The Addams Family is a group of fictional characters created by
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
cartoonistA cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...
Charles AddamsCharles "Chas" Samuel Addams was an American cartoonist known for his particularly black humor and macabre characters...
. As named by Charles Addams, the Addams Family characters include
GomezGomez Addams is the fictional patriarch of The Addams Family, created by cartoonist Charles Addams for The New Yorker magazine in the 1930s....
,
MorticiaMorticia 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...
,
Uncle FesterGordon Craven, Uncle Fester, or Fester Addams, is a member of the fictional Addams Family. He was played by Jackie Coogan in the original television series, by Christopher Lloyd in the first two feature films, and by Patrick Thomas in the third, Addams Family Reunion. Finally, Michael Roberds...
, Lurch, Grandmama,
WednesdayWednesday 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...
,
PugsleyPugsley 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 who is almost always seen wearing a striped T-shirt and shorts...
, and Thing.
The Addamses are a satirical inversion of the ideal American family; an eccentric, wealthy clan who delight in the
macabreIn works of art, macabre is the quality of having a grim or ghastly atmosphere. Macabre works emphasize the details and symbols of death....
and are unaware that people find them bizarre or frightening. They originally appeared as an unrelated group of 150 single panel cartoons, about half of which were originally published in
The New YorkerThe New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
between 1938 and Addams's 1988 death. They have since been adapted to other media, including television series (both live and animated) films, video games, and a
musicalThe 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...
.
Premise and background
Addams's original cartoons were one-panel gags. The characters were undeveloped and unnamed until the television series production.
The family appears to be a single surviving branch of the Addams clan. Many other "Addams families" exist all over the world. According to the film version, the family credo is,
Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc (
pseudo-LatinDog Latin, Cod Latin, macaronic Latin, or mock Latin refers to the creation of a phrase or jargon in imitation of Latin, often by directly translating English words into Latin without conjugation or declension...
: "We gladly feast on those who would subdue us"). Charles Addams was first inspired by his home town of
Westfield, New JerseyWestfield is a town in Union County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the town population was 30,316. The old village area, now the downtown district, was settled in 1720 as part of the Elizabethtown Tract....
, an area full of ornate Victorian mansions and archaic graveyards.
According to the television series, they live in a gloomy mansion adjacent to a
cemeteryA cemetery is a place in which dead bodies and cremated remains are buried. The term "cemetery" implies that the land is specifically designated as a burying ground. Cemeteries in the Western world are where the final ceremonies of death are observed...
and a
swampA swamp is a wetland with some flooding of large areas of land by shallow bodies of water. A swamp generally has a large number of hammocks, or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodical inundation. The two main types of swamp are "true" or swamp...
at 0001 Cemetery Lane. In
The New Addams Family, the address was changed to
1313 Cemetery Lane, in a reference to rival show
The MunstersThe Munsters is a 1960s American family television sitcom depicting the home life of a family of monsters. It starred Fred Gwynne as Herman Munster and Yvonne De Carlo as his wife, Lily Munster. The series was a satire of both traditional monster movies and popular family entertainment of the era,...
. In the
Addams Family musicalThe 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...
, first shown in Chicago in 2009, the house is located in
Central ParkCentral Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...
.
Most of the humour spread from the fact that although they share
macabreIn works of art, macabre is the quality of having a grim or ghastly atmosphere. Macabre works emphasize the details and symbols of death....
interests, the Addamses are not typically evil. They are a close-knit
extended familyThe term extended family has several distinct meanings. In modern Western cultures dominated by nuclear family constructs, it has come to be used generically to refer to grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins, whether they live together within the same household or not. However, it may also refer...
. Morticia is an exemplary mother, and she and Gomez remain passionate towards each other. Created by the television series writers, she calls him "Bubele", to which he responds by kissing her arms, behavior Morticia can also provoke by speaking a few words in French dialogue (the meaning is not important — any French will do). The parents are supportive of their children. The family is friendly and hospitable to visitors, in some cases willing to donate large sums of money to causes (television series and films), despite the visitors' horror at the Addams's peculiar lifestyle.
Charles Addams began as a cartoonist in the
The New YorkerThe New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
with a sketch of a window washer that ran on February 6, 1932. His cartoons ran regularly in the magazine from 1938, when he drew the first instance of what came to be called the Addams Family, until his death in 1988.
In 1946, Addams met science-fiction writer
Ray BradburyRay Douglas Bradbury is an American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer. Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and for the science fiction stories gathered together as The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man , Bradbury is one of the most celebrated among 20th...
after having drawn an illustration for Bradbury's short story "Homecoming" in
MademoiselleMademoiselle was an influential women's magazine first published in 1935 by Street and Smith and later acquired by Condé Nast Publications....
magazine, the first in a series of tales chronicling a family of Illinois
vampireVampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...
s, the Elliotts. The pair became friends and planned to collaborate on a book of the Elliott Family's complete history, with Bradbury writing and Addams providing the illustrations; but it never materialized. Bradbury's Elliott Family stories were anthologized in
From the Dust ReturnedFrom the Dust Returned is a fix-up fantasy novel by Ray Bradbury. The novel is largely comprised from a series of short stories which Bradbury had written decades earlier, centering around a family of Illinois-based ghosts named the Elliotts...
(2001), with a connecting narrative, an explanation of his work with Addams, and Addams's 1946
Mademoiselle illustration used for the book's cover jacket. Although Addams' own characters were well established by the time of their initial encounter, in a 2001 interview Bradbury states that Addams "went his way and created the Addams Family and I went my own way and created my family in this book."
Addams Family characters
Originally none of the members of the Addams family had names, but when the 1960s
television showThe Addams Family is an American television series based on the characters in Charles Addams' New Yorker cartoons. The 30-minute series was shot in black-and-white and aired for two seasons in 64 installments on ABC from September 18, 1964, to April 8, 1966...
was in development,
Charles AddamsCharles "Chas" Samuel Addams was an American cartoonist known for his particularly black humor and macabre characters...
was asked to provide names for each of the characters. For the father, he suggested Gomez or Repelli; for the mother, Morticia; for the uncle, Uncle Fester; for the grandmother, Grandma Frump; for the butler, Lurch; for the daughter, Wednesday (for being "full of woe"); and for the son, Pubert. Pubert was changed to Pugsley and resurfaced later as the name of the new Addams baby in
Addams Family ValuesAddams 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 hairy creature appeared in Addams cartoons as "It", but was named "
Cousin IttCousin Itt is a member of the fictional Addams Family. Unlike the other characters, Cousin Itt was not originally created by cartoonist Charles Addams, but by producer David Levy, though he did appear as an unnamed character in Addams's cartoons.- Character :...
" by the show's producer, David Levy.
Gomez
GomezGomez or Gómez is a common Spanish surname. The Portuguese and Old Galician is Gomes, while the Catalan form is Gomis.It is derived from the given name Gomes which is a loanword of the Visigothic word guma "man"...
became the master of the Addams household and the Addams
patriarchOriginally a patriarch was a man who exercised autocratic authority as a pater familias over an extended family. The system of such rule of families by senior males is called patriarchy. This is a Greek word, a compound of πατριά , "lineage, descent", esp...
, married to
MorticiaMorticia 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 the father of
WednesdayWednesday 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...
and
PugsleyPugsley 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 who is almost always seen wearing a striped T-shirt and shorts...
. Originally he was Grandmama's son, but this was
retconRetroactive continuity is the alteration of previously established facts in a fictional work. Retcons are done for many reasons, including the accommodation of sequels or further derivative works in a series, wherein newer authors or creators want to revise the in-story history to allow a course...
ned in the 1991 film, and he became Grandmama's son-in-law instead. Also retconned in the films, he became the younger brother of Fester instead of his nephew-in-law. In the original cartoons in the
New Yorker, he appeared tubby, snub-nosed and with a receding chin.
In the 1960s television series, Gomez was portrayed as a naive, handsome, and successful man, although with a childlike, eccentric enthusiasm for everything he did. For instance, his personal portrait depicted him as standing gleefully on his head. Though a peaceful man, he was known to be well-versed in many types of combat; he and Morticia fenced with
foilsA foil is a type of weapon used in fencing. It is the most common weapon in terms of usage in competition, and is usually the choice for elementary classes for fencing in general.- Components:...
sometimes.
