Line #52 Franchise/TheAddamsFamily


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_1061_11.JPG]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:Neat. Sweet. Petite.]]
3
4	->''"Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc."\
5	([[BewareTheNiceOnes "We gladly feast on those who would subdue us.]]")''
6	-->-- '''Addams family credo'''
7
8	''The Addams Family'' is a comedy/horror franchise spanning multiple media.
9
10	It originated in a recurring series of comically grotesque single-panel cartoons by Creator/CharlesAddams, which appeared in ''Magazine/TheNewYorker'' magazine beginning in the late 1930s. In the 1960s these were adapted into a popular TV sitcom which gave the characters names and codified their relationships with one another, providing a model for all subsequent versions.
11
12	A deliberate inversion of the ideal American NuclearFamily, the Addamses are an obscenely wealthy clan of borderline supernatural beings with a taste for the grotesque and macabre, holding opinions and preferences that tend to be mirror images or inversions of more conventional attitudes. Although visibly different from virtually everyone they encounter, they still perceive themselves as a "perfectly normal family"; in fact, they seem somewhat incapable of even noticing that their lifestyle varies widely from that of their neighbors.
13
14	They also invert various horror-movie tropes about evil families: in spite of their outré tastes and the apparent trappings of pain and horror amidst which they live, the Addamses are clearly (well, ''mostly'' in the movies) [[DarkIsNotEvil NOT evil]]. On the contrary, they're quite compassionate and loving, friendly to all whom they meet, eager to help strangers in times of need, and tolerant to a fault. If anything, they are arguably better-adjusted than most families, real ''or'' fictional! The end result is thus more delightfully eccentric and endearing than it is disturbing.
15
16	[[AC:The family is composed of:]]
17
18	* ''Gomez Addams'', the clan's patriarch. Ostensibly a lawyer, although the family's ''vast'' independent wealth eliminates any need for him to actually work; when he does, though, he takes great pride in the cases he's ''lost''.
19	* ''Morticia Addams'', his wife. [[FemmeFatale Tall]], [[TheVamp elegant]], [[EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette ivory-skinned and black-tressed]], and always clad in a [[ParentService tight, slinky]] [[LittleBlackDress black dress]], Morticia is [[RedOniBlueOni the calm reason to Gomez's maniacal exuberance]]. Popular opinion is that she is a vampire -- she rarely smiles with her teeth. Even to this day, we're still not sure...
20	* ''Pugsley Addams'', their son. A young MadScientist in the making who once demonstrated a home-made disintegration rifle to a visiting Soviet diplomat. Has a penchant for explosives, and for torture...on the receiving end.
21	* ''Wednesday Friday Addams'', their daughter. In relation to Pugsley, she started out younger, but has been his twin, and older, depending on the adaptation. In the original series, she's clearly younger than Pugsley, a CheerfulChild who loves her family, her spider, and her headless doll UsefulNotes/MarieAntoinette. In the movies and ''Wednesday'', where she was depicted as Pugsley's older sister, she's more of an EmotionlessGirl and TheSnarkKnight.
22	* ''Grandmama''. More than just an old lady, but not ''quite'' a witch, Grandmama takes delight in doing a lot of the family's cooking and gladly acts as a secondary parental figure to the children. Gomez's mother in the original live-action TV series, then switched over to being Morticia's mother, starting with the first animated series and stayed put until ''The New Addams Family'', where she became Gomez's mother again; This was {{Lampshade}}d in the musical: she became the subject of a "My mother? I thought she was ''your'' mother!" joke.
23	* ''Uncle Fester''. Blend a MadScientist and his [[TheIgor Igor]] together, then filter them through Curly Howard of ''Film/TheThreeStooges'', and you get Uncle Fester. Morticia's uncle in the TV series, he was rewritten as Gomez's older brother in the 1973–75 animated series (despite not sharing his Spanish mannerisms), made Morticia's uncle again in the 1977 ReunionShow, and then back again to Gomez's brother for the movies. Some works imply that he is a zombie.
24	* ''Lurch'', their [[FrankensteinsMonster Frankensteinian]] butler. A man(?) of few words but many groans, Lurch may be their all-purpose servant, but he is treated as one of the family, receiving care and devotion from everyone when he needs it.
25	* ''Thing'' is exactly what the name implies: A thing, namely a disembodied hand. Fetches mail, plays charades, performs mime. Clearly both sentient and sapient, and like Lurch treated as a family member rather than a servant or pet. Usually seen protruding from a box in the '60s series, Thing became fully ambulatory thanks to improved special effects in later adaptations, walking on its fingers.
26	----
27
28	!!The Addams Family have appeared in:
29
30	[[index]]
31	* [[ComicStrip/TheAddamsFamily The original, sometimes extremely dark, one-panel cartoons]] by Creator/CharlesAddams.
32	* ''Series/TheAddamsFamily'', the distinctly LighterAndSofter TV sitcom on [[Creator/AmericanBroadcastingCompany ABC]] from 1964 to 1966, starring Creator/JohnAstin and Creator/CarolynJones as Gomez and Morticia.
33	** A surprisingly good tie-in book by Jack Sharkey in 1965.
