The Addams Family

Addams' original cartoons were one-panel gags. The characters were undeveloped and unnamed until the television series production.

Gomez and Pugsley are enthusiastic. Morticia is even in disposition, muted, witty, sometimes deadly. Grandma Frump is foolishly good-natured. Wednesday is her mother's daughter. A closely-knit family, the real head being Morticia—although each of the others is a definite character—except for Grandma, who is easily led. Many of the troubles they have as a family are due to Grandma's fumbling, weak character. The house is a wreck, of course, but this is a house-proud family just the same and every trap door is in good repair. Money is no problem.

— Charles Addams[1]

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-Latin: "We gladly feast on those who would subdue us"). Charles Addams was first inspired by his hometown of Westfield, New Jersey, an area full of ornate Victorian mansions and archaic graveyards.[15] In the original comics series they live in a gothic house on Cemetery Ridge. According to the television series, the residence is a gloomy mansion adjacent to a cemetery and a swamp located in an unspecified American town. In the musical (first shown in Chicago in 2009), the house is located in Central Park.[16] In the 2019 film, the Addamses live in an abandoned asylum located in the outskirts of the state of New Jersey which is haunted by a disembodied resident who demands the property to remain undisturbed.

Although most of the humor derives from the fact that they share macabre interests, the Addamses are not evil. They are a close-knit extended family. Morticia is an exemplary mother, and she and Gomez remain passionate towards each other; as established in the television series, she calls him "bubbeleh",[17] to which he responds by kissing her arms, behavior which Morticia can also provoke by speaking a few words in French (their meanings are not important; any words in French will do). The parents are supportive of their children (except in the 2019 film when Wednesday arrives home wearing a pink dress). The family is friendly and hospitable to visitors; in some cases, it is willing to donate large sums of money to causes (television series and films), despite the visitors' horror at the Addamses' peculiar lifestyle.

Charles Addams began as a cartoonist in The New Yorker with a sketch of a window washer that ran on February 6, 1932.[18] 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.[18]

In 1946, Addams met science fiction writer Ray Bradbury after drawing an illustration for Bradbury's short story "Homecoming" in Mademoiselle magazine, the first in a series of tales chronicling a family of Illinois monsters, the Elliotts. Bradbury and Addams 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 Returned (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's 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."[19]

In 1964, the ABC TV network created The Addams Family television series based on Addams's cartoon characters. The series was shot in black-and-white 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 Shawn refused to publish any Addams Family cartoons. However, he continued to publish other Charles Addams cartoons. Shawn regarded his magazine as targeting a more refined readership and he did not want it to be 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 Addams Family's first animated appearance was on the third episode of Hanna-Barbera's The New Scooby-Doo Movies, "Scooby-Doo Meets the Addams Family" (a.k.a. "Wednesday is Missing"), which first aired on CBS Saturday morning, on September 23, 1972. Four members of the original cast (John Astin, Carolyn Jones, Jackie Coogan, and Ted Cassidy) returned for the special, which involved the Addamses in a mystery with the Scooby-Doo 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.

In late 1972, ABC produced a pilot for a live-action musical variety show which was titled The Addams Family Fun-House. The cast included Jack Riley and Liz Torres as Gomez and Morticia (the pair also co-wrote the special), Stubby Kaye as Uncle Fester, Pat McCormick as Lurch and Butch Patrick (who had played Eddie Munster on The Munsters) as Pugsley. Felix Silla reprised his role as Cousin Itt, connecting it to the original TV series. The pilot aired in 1973, but it was not picked up for a series.[20]

The first animated series ran on Saturday mornings from 1973 to 1975 on NBC. In a departure from the original series, this series took the Addamses on the road in a Victorian-style RV. This series also marked the point where the relationships between the characters were changed so that Fester was now Gomez's brother, and Grandmama was now Morticia's mother (though the old relationships between the characters would be revisited in the 1977 television movie, in order to retain its continuity with the original sitcom). Although Coogan and Cassidy reprised their roles, Astin and Jones did not; their parts were recast with Hanna-Barbera voice talents Lennie Weinrib as Gomez and Janet Waldo as Morticia, while a ten-year-old Jodie Foster 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 only lasted three issues. The show's theme music was completely different and it had no lyrics and no finger snaps, although it retained a bit of the four-note score from the live-action show.

A television reunion movie, Halloween with the New Addams Family, aired on NBC on Sunday, October 30, 1977. It features most of the original cast, except Blossom Rock, who had played Grandmama. She was still alive but was very ill at the time; Jane Rose replaced her. Veteran character actors Parley Baer and Vito Scotti, who both had recurring roles on the original series, also appeared in the movie. The movie has a slightly different version of the theme song; the finger snaps are used but not the lyrics.

