# The Addams Family
**The Addams Family** is a fictional family of cheerfully macabre eccentrics created by the American cartoonist [Charles Addams](https://www.edgepedia.org/charles-addams), first published as single-panel cartoons in *The New Yorker* in 1938 and since expanded into television series, films, animation, a Broadway musical, and video games.[1](https://www.gamesradar.com/entertainment/fantasy-shows/a-new-animated-addams-family-movie-is-in-the-works-from-wednesday-creators-but-it-wont-have-anything-to-do-with-the-hit-netflix-show/) • [2](https://themedium.ca/the-evolution-and-significance-of-the-addams-family/) The characters, including Gomez, Morticia, Wednesday, Pugsley, Uncle Fester, Lurch, and [Thing](https://www.edgepedia.org/thing-the-addams-family), began nameless and acquired their names only when television demanded them in the 1960s.[3](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/cultural-history-addams-family-180973315/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Origin | Single-panel cartoons in *The New Yorker*, first published in 1938; the series ran until Addams' death in 1988[1](https://www.gamesradar.com/entertainment/fantasy-shows/a-new-animated-addams-family-movie-is-in-the-works-from-wednesday-creators-but-it-wont-have-anything-to-do-with-the-hit-netflix-show/) |
| Cartoon count | Addams drew some 1,300 *New Yorker* cartoons; 58, almost all from the 1940s and 1950s, featured the family[3](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/cultural-history-addams-family-180973315/) |
| Naming | The characters had no names until around the debut of the 1964 television series; producer David Levy met Addams in 1962 to develop the show[3](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/cultural-history-addams-family-180973315/) • [4](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2019-10-10/spooky-kooky-and-beloved-why-they-cant-kill-the-addams-family) |
| Signature TV run | *The Addams Family* sitcom, ABC, 1964–1966, with Vic Mizzy's theme song[5](https://academic.oup.com/book/46516/chapter-abstract/407870318) • [6](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/index.php/shows/addams-family-the) |
| Landmark films | Barry Sonnenfeld's *The Addams Family* (1991) and *Addams Family Values* (1993), starring Raúl Juliá, Anjelica Huston, and Christina Ricci[4](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2019-10-10/spooky-kooky-and-beloved-why-they-cant-kill-the-addams-family) |
| Recent peak | *Wednesday* (2022–), whose first season remains the most-viewed English-language series on Netflix of all time[7](https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/wednesday-season-3-release-date?pubDate=20250909) |
## The New Yorker cartoons
Charles Addams, who signed his work Chas Addams, drew a then-unnamed [Morticia Addams](https://www.edgepedia.org/morticia-addams) sometime in 1933, and in 1938 *The New Yorker* published the first single-panel cartoon in the series that would come to be known as The Addams Family; he drew the family until his death in 1988.[1](https://www.gamesradar.com/entertainment/fantasy-shows/a-new-animated-addams-family-movie-is-in-the-works-from-wednesday-creators-but-it-wont-have-anything-to-do-with-the-hit-netflix-show/) The cartoons were one-panel gags, often wordless vignettes of the unnamed family carrying out everyday activities in a macabre way. They did not appear in a regular slot with their own headline, and at first they had no title at all.[8](https://toonopedia.com/addams_f.htm)
The family remained anonymous for decades. Of Addams' roughly 1,300 cartoons for the magazine, only 58 featured them, almost all published in the 1940s and 1950s.[3](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/cultural-history-addams-family-180973315/) His 1959 collection *Dear Dead Days: A Family Album* gathered the six primary characters, still without names.[3](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/cultural-history-addams-family-180973315/) Addams himself later seemed to lose interest in the family once it became a media sensation; they appear less often in his later collections.[8](https://toonopedia.com/addams_f.htm)
