Songwriter Vic Mizzy Dies at 93
Wrote themes for The Addams Family and Green Acres.
Vic Mizzy, whose instantly recognizable themes for the 1960s television series The Addams Family and Green Acres earned him a place in the medium’s history, died October 18, 2009, at his home in Los Angeles. He was 93. The reported cause of death was heart failure.
Mizzy, who began his career in radio, had worked on other TV series, as well as feature films, prior to The Addams Family and Green Acres. Before the TV shows, his composed a memorable film score for the 1964 William Castle horror movie The Night Walker. He later composed scores for The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, The Reluctant Astronaut and How to Frame a Figg, all of which starred Don Knotts.
The Addams Family theme arose when Mizzy was approached by David Levy, a friend who was in charge of programming for NBC, to come up with appropriate music for the show, a melding of quirky comedy and benign, albeit vaguely sinister, horror tropes.
Mizzy came up with the theme song’s signature “da-da-da-dum” beat followed by two finger snaps. When it was recorded, Mizzy himself sang the amusing lyrics.
A year later, Mizzy wrote the theme song for Green Acres, which starred Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor as a Manhattan couple who leave the big city for a rural farm. Like the Addams Family theme, the song combined a catchy tune with equally catchy lyrics.
Mizzy was born on January 9, 1916, in Brooklyn, New York, and grew up in the borough’s Crown Heights section. As a student at Alexander Hamilton High School and New York University, he wrote songs and sketches for campus shows.
He later wrote for radio and Broadway with collaborator Irving Taylor. Their songs included “Three Little Sisters” and “Take It Easy.”
During World War II, he served in the Navy. During and after the war, he and a new collaborator, Manny Curtis, he wrote many other songs that were performed by popular singers of the time, including “Pretty Kitty Blue Eyes,” “My Dreams Are Getting Better All the Time” and “The Whole World Is Singing My Song.”
Mizzy continued working into his eighties. One his more noteworthy later assignments was a request by director Sam Raimi to write a theme for the 2004 film Spider-Man 2, which was eventually used on the DVD release.
Mizzy married Mary Small, a radio singer who performed many of his songs publicly for the first time. The couple had two children before the marriage ended in divorce, as did a later marriage to Shirley Leeds.
He is survived by a daughter, a brother and two grandchildren.
On March 29, 2004, Mizzy had the distinction of being interviewed by the Television Academy Foundation’s Archive of American Television. During the two-and-a-half hours interview, conducted in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles by Archive by director Karen Herman, Mizzy described composing two of the most recognizable television themes songs of all time, for the series The Addams Family and Green Acres.
For The Addams Family, Mizzy talked about directing the main title sequence and writing motifs for the characters. He also recalled meeting cartoonist Charles Addams, whose work inspired the series, and working with the actors and producer David Levy. For Green Acres, Mizzy talked about the conception of the opening titles and working with the lead actors and creator Jay Sommers.
Mizzy also discussed his early years as a songwriter with Irving Taylor and, later, Manny Curtis. He spoke about and sang some of the lyrics for several of his hits, including “My Dreams Are Getting Better All the Time.”
Mizzy also talked about his other work in television, including the series Shirley Temple’s Storybook, Kentucky Jones, and The Pruitts of Southampton. Additionally, he talked about working on feature films such as the Don Knotts comedy vehicles of the 1960s and 1970s, and his work with horror director William Castle.