A History of the Addams Family
It may seem strange to call a group of people known for being morbid and sadistic “wholesome,” but that’s a key part of the appeal of the Addams family. The characters created by cartoonist Charles Addams are more than just vehicles for morbid humor. They’re a loving, supportive family who encourage and celebrate each other’s offbeat interests. That sense of solidarity is just as endearing as their love for all things dark and gloomy.
When the Addamses first appeared in single-panel cartoons in The New Yorker, they weren’t even defined characters with names, just archetypes for Addams to express his own morbid sense of humor. Beginning in 1938, the family members became recurring characters in Addams’ cartoons, and some of the one-liner gags from those strips have been repeated verbatim in later Addams Family adaptations.
Even though most of the Addams Family lore was created for other media, the central vibe of the characters was established early on via Addams’ drawings. There’s a coziness to the family interactions in Addams’ cartoons, as the characters gather together to cook a meal with eye of newt or decorate a desiccated Christmas tree.
That coziness was directly translated into the most famous adaptations, the 1960s sitcom and the 1990s movies. Debuting in 1964 on ABC, The Addams Family stars John Astin and Carolyn Jones as Gomez and Morticia Addams, with Lisa Loring and Ken Weatherwax as their children Wednesday and Pugsley and Jackie Coogan as Uncle Fester. Creator David Levy gives the characters names and fully developed personalities, building on the imagery and tone of Addams’ cartoons.
Many of the distinctive elements of the franchise come from the sitcom, which introduced supporting characters like Cousin Itt and features the iconic theme song. Along with shows like Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie and the similar (but inferior) The Munsters, The Addams Family was part of a wave of supernatural sitcoms in the 1960s, and it likewise takes an amiable approach to the material, with endearingly cheesy humor and upbeat characters who delight in their spooky sensibilities.
The Addams Family lasted only two seasons, but maintained consistent popularity in reruns, so that when the Addamses returned for director Barry Sonnenfeld’s 1991 film, they were firmly established in pop culture. Sonnenfeld’s The Addams Family remains amiable and sometimes cheesy, while taking cues from the Addams-influenced style of filmmakers like Tim Burton. The humor is a bit more adult, emphasizing the unbridled lust between Gomez (Raul Julia) and Morticia (Anjelica Huston), but still goofy enough for a family audience.
Sonnenfeld’s 1993 sequel Addams Family Values offers an expanded showcase for Christina Ricci as Wednesday, and Ricci’s sardonic portrayal came to define the character, eventually paving the way for the Netflix series Wednesday, which premiered in 2022. Ricci’s deadpan delivery and gleeful rejection of mainstream ideals encapsulates those Addams family values, and the second film perfects Sonnenfeld’s perspective, taking down the crass normies who attempt to undermine the Addamses.
Along the way, there have been less successful attempts to bring the Addamses to the screen, including short-lived animated series in the 1970s and 1990s that water down the family’s ghoulishness (the 1970s series produced by Hanna-Barbera even has the audacity to dress Wednesday in pink). The 2019 and 2021 animated films from MGM, starring Oscar Isaac and Charlize Theron as the voices of Gomez and Morticia, have reached a wider audience but also mostly miss the mark, coming off as efforts to capitalize on the success of the Hotel Transylvania movies.
The popularity of the Sonnenfeld films led to the worst onscreen Addams adaptation, the 1998 direct-to-video movie Addams Family Reunion, which features Tim Curry and Daryl Hannah as Gomez and Morticia, but is full of strained slapstick and annoyingly broad performances. Nicole Fugere, who plays Wednesday in Addams Family Reunion, reprises her role in the little-seen but much more entertaining 1998 TV series The New Addams Family, which splits the difference between the sitcom silliness of the 1960s show and the Goth style of the Sonnenfeld films, for an enjoyably ridiculous experience.
That brings the Addams family up to Wednesday, in which Jenna Ortega builds on Ricci’s performance (and, to a lesser extent, Fugere’s) for a fully realized teenage version of the character. Although the other Addamses appear in supporting roles, Wednesday is the unequivocal star, as she investigates supernatural mysteries at the creepy Nevermore Academy.
While it tones down the humor of past Addams adaptations, Wednesday honors the spirit of Charles Addams’ original cartoons, contrasting the integrity of the title character with the hypocrisy of the supposedly well-adjusted people she interacts with. She takes pride in being an outsider, and that enduring enthusiasm for the weird and wacky is what has drawn audiences to the Addams family for more than 80 years now.
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Josh Bell is a freelance writer and movie/TV critic based in Las Vegas. He has written about movies, TV, and pop culture for the Boston Globe, Vulture, Tom’s Guide, Inverse, Crooked Marquee, and more. With comedian Jason Harris, he co-hosts the podcast Awesome Movie Year.