## The 1964 television series
The path to television began in 1962, when the producer David Levy saw a book of Addams' cartoons on display in a New York bookstore, bought it, and met Addams; the two agreed to pursue a series because their ideas meshed.[6](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/index.php/shows/addams-family-the) • [4](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2019-10-10/spooky-kooky-and-beloved-why-they-cant-kill-the-addams-family) Levy developed the series with Donald Saltzman, and Addams gave each character a name and description for the first time.[9](https://www.cineluxe.com/review-the-addams-family/) Actress and poet Joan Blake offered the idea of naming the family after the cartoonist himself.[10](https://bingerampage.com/Addamstimeline/)
The sitcom ran on ABC from 1964 to 1966, the same years CBS aired its monster-family rival *The Munsters*.[5](https://academic.oup.com/book/46516/chapter-abstract/407870318) Vic Mizzy composed the theme song and directed the main title.[6](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/index.php/shows/addams-family-the) Addams was critical of the result: Levy and producer Nat Perrin downplayed the family's darker side in favor of comedy, and Addams judged the show only half as evil as the characters in his cartoons.[11](https://www.pbs.org/video/the-addams-family-8fewuu/) For the patriarch, Addams preferred the name Repelli, a play on "repellent"; Gomez was chosen instead, and the actor [John Astin](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-astin) said in 1965 that he was given free rein to inject what he described as "Latin-lover blood in Gomez's veins."[3](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/cultural-history-addams-family-180973315/) • [12](https://www.cinemablend.com/streaming-news/explaining-the-addams-familys-hispanic-and-latino-history-from-the-comic-strip-to-wednesday)
The show ran only two seasons but earned lasting popularity through syndication.[12](https://www.cinemablend.com/streaming-news/explaining-the-addams-familys-hispanic-and-latino-history-from-the-comic-strip-to-wednesday) John Astin later observed that Gomez and Morticia were, in his view, the first married couple on television who seemed to actually have a sex life.[13](https://digital.library.adelaide.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/2440/126683/1/Kosmina2020_PhD.pdf)
## Later adaptations
The franchise expanded steadily after the sitcom. Hanna-Barbera produced an animated series in 1973, remaking one of its own successful show formats with the Addams characters; [Jodie Foster](https://www.edgepedia.org/jodie-foster) supplied the voice of Pugsley in the 1973–75 animated show.[14](https://mc2.dlib.nyu.edu/imr/2015/10/16/adapting-addamses-hanna-barbera-tv-formats) • [4](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2019-10-10/spooky-kooky-and-beloved-why-they-cant-kill-the-addams-family) In 1977 the NBC special *[Halloween with the New Addams Family](https://www.edgepedia.org/halloween-with-the-new-addams-family)* reunited most of the original cast.[4](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2019-10-10/spooky-kooky-and-beloved-why-they-cant-kill-the-addams-family) The family also made guest appearances in *Scooby-Doo* animation.[12](https://www.cinemablend.com/streaming-news/explaining-the-addams-familys-hispanic-and-latino-history-from-the-comic-strip-to-wednesday)
**The 1990s films** renewed the franchise on the big screen. [Barry Sonnenfeld](https://www.edgepedia.org/barry-sonnenfeld) directed *The Addams Family* (1991) and *Addams Family Values* (1993), with Raúl Juliá as Gomez, Anjelica Huston as Morticia, Christina Ricci as Wednesday, and [Christopher Lloyd](https://www.edgepedia.org/christopher-lloyd) as [Uncle Fester](https://www.edgepedia.org/uncle-fester).[4](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2019-10-10/spooky-kooky-and-beloved-why-they-cant-kill-the-addams-family) Sonnenfeld aimed his revival at the spirit of Addams' original cartoons rather than the sitcom.