Gomez professed endless love for his wife, Morticia. He had studied to be a lawyer, but rarely practiced, one of the running jokes being that he took great pride in losing his cases. He was also pleased with the fact that his law class had voted him the man "Least Likely to Pass the Bar".
Gomez was depicted as extremely wealthy, through inheritance and extensive investments, but he seemed to have little regard for money. Although he invested in the
stock marketA stock market or equity market is a public entity for the trading of company stock and derivatives at an agreed price; these are securities listed on a stock exchange as well as those only traded privately.The size of the world stock market was estimated at about $36.6 trillion...
, to the point where there was a
ticker tapeTicker tape was the earliest digital electronic communications medium, transmitting stock price information over telegraph lines, in use between around 1870 through 1970...
machine in the livingroom, he played the market primarily to lose, or else invested in odd schemes that inadvertently paid off big (swamp land found to have oil under it, etc.). One novel claimed Gomez became wealthy through his ghoulish sense of humour, when he discovered it was possible to make a
killing in the stock market. Despite his macabre sense of humour, he was extremely generous, and would go out of his way to help those whom he considered friends.
Gomez is of
CastilianA former kingdom, Castile gradually merged with its neighbours to become the Crown of Castile and later the Kingdom of Spain when united with the Crown of Aragon and the Kingdom of Navarre...
origin, loved to smoke
cigarA cigar is a tightly-rolled bundle of dried and fermented tobacco that is ignited so that its smoke may be drawn into the mouth. Cigar tobacco is grown in significant quantities in Brazil, Cameroon, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Indonesia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Philippines, and the Eastern...
s, and would play destructively with his model trains. Of the names which Charles Addams suggested for the family, "Gomez" was the only one that was not "ghoulish" (in the manner of Morticia or Fester). When asked why he suggested the name Gomez for the character, Addams replied that he "thought he [the character] had a bit of Spanish blood in him." However, Addams had trouble deciding whether the character should be Spanish or Italian. He decided that if he were Spanish he should be called "Gomez", but if Italian he would be "Repelli" (even though Gomez and Repelli are actually surnames). The final choice of first name was left up to actor
John AstinJohn Allen Astin is an American actor who has appeared in numerous films and television shows, and is best known for the role of Gomez Addams on The Addams Family, and other similarly eccentric comedic characters.-Early years:...
. Gomez was typically seen wearing conservative businesswear long out of fashion, such as pinstripe suits and spats.
Morticia
Morticia AddamsMorticia 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...
(née Frump) was the matriarch of the Addams Family, a slim woman with pale skin, clad in a skin-tight black
hobbleA hobble skirt is a skirt with a narrow enough hem to significantly impede the wearer's stride, thus earning its name. A knee-long corset is also used to achieve this effect...
gown with octopuslike tendrils at the hem. Certain sources suggested she may be some kind of
vampireVampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...
. She adored her husband, Gomez, as deeply as he did her.
Morticia's original mother was Hester Frump (played in two episodes of the television show by
Margaret HamiltonMargaret Hamilton was an American film actress known for her portrayal of the Wicked Witch of the West in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz...
), but her origins were later
retconRetroactive continuity is the alteration of previously established facts in a fictional work. Retcons are done for many reasons, including the accommodation of sequels or further derivative works in a series, wherein newer authors or creators want to revise the in-story history to allow a course...
ned in the films and she became Grandmama's daughter (and Grandmama became known as Esmeralda Frump). Morticia had an older sister named Ophelia. In the television show, her marriage brought her uncle Fester into the family.
Pugsley and Wednesday
Gomez and Morticia had two children, a son called
PugsleyPugsley 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 who is almost always seen wearing a striped T-shirt and shorts...
and a daughter called
WednesdayWednesday 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...
. Wednesday was said to have been named after the phrase, "Wednesday's child is full of woe," from the poem
Monday's Child‘Monday's Child’ is one of many fortune-telling songs, popular as nursery rhymes for children. It is supposed to tell a child's character or future based on the day they were born and help young children remember the days of the week. As with all nursery rhymes, there are many versions...
. Her middle name, Friday, corresponds to the 1887 version of the poem. In the television show she was a sweet-natured, innocent, happy child, largely concerned with her fearsome pet spiders. A favorite toy was her
Marie AntoinetteMarie Antoinette ; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was an Archduchess of Austria and the Queen of France and of Navarre. She was the fifteenth and penultimate child of Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa and Holy Roman Emperor Francis I....
doll, which Pugsley had guillotined. The movies gave Wednesday a much more serious and mature personality with a deadpan wit and a morbid fascination with trying to physically harm, or possibly murder, her brother (she was seen strapping him into an electric chair, for example, and preparing to pull the switch); she was apparently often successful, but Pugsley never died. Like most members of the family, he seemed to be inhumanly resilient.
For his part, Pugsley was largely oblivious of the harm his sister tried to inflict on him, or an enthusiastic supporter of it, viewing all attempts as fun and games. In his first incarnation in the
New Yorker cartoons, Pugsley was depicted as a diabolical, malevolent boy-next-door. In the television series, he was a devoted older brother and an inventive and mechanical genius. In the movies he lost his intelligence and independence, and became Wednesday's sidekick and younger brother, cheerfully helping her in her evil deeds.
In the animated series, Wednesday became a happy and somewhat optimistic child, while retaining her sophisticated manner from the movies, and Pugsley became a genius at chemistry — especially explosives — and machines, though his intelligence seemed undeveloped at times.
The children appeared to be home-taught, receiving all the education they required from Grandmama or Uncle Fester. An attempt to enroll them in the local elementary school did not work out initially, but in later episodes of the television series, they are depicted as attending it.
In the first movie, the children attended an elementary school and Wednesday was praised for her performance. Both children performed in school plays with their uncle's help. In the second movie, they are on summer vacation from school.
In the stage musical, Wednesday was aged to about 18 years old, while Pugsley was kept as a young child.
Pubert
In the 1993 film
Addams Family ValuesAddams 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...
, Gomez and Morticia have a third child, a son named Pubert (voiced by
Cheryl ChaseCheryl Chase is an American voice actress best known as the voice of Angelica Pickles on Rugrats, All Grown Up! and Angelica and Susie's Pre-School Daze...
), a mustachioed baby who seemed to escape certain death through random chance a number of times. At some points in the movie, flaming arrows that originate off-screen fly by, with the implication that Pubert is the one who shot them. Originally conceived by Charles Addams for the character eventually named Pugsley in the 1960s television series, the name was rejected back then due to fears that 1960s network censors would not allow it because of its similarity to the words "pubic" and "puberty".
Pubert is referred to in the unrelated 1998 straight-to-video film
Addams Family ReunionAddams 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...
and the short-lived follow-up series that aired on
Fox Family ChannelABC Family, stylized as abc family, is an American television network, owned by ABC Family Worldwide Inc., a subsidiary of the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company...
, in which Wednesday stated that there used to be a third sibling, but that they ate it.
Uncle Fester
FesterGordon Craven, Uncle Fester, or Fester Addams, is a member of the fictional Addams Family. He was played by Jackie Coogan in the original television series, by Christopher Lloyd in the first two feature films, and by Patrick Thomas in the third, Addams Family Reunion. Finally, Michael Roberds...
is a bald, barrel-shaped man with dark, sunken eyes and a devilish grin. He seemed to carry an electrical charge, as he could illuminate a light bulb by sticking it in his mouth. In the original television series, Fester was Morticia's uncle. In all subsequent animated and film media, Fester was Gomez's older brother. The character played a central role in both of the first two feature films. In
The Addams Family, Fester was reunited with the other Addamses after 25 years apart, while
The Addams Family Values focused on his relationship with Deborah "Debbie" Jellinsky.
Grandmama
Grandmama is a witch who deals in potions, spells, hexes, and even
fortune-tellingFortune-telling is the practice of predicting information about a person's life. The scope of fortune-telling is in principle identical with the practice of divination...
. Her trademarks were her
shawlA shawl is a simple item of clothing, loosely worn over the shoulders, upper body and arms, and sometimes also over the head. It is usually a rectangular or square piece of cloth, that is often folded to make a triangle but can also be triangular in shape...
and grey, frizzy hair. Charles Addams originally named the character Grandma/Granny Frump in his notes for the cartoon characters's adaptation to television in 1965, thereby making her Morticia's mother. For the 1960s television series — as well as
The New Addams Family, in which she is named Eudora Addams — her relationship to the family was
retconRetroactive continuity is the alteration of previously established facts in a fictional work. Retcons are done for many reasons, including the accommodation of sequels or further derivative works in a series, wherein newer authors or creators want to revise the in-story history to allow a course...
ned and she became Gomez's mother. However, both feature films and the animated television series conformed to Charles Addams's original concept of Grandmama as Wednesday's and Pugsley's maternal grandmother. In the first film, Morticia and Gomez discussed how Mother and Father Addams were killed by an angry mob, removing any possibility that Grandmama could be Gomez's and Fester's mother. In the third film, in which she was named Esmeralda, she was again implied to come from Morticia's family. The character was simply referred to as Granny in the two animated series. In the second episode of the
1992 seriesThe Addams Family: The Animated Series is an American animated series based on the eponymous comic strip characters. It ran from September 12, 1992 to November 6, 1993 on ABC and was produced by Hanna-Barbera. The series' development began in the wake of the successful 1991 Addams Family feature...
, Grandmama introduced herself with the line, "the name's Granny Frump", while the following episode referenced Gomez's parents, Mother and Father Addams. The 2010 Broadway musical version of The Addams Family poked fun at the inconsistencies of Grandmama's origins. In one scene, Morticia and Gomez both revealed that each believed she is the other's mother. People didn't know about her ghost son, named Eduardo.
The Thing
Another member of the family is "The Thing" and, as created by Charles Addams, he was a shy creature mostly seen in the background of Addams's drawings; however, the television series suggested it was a disembodied hand named "Thing", and was Gomez's friend since childhood. He (it is implied in the original television series that the character is male) often performed common, everyday tasks such as retrieving the mail, writing a letter, or just giving a friendly pat on the shoulder, appearing out of ubiquitous boxes or other convenient containers throughout the house. He communicated with the Addamses with a Morse-like alphabet, sign language, writing, and knocking on wood. In the movies and
The New Addams Family, Thing was a fully mobile hand, cleanly severed just below the wrist (although no muscle or bone was exposed). In the original television series, Thing never appeared below the elbow. He lived in an upstairs closet made up as a house-within-a-house, though he was also shown to reside in a cigar box. In the original television series, Thing was generally played by
Ted CassidyTheodore Crawford Cassidy , known as Ted Cassidy, was an American actor who performed in television and films. At 6 ft 9 in in height, he tended to play unusual characters in offbeat or science-fiction series such as Star Trek and I Dream of Jeannie...
(the actor who also played Lurch). He was usually a right hand, but Cassidy occasionally used his left, "just to see if anyone noticed".
Thing was based on a
New Yorker cartoon that depicted a shocked mailman reacting to a sign posted on the Addams mansion which warned "Beware of the Thing". While developing the series, Charles Addams was asked what, exactly, was the "thing"? He opined that for television "thing" could appear as a disembodied head that rolled through the house on various ramps and pulleys. It was decided that a hand would be a bit more palatable. This was to prove a source of some terrible puns. It should also be noted that on March 20, 1954 a cartoon was published in the New Yorker depicting the (Addams125 of the book The World of Chas Addams) family at rest in the den with two hands coming out of the record player changing the records. For images of The Thing as drawn by Charles Addams, refer particularly to pages 182-191 of The Addams Family: An Evilution. The producers of the television show, aware of the nearly thirty-five cartoon drawings that included "The Thing," as well as the 1954 in carnation, may well have been inspired to create "Thing" in the series based on the latter.
It is clear from the television show that Thing was not unique. In episode #38, "Morticia Meets Royalty," Princess Millicent von Schlepp arrived and produced an elaborate box from which a distinctly feminine hand (played by Carolyn Jones) emerged. Thing promptly fell in love. The female Thing has an actual name, Lady Fingers; and in another episode #23 we find that Thing, too, has a full name: "Thing T. Thing", the "T" standing for "Thing". At least one other Thing appears on-screen: when Lady Fingers leaves Princess von Schlepp's service, she is replaced by "Esmeralda", a rather hideous old female claw with jewels and nasty black pointy fingernails. In the episode "Thing is Missing", a picture was shown which was supposedly of his parents. The picture only showed male and female hands holding hands. It would appear that "Things" are common among the family's associates.
Lurch
In addition to
ThingThing T. Thing, referred to as just Thing, is a fictional character in the The Addams Family. Thing was originally portrayed as a whole person , but was changed to a disembodied hand for the television series...
, the Addams family also had a tall, ghoulish manservant named Lurch. Lurch served as a shambling, gravelly-voiced
butlerA butler is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantry. Some also have charge of the entire parlour floor, and housekeepers caring for the entire house and its...
, vaguely resembling
Frankenstein's MonsterFrankenstein's monster is a fictional character that first appeared in Mary Shelley's novel, Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus. The creature is often erroneously referred to as "Frankenstein", but in the novel the creature has no name...
although he is a considerable "jack of all trades". He tried to help around the house, although occasionally he botched tasks due to his great size and strength, but is otherwise considered quite a catch by the Addamses for his skill at more personal tasks, such as waxing Uncle Fester's head and amusing the children (to whom he was deeply devoted). Surprisingly, he was often seen playing the
harpsichordA harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...
and
organThe organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
with a great degree of skill and somewhat uncharacteristic enthusiasm. In
Addams Family ReunionAddams 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...
, Gomez stated that Lurch is not really an Addams, and Morticia replies that Lurch has parts of many families, and that he has the heart of an Addams. In one episode of the 1960s television series, Lurch's mother, played by actress
Ellen CorbyEllen Corby was an American actress. She is most widely remembered for the role of "Grandma Esther Walton" on the CBS television series The Waltons, for which she won three Emmy Awards...
, came to visit; she was a short, overbearing little old lady. Lurch, too, had a level of invulnerability; in
Addams Family Values, a 20-pound cannonball is dropped from the top of the Addams mansion, landing directly on his head, seemingly with no ill effect. In the original comics, Lurch did not speak. In the sitcom, he was capable of speech; beckoned by the pull of a noose-shaped rope which sounded a thunderous gong, he would answer with a signature monotone, brusque and basso profundo, "You rang?" This was due to actor Ted Cassidy ad-libbing the line while rehearsing a scene early in production of the original TV show. The producers liked it so much that Lurch then became a speaking role. In the theatrical movies, Lurch never spoke, using only grunts, sighs, or simple gesticulations.
The New Addams Family returned to the original sitcom style, right down to the noose that rang a gong. In it, Lurch also seemed a little more polite than his earlier counterparts.
Cousin Itt
Cousin IttCousin Itt is a member of the fictional Addams Family. Unlike the other characters, Cousin Itt was not originally created by cartoonist Charles Addams, but by producer David Levy, though he did appear as an unnamed character in Addams's cartoons.- Character :...
, as so named by the television series producer,(spelled as "Cousin It" in the movies and the pinball game), who frequently visited the family, was short-statured and had long hair that covered his entire body from scalp to floor. Cousin Itt drove a 3-wheeled car: a
Messerschmitt KR175The Messerschmitt KR175 bubble car was the first vehicle built by Messerschmitt under its 1952 agreement with Fritz Fend. In concept, although not in actual design, it was an extended version of the Fend Flitzer invalid carriage...
. Although in the series he was shown wearing opera gloves, it is unclear what, if anything, is beneath the hair. In episode 34 of season 1 of the original television series, when Gomez asked Cousin Itt what is underneath all the hair, Cousin Itt replies, "Roots." He was known to speak in a high-pitched nonsensical gibberish that only the family seemed to understand, although in the "My Fair Cousin Itt" episode of the sitcom Morticia and Gomez taught Cousin Itt to speak in an understandable voice. In the second animated series, Itt was a super-spy for the U.S. government. In the movies he fell in love with a human woman, Margaret, and married her after her first husband, Tully the lawyer, is disposed of by the Addams children. He and Margaret (whose child with Tully was missing since the school recital in the first film) go on to have a child in
Addams Family Values, named "What" (from the obstetrician's reaction). In
Addams Family Values, Cousin Itt performs the wedding of Fester, demonstrating he had some sort of title and legal power that is not explained in the movie.
Cousin Cackle
Another cousin, named "Cousin Cackle", was depicted as residing in the caves beneath the Addams mansion, often heard laughing in a cackling manner, and appeared in one Halloween episode of the television series to participate in a seance.
