'The Addams Family': The Fictional Family At The Peak Of Popularity

These days, a series that is making records on Netflix streaming service is the 'Wednesday' series starring young actress Jenna Ortega. The strange thing about this is that this fictional 'Addams Family', owned by the Wednesday character, is almost 85 years old, but still breaks records and reaches the peak of popularity from time to time. So, why not ask about the Addams family, which is so special? 

Come on! Let's know about 'The Addams Family'. 

'The Addams Family' Newspaper Cartoon – comicartfans.com

Newspaper cartoon of Charles Addams

Charles Addams, an American cartoonist, brought this imaginary family to a newspaper for the first time in 1938. The series, published in The New Yorker until 1964, was primarily designed to humorously present the characters of a family whose personalities and interests were diametrically opposed to the typical American family corporation of the time.

With a penchant for horror and horror, death and online darkness, this Addams Family cartoon comes to the newspaper as a single-panel, dialogue-free cartoon. Because these single-panel cartoons were mostly designed to cover the rest of the newspaper, these stories not only had no dialogue, but the cartoon also had no name. 

Surname of Charles Addams

The name 'The Addams Family' came to be used for this family because it was the surname of the founder, Charles Addams. Charles Addams had not properly introduced the family structure in his cartoon unless the newspaper reader identified by observation that the characters in the original newspaper cartoon had no names and as members of the family, this is the mother, this is the children, and this one must be an uncle.

Charles Addams once commented on the mother character in his newspaper cartoon as "My idea of ​​a beautiful woman".

'The Addams Family' TV series

The television adaptation of this newspaper cartoon was a two-part live-action (sitcom) series that aired from 1964 to 1966 on the ABC television service in the United States. David Lavy and Donald Saltzman teamed up with the founder of the Addams Family, Charles Addams, to create the series and gave the characters proper names and family backgrounds. 

Carolyn Jones, John Astin, Jackie Coogan, Ted Cassidy and Lisa Loring were joined in the cast. The 64-episode series 'The Addams Family' is one of the last black-and-white television productions in American television history. The series was distributed by MGM Television.

Members of the Addams Family

If we got the names and villages, let's identify them without delay, members of the Addams family..

Gomez Addams: becomes the father of the family. Although he is a lawyer by profession, he does not engage in the legal profession to such an extent because of the wealth inherited from his generation. It is said that he is proud of the legal works he has appeared and defeated.

Morticia Addams: becomes the mother of the family. Often dressed in black clothes, she is a woman who has achieved strange attractiveness due to her different appearance. The relationship between Morticia and Gomez is considered one of the most successful couples in popular culture.

Pugsley Addams: Son of the Family. He is a child with strange habits and traits who has a penchant for various absurd scientific experiments. In the later films, the character was mostly introduced as his sister's assistant in her affairs.

Wednesday Friday Addams: The daughter of the family. According to the original 1964 TV series, she was the youngest child in the family, but in later films and series, she was the eldest child in the family. In the original series, Wednesday was introduced as a more pleasant girl who loves her family, but in later adaptations, she became an emotionless, dark-minded character.

Grandmama: The grandmother of the family. She always helps the family with cooking and taking care of the children. In various adaptations, she has alternated between Gomez and Morticia's mother.

Uncle Fester: This character, who appears in different adaptations with different connections at one time as Morticia's uncle and at another as Gomez's brother, is also a fan of wacky science experiments. He has a strange character.

Lurch: Becomes the main servant of the family. He is an employee but is treated as a member of the family, he is a quiet person who does not talk much. 

Thing: A single arm without a body. A character as versatile as he is humorous, the Thing always emerged from a box or jar in the original TV series. (Due to the difficulty of using animation technology in the 1964 era, this method was scrapped.) Later adaptations have allowed the character to act alone without support.

William Shawn, the editor of The New Yorker, banned newspaper cartoons of the Addams Family from 1964 because of the television series that debuted that same year.

'The Addams Family' movie

Barry Sonnenfeld brought the film 'The Addams Family' to the screen in 1991 as his first directorial debut, amid many obstacles. Orion Pictures estimated the cost of the film to be 25 million US dollars, but the cost increased by another 5 million US dollars due to periodic script changes and health problems faced by the crew involved in the film.

