Our Halloween crushes: Elvira, Morticia and Lily Munster

Some guys had a crush on the girl next door. Some of us had a crush on the lady who lived in the haunted house next door. Here are the three spooky icons who made October our favorite month to sit too close to the TV.

Elvira, Mistress of the Dark

Cassandra Peterson built the character on a Valley girl type she created while performing with the Groundlings comedy troupe. In 1981, Los Angeles station KHJ-TV hired her to host its late-night horror movies, and she created the look herself: the black gown, the towering beehive and the deadpan one-liners about whatever terrible movie was on that night.

Elvira's Movie Macabre turned her into a pop culture fixture. She got her own movie, Elvira: Mistress of the Dark, in 1988, and her face showed up on Halloween costumes, comic books, pinball machines, model kits and more. Peterson released her memoir, Yours Cruelly, Elvira, in 2021, and she still runs the Elvira brand today.

Morticia Addams

Charles Addams created Morticia in his cartoons and described her as the real head of the family. Carolyn Jones played her on The Addams Family TV series from 1964 to 1966, low-voiced and calm while Gomez lost his mind every time she spoke French. Anjelica Huston took the role in The Addams Family in 1991 and Addams Family Values in 1993, and for a lot of 90s teenagers, that was the definitive Morticia. Catherine Zeta-Jones picked it up for Wednesday in 2022.

Lily Munster

Yvonne De Carlo played Lily on The Munsters on CBS from 1964 to 1966, and came back for a 1981 appearance. Lily was a vampire, a homemaker and the voice of reason in a house run by Herman, with a temper to match. Lee Meriwether played her later in The Munsters Today, and Sheri Moon Zombie took the role in the 2022 film.

The Radazoid take

What these three have in common is confidence. None of them ever apologized for being exactly who they were. Elvira roasted bad movies, Morticia ran the house without raising her voice, and Lily kept Herman in line, which should have qualified her for some kind of medal.

They were also funny, which is more attractive than any special effect. And honestly, Gomez and Morticia are still one of the best married couples TV ever gave us: two people still crazy about each other after years together. Not bad for a family that keeps a disembodied hand as a pet.