Pets
In the sitcom, references were made to an innumerable collection of bizarre and unconventional creatures such as hawks, bats, and alligators, although there were a handful with some consistency throughout the various media which the characters have subsequently appeared in.
- Kitty Cat is the family lion
The lion is one of the four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...
, and can be seen in several 1960s television episodes roaming around the house. (Though not seen in the 1991 film, Gomez can be heard shouting 'Down, Kitty!' while going to the vault to pay Tully, while a lion's roar can be heard.) The entire family regarded Kitty Cat as they would an average housecat, and seemed flummoxed at the notion that Kitty Cat is in any way dangerous.
- Pugsley had an 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...
called Aristotle, and Wednesday a large collection of spiderSpiders 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, with only one she mentions in particular by name, called Homer. The family also had a pair of piranhaA piranha or piraña is a member of family Characidae in order Characiformes, an omnivorous freshwater fish that inhabits South American rivers. In Venezuela, they are called caribes...
named Tristan and Isolde, who lived in a fish tank, and a vultureVulture is the name given to two groups of convergently evolved scavenging birds, the New World Vultures including the well-known Californian and Andean Condors, and the Old World Vultures including the birds which are seen scavenging on carcasses of dead animals on African plains...
named Zelda (changed to Muerto for the first film).
- Cleopatra is an African Strangler, a man-eating plant (similar to Audrey 2 from Little Shop Of Horrors
Little Shop of Horrors is a rock musical, by composer Alan Menken and writer Howard Ashman, about a hapless florist shop worker who raises a plant that feeds on human blood. The musical is based on the low-budget 1960 black comedy film The Little Shop of Horrors, directed by Roger Corman...
), belonging to Morticia. The plant eats meatballs made of yakThe yak, Bos grunniens or Bos mutus, is a long-haired bovine found throughout the Himalayan region of south Central Asia, the Tibetan Plateau and as far north as Mongolia and Russia. In addition to a large domestic population, there is a small, vulnerable wild yak population...
and other tasty meats specially prepared, and (more often than not) spoon-fed to her. In a season 1 episode, "The Addams Family Meets the V.I.P.'s", Gomez stated that Cleopatra is only 3 years old. At another point in the series, however, it's said that Morticia had Cleopatra before she and Gomez married, having grown her from a seedling.
- In the 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...
, the family had a pet giant squidThe giant squid is a deep-ocean dwelling squid in the family Architeuthidae, represented by as many as eight species...
named Bernice, that, one night, crawled up from the toilet. She lived in the sewers beneath the house, and appeared in the grottoA grotto is any type of natural or artificial cave that is associated with modern, historic or prehistoric use by humans. When it is not an artificial garden feature, a grotto is often a small cave near water and often flooded or liable to flood at high tide...
. Only her tentacles were shown.
The Mansion
The Addams family's mansion had many different incarnations over the years. It made its first appearance (at least, the interior did) at the same time as Morticia and Lurch, in one of Charles Addams's cartoons. The house was depicted as being a dilapidated mansion that had been condemned (and was seemingly haunted, due to the strange creatures at the top of the staircase). Since then, it had become almost a character itself, and served as the main setting for the rest of the cartoons featuring the Addams family. Stories surrounding the mansion (in video games, primarily) are common, and the house's origins and specific nature were explored more deeply in
The New Addams Family than any other incarnation.
In the 1960s television series, the house was given an address: 0001 Cemetery Lane. Instead of being a dilapidated house, it was now practically a museum, filled with odd statues, trophies, and other interesting knick-knacks. The house also sported a playroom with medieval racks, nailbeds, iron maidens, and stockades for "relaxing" in.
The house once again became a condemned mansion in the
New Scooby-Doo Movies television show, in which the Addamses made a guest appearance. In the subsequent
Addams Family 1970s cartoon, the mansion was mounted on a trailer and dragged all over the world with the globetrotting Addams clan.
The two
Addams Family movies in 1991 and 1993, along with the second animated television series in 1992, resurrected the mansion's original exterior design from the Charles Addams cartoons. The movie
Addams Family Values had the mansion appearing
exactly as it did in Charles Addams's drawing of the family, about to dump boiling oil on a group of carollers from the roof (a gag that was acted out in the opening sequence of the previous film).
The New Addams Family provided a cross between the original television show's mansion and the movie/comic strip's mansion. The mansion remained a condemned building (according to Morticia, it had actually been condemned
five times), and the interior had various dangerous objects and odd statues, just like the original television show. The entrance gate (nicknamed, appropriately, "Gate" in the original television show and the 1991 film) was now overgrown with foliage. A cemetery was moved next to the house (a change that also occurred in the two feature films and the 1977 reunion special), and there were now various secret rooms and passages. The mailbox and door knockers seemed to be alive. When Gomez and Morticia first moved in as the home's owners (though Gomez and Grandmama had been residents even before then), they thought it was haunted. They regretted that it wasn't, "but you can't have everything". But the existence of the ghost of Aunt Minerva proved otherwise (though she may have "moved in" just recently). It's also mentioned that the home was made of titanium instead of wood (and is consequently bomb-proof), has 26 (or maybe 27) rooms —
if Fester has made a new addition with his cannon — and the house has apparently been in the family for centuries. The area surrounding the house can be described briefly as a wasteland, with swamps, a moat, and the like. The address was also changed to
1313 Cemetery Lane in a reference to 1313 Mockingbird Lane, the home of
The MunstersThe Munsters is a 1960s American family television sitcom depicting the home life of a family of monsters. It starred Fred Gwynne as Herman Munster and Yvonne De Carlo as his wife, Lily Munster. The series was a satire of both traditional monster movies and popular family entertainment of the era,...
.
In the stage musical, the mansion was moved to four acres in Central Park, New York City.
Houseguests
Guests included Morticia's older sister
Ophelia (also played by Carolyn Jones in the original television series), Morticia's cousin
Melancholia, and Morticia's mother
Hester Frump (played in the 1960s series by
Margaret HamiltonMargaret Hamilton was an American film actress known for her portrayal of the Wicked Witch of the West in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz...
, wearing her Miss Almira Gulch dress from the 1939 movie
The Wizard of OzThe Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...
). The Addamses had many other eccentric relatives in the 1960s television series, who are described but never shown — unless they were intended to be represented by any of the bizarre family portraits seen hanging on the walls.
Neighbors
Most of the Addamses' neighbors were less than understanding of the family's eccentricities. Within the larger community, the Addamses were viewed as eccentric, dangerous, or worse. Both the television show and the movies dealt with outsiders attempting to understand and "correct" the behavior of the family, and remaining frustrated and horrified by the things that the Addamses find amusing. The Addamses, for their part, were just the opposite, and were often shocked and horrified at the actions of conventional society.
The second animated series introduced three new regular characters: the
Normanmeyers (Norman, Normina, and N.J.), a family of "normal" people living across the street from the Addamses. While Norman and Normina were constantly appalled and shocked at the Addamses' macabre behavior, their son N.J. counted Wednesday and Pugsley as his best friends. Norman owned and worked at an underwear factory and was utterly obsessed with underwear, decorating the entire Normanmeyer house with an underwear motif, which arguably made him less "normal" than the Addams Family themselves. Norman was played by
Rob PaulsenRobert Fredrick "Rob" Paulsen III , sometimes credited as Rob Paulson, is an American voice actor, best known as the voice behind Raphael from the 1987 cartoon of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Yakko Warner and Dr...
, Normina was voiced by
Edie McClurgEdie McClurg is an American character actress. She is known for her perky North Central dialect , common to persons from Middle America.-Career:...
, and N.J. was performed by
Dick BealsRichard "Dick" Beals is an American voice actor. He has performed many voices in his career, which spans from the early 1950s into the 21st century...
.
The Beineke Family
Not originally created by Charles Addams, the Beineke family was introduced in the 2010 musical, as Wednesday and Lucas plan a dinner for their two families to meet. Coming from
OhioOhio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, they were described as "straight arrow Midwesterners."
- Lucas Beineke, Wednesday's boyfriend. He and Wednesday planned to get married.
- Mal Beineke, Lucas's father. He worked for a unnamed demolition
Demolition is the tearing-down of buildings and other structures, the opposite of construction. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction, which involves taking a building apart while carefully preserving valuable elements for re-use....
/real estateIn general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...
company.
- Alice Beineke, Lucas's mother. She loved to rhyme, and to spout happy poems at random.
