The Addams Family: Encyclopedia II - The Addams Family - Television Film and Games

The Addams Family - Television Film and Games

For cast listings in each medium, see "Cast" below.

The Addams Family - Live-Action

In 1964, a network television series was spawned with actors playing characters from Addams cartoons, entitled The Addams Family. The series ran for two seasons on ABC. Like Star Trek, it was not particularly successful during its first broadcasts seasons but became hugely popular when repeated in wide TV syndication after its cancellation.

The series inspired the directly imitative The Munsters, which shared a similar gothic look but featured broader and less sophisticated humor, ran for the same two television seasons on CBS), although The Munsters scored better ratings than The Addams Family in its original run. A TV reunion movie, featuring most of the original cast (except Blossom Rock, who was very ill at the time), titled Halloween With The New Addams Family, aired on ABC in 1977.

In the 1990s this concept was developed into three films, The Addams Family (1991), Addams Family Values (1993), and Addams Family Reunion (1998). Loosened content restrictions allowed the films to use far more grotesque humour that strove to keep the original spirit of the Addams cartoons. The second film's title is a piece of word play on family values, the Addamses seeming to represent values the polar opposite from the term's usual meaning (in fact, the Addams exhibit many laudable values; in particular, they are a close-knit, loving family). The third film was released direct-to-video and, assuming it takes place in the same movie continuum as the first two films, would take place shortly after the events of the first film, since Fester is with the family, and Morticia is not showing yet.

A second live-action television version (The New Addams Family), produced and shot in Canada, ran during the 1998-1999 season on Fox Family. Most episodes were remakes of many of the original series' episodes, though some re-scripting had to be done to account for the new relations between characters, and the more macabre versions of Wednesday and Pugsley, to try and fit the episodes into the movies' universe.

The Addams Family - Animation

Two animated television spin-offs and an animated guest appearance have also been produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions.

The Addams Family's first animated appearance was on the third episode of Hanna-Barbera's The New Scooby-Doo Movies in September 1972, airing on CBS. Four of the original cast (John Astin, Carolyn Jones, Jackie Coogan, and Ted Cassidy) returned for the special that involved the Addamses in a mystery with the Scooby-Doo gang. The Addams Family characters were drawn to the specifications of the original Charles Addams comics. After the episode aired, fans wanted more animated adventures featuring the Addamses, and Hanna-Barbera responded in kind.

The first animated series ran on Saturday mornings from 1973-1975 on NBC. In a departure from the original series, this animated series took the Addamses on the road in a Victorian-style RV. This series also marked the point where the relations between characters were retconned so that Fester was now Gomez' brother, and Grandmama was now Morticia's mother (though the old relations would be revisited in the 1977 TV-movie, to keep continuous with the original sitcom). Although Jackie Coogan and Ted Cassidy reprised their roles, John Astin and Carolyn Jones did not, their parts being re-cast with Hanna-Barbera voice talents Lennie Weinrib as Gomez and Janet Waldo as Morticia. Again, the characters were drawn to the specifications of the original Charles Addams comics. One season was produced, with the season rerunning the following year.

The second animated series ran on Saturday mornings from 1992-1995 on ABC after producers realized the success of the 1991 Addams Family movie. This series returned to the familiar format of the original series, with the Addams Family facing their sitcom situations at home. John Astin returned to the role of Gomez, and celebrities Rip Taylor and Carol Channing took over the roles of Fester and Grandmama respectively. New artistic models of the characters were used for this series, though still having a passing resemblance to the original comics. Two seasons were produced, with the third year containing reruns.

The Addams Family - Games

Five video games released from 1989 to 1994 were based on The Addams Family. Fester's Quest (1989) was a top-down shooter that featured Uncle Fester. The Addams Family platformer was released for Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Game Boy, with later ports for Genesis (based on the Super NES version), Master System and Game Gear (both based on the NES version but with different graphics); these games, released by Ocean Software (Flying Edge in the case of the Sega consoles ports), were based on the first movie rather than the TV series or cartoons. The games' sequel, The Addams Family: Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt (1993), also by Ocean Software was based on the ABC animated series, and was released for Super NES and Game Boy. Addams Family Values (1994) by Ocean was based on the movie's sequel and returned to the style of gameplay seen in the original Fester's Quest.

A pinball game by Bally was released in 1992 shortly after the movie. It broke previous sales records by selling over 20,000 units.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Television Film and Games", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki