Pugsley Addams
Encyclopedia
Pugsley Addams is a member of the fictional Addams family
, created by cartoonist Charles Addams
.
Pugsley is the oldest child of Morticia
and Gomez Addams
. He is a pre-teen boy (stated to be eight years old in the pilot episode) who is almost always seen wearing a striped T-shirt
and shorts. Originally unnamed (as were all of the family members), the character who was apparently the prototype for Pugsley first appeared in the Charles Addams
cartoons in The New Yorker
during the 1930s. In this first incarnation, he was portrayed as a deviant child with a vicious nature, shown committing deplorable acts with his sister. In all incarnations, he is overweight. In the television series, Pugsley usually eats over five pieces of cake at birthday parties.
When the characters were given names for the television series, The Addams Family he was originally going to be called "Pubert" (a derivation of the word puberty
, possibly a reflection of his age) but it was rejected as it sounded too sexual, and the name Pugsley was chosen instead. (The name Pubert was later used when Gomez and Morticia have a third child in the film Addams Family Values
.) The Lurch Files' Addams Family Tree lists Pugsley's middle name as Pubert, probably as an homage to Charles Addams' original suggestion.
In the American television series, Pugsley is played by Ken Weatherwax
. This incarnation of the character is more jovial and inventive; He displays outlandish engineering skills, including the invention of a disintegrator gun, an anti-gravity gun, and other devices. He and Gomez created a computer named Whizzo and a robot named Smiley (played by Robby the Robot
). In an early episode, "Morticia and the Psychiatrist," the rest of the family is concerned that Pugsley is engaging in behavior they consider "odd", i.e. wearing a Boy Scout
uniform, playing with a puppy, etc. When sent to a psychiatrist
, Pugsley tells of boyhood incidents involving hanging
s, machine guns, and grenades, with no clue that others might find these accounts unusual. Pugsley and his younger sister Wednesday
play together, sharing an interest in dynamite
, spider
s, and other dangerous "toys". In the second episode of the series, he is ten years old, four years older than Wednesday.
In most incarnations of the character, Pugsley had an unusual hobby of stealing road signs
, which he used to adorn the walls and door of his bedroom. He also has a pet octopus
named Aristotle
.
In the 1970s, there was an animated series about the family, in which Pugsley was voiced by actress Jodie Foster
. In the second animated series, beginning in 1992, Pugsley was voiced by Jeannie Elias
.
In the 1977 TV movie, Ken Weatherwax
played a grown-up Pugsley, who has become a witch-doctor. In the interval between the original TV series and this movie his parents had had two more children, who look just like the original Pugsley and Wednesday. He is known as Pericles
Addams in Spanish-speaking countries. He in Brazil (Portuguese) is known as "Feioso" (Ugly).
The 1998 series The New Addams Family features Pugsley played by Vancouver
native Brody Smith. He is essentially the same as his original 1960s incarnation, however the influence of director John Bell's namesake Charlie 'Edge' Bell is undeniable. Also, he is portrayed as the younger sibling, as opposed to Wednesday.
In the Broadway musical The Addams Family
, Pugsley is played by Adam Riegler
, and is portrayed as the younger sibling, around eleven years old, seven years younger than 18-year-old Wednesday
(played by Krysta Rodriguez
).
In the film The Addams Family
and its sequel
, Addams Family Values
, Pugsley is played by Jimmy Workman
. He acts as an unwitting accomplice to his sister Wednesday, who makes attempts to inflict lethal harm upon him - although he has returned the favour on occasion.
In The Addams Family, Pugsley and Wednesday open a lemonade stand, but their drinks are toxic, and cause Lurch to spit flames when he tries it.
In Addams Family Values, Wednesday and Pugsley are sent to Camp Chippewa, a summer camp
, where they are forced to participate in a Thanksgiving
-themed play entitled A Turkey Called Brotherhood. Pugsley is cast as a dancing turkey
, and leads the children in a chorus
of "Eat Us"; He is later seen assisting Wednesday in overthrowing the camp counselors and setting fire to the grounds.
In the film, Addams Family Reunion
, Pugsley (now played by Jerry Messing
) behaves (for the most part) similarly to his previous two film incarnations. At the Addams Family's family reunion he falls for a young girl named Gina (played by Haylie Duff
).
The Addams Family
The Addams Family is a group of fictional characters created by American cartoonist Charles Addams. As named by Charles Addams, the Addams Family characters include Gomez, Morticia, Uncle Fester, Lurch, Grandmama, Wednesday, Pugsley, and Thing....
, created by cartoonist Charles Addams
Charles Addams
Charles "Chas" Samuel Addams was an American cartoonist known for his particularly black humor and macabre characters...
.
Pugsley is the oldest child of Morticia
Morticia Addams
Morticia A. Addams is the fictional matriarch of "The Addams Family", created by cartoonist Charles Addams and based on his first wife Barbara .Morticia is the wife of Gomez Addams and mother of Wednesday Addams and Pugsley Addams...
and Gomez Addams
Gomez Addams
Gomez Addams is the fictional patriarch of The Addams Family, created by cartoonist Charles Addams for The New Yorker magazine in the 1930s....
. He is a pre-teen boy (stated to be eight years old in the pilot episode) who is almost always seen wearing a striped T-shirt
T-shirt
A T-shirt is a style of shirt. A T-shirt is buttonless and collarless, with short sleeves and frequently a round neck line....
and shorts. Originally unnamed (as were all of the family members), the character who was apparently the prototype for Pugsley first appeared in the Charles Addams
Charles Addams
Charles "Chas" Samuel Addams was an American cartoonist known for his particularly black humor and macabre characters...
cartoons in The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
during the 1930s. In this first incarnation, he was portrayed as a deviant child with a vicious nature, shown committing deplorable acts with his sister. In all incarnations, he is overweight. In the television series, Pugsley usually eats over five pieces of cake at birthday parties.
When the characters were given names for the television series, The Addams Family he was originally going to be called "Pubert" (a derivation of the word puberty
Puberty
Puberty is the process of physical changes by which a child's body matures into an adult body capable of reproduction, as initiated by hormonal signals from the brain to the gonads; the ovaries in a girl, the testes in a boy...
, possibly a reflection of his age) but it was rejected as it sounded too sexual, and the name Pugsley was chosen instead. (The name Pubert was later used when Gomez and Morticia have a third child in the film Addams Family Values
Addams Family Values
Addams Family Values is a 1993 sequel to the 1991 comedy The Addams Family. The film was written by Paul Rudnick and directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, and many cast members from the original returned for the sequel, including Raúl Juliá, Anjelica Huston, Christopher Lloyd, and Christina Ricci...
.) The Lurch Files' Addams Family Tree lists Pugsley's middle name as Pubert, probably as an homage to Charles Addams' original suggestion.
In the American television series, Pugsley is played by Ken Weatherwax
Ken Weatherwax
Kenneth Patrick "Ken" Weatherwax is an American actor, best known for playing Pugsley Addams on The Addams Family television series....
. This incarnation of the character is more jovial and inventive; He displays outlandish engineering skills, including the invention of a disintegrator gun, an anti-gravity gun, and other devices. He and Gomez created a computer named Whizzo and a robot named Smiley (played by Robby the Robot
Robby the Robot
Robby the Robot is a fictional character who has made a number of appearances in science fiction movies and television programs after his first appearance in the 1956 MGM science fiction film Forbidden Planet.-Overview:...
). In an early episode, "Morticia and the Psychiatrist," the rest of the family is concerned that Pugsley is engaging in behavior they consider "odd", i.e. wearing a Boy Scout
Boy Scouts of America
The Boy Scouts of America is one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with over 4.5 million youth members in its age-related divisions...
uniform, playing with a puppy, etc. When sent to a psychiatrist
Psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...
, Pugsley tells of boyhood incidents involving hanging
Hanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...
s, machine guns, and grenades, with no clue that others might find these accounts unusual. Pugsley and his younger sister Wednesday
Wednesday Addams
Wednesday Friday Addams is a member of the fictional Addams Family, created by cartoonist Charles Addams for The New Yorker.-Wednesday:In Charles Addams's cartoons, Wednesday and other members of the family had no names...
play together, sharing an interest in dynamite
Dynamite
Dynamite is an explosive material based on nitroglycerin, initially using diatomaceous earth , or another absorbent substance such as powdered shells, clay, sawdust, or wood pulp. Dynamites using organic materials such as sawdust are less stable and such use has been generally discontinued...
, spider
Spider
Spiders are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, and chelicerae with fangs that inject venom. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species diversity among all other groups of organisms...
s, and other dangerous "toys". In the second episode of the series, he is ten years old, four years older than Wednesday.
In most incarnations of the character, Pugsley had an unusual hobby of stealing road signs
Traffic sign
Traffic signs or road signs are signs erected at the side of roads to provide information to road users. With traffic volumes increasing over the last eight decades, many countries have adopted pictorial signs or otherwise simplified and standardized their signs to facilitate international travel...
, which he used to adorn the walls and door of his bedroom. He also has a pet octopus
Octopus
The octopus is a cephalopod mollusc of the order Octopoda. Octopuses have two eyes and four pairs of arms, and like other cephalopods they are bilaterally symmetric. An octopus has a hard beak, with its mouth at the center point of the arms...
named Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
.
In the 1970s, there was an animated series about the family, in which Pugsley was voiced by actress Jodie Foster
Jodie Foster
Alicia Christian "Jodie" Foster is an American actress, film director, producer as well as a former child actress....
. In the second animated series, beginning in 1992, Pugsley was voiced by Jeannie Elias
Jeannie Elias
Jeannie Elias is a Canadian American film and voice actress.-Anime Roles:* Blood+ - Young Haji, Nahabi, Additional Voices* Ergo Proxy - Kitty* Naruto - Kaori-Non-anime Roles:...