34	** An equally good tie-in book by W. F. Miksch.
35	** [[/index]]The Addamses crossed over with ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'' in the third episode of Hanna-Barbera's ''WesternAnimation/TheNewScoobyDooMovies'', "Scooby-Doo Meets the Addams Family" in September 1972.[[index]]
36	** ''WesternAnimation/TheAddamsFamily1973'', an animated series spun off from the aforementioned ''Scooby-Doo'' episode that aired Saturday mornings on NBC from 1973 to 1975, featuring an eight-year-old Creator/JodieFoster as Pugsley.
37	*** ''ComicBook/{{The Addams Family\|GoldKey}}'', a comic book published by GoldKeyComics from 1974 to 1975.
38	** ''Halloween with the New Addams Family'', a 1977 special that reunited most of the cast of the original series.
39	* ''The Addams Family Fun-House'', a musical variety special intended as a pilot for a full-blown series. It aired on ABC in 1973, but was never elevated to series status.
40	* A notoriously hard 1990 NES game, ''Fester's Quest''. The story follows Fester as he defends the Addams' hometown from an alien invasion.
41	* ''Film/TheAddamsFamily'', a 1991 film which in terms of characterisation and tone take a middle way between the original cartoons and the TV series. A sequel, ''Addams Family Values'', was released in 1993, and featured a broader style of humor.
42	** A [[WesternAnimation/TheAddamsFamily1992 1992-1993 animated series]] on [[Creator/AmericanBroadcastingCompany ABC]] spawned by the success of the 1991 movie. Notable for John Astin reprising Gomez. Also spawned a video game, ''Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt''.
43	** A 1992 [[Pinball/TheAddamsFamily pinball game]] released by [[Creator/MidwayGames Bally]]. Based on the 1991 movie, it is the best-selling pinball game of all time, and was given a re-release as a special "gold" collector's edition in 1994.
44	** Several [[VideoGame/TheAddamsFamily licenced games for various consoles]]. The 1991 film spawned a number of {{platform game}}s on various consoles, most of them starring a SuperDeformed Gomez as he tries to save his relatives. (The Platform/TurboGrafx16 version is unique in that you play as Tully, one of [[VillainProtagonist the film's antagonists]].) Another top-down game (again starring Fester) was released in the wake of ''Addams Family Values'' for the Platform/{{SNES}} under the same name, though it hardly follows the movie at all.
45	* ''Addams Family Reunion'', sometimes called ''Addams Family 3'', a 1998 direct-to-video pilot movie for ''The New Addams Family'' with Creator/DarylHannah as Morticia and Creator/TimCurry as Gomez. Unrelated to either of the previous films, though Carel Struycken (Lurch) and Christopher Hart (Thing) did reprise their roles.
46	* [[/index]]''Series/TheNewAddamsFamily'' on [[Creator/{{Freeform}} Fox Family]], a 1998-1999 {{revival}}. Mostly "new" only in terms of title, cast and theme music -- many of its episodes were [[RecycledScript recycled]] versions of scripts from the original series. That said, it was well-received, and featured recurring appearances by original Gomez John Astin as Grandpa Addams. Though it technically only had one season, it was a season with a whopping ''sixty-five'' episodes.
47	** ''The New Addams Family Series'', a video game based on the revival, released for the Platform/GameBoyColor in 2000.[[index]]
48	* ''Theatre/TheAddamsFamily'', the 2010 Broadway musical, starring Creator/NathanLane and Creator/BebeNeuwirth as Gomez and Morticia. For legal reasons, it's officially based on Charles Addams' original cartoons, not on the TV series, but they're not really fooling anybody.
49	* ''WesternAnimation/TheAddamsFamily2019'', an animated film from [[Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer MGM]].
50	** ''[[ComicBook/TheAddamsFamilyTheBodiesIssue The Addams Family: The Bodies Issue]]'', a comic book published by Creator/IDWPublishing.
51	** ''WesternAnimation/TheAddamsFamily2'', a 2021 sequel to the above.
52	** ''[[ComicBook/TheAddamsFamilyCharlatansWeb The Addams Family: Charlatan's Web]]'', a comic book series published by Creator/IDWPublishing.
53	* ''Series/{{Wednesday}}'', a 2022 live-action Creator/{{Netflix}} series created by Creator/AlfredGough and Creator/MilesMillar (''Series/{{Smallville}}'', ''Series/IntoTheBadlands'') and directed by the master of quirky macabre himself, Creator/TimBurton. It stars Creator/JennaOrtega as Wednesday, Creator/CatherineZetaJones as Morticia, Issac Ordonez as Pugsley, and Creator/LuisGuzman as Gomez.[[/index]]
54	** An [[https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/wednesday-spinoff-development-netflix-1235764544/ in-development spin-off series]] of ''Wednesday'' centering around Uncle Fester (Creator/FredArmisen).
55	** ''TabletopGame/{{Clue}}: Wednesday'', [[https://nerdist.com/article/clue-wednesday-themed-board-game-available-now/ a 2024]] edition of ''Clue'' based on ''Wednesday''.
56	[[/index]]

Context Franchise / TheAddamsFamily