The paranormal nature of the Addams Family
Unlike
The MunstersThe Munsters is a 1960s American family television sitcom depicting the home life of a family of monsters. It starred Fred Gwynne as Herman Munster and Yvonne De Carlo as his wife, Lily Munster. The series was a satire of both traditional monster movies and popular family entertainment of the era,...
, which explicitly stated its characters' supernatural origins, the exact nature of the Addamses is never established. They all seemed to share a bond with the occult and supernatural. Uncle Fester was often portrayed as something of a mad scientist, and Grandmama as a potion maker,and Morticia states that her study is spells and hexes in the 1991 movie "The Addams Family" but, these activities don't really explain the Addams's seemingly immortal state. Much of the food they live on is inedible or outright deadly to normal humans, and they take an interest in painful activities like walking across minefields or having a sharp pendulum cut them in half.
In the 1960s television series, virtually every member of the family demonstrated some uniquely inhuman trait:
- Morticia was able to light candles with the touch of a fingertip.
- Morticia asked a visitor if they minded if she smoked, then crosses her arms and literally starts "smoking" (emitting curls of smoke from her body).
- Gomez was remarkably athletic, his cigar lights the instant he drew it out of his breast pocket and extinguished when replaced, and he could perform complicated calculations in his head (making a mechanical sound as he did so). He often told time by reading the time from his wristwatch (which ran slow), then his pocket watch (which ran fast) and then calculating the difference between the two.
- Fester generated both electricity and magnetism, and powered a lightbulb in his mouth as a party piece. Also, he could play gramophone records with his finger instead of a needle and his mouth instead of a speaker. In The New Addams Family he could also explode at will without harm. Additionally, he suffered from a severe migraine that can be cured by clamping his head in a vise
Vise may refer to:* Miami Vise, a defunct AFL team* Vise , a mechanical screw apparatus* Vise , an architectural element* Venus In-Situ Explorer * The Vise, TV show* Visé, BelgiumPeople with the surname Vise:...
, and apparently caused no harm upon him. He also liked to recharge in his electric chairExecution by electrocution, usually performed using an electric chair, is an execution method originating in the United States in which the condemned person is strapped to a specially built wooden chair and electrocuted through electrodes placed on the body...
.
- Grandmama, in addition to being able to whip up potions of varying effects, could fly on a broom.
- Pugsley was able to hang from tree branches by his teeth, a trait that is only referred to and not seen. He was also depicted as being able to survive any mortal injuries including his sister's attempts to kill him. He was also a bit more normal (personality-wise) than the rest of the Addams clan.
- Six-year-old Wednesday was strong enough to bring her father down with a judo hold, and able to survive any mortal injuries inflicted upon her by Pugsley.
- Lurch, a Frankenstein's Monster
Frankenstein's monster is a fictional character that first appeared in Mary Shelley's novel, Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus. The creature is often erroneously referred to as "Frankenstein", but in the novel the creature has no name...
look-alike, had superhuman strength.
- Thing, who was only seen as a hand reaching out of various boxes around the mansion, could apparently travel from box to box almost instantaneously.
None of these traits were considered unusual by any others in the family, but treated simply as individual talents that anyone might possess. All took pleasure in enduring such experiences as lying on a bed of nails, being stretched on a rack, and so forth.
Occasionally, the 1960s series featured guest characters who shared the Addams's tastes, which—along with the fact that the family obviously purchased its
yakThe yak, Bos grunniens or Bos mutus, is a long-haired bovine found throughout the Himalayan region of south Central Asia, the Tibetan Plateau and as far north as Mongolia and Russia. In addition to a large domestic population, there is a small, vulnerable wild yak population...
meat, explosives, etc., from somewhere—implied an entire subculture of people who shared the family's tastes (as seen in several Charles Addams cartoons). In contrast, the Addamses themselves considered such things as daisies, chocolate fudge, the
Boy ScoutsThe 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...
, and other such traditionally "wholesome" things—as well as any distaste for such things as swamps,
octopusThe 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...
es, and hanging upside down from the ceiling—to be odd, if not outright disturbing. Fester once cited a neighbouring family's meticulous petunia patches as evidence that they were "nothing but riff-raff".
The Addams Family (1964–1966)
In 1964, the ABC-TV network created
The Addams Family television seriesThe Addams Family is an American television series based on the characters in Charles Addams' New Yorker cartoons. The 30-minute series was shot in black-and-white and aired for two seasons in 64 installments on ABC from September 18, 1964, to April 8, 1966...
based on Addams's cartoon characters. The series was shot in
black-and-whiteBlack-and-white, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, is a term referring to a number of monochrome forms in visual arts.Black-and-white as a description is also something of a misnomer, for in addition to black and white, most of these media included varying shades of gray...
and aired for two seasons in 64 half-hour episodes (September 18, 1964 – September 2, 1966). During the original television run of
The Addams Family television series,
The New Yorker editor
William ShawnWilliam Shawn was an American magazine editor who edited The New Yorker from 1952 until 1987.-Education and Early Life:...
refused to publish any
Addams Family cartoons, though he continued to publish other Charles Addams cartoons. Shawn regarded his magazine as targeting a more refined readership, and did not want it associated with characters who could be seen on television by just anybody. After Shawn's 1987 retirement, the characters were welcomed back to
The New Yorker.
The television series featured a memorable theme song, written and arranged by longtime Hollywood composer
Vic MizzyVic Mizzy was an American composer for television and movies whose best-known works are the themes to the 1960s television sitcoms Green Acres and The Addams Family. He also penned top-20 songs from the 1930s to 1940s.-Biography:Vic Mizzy was born in Brooklyn, New York and attended New York...
. The song's arrangement was dominated by a
harpsichordA harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...
, and featured finger-snaps as percussive accompaniment. Actor
Ted CassidyTheodore Crawford Cassidy , known as Ted Cassidy, was an American actor who performed in television and films. At 6 ft 9 in in height, he tended to play unusual characters in offbeat or science-fiction series such as Star Trek and I Dream of Jeannie...
, in his "Lurch" voice, punctuated the lyrics with words like "neat", "sweet", and "petite". Mizzy's theme was popular enough to enjoy a release as a 45rpm Single, though it failed to make the national charts. The song was briefly revived in 2007 for a series of "Addams Family" television commercials for
M&M'sM&M's are dragée-like "colorful button-shaped candies" produced by Mars, Incorporated...
candies.
The New Scooby-Doo Movies (1972)
The Addams Family's first animated appearance was on the third episode of Hanna-Barbera's
The New Scooby-Doo MoviesThe New Scooby-Doo Movies is the second incarnation of the Hanna-Barbera Saturday morning cartoon Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!. It premiered on September 9, 1972 and ran for two seasons on CBS as the only hour-long Scooby-Doo series...
, "Scooby-Doo Meets the Addams Family" (a.k.a. "Wednesday is Missing"), which first aired on
CBSCBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
Saturday morning-Album credits:*All tracks produced by Ralph Sall for Bulletproof Recording Company Inc.*Executive Producer/Concept: Ralph Sall for Bulletproof Recording Company Inc.*Engineered by Peter McCabe and Larry Fergusson....
September 23, 1972. Four of the original cast (
John AstinJohn Allen Astin is an American actor who has appeared in numerous films and television shows, and is best known for the role of Gomez Addams on The Addams Family, and other similarly eccentric comedic characters.-Early years:...
,
Carolyn JonesCarolyn Sue Jones was an American actress.Jones began her film career in the early 1950s, and by the end of the decade had achieved recognition with a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for The Bachelor Party and a Golden Globe Award as one of the most promising actresses...
,
Jackie CooganJohn Leslie Coogan , known professionally as Jackie Coogan, was an American actor who began his movie career as a child actor in silent films. Many years later, he became known as Uncle Fester on 1960s sitcom The Addams Family...
, and
Ted CassidyTheodore Crawford Cassidy , known as Ted Cassidy, was an American actor who performed in television and films. At 6 ft 9 in in height, he tended to play unusual characters in offbeat or science-fiction series such as Star Trek and I Dream of Jeannie...
) returned for the special which involved the Addamses in a mystery with the
Scooby-DooScooby-Doo is an American media franchise based around several animated television series and related works produced from 1969 to the present day. The original series, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, was created for Hanna-Barbera Productions by writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears in 1969...
gang. The Addams Family characters were drawn to the specifications of the original Charles Addams cartoons. After the episode aired, fans wanted more animated adventures featuring the Addamses, and Hanna-Barbera obliged.
