Updated: September 05, 2023

The Addams Family is a fictional family created by American cartoonist Charles Addams. They originally appeared in a series of 150 unrelated single-panel comics, about half of which were originally published in The New Yorker between 1938 and their creator's death in 1988. They have since been adapted to other media, such as television, film, video games, comic books, a musical, and merchandise.

The Addamses are a satirical inversion of the ideal postwar American middle-class nuclear family: an odd old money clan who delight in the macabre and are seemingly unaware or unconcerned that other people find them bizarre or frightening. The family members were unnamed until the 1964 television series. The Addams Family consists of Gomez and Morticia Addams, their children, Wednesday and Pugsley, and close family members, Uncle Fester and Grandmama, their butler Lurch, and Pugsley's pet octopus, Aristotle. The dimly seen Thing ( later a disembodied hand ) was introduced in 1954, and Gomez's Cousin Itt, Morticia's pet lion Kitty Kat and Morticia carnivorous plant Cleopatra in 1964. Pubert Addams, Wednesday and Pugsley's infant brother, was introduced in the 1993 film Addams Family Values.

In 1964, the 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 to 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 to 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 again rebooted in 2019 with the animated film The Addams Family, which led to a sequel in 2021. In 2022, Netflix debuted the original series Wednesday, which is a spin-off to the original 1964 series.

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.