The series focuses on the Addams Family at their ancestral home in the fictional town of Happydale Heights. Much of the plot lines focus on mostly the family dealing with an issue concerning their lives, which they seek to resolve. In some stories, the Addams find themselves dealing with the Normanmeyer family who seek to exploit their situation or thwart their schemes in order to be rid of them from the town; the exception being the family's only son, who is friends with the Addams children. Most episodes focus on a single story that concludes with the Addams celebrating their success with a family dance.
As with the 1973 series, the macabre nature of the Addams family was toned down in order to be acceptable for children. An example of this is Gomez's love of cigars not being shown, along with his response to his wife's use of foreign languages being reduced to a mere kissing frenzy. In additional, writers also ensured that the plots for episodes followed a similar nature to those written for other Saturday morning cartoons of the period.
The Addams Family Cartoon Episod
The Addamses are a satirical inversion of the ideal American family; an eccentric, wealthy clan who delight in the macabre and are unaware that people find them bizarre or frightening. They originally appeared as a series of single panel cartoons, published in The New Yorker between 1938 and Addams's 1988 death. They have since been adapted to other media, including television series (both live action and animated), films, video games, and a musical.
In addition to Thing, the Addams family also had a tall, ghoulish manservant named Lurch. Lurch served as a shambling, gravelly-voiced butler, vaguely resembling Frankenstein's Monster although he is a considerable "jack of all trades". He tried to help around the house, although occasionally he botched tasks due to his great size and strength, but is otherwise considered quite a catch by the Addamses for his skill at more personal tasks, such as waxing Uncle Fester's head and amusing the children (to whom he was deeply devoted). Surprisingly, he was often seen playing the harpsichord and organ with a great degree of skill and somewhat uncharacteristic enthusiasm. In Addams Family Reunion, Gomez stated that Lurch is not really an Addams, and Morticia replies that Lurch has parts of many families, and that he has the heart of an Addams. In one episode of the 1960s television series, Lurch's mother, played by actress Ellen Corby, came to visit; she was a short, overbearing little old lady. Lurch, too, had a level of invulnerability; in Addams Family Values, a 20-pound cannonball is dropped from the top of the Addams mansion, landing directly on his head, seemingly with no ill effect. In the original comics, Lurch did not speak. In the sitcom, he was capable of speech; beckoned by the pull of a noose-shaped rope which sounded a thunderous gong, he would answer with a signature monotone, brusque and basso profundo, "You rang?" This was due to actor Ted Cassidy ad-libbing the line while rehearsing a scene early in production of the original TV show. The producers liked it so much that Lurch then became a speaking role. In the theatrical movies, Lurch never spoke, using only grunts, sighs, or simple gesticulations. The New Addams Family returned to the original sitcom style, right down to the noose that rang a gong. In it, Lurch also seemed a little more polite than his earlier counterparts.
The Addams Family's first animated appearance was on the third episode of Hanna-Barbera's The New Scooby-Doo Movies, "Wednesday Is Missing" (a.k.a. "Scooby-Doo Meets the Addams Family"), which first aired on CBS Saturday morning 23 September 1972. Four of the original castreturned for the special which 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 cartoons. After the episode aired, fans wanted more animated adventures featuring the Addamses, and Hanna-Barbera obliged.
In the much-cherished Addams Family episode "Christmas with the Addams Family," fans loved seeing the Victorian mansion decked out with holly, with Morticia dressing the Christmas tree and every single member of the family posing as Santa to fool their trickster kids.
In the Sixties, people became just as fond of The Addams Family at Christmas not just because of this classic episode, but also because arguably the most popular Charles Addams comics of all time featured the Addams family at Christmas. See More 6 times the Addams family wore something other than their iconic costumes
The same year the Christmas episode aired, Addams told the Alternative Press that "probably the most famous and delightfully shocking" of all his cartoons was "a holiday-time drawing of the haunted mouldering Victorian house, obviously on Christmas Eve."
A cartoon crossover unlike any other, the gang's brief appearance on Cartoon Network's Johnny Bravo was one for the Scooby-Doo record books. "Bravo Dooby-Doo" was a segment from a 1997 Johnny Bravo episode where the gang meets the Elvis Presley/James Dean-wannabe as he heads to his aunt's spooky house on the hill. Ever hoping to scratch that mystery itch, the gang help Johnny uncover the secret behind his aunt's sudden disappearance as well as solve the mystery of the Ghostly Gardiner who haunts her stead in her absence.
This one's a bit shorter than the other given that it's an episode of Teen Titans Go! (which is traditionally shorter than your average 20-minute cartoon anyway), but that doesn't make it any less worth the watch. Sure, this episode is more centered around the lesser version of the Teen Titans (at least compared to their original cartoon) than it is Scooby and the gang, but it's all worth it to watch the cartoons play Family Feud against one another under threat of cancellation.
While plenty have tried to make the "Shaggy is high" joke before (looking at you James Gunn) none of them do it quite as well as Harvey Birdman, complete with out-of-context clips from random episodes of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? to boot. If you like you're Scooby-Doo a little more self-aware, then "Shaggy Busted" is the cartoon for you!
Do you love all those classic Hanna-Barabara cartoons like JabberJaw, Speed Buggy, Captain Caveman, and The Funky Phantom? Well, you're in luck, because one of the best episodes of Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated takes place in Scooby's fever-dream in which the Mystery Inc. gang meets up with all these characters and their respective mystery groups to solve a brand-new mystery! Watching all the sidekicks work together once their friends are gone is an absolute dream, and one we almost wish Scooby didn't have to wake up from.
Although Mystery Incorporated is a more serialized Scooby cartoon, "Mystery Solvers Club State Finals" barely mentions the over-arching story, instead focusing on being a "one-and-done" standalone to entertain both old and young fans alike. If you yearn for the days of old Saturday morning cartoons (or even Wacky Races) then this is the Scooby-Doo episode for you!
From a cartoon to a TV show, to films, stage productions, and animated films, The Addams Family has come a long way in many forms from its original conception as a cartoon strip to Netflix's newly-released TV series Wednesday, starring Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams and full of Easter eggs referencing its many incarnations. Named after the cartoonist Charles Addams, who first published his cartoons in The New Yorker, the Addams family is the inverse of the All-American, WASP, middle-class suburban family. Instead of having white picket fences, a blonde and bored housewife, a husband who resents his work all day and his wife all evening, and children who are held to high expectations but receive little emotional support, the Addamses are the exact opposite in both appearances and family dynamics.
Originally, all the characters in the Addams family had no names. The title of Wednesday episode 1, which Morticia explains in the episode, is an Easter egg of where creator Charles Addams first found inspiration for Wednesday's name when his nameless cartoon characters were to be adapted for television. Befitting her macabre character, Wednesday's name came from a nursery rhyme with the line "Wednesday's child is full of woe." First printed in 1838, the entire poem by an anonymous writer is as follows:
Like Cousin Itt, a few more supporting characters in the extended Addams family make official and unofficial appearances in the show. Uncle Fester and Grandmama Addams are brought up a few times, for instance, usually by Wednesday in threatening little anecdotes as a scare tactic. Seemingly Wednesday's favorite family member, Uncle Fester makes a short appearance in episode 7, while Grandmama Addams does not appear in Wednesday season 1 at all. Ophelia Frump, Morticia Addams's sister and Wednesday and Pugsley's aunt in the original The Addams Family TV series from 1964, is not mentioned by any of the characters in Wednesday by name, but the writers named Wednesday's dorm at Nevermore Academy after Ophelia as another hidden Easter egg for audiences in the know.
The Addams Family has been around since the 1930s, originating as a cartoon. However, the wildly popular eccentric family has been revisited time and time again. The Addams Family landed a spot on ABC, where the cartoons were brought to live-action episodes that featured all the zany antics the family would get into. Like Rob Zombie's modern production of The Munsters, The Addams Family is getting a reboot treatment with director Tim Burton and is set to focus on Wednesday Addams, who will be played by Jenna Ortega. Wednesday is an audience favorite, mostly for her one-liners and dark, blunt humor. In the modern era of streaming, Netflix is sure to be the perfect platform to reintroduce The Addams Family to a new generation, and will most likely benefit Wednesday's success. 2ff7e9595c