The Addams Family Fun-House (1973)
In late 1972, ABC produced a pilot for a musical
variety showA variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is an entertainment made up of a variety of acts, especially musical performances and sketch comedy, and normally introduced by a compère or host. Other types of acts include magic, animal and circus acts, acrobatics, juggling...
titled
The Addams Family Fun-House. The cast included Jack Riley and
Liz TorresElizabeth "Liz" Torres is an actress, singer, and comedienne of Puerto Rican descent.-Early years:Torres was born in the Bronx borough of New York City where her parents had settled after moving from Puerto Rico. There she received her primary and secondary education...
as Gomez and Morticia (the pair also co-wrote the special),
Stubby KayeStubby Kaye was an American comic actor. He was born Bernard Kotzin in New York City on the last day of the First World War, at West 114th Street in the Morningside Heights section of Manhattan to first generation Jewish-Americans originally from Russia and Austria...
as Uncle Fester, Pat McCormick as Lurch and
Butch PatrickButch Patrick is a former American child actor. He is widely known for his role on the TV show The Munsters where he played Eddie Munster, the son of Herman and Lily Munster...
(who, ironically, had played Eddie Munster in
The MunstersThe Munsters is a 1960s American family television sitcom depicting the home life of a family of monsters. It starred Fred Gwynne as Herman Munster and Yvonne De Carlo as his wife, Lily Munster. The series was a satire of both traditional monster movies and popular family entertainment of the era,...
) as Pugsley. The pilot aired in 1973, but was not picked up for a series.
The Addams Family (1973–1975)
The first animated series ran on Saturday mornings from 1973–1975 on
NBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
. In a departure from the original series, this series took the Addamses on the road in a Victorian-style
RVMobile homes or static caravans are prefabricated homes built in factories, rather than on site, and then taken to the place where they will be occupied...
. This series also marked the point where the relations between characters were retconned so that Fester was now Gomez's brother, and Grandmama was now Morticia's mother (though the old relations would be revisited in the 1977 television movie, to keep continuity with the original sitcom). Although Coogan and Cassidy reprised their roles, Astin and Jones did not, their parts being recast with Hanna-Barbera voice talents
Lennie WeinribLennie Weinrib was an American actor, voice actor and writer. He is best known for playing the title role in the children's television show H.R...
as Gomez and
Janet WaldoJanet Waldo is an American actress and voice artist with a career encompassing radio, television, animation and live-action films. She is best known in animation for voicing Judy Jetson, Penelope Pitstop and Josie McCoy in Josie and the Pussycats...
as Morticia, while an eight-year-old
Jodie FosterAlicia Christian "Jodie" Foster is an American actress, film director, producer as well as a former child actress....
provided the voice of Pugsley. Again, the characters were drawn to the specifications of the original Charles Addams cartoons. One season was produced, and the second season consisted of reruns. A complementary comic book series was produced in connection with the show, but it lasted only three issues. The show's theme music was completely different and had no lyrics and no finger snaps, although it retained a bit of the four-note score from the live-action show.
The Addams Family: The Animated Series (1992–1993)
The
remakeA remake is a piece of media based primarily on an earlier work of the same medium.-Film:The term "remake" is generally used in reference to a movie which uses an earlier movie as the main source material, rather than in reference to a second, later movie based on the same source...
series ran on Saturday mornings from 1992–1993 on ABC after producers realized the success of the 1991
Addams Family movie. This series returned to the familiar format of the original series, with the Addams Family facing their sitcom situations at home. John Astin returned to the role of Gomez, and celebrities
Rip TaylorCharles Elmer "Rip" Taylor, Jr. is an American actor and comedian.-Early life:Taylor was born in Washington, D.C., the son of Elizabeth, a waitress, and Charles Elmer Taylor, Sr., a musician. As a young man, Taylor served in the Korean War while in the U.S...
and
Carol ChanningCarol Elaine Channing is an American singer, actress, and comedienne. She is the recipient of three Tony Awards , a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination...
took over the roles of Fester and Grandmama, respectively, while veteran voice actors
Jim CummingsJames Jonah "Jim" Cummings is an American voice actor who has appeared in almost 100 roles. He has appeared in classic animated movies such as Aladdin and The Lion King, as well as taking on roles in more current films, such as Bee Movie, Princess and the Frog, and Winnie the Pooh.-Personal...
,
Debi DerryberryDebi Derryberry is an American voice actress, singer, composer and kids' entertainer who won an American Anime Award.-History:...
,
Jeannie EliasJeannie 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:...
and
Pat FraleyPatrick "Pat" Fraley is an American voice actor, who is best known as the voice of Krang, Casey Jones and numerous other characters from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles...
did the voices of Lurch, Wednesday, Pugsley and Cousin Itt. New artistic models of the characters were used for this series, though still having a passing resemblance to the original cartoons. Two seasons were produced, with the third year containing reruns. Oddly in this series, Wednesday maintained her macabre, brooding attitude from the Addams Family movies, but her facial expressions and body language conveyed the happy-go-lucky, fun attitude of her portrayal in the original television show. The original
Vic MizzyVic Mizzy was an American composer for television and movies whose best-known works are the themes to the 1960s television sitcoms Green Acres and The Addams Family. He also penned top-20 songs from the 1930s to 1940s.-Biography:Vic Mizzy was born in Brooklyn, New York and attended New York...
theme song, although slightly different, was used for the opening.
The New Addams Family (1998–1999)
The New Addams FamilyThe New Addams Family is an American/Canadian sitcom that aired from October 1998 to August 1999 and aired on YTV in Canada and Fox Family in the United States. It was produced by Shavick Entertainment and Saban Entertainment as a new version of the 1960s series The Addams Family.-Synopsis:The new...
was filmed in Vancouver, Canada, and ran for 65 episodes during the 1998–1999 season on the then newly-launched
Fox Family ChannelABC Family, stylized as abc family, is an American television network, owned by ABC Family Worldwide Inc., a subsidiary of the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company...
. Many storylines from the original series were reworked for this new series, incorporating more modern elements and jokes. John Astin returned to the franchise in some episodes of this series, albeit as "Grandpapa" Addams (Gomez's grandfather, a character introduced in
Addams Family Reunion). Pubert's absence in the new series (and possibly
Addams Family Reunion) was explained in an early episode when Wednesday mentioned that "There were three of us, but Pugsley ate the little one." The cast included Glenn Taranto as Gomez Addams, Ellie Harvie as Morticia, Michael Roberds as Fester, Brody Smith as Pugsley, Nicole Fugere (the only cast member from
Addams Family Reunion to return) as Wednesday,
John DeSantisJohn DeSantis is a Canadian actor, perhaps best known as Lurch in the 1998–99 Fox Family production of The Addams Family, entitled The New Addams Family. This role was originally portrayed by Ted Cassidy. He is 206 cm tall. Because of his great height, he has been recognised as one of the...
as Lurch, Betty Phillips as Grandmama and Steven Fox as Thing.
Halloween with the New Addams Family (1977)
A television reunion movie,
Halloween with the New Addams FamilyHalloween with the New Addams Family was a 1977 NBC TV-movie. This TV-movie has John Astin, Carolyn Jones, Jackie Coogan, Ted Cassidy, Lisa Loring, Ken Weatherwax, and Felix Silla reprising their roles from the 1960s series The Addams Family...
, aired on
NBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
Sunday, October 30, 1977. It featured most of the original cast, except
Blossom RockEdith Marie Blossom MacDonald , also known or credited as Blossom Rock, Blossom MacDonald or Marie Blake, was an American actress of stage and television...
, who had played Grandmama but was very ill at the time; she was replaced by Jane Rose. Gomez's brother, Pancho, was staying with the Family while Gomez attended a lodge meeting in
Tombstone, ArizonaTombstone is a city in Cochise County, Arizona, United States, founded in 1879 by Ed Schieffelin in what was then Pima County, Arizona Territory. It was one of the last wide-open frontier boomtowns in the American Old West. From about 1877 to 1890, the town's mines produced USD $40 to $85 million...
. Gomez was jealous of his brother, who once courted Morticia.
HalloweenHallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...
is nigh, and Pancho told the legend of Cousin Shy, who distributed gifts and carved pumpkins (similar to the Great Pumpkin). Actually, Gomez has been lured away by crooks, who have bugged the house in order to steal the Family fortune. Lafferty, the boss, sends Mikey to investigate. Wednesday (now called "Wednesday Senior") was home from music academy, where she was studying the
piccoloThe piccolo is a half-size flute, and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. The piccolo has the same fingerings as its larger sibling, the standard transverse flute, but the sound it produces is an octave higher than written...
(breaking glass with it). Pugsley (now "Pugsley Senior") is home from
NairobiNairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The city and its surrounding area also forms the Nairobi County. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to "the place of cool waters". However, it is popularly known as the "Green City in the Sun" and is...
medical school, where he was training to be a
witch doctorA witch doctor originally referred to a type of healer who treated ailments believed to be caused by witchcraft. It is currently used to refer to healers in some third world regions, who use traditional healing rather than contemporary medicine...
. Gomez and Morticia meanwhile have had a new set of kids, Wednesday Jr and Pugsley Jr, who closely resembled the original kids. Mikey panicked and fled after treading on Kitty Cat's tail. The crooks employ a fake Gomez and Morticia to help in their plans, along with two strong-arm goons, Hercules and Atlas. Gomez returned home for the Halloween party and trimming of the
scarecrowA scarecrow is, essentially, a decoy, though traditionally, a human figure dressed in old clothes and placed in fields by farmers to discourage birds such as crows or sparrows from disturbing and feeding on recently cast seed and growing crops.-History:In Kojiki, the oldest surviving book in Japan...
. The movie had a slightly different version of the theme song. The finger snaps were used, but not the lyrics.
Lafferty posed as Quincy Addams (from Boston) to get in. He had his men tie up Gomez and Morticia and his doubles took their places, confusing Pancho, who's still got the hots for Morticia. Lurch scared off the thugs and terrified the assistant crook. Fester, trying to be nice, put Lafferty on the rack. Lafferty tried to escape through the secret passage and stepped on Kitty Cat's tail. When the police arrive, the survivors surrender. The Addamses are then free to celebrate Halloween happily.
The Addams Family (1991)
In the 1990s,
Orion PicturesOrion Pictures Corporation was an American independent production company that produced movies from 1978 until 1998. It was formed in 1978 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and three former top-level executives of United Artists. Although it was never a large motion picture producer, Orion...
(which by then had inherited the rights to the series) developed a film version,
The Addams FamilyThe 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....
(released on November 22, 1991). Due to the studio's financial troubles at the time, Orion sold the US rights to the film to
Paramount PicturesParamount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
.
Addams Family Values (1993)
Upon the last film's success, a sequel followed:
Addams Family ValuesAddams 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...
(released on November 19, 1993, with worldwide distribution by Paramount). Loosened content restrictions allowed the films to use far more grotesque humor that strove to keep the original spirit of the Addams cartoons (in fact, several gags were lifted straight from the single panel cartoons). The two movies used the same cast, except for Grandmama, played by Judith Malina in the first film and Carol Kane in the second. A script for a third film was prepared in 1994, but was abandoned after the sudden death of actor
Raúl JuliáRaúl Rafael Juliá y Arcelay was a Puerto Rican actor.Born in San Juan, he gained interest in acting while still in school. Upon completing his studies, Juliá decided to pursue a career in acting. After performing in the local scene for some time, he was convinced by entertainment personality Orson...
.
Addams Family Reunion (1998)
Another film,
Addams Family ReunionAddams 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...
, was released
direct-to-videoDirect-to-video is a term used to describe a film that has been released to the public on home video formats without being released in film theaters or broadcast on television...
on September 22, 1998, this time by
Warner Bros.Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
through its video division. It has no relation to the Paramount movies, being in fact a full-length pilot for a second live-action television version,
The New Addams Family, produced and shot in
CanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. The third movie's Gomez, played by
Tim CurryTimothy James "Tim" Curry is a British actor, singer, composer and voice actor, known for his work in a diverse range of theatre, film and television productions. He currently resides in Los Angeles, California....
, follows the style of Raúl Juliá, while the new sitcom's Gomez, played by
Glenn TarantoGlenn Taranto is an American actor and screenwriter, perhaps best known for his role as Gomez on The New Addams Family....
, is played in the style of John Astin, who had played the character in the 1960s. The only actors in this Warner Brothers' production to have played in the previous Paramount films were Carel Struycken as Lurch and Christopher Hart as Thing.
Upcoming film
In 2010 it was announced that
Illumination EntertainmentIllumination Entertainment is an American film production company, founded by Chris Meledandri in 2007. It is owned by Universal Studios and based in Santa Monica, California. It is best known for its 2010 animated feature Despicable Me.- History :...
, in partnership with
Universal PicturesUniversal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
acquired the underlying rights to the Addams Family drawings. They will be producing a stop-motion animated film based on Charles Addams' original drawings.
Tim BurtonTimothy William "Tim" Burton is an American film director, film producer, writer and artist. He is famous for dark, quirky-themed movies such as Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Corpse Bride and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet...
is set to co-write and co-produce the film, with a possibility to direct.
Spin-offs
Two
animatedAnimation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
television
spin-offIn media, a spin-off is a radio program, television program, video game, or any narrative work, derived from one or more already existing works, that focuses, in particular, in more detail on one aspect of that original work...
s have been produced by
Hanna-Barbera ProductionsCartoon Network Studios is an American animation studio. A subsidiary of the Turner Broadcasting System , Cartoon Network Studios focuses on producing and developing animated programs only for and related to Cartoon Network...
.
- Mr. & Mrs. J. Evil Scientist
Mr. & Mrs. J. Evil Scientist are a family of fictional characters inspired by The Addams Family cartoons that appeared in The New Yorker. They appeared on the Snagglepuss and Snooper and Blabber animated television series and starred in their own comic book.-Television history:The Evil Scientist...
, a family of fictional characters inspired by The Addams Family appeared on the SnagglepussSnagglepuss is a Hanna-Barbera cartoon character created in 1959, a pink anthropomorphic mountain lion voiced by Daws Butler. He is best known for his famous catchphrase, "Heavens to Murgatroyd!", along with phrases such as "Exit, stage left!" Snagglepuss was originally known as "Snaggletooth"...
and Snooper and BlabberSnooper and Blabber is one of the sequences from The Quick Draw McGraw Show . Snooper and Blabber form a pair of cat and mouse detectives. Daws Butler voiced both characters although some of the earliest episodes feature Jerry Hausner as Blabber. Michael Maltese crafted the stories...
animated television series beginning in 1959 and starred in their own comic book.
- During the first season of the 1960s The Addams Family television show, a Stone Age version of the Addams Family called The Gruesomes
The Gruesomes are a family of fictional characters who appeared on The Flintstones television series. They debuted in 1964 during the show's fifth season...
moved next door to The FlintstonesThe Flintstones is an animated, prime-time American television sitcom that screened from September 30, 1960 to April 1, 1966, on ABC. Produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, The Flintstones was about a working class Stone Age man's life with his family and his next-door neighbor and best friend. It...
.
Video games
Five video games released from 1989 to 1994 were based on The Addams Family.
- Fester's Quest (1989) was a top-down shooter
Shooter games are a sub-genre of action game, which often test the player's speed and reaction time. It includes many subgenres that have the commonality of focusing "on the actions of the avatar using some sort of weapon. Usually this weapon is a gun, or some other long-range weapon". A common...
that featured Uncle Fester saving the world from an alien invasion.
- In 1992, two versions of The Addams Family
The Addams Family is a platform game based on the 1991 movie of the same name. Two different versions of the game were released. The first was in 1991 by ICOM Simulations for the TurboGrafx-CD...
were released by Ocean SoftwareThe British company Ocean Software was one of the biggest European video game developers/publishers of the 1980s and 90s...
based on the 1991 Movie; an 8-Bit8-bit color graphics is a method of storing image information in a computer's memory or in an image file, such that each pixel is represented by one 8-bit byte. The maximum number of colors that can be displayed at any one time is 256....
version for the Nintendo Entertainment SystemThe Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...
, Game BoyThe , is an 8-bit handheld video game device developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on , in North America in , and in Europe on...
, Sega Master SystemThe is a third-generation video game console that was manufactured and released by Sega in 1985 in Japan , 1986 in North America and 1987 in Europe....
, Sega Game GearThe was Sega's first handheld game console. It was the third commercially available color handheld console, after the Atari Lynx and the TurboExpress....
