History Trivia / TheAddamsfamily

** Pre-production finally began after Charles Addams' ex-wife sold her portion of the rights to Orion, who at that point had scrapped their idea for a series and instead decided to make a feature film. Rudin left Fox to serve as producer, and a screenplay was penned by Caroline Thompson and Larry Wilson (of ''Film/EdwardScissorhands'' & ''Film/Beetlejuice''fame), with additional material by an uncredited Paul Rudnick, who would go onto write the sequel ''Addams Family Values''. Several rewrites followed, and after Creator/TimBurton passed the director's chair, it was taken up by Barry Sonnenfeld, who at the time had only ever worked as a cinematographer and had no directorial experience. Sonnenfeld's lack of experience proved to a problem, as he repeatedly had on-set panic attacks and lost 13 pounds in less than 10 weeks. Sonnenfeld asked Rudin to let him go, but the producer refused.

** Pre-production finally began after Charles Addams' ex-wife sold her portion of the rights to Orion, who at that point had scrapped their idea for a series and instead decided to make a feature film. Rudin left Fox to serve as producer, and a screenplay was penned by Caroline Thompson and Larry Wilson (of ''Film/EdwardScissorhands'' fame), with additional material by an uncredited Paul Rudnick, who would go onto write the sequel ''Addams Family Values''. Several rewrites followed, and after Creator/TimBurton passed the director's chair, it was taken up by Barry Sonnenfeld, who at the time had only ever worked as a cinematographer and had no directorial experience. Sonnenfeld's lack of experience proved to a problem, as he repeatedly had on-set panic attacks and lost 13 pounds in less than 10 weeks. Sonnenfeld asked Rudin to let him go, but the producer refused.

* AcclaimedFlop: ''Addams Family Values'' has higher critical reception than the first film, but made less money at the box office.

* YouLookFamiliar: Nathan Lane, who previously had a bit part as a police officer in ''Film/AddamsFamilyValues'', went on to play Gomez in the Broadway adaptation.

** For unknown reasons, Carol Kane replaced Judith Malina as Grandmama for ''Addams Family Values''.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen / VaporWare: An N64 and PC version was originally planned by Digital Eclipse, but it was eventually scrapped altogether.[[http://www.nesworld.com/n64-unr-addamsfamilypinball.php]]

** MadeFromRealGirlScouts: The only Girl Scout cookies Wednesday will buy.
** OneNormalNight: From the song of the same name in the 2010 Broadway musical, where Wednesday, hoping to set a good impression with her fiance and his family, requests that the Addams clan try to behave like average human beings. As expected, [[spoiler: they can't]], and HilarityEnsues.

* ActingForTwo: Carolyn Jones played both Morticia and her sister Ophelia.

** Problems began with producer Scott Rudin, who at the time was head of production at 20th Century Fox, who initially pitched the film to his colleagues. However, the franchise's right were held by Orion Pictures, and Fox was unable to purchase the rights due to Orion's plans to create a new television series.
** Pre-production finally began after Charles Addams' ex-wife sold her portion of the rights to Orion, who at that point had scrapped their idea for a series and instead decided to make a feature film. Rudin left Fox to serve as producer, and a screenplay was penned by Caroline Thompson and Larry Wilson (of ''{{Edward Scissorhands}}'' fame), with additional material by an uncredited Paul Rudnick, who would go onto write the sequel ''{{Addams Family Values}}''. Several rewrites followed, and after Creator/TimBurton passed the director's chair, it was taken up by {{Barry Sonnenfeld}}, who at the time had only ever worked as a cinematographer and had no directorial experience. Sonnenfeld's lack of experience proved to a problem, as he repeatedly had on-set panic attacks and lost 13 pounds in less than 10 weeks. Sonnenfeld asked Rudin to let him go, but the producer refused.

** During principal photography, Orion Pictures began suffering serious financial issues after a string of expensive flops, and in an effort to recoup their losses sold the film to Paramount Pictures mid-shoot after the film went over-budget.
** Problems followed the film after release. Orion had failed to sell the film's full foreign distribution rights to Paramount, which ended up being held by MGM, who in some territories have their properties owned by 20th Century Fox. As a result, the film didn't recieve a DVD release outside of North America or the United Kingdom until 2013.

** Pre-production finally began after Charles Addams' ex-wife sold her portion of the rights to Orion, who at that point had scrapped their idea for a series and instead decided to make a feature film. Rudin left Fox to serve as producer, and a screenplay was penned by Caroline Thompson and Larry Wilson (of ''{{Edward Scissorhands}}'' fame), with additional material by an uncredited Paul Rudnick, who would go onto write the sequel ''{{Addams Family Values}}''. Several rewrites followed, and after {{Tim Burton}} passed the director's chair, it was taken up by {{Barry Sonnenfeld}}, who at the time had only ever worked as a cinematographer and had no directorial experience. Sonnenfeld's lack of experience proved to a problem, as he repeatedly had on-set panic attacks and lost 13 pounds in less than 10 weeks. Sonnenfeld asked Rudin to let him go, but the producer refused.

!!For the various television serieses:

** ''Film/AddamsFamilyValues''' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFDh_U2syXo teaser trailer]] has a nurse examining babies in a maternity ward, all while adoring parents look on behind glass. She comes to a crib that's covered in a massive black overhang and opens it up to examine, then turns around and screams once she sees what's inside. Like the original, this clip was shot specifically for marketing purposes, and never appears in the final film.

** Creator/AnthonyHopkins turned down the role of Uncle Fester.

** An early teaser trailer for the first movie begins with footage of another film that's being played in a theater. The character in the film turns and screams at something in the audience. As everyone turns back to look, it is revealed that the entire family is occupying the back row, and they snap their fingers in time to the theme music before the teaser ends. This sequence was shot specifically for the teaser, and features Creator/ChristopherLloyd in early makeup for Uncle Fester.

* TheOtherDarrin: A sort-of example from the series: the man playing Thing occasionally used his left hand just to see if anybody would notice.

** Charles Addams, who provided names for the characters when his creation went to series (they were unnamed in his cartoons, even lacking the "Addams" surname), initially submitted the name "Pubert" for the Addams son. Producers rejected it on the basis that it was too vulgar, leading him to come up with "Pugsley" instead. The name Pubert would, of course, go on to appear elsewhere in the franchise (see DevelopmentGag below).
** Addams came up with two different names for the Addams patriarch, and left the final choice up to the character's actor, John Astin. Imagine how different the show could've been had Gomez instead been named "Repelli".

* FakeAmerican: The entire cast of ''The New Addams Family'' (apart from Gomez and Wednesday) were Canadian.

* FollowTheLeader: While not the first (both ''Radio/{{Dragnet}}'' and ''Film/TwilightZoneTheMovie The Twilight Zone'' proceed it by four years each), the trend of [[TheFilmOfTheSeries film adaptations of boomer-era TV series]] throughout TheNineties really took off with this movie's success.

* DevelopmentGag: Baby Pubert was named for Charles Adams' original intended name for Pugsly, which the publishers felt was too vulgar.