, such as Sorrell Booke a couple of years before he became Boss Hogg on the Dukes of Hazzard.
Worst of all, this was a below average sitcom even for that era. Bad jokes aside, there was usually a haphazard buildup through each episode followed by an unimaginative deus ex machina solution then a very abrupt ending with no coda or epilogue. Compared with the top-rated sitcoms at the time - shows like Happy Days and Three's Company - the very best episodes of this were less memorable and far less enjoyable than the very worst of those shows. Looking at the writing credits, it's obvious why. The two men responsible for most of the scripts had no comedy writing credits. They wrote westerns and adventures. Their closest connection was that they came up with the story premise for the original movie, but they didn't write that screenplay. It wasn't a bad idea to make a series from the movie. It's just that this effort was completely lackluster. It's no wonder the show sank beneath the waves, rightfully forgotten even by most of those few who watched it.
