13 Creepy & Kooky Facts About ‘The Addams Family’

The Addams Family first appeared as characters in a comic strip by illustrator Charles Addams that ran in the New Yorker in 1938. The family then crept onto our TV screens 60 years ago on Sept. 18, 1964. While the original series only lasted two seasons, the macabre characters have been beloved ever since, going on to spawn movies, cartoons, video games and even Broadway shows. The recent runaway success of the Netflix series Wednesday (Season 2 is in the works), focusing on the teen Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega), proves that our love for this creepy crew is definitely not over.

In honor of the iconically ooky family, let’s (grave)dig into some fun facts about the shows, movies, and actors involved in The Addams Family franchise over the years.

1Lurch was once a lifeguard

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In the 1950s, before he played his iconic character Lurch, Ted Cassidy was actually a lifeguard in Florida. Did you know that Cassidy also played Thing because his arm was the only one long enough?

2Wednesday Addams has an interesting middle name

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Her middle name is Friday! In the comic strip, the characters didn’t have any specific names. But when the show was in the works, creator Charles Addams and the producers came up with names for everyone in the family. Another odd fact is that Gomez was almost named Repelli. Can you imagine?

3The Addams Family home would have never worked in color

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The show was rightfully filmed in black and white, which was perfect for the vibe of the show. Turns out, the walls of the home they filmed in were actually bright pink! Not very eerie in color, but the place looks perfectly spooky in black and white.

4John Astin’s suit pockets were lined with something dangerous

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John Astin, who played Gomez in the original series, was often shown smoking cigars and putting lit ones out in his coat pockets.  To avoid starting a fire, the pockets had to be lined with asbestos.

5The iconic theme song is sung by just one person

While it sounds like the tune is sung by three people, the studio reportedly didn’t want to pay for multiple singers. So the creator of the song, Vic Mizzy, simply multi-tracked his voice to make it sound like more people were singing at the same time.

6‘The Addams Family’ made its first animated appearance on another popular show

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In 1972, the clan appeared in an episode of The New Scooby-Doo Movies. For the special, most of the original cast members lent their voices to the animated characters. A year later, they got their own cartoon show.

7An unlikely star voiced Pugsley Addams

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In the 1973 animated series, several of the original stars did not want to lend their voices to the new cartoon, so new voice actors were brought in. Because of this, a young Jodie Foster actually voiced Pugsley Addams.

8Tim Burton was originally asked to direct ‘The Addams Family’ in the ’90s

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Tim Burton was forced to turn it down because he was already working on the film Batman Returns, which was released in 1992.

9Anjelica Huston really wanted the role of Morticia (but later kind of regretted it)

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In the ’90s Addams Family films, Anjelica Huston played Morticia. She lobbied for the role but expected it to go to Cher instead. However, after she was cast, she found that daily life as Morticia wasn’t easy. In her autobiography, she opens up about filming and said it was long and difficult, especially with the makeup effects she had to wear to make her eyes slant upwards.

10MC Hammer performed the song “Addams Groove”

He also made a music video for the theme song featuring the family. Do you remember it?

11′Fester’s Quest’ is considered one of the worst video games ever

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In 1989, Nintendo released the video game ‘Fester’s Quest,’ which people consider one of the worst video games ever. In 1992, after the success of the 1991 reboot film, a more well-received video game was released. In addition, The Addams Family pinball machine was once the bestselling pinball machine of all time.

12Lurch played another type of monster

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Because of Cassidy’s height (he was 6’9″!), he often played towering characters, including Bigfoot in two separate episodes of The Six Million Dollar Man.

13The Munsters may have been the reason The Addams Family got canceled

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The original Addams Family series was canceled after just two seasons, and many say it was because of the success of The Munsters and people just weren’t interested in watching two monster shows at the time.

Now tell us, who is your favorite Addams Family character?

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