Lurch

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Ted Cassidy as Lurch

Carel Struycken as Lurch in The Addams Family film (1991).

Lurch is the fictional manservant to The Addams Family created by cartoonist Charles Addams. He is a tall, shambling, lugubrious butler who somewhat resembles Frankenstein's monster (as played by Boris Karloff) and (on the television series) has a deep, resonant voice. Although fully capable of normal speech, Lurch sometimes communicates via simple inarticulate moans, which, much like the dialogue of Cousin Itt, the Addamses have no trouble understanding. Ironically, the Addamses often comment that Lurch is eloquent and vivacious. Lurch tries to help around the house like any other butler, though occasionally he botches things up due to his great size and strength. He is very slow-paced and lumbering, and seems to be in a constant state of exasperation with the family. In spite of this, Lurch has an almost uncommon loyalty to the Addams family, beyond that of the common employee/employer relationship and is there at a moment's notice when summoned. The family summons him with an ever-present bell pull (in the form of a hangman's noose). When pulled, it produces a loud gong noise that shakes the house, to which Lurch instantly responds with the line, "You rang?" When the bell is rung, Lurch appears immediately, even if wide-angle shots reveal he was clearly nowhere in the vicinity before; on a few occasions Lurch arrives even before the bell pull is tugged. The family, for their part, treats him like one of their own. He clearly takes pride in his work and is willing to do even the most arduous task. For the most part, Lurch shares the family's macabre standards, although he occasionally looks askance at some of their activities. (He has a similar attitude toward visitors--almost a sixth sense. When a plainclothes policeman--played by George Neise--visits, Lurch pats him down and removes something from inside his suit coat: his service revolver. Lurch groans: You have a lot of nerve bringing a gun into this house, Mister! Neise shows Lurch his badge: I'm a police officer--I have a right to have a gun. Lurch hands the pistol back to him.) Aside from a headless Marie Antoinette doll, Lurch is Wednesday's best friend. He seems to have a paternal affection for both Wednesday and Pugsley. Although his job title is limited to butler, he seems to be a "jack of all trades" when it comes to them, doing everything from taking them to school to making them lunch to even keeping an eye on them around the house. He is close friends with the disembodied hand Thing. Lurch is often seen playing the harpsichord at virtuoso level. The scenes in the original television series with Lurch playing the harpsichord were Lurch playing on a dead keyboard. The show's musical director (Vic Mizzy) played the actual tunes. Originally, in the TV series, Lurch was to have no lines. However, in the pilot Ted Cassidy ad-libbed the line "you rang?" in his trademark deep voice, and it was so impressive it led to Lurch getting more dialogue; he ultimately had three lines in the pilot. In the films, however, Lurch was totally mute. In the original television series, Lurch was played by Ted Cassidy, who also voiced the character in the first animated series, as well as the episode of The New Scooby-Doo Movies cartoon that preceded it. In the second animated series, Lurch was voiced by Jim Cummings. Carel Struycken played Lurch in the films. Lurch appears in the NES game Fester's Quest. Uncle Fester can get the famous noose from Grandmama, which, when used, shakes the screen with a loud gong (just like the TV show). Lurch's picture appears with his "You rang?" line, and he will immediately destroy all on-screen enemies. Much of Lurch's history, including his first name and the nature of his relationship to any other Addamses was originally unknown. "Lurch" was revealed during the original TV series to be a surname, as there was a "Mother Lurch" who appeared in one episode. She addresses Lurch as "Sonny", which could either be a parental nickname or his actual first name. It was stated in Addams Family Reunion that Lurch is part-Addams. This plays into his being a Frankenstein's monster-like creation. The only definite body part that is from an Addams is his heart. Lurch's mother appears to be a physically normal elderly woman, although she does not see anything unusual about the Addams family or their home, with the exception of Thing. On October 30, 1965 a "Lurch dance" song and dance were introduced on an ABC music program [1]. On at least two episodes of the TV show Scrubs, the Janitor, played by Neil Flynn, has been called 'Lurch' by other characters, obviously alluding to his vague physical resemblance to the Addams Family character (including his impressive height), and most likely also to certain behavioral traits they seem to share, like appearing seemingly out of nowhere or the jack-of-all-trades element. Interestingly, much like 'Lurch', the Janitor character on Scrubs was not initially meant to have lines (except when talking to J.D., the main character), but this was subsequently changed, as he seems to interact normally with all other characters as of Season Two. A further similarity is that - like Lurch - the Janitor's last (or first, for that matter) name is never revealed throughout the series.