A Short History Of The Addams Family
The Addams Family is one of my favourite fictional families out there - Morticia and Gomez are the ultimate couple goals and the Addams Family home is the ultimate aesthetic - but just who are they and where did they come from? Is it a world just as twisted as themselves?
The Addams Family was actually created as a cartoon in The New Yorker newspaper in 1938 by their namesake artist Charles Addams. Traditionally comprised of Morticia and Gomzes Addams, their children Wednesday and Pugsley, their butler Lurch who was similar to Frankenstein's monster, a disembodied hand named Thing, their close familial members Uncle Fester, Grandmama and Cousin Itt. In recent years in the 1991 and 1993 versions of The Addams Family, Gomez and Morticia were seen to have another child named Pubert.
The comic strip was originally designed as a satirical inversion of the ideal 20th century American family who lived in white picket fenced houses with perfect social conventions. The Addams Family are a wealth aristocratic clan like the general American idols of the time, but they differ by delighting in the macabre and the frightening. The cartoon versions of The Addams Family ran until Charles Addams' death in 1988.
In 1964, a live action black and white television series starring John Astin and Carolyn Jones was introduced and ran for 64 episodes at the same time that similar shows like The Munsters were popular. However, the iconic scenes of Gomez wildly kissing Morticia when she speaks French, the theme song involving hands clicks, and Gomez's constant puffing on cigars put The Addams Family ahead in memory.
In the 1990's, the series was rebooted as feature films called The Addams Family and Addams Family Values, this time starring Anjelica Huston as Morticia and Raul Julia as Gomez. It also featured many famous actors included Christopher Lloyd, Christina Ricci and Joan Cusack. The films inspired a second animated series (1992–1993) set in the same fictional universe but with Astin reprising his role as the voice of Gomez when Raul Julia died in 1998.
The franchise has become a staple of popular culture, especially when depicting the macabre or gothic subculture. They are considered a cult franchise and one of the top fictional families of any decade. Ricci's portrayal of Wednesday in the film series was ranked one of The 100 Greatest Movie Characters by Empire Magazine and in 2011 AOL named Morticia one of The 100 Most Memorable Female TV Characters.
The Addams Family have also received another family-friendly reboot in a similar vein to the animated movies Hotel Transylvania, this time the October 2019 movie will star Charlize Theron as Morticia, Star Wars' Oscar Isaac as Gomez, Kick Ass' Chloe Grace Moretz as Wednesday, and It's Finn Wolfhard as Pusgley.