, ZX SpectrumThe ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd...
and Commodore 64The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
, as well as a 16-Bit-16-bit architecture:The HP BPC, introduced in 1975, was the world's first 16-bit microprocessor. Prominent 16-bit processors include the PDP-11, Intel 8086, Intel 80286 and the WDC 65C816. The Intel 8088 was program-compatible with the Intel 8086, and was 16-bit in that its registers were 16...
version released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment SystemThe Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...
, AmigaThe Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
, Atari STThe Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
and Sega Mega Drive/GenesisThe Sega Genesis is a fourth-generation video game console developed and produced by Sega. It was originally released in Japan in 1988 as , then in North America in 1989 as Sega Genesis, and in Europe, Australia and other PAL regions in 1990 as Mega Drive. The reason for the two names is that...
. ICOM SimulationsICOM Simulations was a software company based in Wheeling, Illinois. It is best known for creating the MacVenture series of adventure games including Shadowgate.Following the foundation in 1983 a number of game titles for the Panasonic JR-200 were produced...
published The Addams Family video game for the TurboGrafx-CD in 1991.
- The games' sequel, The Addams Family: Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt (1993), also by Ocean Software
The British company Ocean Software was one of the biggest European video game developers/publishers of the 1980s and 90s...
, was based on the ABC animated series and was released for NES, SNES and Game Boy (although the later two were just 8-bit remakes of the first SNES game, swapping Pugsley and Gomez's roles).
- Addams Family Values (1994) by Ocean was based on the movie's sequel and returned to the style of gameplay seen in Fester's Quest.
- A Game Boy Color
The is Nintendo's successor to the 8-bit Game Boy handheld game console, and was released on October 21, 1998 in Japan, November 19, 1998 in North America, November 23, 1998 in Europe and November 27, 1998 in the United Kingdom. It features a color screen and is slightly thicker and taller than...
game was released in the 1990s for promotion of The New Addams Family. The game was simply titled The New Addams Family Series. In this game, the Addams mansion had been bought by a fictional company called "Funnyday" that wanted to tear down the house and surrounding grounds to make room for an amusement park.
Pinball
A
pinballPinball is a type of arcade game, usually coin-operated, where a player attempts to score points by manipulating one or more metal balls on a playfield inside a glass-covered case called a pinball machine. The primary objective of the game is to score as many points as possible...
game by
MidwayMidway Games, Inc. is an American company that was formerly a major video game publisher. Following a bankruptcy filing in 2009, it is no longer active and is in the process of liquidating all of its assets. Midway's titles included Mortal Kombat, Ms.Pac-Man, Spy Hunter, Tron, Rampage, the...
(under the
Bally label) was released in 1992 shortly after the movie. It is the best-selling pinball game of all time.
The Addams Family: An Evilution
The Addams Family: An Evilution is a book about the "
evilutionEvolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
" of The Addams Family characters, with more than 200 published and previously unpublished cartoons, and includes text by Charles Addams and H.Kevin Miserocchi, Director of the Tee and Charles Addams Foundation.
Advertising
In 1994, the actors cast as the Addamses in the first two films (sans the recently-deceased Raúl Juliá) were in several Japanese television spots for the Honda Odyssey. The Addamses—most prominently Gomez (for whom a voice actor was used to impersonate Juliá while footage from
Addams Family Values was seen) and Morticia—are seen speaking Japanese.
In 2007 and 2008, the Addams Family appeared as M&Ms in an advertising campaign for M&Ms Dark Chocolate.
The Addams Family (2010)
In May 2007, it was announced that a
musicalMusical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
inspired by The Addams Family drawings by Charles Addams was being developed for the
BroadwayBroadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
stage. Broadway veterans
Marshall BrickmanMarshall Brickman is a screenwriter, best known for his collaborations with Woody Allen. He is also known for playing the banjo with Eric Weissberg in the 1960s, and for a series of comical parodies published in The New Yorker.-Biography:After attending the University of Wisconsin–Madison, he...
and
Rick Elice-Life:Elice earned his BA from Cornell University, his MFA from the Yale Drama School and is a Teaching Fellow at Harvard. He was the salutatorian graduate of Francis Lewis High School in Queens, New York . He is a charter member of the American Repertory Theatre...
wrote the
bookA libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
, and
Andrew LippaAndrew Lippa is an American composer, lyricist, book writer, performer, and producer. He is a resident artist at the Ars Nova Theater in New York City.-Biography:...
wrote the score. Julian Crouch and Phelim McDermott (Improbable Theater founders) directed and designed the production, with choreography by Sergio Trujillo. A workshop and private industry presentation was held August 4–8, 2008. Featured in the cast were
Bebe NeuwirthBeatrice "Bebe" Neuwirth is an American actress, singer and dancer. She has worked in television and is known for her portrayal of Dr. Lilith Sternin, Dr. Frasier Crane's wife , on both the TV sitcom Cheers , and its spin-off Frasier...
as Morticia,
Annaleigh AshfordAnnaleigh Ashford is an American actress known for her Broadway credits in Wicked, Legally Blonde, and Hair.-Early life:Annaleigh Ashford was born Annaleigh Swanson in Denver, Colorado to Holli Swanson, a gym teacher...
as Wednesday, and
Nathan LaneNathan Lane is an American actor of stage and screen. He is best known for his roles as Mendy in The Lisbon Traviata, Albert in The Birdcage, Max Bialystock in the musical The Producers, Ernie Smuntz in MouseHunt, Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls, Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to...
as Gomez. In addition,
Kevin Chamberlin- Life :Chamberlin was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and raised in Moorestown Township, New Jersey, moving there as a nine-year old. Chamberlin graduated from Rutgers University's Mason Gross School of the Arts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting.- Career :...
played Uncle Fester and
Zachary JamesZachary "Zach" James is an American actor and operatic singer. He is the founding director of the Metropolis Opera Project, a New York City based opera company.-Early life:...
played Lurch.
The musical opened in previews at the
Lunt-Fontanne TheatreThe Lunt-Fontanne Theatre is a legitimate Broadway theatre located at 205 West 46th Street in midtown-Manhattan.Designed by the architectural firm of Carrere and Hastings, it was built by producer Charles Dillingham and opened as the Globe Theatre, in honor of London's Shakespearean playhouse, on...
on Broadway on March 8, 2010, with an official opening on April 8, after an out-of-town tryout in
ChicagoChicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts from November 13, 2009 to January 10, 2010. The cast includes Lane as Gomez, Neuwirth as Morticia,
Terrence MannTerrence Vaughan Mann is an American actor, director, singer, songwriter and dancer who has been prominent on the Broadway stage for the past three decades...
as Mal Beineke,
Carolee CarmelloCarolee Carmello is an American actress best known for her performances in Broadway musicals.She made her Broadway debut in a small role in City of Angels...
as Alice Beineke, Chamberlin as Uncle Fester,
Jackie HoffmanJacqueline Laura Hoffman , known as Jackie Hoffman, is an American actress and stand-up comedian known for her facially-contorting expressions, and one-woman shows of Jewish-themed original songs and monologues...
as Grandma,
Zachary JamesZachary "Zach" James is an American actor and operatic singer. He is the founding director of the Metropolis Opera Project, a New York City based opera company.-Early life:...
as Lurch,
Krysta RodriguezKrysta 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 :...
as Wednesday, and
Wesley TaylorWesley Taylor is an American stage actor and writer, probably best known for his roles in the Broadway musicals Rock of Ages and The Addams Family.- Personal life :...
as Wednesday's love interest, Lucas Beineke.
Cast
! width=200 | Show>
| | 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....
|
| | 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...
|
| | Pugsley Addams 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 who is almost always seen wearing a striped T-shirt and shorts...
|
| | Wednesday AddamsWednesday 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...
|
| | Uncle FesterGordon Craven, Uncle Fester, or Fester Addams, is a member of the fictional Addams Family. He was played by Jackie Coogan in the original television series, by Christopher Lloyd in the first two feature films, and by Patrick Thomas in the third, Addams Family Reunion. Finally, Michael Roberds...
|
| | Grandmama |
| | Lurch |
| | Thing |
| | Cousin Itt Cousin Itt is a member of the fictional Addams Family. Unlike the other characters, Cousin Itt was not originally created by cartoonist Charles Addams, but by producer David Levy, though he did appear as an unnamed character in Addams's cartoons.- Character :...
|
External links