.
In the 1977 TV movie, Ken Weatherwax
Ken Weatherwax
Kenneth Patrick "Ken" Weatherwax is an American actor, best known for playing Pugsley Addams on The Addams Family television series....
played a grown-up Pugsley, who has become a witch-doctor. In the interval between the original TV series and this movie his parents had had two more children, who look just like the original Pugsley and Wednesday. He is known as Pericles
Pericles
Pericles was a prominent and influential statesman, orator, and general of Athens during the city's Golden Age—specifically, the time between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars...
Addams in Spanish-speaking countries. He in Brazil (Portuguese) is known as "Feioso" (Ugly).
The 1998 series The New Addams Family features Pugsley played by Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
native Brody Smith. He is essentially the same as his original 1960s incarnation, however the influence of director John Bell's namesake Charlie 'Edge' Bell is undeniable. Also, he is portrayed as the younger sibling, as opposed to Wednesday.
In the Broadway musical The Addams Family
The Addams Family (musical)
The Addams Family is a musical comedy with music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa and a book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice. The show is based upon The Addams Family characters created by Charles Addams in his single-panel gag cartoons, which depict a ghoulish American family with an affinity for...
, Pugsley is played by Adam Riegler
Adam Riegler
Adam Riegler is an American child actor from Westport, Connecticut.- Career :Riegler's big break in show business was when he played Cubby Bernstein, "Broadway's Tony Award Campaign Manager", in a series of publicity stunts for the Broadway musical Xanadu in 2007.He is known for appearing in Shrek...
, and is portrayed as the younger sibling, around eleven years old, seven years younger than 18-year-old Wednesday
Wednesday Addams
Wednesday Friday Addams is a member of the fictional Addams Family, created by cartoonist Charles Addams for The New Yorker.-Wednesday:In Charles Addams's cartoons, Wednesday and other members of the family had no names...
(played by Krysta Rodriguez
Krysta Rodriguez
Krysta Rodriguez is an American actress and singer. She grew up in Orange County, California and attended the Orange County High School of the Arts.- Career :...
).
Film versions
The Addams Family (film)
The Addams Family is a 1991 American black comedy film based on the characters from the cartoon of the same name created by cartoonist Charles Addams....
and its sequel
Sequel
A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...
, Addams Family Values
Addams Family Values
Addams Family Values is a 1993 sequel to the 1991 comedy The Addams Family. The film was written by Paul Rudnick and directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, and many cast members from the original returned for the sequel, including Raúl Juliá, Anjelica Huston, Christopher Lloyd, and Christina Ricci...
, Pugsley is played by Jimmy Workman
Jimmy Workman
James Martin "Jimmy" Workman, Jr. is an American actor, known for playing the role of Pugsley Addams in The Addams Family and Addams Family Values .-Early life:...
. He acts as an unwitting accomplice to his sister Wednesday, who makes attempts to inflict lethal harm upon him - although he has returned the favour on occasion.
In The Addams Family, Pugsley and Wednesday open a lemonade stand, but their drinks are toxic, and cause Lurch to spit flames when he tries it.
In Addams Family Values, Wednesday and Pugsley are sent to Camp Chippewa, a summer camp
Summer camp
Summer camp is a supervised program for children or teenagers conducted during the summer months in some countries. Children and adolescents who attend summer camp are known as campers....
, where they are forced to participate in a Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving Day is a holiday celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada. Thanksgiving is celebrated each year on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States. In Canada, Thanksgiving falls on the same day as Columbus Day in the...
-themed play entitled A Turkey Called Brotherhood. Pugsley is cast as a dancing turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, and leads the children in a chorus
Refrain
A refrain is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse; the "chorus" of a song...
of "Eat Us"; He is later seen assisting Wednesday in overthrowing the camp counselors and setting fire to the grounds.
In the film, Addams Family Reunion
Addams Family Reunion
Addams Family Reunion is a film released straight-to-video in 1998. It was also distributed to television by Fox Family. It is unrelated to the two Paramount films from 1991 and 1993. So far, the film is only available on VHS and has not had a DVD release. It was shot in Los Angeles, California...
, Pugsley (now played by Jerry Messing
Jerry Messing
Jerry Messing , is an American television and film actor.He played Pugsley Addams in the 1998 film Addams Family Reunion, and had a noteworthy part on the short-lived NBC dramedy Freaks and Geeks, as secondary geek Gordon Crisp, who suffered from Trimethylaminuria. Messing also appeared in four...
) behaves (for the most part) similarly to his previous two film incarnations. At the Addams Family's family reunion he falls for a young girl named Gina (played by Haylie Duff
Haylie Duff
Haylie Katherine Duff is an American actress and singer-songwriter. She is the older sister of actress and singer Hilary Duff...
).