Due to this financial instability, the film was sold to Paramount Pictures. However, after the release of the film, it managed to earn an income of 191 million US dollars, showing the success of the film. Anjelica Huston, Raul Julia, Christopher Lloyd, Christina Ricci as well as Carel Struycken acted in this film. The film also performed at the American Film Awards and was nominated for Best Actress at the Golden Globe Awards for Anjelica Huston's performance as Morticia.

Success in earning income

Based on the success shown by the income, in the year 1993, the movie 'Addams Family Values' was created and screened as the second part of this movie.

Initially, Tim Burton was chosen to direct this film, but at that time he was busy directing the film 'Batman Returns', so the opportunity was abandoned. He later joins the Addams family by directing the series 'Wednesday'.

'The Addams Family' TV cartoon series

In 1972, Hanna-Barbera Productions presented an episode of the television cartoon series 'The New Scooby-Doo Movies' in which Scooby-Doo and the gang met the Addams family to solve a mystery, and this was the first time the Addams family was animated.

Then in 1973, the Addams family got their own cartoon series, a Hanna-Barbera Productions production that aired on NBC for 16 episodes. It is a special fact that Jackie Coogan and Ted Cassidy, who participated in the 1964 live-action series, joined their previous roles as Uncle Fester and Lurch, respectively, for the dubbing work of this series.

Following the success of the 1991 film 'The Addams Family', Hanna-Barbera Productions revived the Addams Family as a television cartoon in 1992, which aired on ABC. John Astin, who played the same role in the 1964 series, joined to voice Gomez's character in this 21-part series. Nancy Linari, Debi Derryberry, Rip Taylor and others were involved in other roles.

Live action (sitcom) series

A live-action (sitcom) series called 'The New Addams Family' aired on YTV and Fox Family between 1998 and 1999 as a revival of the 1964 television series. Glenn Taranto, Ellie Harvey, Nicole Fugere, Michael Roberds and others will join the cast for this 65-part series.

(Something to know:- John Astin, who was Gomez Addams in the original TV series, joins the family as Grandpapa Addams in this new arrival in his late 60s.)

to the cinema screen as a 3D computer animated film

In 2019, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer brought a cartoon movie called 'The Addams Family' to the screen using computer animation technology. This time Oscar Isaac, Charlize Theron, Chloe Grace Moretz, Finn Wolfhard and Snoop Dogg contributed to the dubbing for the film.

2019 'The Addams Family' 3D Animated Movie Poster – imdb.com

With a production cost of US$24 million, the film spent over US$150 million on publicity, which is MGM's largest advertising budget since its 007 (James Bond) film series. The box office revenue of this movie is recorded as 203 million US dollars.

Another Addams Family movie created using 3D computer animation technology was screened in 2021 called 'The Addams Family 2'.

Before this movie, Illumination Entertainment planned to bring an animated Addams Family movie to the screen. It is also under the direction of Tim Burton under the stop-motion animation technique. However, that plan did not work.

'Wednesday' – The Addams Family girl who shook the world

The 'Wednesday' series released in 2022 on the Netflix streaming service is based on Wednesday Addams, the daughter of the Addams family. Jenna Ortega takes on the role of Wednesday, while Gwendoline Christie, Jamie McShane, Emma Myers, Joy Sunday and Catherine Zeta-Jones join the cast. 

Veteran film director Tim Burton joins the series this time as the director of the first four parts of the series and as an executive producer of the series. One of the most notable things about the cast of the series is that Christina Ricci, who played the role of Wednesday in the 1991 film, played a different and important role in this series. It is special that this series, which has managed to gain great attraction among the current audience, has become the second most watched English-language Netflix series in three weeks. 

Wednesday's dance

Wednesday's dance, which went viral on social media, was a performance created by Jenna Ortega herself. It is said that she included a dance performed by Lisa Loring as Wednesday in the original 1964 television series. However, in the final edits, that part is said to have been removed from the dance scene.

 Even though it's a fictional family, it's amazing how the Addams family keeps coming back to the limelight over the years. A fact that should not be forgotten is that this family was born from the imagination of a single person.