Interview with Lisa Loring (Wednesday in the Addams Family TV series starring John Astin)

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They say Wednesday’s child is full of woe, but for the original Goth girl, Lisa Loring, life these days is far sunnier.

The actress was just six years old when she was cast as the youngest member of The Addams Family, meaning she pretty much grew up as part of the creepiest, kookiest family on TV.

And it was a bond that lasted a lifetime.

“The Addams Family really was like a second family to me,” said Loring, adding she was especially close to John Astin and Carolyn Jones, who played parents Gomez and Morticia on the show. “John has actually been my acting mentor for a very long time.”

Once, back in the early ‘80s, Jones sent for Loring to visit her on the Hollywood set of the short-lived drama Capital.

“She wanted me to come visit, and she had hired a photographer,” Loring recalled. “We were doing soaps at the same time. That was about eight months before she died — she hadn’t told anyone she was sick.”

Loring said she believed her tight bond with Astin and Jones was partly because neither had any daughters of their own.

“John had five boys, and Carolyn never had any children at all,” she explained. “A lot of the real family dynamic we had in the show was because of John. I don’t see him too often these days because he lives in Baltimore . . . but over the years we’ve stayed in touch. He was like having a second father.”

That warmth was just one reason Loring believes The Addams Family really stood out to audiences, even when put in direct competition with The Munsters.

The other was the quality of the comedy.

“One was more witty, with intelligent humour, and one was more slap stick-ish,” she said with a laugh. “Back when I was a teenager, I once said The Addams Family was more like the Marx Brothers, while the Munsters were The Three Stooges.”

It was a sentiment that got a lot of attention back in the day, though no one actually believed Loring had come up with the comparison.

“I absolutely got no credit for that, everyone asked me where I had heard it,” she said. “It got even more strange when John told me our executive producer and head writer Nat Perrin came to Hollywood to write for the Marx Brothers. That’s why it was so witty, and so funny, and so clever.”

These days, Loring continues to meet fans through appearances on the convention circuit — something she’s been a part of since the ‘90s. Her first Canadian appearance, however, will be at London Comic Con, Oct. 13-15.

“It’s all turned into such a big industry, but now there are so many different generations. Sometimes it’s even grandparents bringing their grandchildren,” she said. “I never really know what to expect. I’ve even met little girls named after the character, and all kinds of interesting things have happened that seem very surreal to me because I was so, so young when I did the show. It’s amazing to know it had such a big impact.”

Often, questions range from what was it like to be Wednesday to does she really like spiders that much. But once in a while, Loring maintains fans can still surprise her.

“I’ll never forget the first time a group of teenagers came up to me to ask me if I knew I was the original Goth girl — that was really surreal to me,” she said. “I’m not into the creepy stuff, and I don’t watch horror movies or anything like that. Never had I even thought it of it because, personally, I’m all lace and pearls.”