Four major characters from the original television adaptation: Thing (foreground) with Uncle Fester, Morticia and Gomez Addams

The Addams Family is the creation of American cartoonist Charles Addams. They are a bizarre family who delight in all things macabre and are never really aware of why people find them frightening.

Addams' cartoons in The New Yorker magazine gained popularity in the 1930s. Addams was noted for his morbid sense of humor, and over the years various bizarre people and creatures who lived in a huge decaying Victorian Gothic house became recurring characters.

In the 1960s a network television series was spawned with actors playing characters from Addams cartoons, entitled The Addams Family. The television show originally ran from 1964 to 1966, and has been widely syndicated. The Munsters, which shared a similar gothic look but featured broader humor, was contemporary with The Addams Family.

In the 1990s this concept was developed into a film, The Addams Family (1991), and a sequel, Addams Family Values (1993). The latter title is a piece of word play on family values, the Addamses seeming to represent values the polar opposite from the term's usual meaning (in fact, the Addams exhibit many laudable values; in particular, they are a close-knit, loving family). In addition, loosened content restrictions allowed the films to use far more grotesque humour that strove to keep the original spirit of the Addams cartoons.

Two animated television spin-offs have also been produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions; the first ran from 1973-1975 on NBC, and the second ran from 1992-1995 on ABC. The Addams Family also appeared in the third episode of Hanna-Barbera's The New Scooby-Doo Movies in 1972. A second live-action version (The New Addams Family), produced and shot in Canada, ran during the 1998-1999 season on Fox Family.

Four video games released in 1989 to 1994 were based on The Addams Family. Fester's Quest (1989) was a top-down shooter that featured Uncle Fester. The platformers The Addams Family (1992) and its sequel The Addams Family: Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt (1993) by Ocean Software were based on the movie. Addams Family Values (1994) by Ocean was based on the movie's sequel.

Premise

The Addamses are the descendants of a very long line of witches, serial killers, freaks, ghouls, and other assorted social outcasts and monsters. The family that the cartoons, movies, and shows are based around are said to be but one surviving branch of the Addams clan. Many other "Addams families" exist all over the world.

Gomez Addams is the wealthy son of "Father and Mother Addams" who have since passed away. He appears to be of unclear Spanish / Latino origins, and loves to smoke cigars and play destructively with his model trains. Though head of the household, he is also the most naïve and childish member of the family, with a short attention span and endless optimism. Gomez is married to Morticia Addams, a vampish woman who dresses only in black. She too comes from a long line of maniacs and monsters.

Gomez and Morticia have two children, Pugsley and Wednesday. Wednesday is serious and humorless, and has a morbid fascination with trying to murder her brother. She is apparently often successful, but Pugsley never dies. Like most members of the family he seems to live in a semi-immortal state. For his part, Pugsley is largely either oblivious to the harm his sister tries to inflict on him, or is an enthusiastic supporter of it.

Other members of the family who live with Gomez and Morticia include Fester, Gomez's mad scientist brother, and "Grandmama," Morticia's elderly witch mother.

The family has a pet disembodied hand named "Thing" and a tall, ghoulish manservant named Lurch. Gomez's cousin Itt often visits the family. He is a four-foot tall hairball who speaks in a squeakish language that only the family understands.

The Addamses are a close-knit and loving family. Morticia and Gomez remain passionately in love, and are deeply concerned with the well-being of their children. Though they all share an obsession and interest in death, dying, and other gothic and macabre subjects, the Addamses are not evil people, and usually restrict their ghoulish activities to within their own family. Most of the Addamses' neighbours are less than understanding, however. Within the larger community, the Addamses are viewed as oddballs, dangerous, or worse. Both the TV shows and movies deal with outsiders attempting to understand and "correct" the behavior of the family, and remain frustrated and horrified by the things that the Addamses find amusing. The Addamses for their part are just the opposite, and are often shocked and horrified at the actions of "mainstream" society. The underlying moral premise of the series thus seems to be a message against being judgmental and trying to impose universal standards of morality.

Cast

• Gomez Addams (played by John Astin in the 1960s show, Raúl Juliá in the 1990s movies)
  • Gomez Addams is Morticia's husband and the Addams Family head. Originally Granny's son, this was retconned later on to make him Granny's son-in-law. His brother-in-law is Uncle Fester. He is portrayed as the ideal man: charming, handsome (in a gothic sort of way), and successful. Generally he dresses in a dark pinstriped suit with short, slicked-back hair. He sports a pencil-thin mustache. Though a peaceful man he is known to be well-versed in many types of combat. His endless love for Morticia shows that while the family is strange, they are good people on the inside.
• Morticia Addams (Carolyn Jones in the show, Anjelica Huston in the movies)
  • Morticia Addams is the second head of the Addams Family, serving as its heart and soul. Her original mother was Hester Frump, but her origins were later retconned and she became Granny's daughter. (Granny subsequently became known as Esmerelda Frump) Morticia has a twin sister named Ophelia. Her marriage brought her brother Fester Addams into the family, and she is Wednesday and Pugsley's mother. She has pale skin and dresses very gothically, generally in long black dresses. She is portrayed as elegant, artistic, and musically inclined.
• Pugsley Addams (Ken Weatherwax in the show, Jimmy Workman in the movies)
• Wednesday Addams (Lisa Loring in the show, Christina Ricci in the movies)
• Uncle Fester (Jackie Coogan in the show, Christopher Lloyd in the movies)
• Grandmama (Marie Blake in the show, Judith Malina in the 1991 movie, Carol Kane in the 1993 movie)
  • Grandmama is first known as Eudora Addams (Gomez and Fester's mother). Later on she was changed to be Esmerelda Frump (Morticia's mother). Grandmama is a witch who deals in potions, spells and hexes of all kinds. She even dabbles in fortune-telling. Granny often argues with Fester, and wins. Her trademarks are her shawl and frizzy hair.
• Lurch (Ted Cassidy in the show, Carel Struycken in the movies)
  • Lurch is the shambling, groaning, eight-foot tall Frankenstein-like butler to the Addams Family. He tries to help around the house like any other butler, though occasionally he botches things up due to his great size and strength. Besides a headless doll named Marie, he is Wednesday's best friend. Surprisingly, he is often seen playing the harpsichord with a great degree of skill. Gomez or Morticia can summon him with an ever-present rope. When pulled, it produces a loud gong noise which Lurch will always respond to. (Generally with the line, "You rang?") Much of Lurch's history, including his last name or the nature of his relationship to any other Addamses is unknown.
• Thing (Ted Cassidy's hand in the show, Christopher Hart's hand in the movies)
• Cousin Itt (Felix Silla on-screen and Tony Magro as Itt's voice in the show, John Franklin in the movies)

Trivia

In Addams' original cartoons, the characters were not named. When the television show was developed, Addams was asked to contribute names, and all of his suggestions were used except for Pubert, who was renamed Pugsley. The name Pubert was eventually used in Addams Family Values.

External links

• IMDb entry for the television show (http://www.imdb.com/Title?0057729)

• TV Tome: The Addams Family page (including episode guide) (http://www.tvtome.com/AddamsFamily/)

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