Happy 90th Birthday John Astin, the Greatest Sitcom Guest Star Ever

You watch enough sitcoms and you develop favorites, performers you’ll watch act a fool or fling a zinger in any show. These are the actors and comedians that form, let’s call it your personal Mount Rushmore of sitcom stars. The four icons carved in my giant slab of granite are—and have most likely always been—Bob Newhart, Betty White, Mary Tyler Moore, and John Astin.

Yes, John Astin. Running in the pop-culture-obsessed circles that I do, I’ve rattled off this kooky quartet a few times and people always react to that last one. John Astin? Gomez Addams? Up there with Newhart, White, and Moore? Those three have multiple landmark sitcoms on their IMDb each. How does Astin compare? Let me tell you, he does compare, it’s just that his IMDb page is a lot more varied than his fellow legends. That’s because he was rarely tied down to one show for very long, which led him to become the quintessential guest performer in sitcom history. Today’s John Astin’s 90th birthday—#JohnAstinDay, a hashtag I surprisingly got to trend a year ago today—and it’s time we celebrated this living legend’s legacy.

Of course, any discussion of Astin’s legacy begins with Gomez, the macabre rapscallion that Astin brought to life in two seasons of The Addams Family. Plenty of other actors have played Gomez since, including all of Raul Julia and the voice of Oscar Isaac, but it’s Astin’s take that they are forever compared to. Before Astin, Gomez was an unnamed husband in a New Yorker cartoon, he of stocky frame and a pig-nosed snout. It was Astin that infused the character, one of the most shockingly wholesome fathers in TV history, with a zest for life and zeal for home-based adventure.

It’s the role that makes an actor memorable, like Newhart as Dr. Hartley on The Bob Newhart Show or White as Sue Ann Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

The hiccup here is, unlike Newhart, Moore, and White (and all the other TV hall-of-famers) Astin never got his second hit series. Hell, even The Addams Family was unceremoniously axed after two seasons. And that wasn’t even Astin’s first unjustly canned show; prior to Addams, he was the co-lead of the acclaimed, slapstick marvel I’m Dickens, He’s Fenster. That show only lasted one season but, as I saw in the one episode I was able to purchase on Amazon before the show was yanked from the store, it was hilarious. Astin’s future series-regular gigs didn’t last long either. Astin next starred in 1977’s Operation Petticoat alongside Jim Varney (!) and a young Jamie Lee Curtis (!!), but it didn’t make it to Season 3. He then teamed up with Mary Tyler Moore for her comeback sitcom Mary in 1985, which didn’t even last a season (but is highly worth finding on YouTube, because it also stars pre-Peg Bundy Katey Sagal). Four series-regular roles in three decades, none of which made it to Season 3. It’s criminal.

Am I mad about pop culture being robbed of hundreds of episodes of Astin as Gomez or pompous theater critic Ed LaSalle? I was, but I’m feeling much better now. Instead of becoming a marquee name, Astin became the platonic ideal of a sitcom guest star, bouncing from show to show bringing his unique blend of manic, wide-eyed mayhem to everyone from a pack of Sweathogs to Batman and Robin. Yeah, when Frank Gorshin stepped away from his Riddler role in Season 2 (maybe he had better things to do?), the only person that could fill his tights with the same menacing zaniness was—who else?—John f’ing Astin.

After his stint in Gotham City, he played an eccentric museum curator in Welcome Back Kotter, a reclusive millionaire on The Partridge Family, a bonkers billionaire on Webster, a suave men’s magazine editor on The Odd Couple, and a pickle magnate on Charles in Charge. He even became best friends with Wisconsin’s primo surfer bro Cody on Step By Step (and also tried to commit suicide by skydiving in one of the darker plot turns in TGIF history).

For 25 years, Astin became the guy you’d bring into a show to supercharge it, like a big, metaphorical can of Red Bull needed to perk up a drowsy series.

Never is this more evident than in his two appearances on The New Addams Family in 1998 and 1999, when Astin was pushing 70. The Canadian reboot cast Astin as Grandpapa Addams, father of the new Gomez (played by Glenn Taranto), and the show was not ready.

To watch Astin’s career as a professional guest-star is to watch one of the greatest physical comedians of all time regularly step onto a stage that is not his own and completely dominate. There are episodes where they match Astin’s intensity, the way his bulging eyes catch the light (like in The Odd Couple or Kotter). It’s why Astin worked so well as Harry’s surrogate-father-ish-figure Buddy Ryan in 10 episodes of Night Court.

That show, the definitive surreal workplace sitcom of the ’80s, was a perfect match for Astin’s relentless, wide-eyed energy. It’s why classic TV fans most know Astin as Gomez first and Buddy second. The pairing worked that well.

But then there are episodes where casts that you thought were good, or at least fine, immediately dim in the presence of Astin’s lightning strike of talent (I’m looking at you, Step By Step). And his appearance on The New Addams Family, essentially playing Gomez against another Gomez, is the clearest example of that. Even 20 years removed from the role, it still feels like his role—even in the presence of another actor playing the Castilian romantic. The camera just loves Astin, with every twitch of his head and crook of his smile.

This is why John Astin is not only a legend, but he’s so much more than Gomez. I wanted to celebrate his body of work for his 90th birthday, because it does indeed deserve celebration, but it also feels even more important considering what’s going on in the world on his 90th birthday. John Astin’s sitcom history provides more than an overview of where the medium has travelled over the decades; right now, in 2020, John Astin’s sitcom resume provides relief. Every single time this madman is on screen, he pulls you into another world, be it creepy and kooky or eerie or odd. Few performers have commanded the small screen the way John Astin has, and fewer still have done so playing so many roles.

Happy birthday, John Astin. I put on your episodes, and I’m feeling much better now.

Where to stream the sitcom work of John Astin:

• The Donna Reed Show, “Mouse at Play” (1961): Stream on Prime Video, Tubi
• Dennis the Menace, “A Quiet Evening” (1962): Stream on Hulu, Prime Video, Tubi
• The Addams Family (1964-1966): Stream on Prime Video, Pluto TV, Vudu
• Batman, “Batman’s Anniversary/A Riddling Controversy” (1967): Purchase on iTunes, Prime Video (not a sitcom, per se, but a TV comedy)
• The Odd Couple, “Oscar’s New Life” (1971): Stream on Hulu
• The Doris Day Show, “The Father-Son Weekend” (1971): Stream on Prime Video, Tubi
• The Partridge Family, “Diary of a Mad Millionaire” (1973): Stream on Prime Video
• Welcome Back, Kotter, “The Museum” (1976): Purchase on iTunes, Prime Video
• Diff’rent Strokes, “A Haunting We Will Go” (1984): Stream on Starz
• Night Court (1984-1990): Purchase on iTunes, Prime Video
• Charles in Charge, “The Pickle Plot” (1988): Stream on NBC.com
• Eerie, Indiana (1991): Stream on Prime Video (I gotta include it)
• The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. (1993-1994): Stream on Prime Video (also not a sitcom but, come on, you gotta)
• Step By Step, “The Ice Cream Man Cometh” and “The Fight Before Christmas” (1994-1995): Stream on Hulu

Where to watch The Addams Family