The Addams Family is a fictional family created by American cartoonist Charles Addams. They originally appeared as an unrelated group of 150 single-panel cartoons, about half of which were originally published in The New Yorker between their debut in 1938 and Addams's death in 1988, but have since been adapted to other media, such as television, film, video games, comic books, and a musical. The Addamses are a satirical inversion of the ideal 20th-century American family: an odd wealthy aristocratic clan who delight in the macabre and are seemingly unaware or unconcerned that other people find them bizarre or frightening. Beginning with the 1964 television series, the Addams Family consists of Gomez and Morticia Addams, their children Wednesday and Pugsley, close family members Uncle Fester[a] and Grandmama,[b] their butler Lurch, and Wednesday's pet octopus, Aristotle. The dimly seen Thing (later a disembodied hand) was introduced in 1954, and Gomez's Cousin Itt and Morticia's pet lion Kitty Kat in 1964. Pubert Addams, Wednesday and Pugsley’s infant brother, was introduced in the 1993 film Addams Family Values.[c]
In 1964, a live-action television series premiered on ABC and ran for two seasons, it subsequently inspired a telefilm titled Halloween with the New Addams Family and cameos from the cast in other shows. An unrelated animated series aired in 1973. The franchise was revived in the 1990s with a feature film series consisting of The Addams Family (1991) and Addams Family Values (1993). The films inspired a second animated series (1992–1993) which is set in the same fictional universe. The series was rebooted with a 1998 direct-to-video film and a spin-off live-action television series (1998–1999). In 2010, a live musical adaptation featuring Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth opened on Broadway and was nominated for two Tony Awards and eight Drama Desk Awards. The series was again rebooted in 2019 with the animated film The Addams Family, which led to a sequel in 2021.
The franchise has become a staple of popular culture. It has spawned a video game series, academic books, and soundtracks which are based around its Grammy-nominated theme song. They have had a profound influence on American comics, cinema and television, and are seen as an inspiration for the goth subculture and its fashion.