Gomez and Morticia have had two more children, Wednesday, Jr. and Pugsley, Jr., who strongly resemble their older siblings. Gomez's brother, Pancho, is staying with the family while Gomez attends a lodge meeting in Tombstone, Arizona. Gomez is jealous of his brother, who once courted Morticia. Halloween is nigh, and Pancho tells the children the legend of the Great Pumpkin-like character of Cousin Shy, who distributes gifts and carves pumpkins for good children on Halloween night. Wednesday (now called "Wednesday, Sr.") is home from music academy, where she is studying the piccolo (breaking glass with it). Pugsley (now "Pugsley, Sr.") is home from Nairobi medical school, where he is training to be a witch doctor. The family's home has been bugged by a gang of crooks which intends to steal the family's fortune. Lafferty, the boss, sends a gang member named Mikey into the house to investigate. Mikey panics and flees after treading on the tail of Kitty Kat the lion. The crooks employ a fake Gomez and Morticia to help them carry out their plans, along with two strong-arm goons, Hercules and Atlas. Gomez returns home to celebrate the Halloween party and trim the scarecrow. Lafferty poses as Quincy Addams (from Boston) to gain entrance to the house during the party. He has his men tie up Gomez and Morticia, and his doubles take their places, confusing Pancho, who is still in love with Morticia, and Ophelia, who is still in love with Gomez. Gomez and Morticia escape (thanks to the "Old Piccolo Game"), and rejoin the party, only to have Lafferty use various methods to try to get rid of them. Lurch scares off the thugs and terrifies Lafferty's other assistant. Fester, trying to be nice, puts Lafferty on the rack. Lafferty tries to escape through the secret passage and steps on Kitty Kat's tail. When the police arrive, the crooks gladly surrender. The Addamses are then free to celebrate Halloween happily, ending the night by singing together in welcome for Cousin Shy.

The remake series ran on Saturday mornings from 1992 to 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 Taylor and Carol Channing took over the roles of Fester and Grandmama, respectively. Veteran voice actors Jim Cummings, Debi Derryberry, Jeannie Elias and Pat Fraley did the voices of Lurch, Wednesday, Pugsley and Cousin Itt, respectively. 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. Still, her facial expressions and body language conveyed the happy-go-lucky, fun attitude of her portrayal in the original television show. The original Vic Mizzy theme song, although slightly different, was used for the opening.

The New Addams Family was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and ran for 65 episodes (one more than the original TV series) during the 1998–1999 season on the then-newly launched Fox Family Channel. 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). 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 DeSantis as Lurch, Betty Phillips as Grandmama and Steven Fox as Thing.

In the 1990s, Orion Pictures (which by then had inherited the rights to the series) developed a film version, The Addams Family (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 Pictures. On October 1, 2019, Paramount Pictures[22] released double feature of Addams Family and Addams Family Values on Blu-ray in the United States.

Upon the last film's success, a sequel followed: Addams Family Values (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 Addams cartoons' original spirit (in fact, several gags were lifted straight from the single-panel cartoons). The two films used the same cast, except for Grandmama, played by Judith Malina and Carol Kane in the first and second films, respectively. A script for a third film was prepared in 1994, but was abandoned after the sudden death of actor Raul Julia that year.

Another film, Addams Family Reunion, was released direct-to-video on September 22, 1998, this time by Warner Bros. 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 Canada. The third movie's Gomez, played by Tim Curry, follows the style of Raul Julia, while the new sitcom's Gomez, played by Glenn Taranto, is played in the style of John Astin, who had played the character in the 1960s. The only actors in this Warner Bros./Saban Entertainment production to have played in the previous Paramount films were Carel Struycken as Lurch and Christopher Hart as Thing.

In 2010, it was announced that Illumination Entertainment, in partnership with Universal Pictures, had acquired the underlying rights to the Addams Family drawings.[23] The film was planned to be a stop-motion animated film based on Charles Addams' original drawings. Tim Burton was set to co-write and co-produce the film, with a possibility to direct.[24] In July 2013 however, it was reported that the film was cancelled.[25]

On October 31, 2013, it was announced in Variety that Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer will be reviving The Addams Family as an animated film with Pamela Pettler to write the screenplay and Andrew Mittman and Kevin Miserocchi to executive produce the film and they were in final negotiations with BermanBraun's Gail Berman and Lloyd Braun to produce it.[26] By October 2017, Conrad Vernon had been hired to direct the film, which he will also produce along with Berman and Alex Schwartz, based on a screenplay written by Pettler, with revisions by Matt Lieberman.[27] The film was released on October 11, 2019.[28] On October 8, 2020, MGM announced that a sequel is in the works with an announcement trailer.[29] The original cast set to return. Bill Hader and Javon “Wanna” Walton have also been casted to voice. Bill Hader will play a new character named Cyrus, while Javon will replace Finn Wolfhard as the voice of Pugsley Addams. Director Greg Tiernan is set to return as director. The film is set to release on October 1, 2021.[30]