[15](https://www.avclub.com/addams-family-director-barry-sonnenfeld-says-it-would-c-1847851692) The films' success led to a 1992–93 animated series in which John Astin returned to voice Gomez, and to a pinball machine release that became the highest-selling pinball machine of all time at over 20,000 units.[16](https://www.broadwaysacramento.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/BAMC23_EDUGuide_WEB.pdf) • [17](https://assets.website-files.com/66f3c8942f98311c3b6328ed/674d6e9afe6249151daa2942_57175721732.pdf) A direct-to-video film in 1998 spawned another live-action series, *The New Addams Family* (1998–99).[18](https://www.santamariasun.com/downloads/SUN_20.33_10.17.19.pdf) • [19](https://ruj.uj.edu.pl/handle/item/367312) A Broadway musical opened in 2010, with Nathan Lane as Gomez and Bebe Neuwirth as Morticia.[4](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2019-10-10/spooky-kooky-and-beloved-why-they-cant-kill-the-addams-family)
**The animated films** returned the family to cartoon form. MGM's 2019 animated feature, directed by Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon, grossed $203 million against a $24 million budget; its 2021 sequel, *[The Addams Family](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-addams-family-2019-film) 2*, was a box office success but fared worse with critics, sitting at 29 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.[1](https://www.gamesradar.com/entertainment/fantasy-shows/a-new-animated-addams-family-movie-is-in-the-works-from-wednesday-creators-but-it-wont-have-anything-to-do-with-the-hit-netflix-show/) As of 2025, *Wednesday* creators [Alfred Gough](https://www.edgepedia.org/alfred-gough) and Miles Millar were developing a new animated Addams Family film for [Amazon MGM Studios](https://www.edgepedia.org/amazon-mgm-studios), a complete reboot unconnected to the Netflix series or the earlier animated films.[1](https://www.gamesradar.com/entertainment/fantasy-shows/a-new-animated-addams-family-movie-is-in-the-works-from-wednesday-creators-but-it-wont-have-anything-to-do-with-the-hit-netflix-show/)
## Wednesday and the family's meaning
*Wednesday*, the Netflix live-action series announced in 2021 and produced by MGM Television, stars [Jenna Ortega](https://www.edgepedia.org/jenna-ortega) as [Wednesday Addams](https://www.edgepedia.org/wednesday-addams) at Nevermore Academy, with [Tim Burton](https://www.edgepedia.org/tim-burton) as executive producer and making his television directorial debut.[20](https://about.netflix.com/news/wednesday-addams-takes-center-stage-in-new-netflix-live-action-series) The eight-episode first season premiered in 2022 and soon became one of Netflix's most popular English-language programs; its first season remains the most-viewed English-language series on the service of all time, and the show has been renewed through a third season.[21](https://apnews.com/article/164e94dbbf5a768aa2a5b23081e60d6e) • [7](https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/wednesday-season-3-release-date?pubDate=20250909) Season 2, with Catherine Zeta-Jones as Morticia and Luis Guzmán as Gomez, arrived in 2025.[22](https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/wednesday-season-2-renewed)
The franchise's central joke has stayed consistent across nine decades: the "creepy" family is happier and more loving than the normal families around it, and the Addamses do not consider themselves strange at all.[10](https://bingerampage.com/Addamstimeline/) • [23](https://elpais.com/cultura/2026-09-26/la-familia-addams-nueve-decadas-de-amor-macabro-no-existe-una-unica-manera-de-ser-normal.html) The 1990s films with Raúl Juliá, a Puerto Rican actor, led many viewers to see the family as canonically Latino, a reading affirmed by *Wednesday*'s casting of Guzmán, a Puerto Rican actor, as Gomez and Jenna Ortega, of Mexican and Puerto Rican descent, as Wednesday.[24](https://time.com/6236655/wednesday-netflix-addams-family-legacy/) Gough has described the original cartoons as a reaction to 1950s America's white picket fence, with the Addamses as perpetual disruptors and outsiders, an allegory the Netflix series makes explicit through its outcasts-versus-normies premise.[24](https://time.com/6236655/wednesday-netflix-addams-family-legacy/)