• An animated television homage was produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. Mr. & Mrs. J. Evil Scientist, a family of fictional characters inspired by The Addams Family appeared on the Snagglepuss and Snooper and Blabber animated television series beginning in 1959 and it also starred in its own comic book.
• Comedian Melissa Hunter wrote the web series Adult Wednesday Addams, which is a comedic adaptation of the franchise.[31] Hunter was forced to remove the series due to legal action.
• In an episode of Horrible Histories a song titled "The Borgia Family" was created in reference to the Addams Family Theme.
• In 1964, the year The Addams Family debuted, Hanna-Barbera introduced Weirdly and Creepella Gruesome and family, based in part on Mr. & Mrs. J. Evil Scientist and in part on the Addamses as recurrent characters on The Flintstones.[32]

Seven video games released from 1989 to 2019 were based on The Addams Family.

• Fester's Quest (1989) was a top-down adventure game that featured Uncle Fester.
• In 1992, two versions of The Addams Family were released by Ocean Software based on the 1991 movie: an 8-bit version for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy, Sega Master System, Sega Game Gear, ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64, and a 16-bit version released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Amiga, Atari ST and Sega Mega Drive/Genesis. ICOM Simulations 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, was based on the ABC animated series and was released for NES, SNES, and Game Boy (although the latter two were just 8-bit remakes of the first SNES game, swapping Pugsley's 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 game was released in the 1990s for promotion of The New Addams Family. The game was 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.
• An arcade shocker, The New Addams Family Electric Shock Machine (also known as Electrifying) was released by Eurocom and Nova Productions in 1999.
• There is also one 2019-mobile game for android and IOS: The Addams Family Mystery Mansion released by Animoca.[33]

A pinball game by Midway (under the Bally label) was released in 1992 shortly after the movie. It is the best-selling pinball game of all time.[34]

This first novelisation of the television series, written by Jack Sharkey, was released near the end of the show's second season. The book details the family's arrival in their new home and explains how it got its bizarre décor. The arrival and origins of Thing are explained. Each chapter reads as a self-contained story, like episodes of the television show. The novel concludes with the Addams family discovering that their lives will be the basis for a new television series. It was published in paperback by Pyramid Books in 1965.[35]

The Addams Family Strikes Back by W.F. Miksch tells how Gomez plans to rehabilitate the image of Benedict Arnold by running for the local school board. The tone and characterizations in this book resemble the TV characters much more closely than in the first novel. Cousin Itt appears as a minor character in this story, but as a tiny, three-legged creature rather than the hairy, derby-hatted character seen on television and in the movies. The novel was published in paperback form by Pyramid Books in 1965.[35]

The Addams Family: An Evilution is a book about the "evilution" 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. Pomegranate Press published the book in 2010.

In 1994, the actors cast as the Addamses in the first two films (sans the recently deceased Raul Julia) were in several Japanese television spots for the Honda Odyssey.[36] The Addamses are seen speaking Japanese—most prominently Gomez (for whom a voice actor was used to impersonate Julia while footage from Addams Family Values was seen) and Morticia.[37]

In 2007 and 2008, the Addams Family appeared as M&M's in an advertising campaign for M&M's Dark Chocolate.[38]

A soundtrack album was released in 1965 containing all of Vic Mizzy's compositions for the series entitled Original Music From The Addams Family.[39]

In May 2007, it was announced that a musical inspired by The Addams Family drawings by Charles Addams was being developed for the Broadway stage. Broadway veterans Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice wrote the book, and Andrew Lippa wrote the score. Julian Crouch and Phelim McDermott (Improbable theatre founders) directed and designed the production, with choreography by Sergio Trujillo.[40] A workshop and private industry presentation was held August 4–8, 2008. Featured in the cast were Bebe Neuwirth as Morticia, Krysta Rodriguez as Wednesday, and Nathan Lane as Gomez. In addition, Kevin Chamberlin played Uncle Fester and Zachary James played Lurch.

The musical opened in previews at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on Broadway on March 8, 2010, with an official opening on April 8,[41] after an out-of-town tryout in Chicago at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts from November 13, 2009 to January 10, 2010.[42][43] The cast includes Lane as Gomez, Neuwirth as Morticia, Terrence Mann as Mal Beineke, Carolee Carmello as Alice Beineke, Chamberlin as Uncle Fester, Jackie Hoffman as Grandma, Zachary James as Lurch, Krysta Rodriguez as Wednesday, and Wesley Taylor as Wednesday's love interest, Lucas Beineke.[44] The Broadway production ran for 22 months, closing on December 31, 2011, after 35 previews and 722 performances.[45]

On September 5, 2016 it was announced that the musical would premiere in the UK, on a major UK and Ireland tour produced by James Yeoburn and Stuart Matthew Price for United Theatrical.[46] The production was directed by Matthew White and it opened at Edinburgh Festival Theatre on April 20, 2017 starring Samantha Womack, Les Dennis and Carrie Hope Fletcher.[47]