## References
1. [A new animated Addams Family movie is in the works from Wednesday creators, GamesRadar+](https://www.gamesradar.com/entertainment/fantasy-shows/a-new-animated-addams-family-movie-is-in-the-works-from-wednesday-creators-but-it-wont-have-anything-to-do-with-the-hit-netflix-show/)
2. [The Evolution and Significance of The Addams Family, The Medium](https://themedium.ca/the-evolution-and-significance-of-the-addams-family/)
3. [The Cultural History of 'The Addams Family', Smithsonian Magazine](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/cultural-history-addams-family-180973315/)
4. ['The Addams Family' become cartoons again with animated feature, Los Angeles Times](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2019-10-10/spooky-kooky-and-beloved-why-they-cant-kill-the-addams-family)
5. [They're Creepy and They're Campy: Camping the American Family on 1960s Horror Television, Oxford Academic](https://academic.oup.com/book/46516/chapter-abstract/407870318)
6. [Addams Family, The, Television Academy Interviews](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/index.php/shows/addams-family-the)
7. [Wednesday Season 3 Wraps Production, Netflix Tudum](https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/wednesday-season-3-release-date?pubDate=20250909)
8. [The Addams Family, Don Markstein's Toonopedia](https://toonopedia.com/addams_f.htm)
9. [Review: The Addams Family, Cineluxe](https://www.cineluxe.com/review-the-addams-family/)
10. [The Addams Family: The Family Album timeline, Binge Rampage](https://bingerampage.com/Addamstimeline/)
11. [Saturday Night at the Movies: The Addams Family, PBS](https://www.pbs.org/video/the-addams-family-8fewuu/)
12. [Explaining The Addams Family's Hispanic And Latino History, CinemaBlend](https://www.cinemablend.com/streaming-news/explaining-the-addams-familys-hispanic-and-latino-history-from-the-comic-strip-to-wednesday)
13. [Kosmina (2020), PhD thesis, University of Adelaide](https://digital.library.adelaide.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/2440/126683/1/Kosmina2020_PhD.pdf)
14. [Adapting the Addamses: Hanna-Barbera & TV Formats, In Media Res](https://mc2.dlib.nyu.edu/imr/2015/10/16/adapting-addamses-hanna-barbera-tv-formats)
15. [Barry Sonnenfeld on his Addams Family movie, The A.V. Club](https://www.avclub.com/addams-family-director-barry-sonnenfeld-says-it-would-c-1847851692)
16. [The Addams Family's Family History, Broadway Sacramento study guide](https://www.broadwaysacramento.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/BAMC23_EDUGuide_WEB.pdf)
17. [Addams family book (franchise history compilation)](https://assets.website-files.com/66f3c8942f98311c3b6328ed/674d6e9afe6249151daa2942_57175721732.pdf)
18. [What's it (film roundup), Santa Maria Sun](https://www.santamariasun.com/downloads/SUN_20.33_10.17.19.pdf)
19. [Przemiany wizerunku rodziny w serialowym uniwersum Rodziny Addamsów, Jagiellonian University repository](https://ruj.uj.edu.pl/handle/item/367312)
20. [Wednesday Addams Takes Center Stage in New Netflix Live-Action Series, About Netflix](https://about.netflix.com/news/wednesday-addams-takes-center-stage-in-new-netflix-live-action-series)
21. [Publishing spinoff of 'Wednesday', Associated Press](https://apnews.com/article/164e94dbbf5a768aa2a5b23081e60d6e)
22. [Wednesday Season 2: Part 2 Return Date, Netflix Tudum](https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/wednesday-season-2-renewed)
23. [La familia Addams, nueve décadas de amor macabro, El País](https://elpais.com/cultura/2026-09-26/la-familia-addams-nueve-decadas-de-amor-macabro-no-existe-una-unica-manera-de-ser-normal.html)
24. [Wednesday Reboots the Addams Family, Time](https://time.com/6236655/wednesday-netflix-addams-family-legacy/)
---
*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Literature and written works › Creative written works and worlds › Adaptations, tie-ins, and fictional worlds › Fictional universes, characters, and places › Fictional families, teams, and character groups*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license