Charles Addams the Addams Family: an Evilution H

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Charles Addams the Addams Family: an Evilution H POMEGRANATE COMMUNICATIONS, INC. Box 808022 • Petaluma, CA 94975‐8022 Tel: 800 ‐227‐1428 • Fax: 800‐848‐4372 • www.pomegranate.com • [email protected] Visit us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pomcom COMING FROM POMEGRANATE IN MARCH 2010 Charles Addams The Addams Family: An Evilution H. Kevin Miserocchi The “evilution” of Charles Addams’s singularly eccentric family began long before the television and film interpretations made them icons of American popular culture. Addams first created Morticia, Lurch, and The Thing in a cartoon published in a 1938 issue of the New Yorker—though he hadn’t named them at the time, or even conceived of a family unit. (When he did name the deadly matriarch, he was inspired by the Yellow Pages listing for “Morticians.”) Other characters were born and developed in a multitude of Addams’s cartoons over the next twenty-six years, before the cheerfully creepy clan debuted on ABC television in 1964 and later on the big screen, twice, in 1991 and 1993. The Addams Family: An Evilution is the first book to trace The Addams Family history in one definitive volume, presenting more than 200 cartoons created by Charles “Chas” Addams (American, 1912–1988) throughout his prolific career, including at least 50 cartoons that have never been published before. Text by H. Kevin Miserocchi, director of the Tee and Charles Addams Foundation, offers a revealing chronology of each character’s evolution (for instance, did you know that Addams originally named Pugsley “Pubert”?), while Addams’s own incisive character descriptions, originally penned for the benefit of the television show producers, introduce each chapter. Published to coincide with the musical The Addams Family: A New Musical, opening on Broadway in 2010 and starring Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth, this book reminds us where these oddly lovable characters came from and, in doing so, offers a lasting tribute to one of America’s greatest humorists. 1 of 2 POMEGRANATE COMMUNICATIONS, INC. Box 808022 • Petaluma, CA 94975‐8022 Tel: 800 ‐227‐1428 • Fax: 800‐848‐4372 • www.pomegranate.com • [email protected] Visit us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pomcom Sample spread from The Addams Family: An Evilution Excerpt from the Preface: Charles Addams set out not to create a family but rather to suggest how society as a whole might interpret characters bent on the darker side while living lives similar to those embracing the light . Always described as strange, eerie, odd, and spooky, the Family nevertheless had many of the same joys and woes that all families experience—for example, keeping the house in order and seeing that the children take responsibility for the welfare of their pets. How delightfully refreshing that they had a trapdoor and a secret panel for the carpenter to fix, that the children arrived home from camp in pet carriers, and that at least one pet was a small dragon! —H. Kevin Miserocchi Charles Addams The Addams Family: An Evilution H. Kevin Miserocchi $39.95 US ($47.95 Canada) ISBN: 978-0-7649-5388-0 224 pages, 8 x 10 inches Smyth-sewn casebound, with jacket Catalog No. A180 / Available March 2010 Order information: Please visit our website, www.pomegranate.com, or contact Pomegranate directly at (800) 227-1428 or [email protected]. Media inquiries: Contact Stephanie King at [email protected]. Hi-res images available on request. Pomegranate Communications has been publishing fine art, contemporary illustration, and photography for more than forty years. The company collaborates with many renowned institutions including the National Gallery of Art, the Library of Congress, the British Library, the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Sierra Club, the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and is the proud licensee for such distinguished artists as M.C. Escher, Edward Gorey, Charley Harper, Wolf Kahn, William S. Rice, and Gustave Baumann, among others. Along with an extensive art book list, Pomegranate also publishes calendars, boxed sets of notecards, holiday cards, books of postcards, Knowledge Cards®, jigsaw puzzles, coloring books, and other fine paper products. Pomegranate’s publications are available at fine stores everywhere, or can be ordered directly from Pomegranate by phoning (800) 227-1428 or by visiting www.pomegranate.com. 2 of 2 .
Recommended publications
  • Addams Family Values​: a Campy Cult Classic
    Addams Family Values​: A Campy Cult Classic By: Katie Baranauskas The Addams family is quite the odd bunch. Created by Charles Addams in a 1938 comic strip, the family has received countless renditions of their misadventures, including the 1993 sequel to The Addams Family: Addams Family Values. This is a rare instance in which the sequel ​ ​ ​ ​ is better than the original. The cast is by far one of the best, including greats like Anjelica Huston as Morticia, Christina Ricci as Wednesday, and Christopher Lloyd as Fester, as well as so many others. Every actor plays to their strengths, as well as their character's strengths, to craft a wonderful mix of comedy and drama. Some characters such as Fester and Gomez Addams have extreme slapstick comedy, whereas other characters such as Wednesday and Morticia Addams have a dry humor that also makes the audience chuckle: no laugh track needed. Along with all these fantastic characters comes an equally fantastic villain in Debbie Jelinsky, played by Joan Cusack. Debbie is immediately explored as a two-faced black widow, who will do anything to get the wealth and opulence she desires. Joan Cusack did the absolute most in this performance, and she looked fabulous as well. All of this is topped with an amazing script, which produced hundreds of lines I use to this day. A whole other article could be written on the iconic quotes from this movie, but my all-time favorite has to be when Morticia tells Debbie in the most monotone voice, "All that I could forgive, but Debbie… pastels?" This movie has just the right balance of creepiness and camp, reminding me of a Disney story set in a Tim Burton-esque world, where being "weird" is the new normal and everything is tinged with a gothic filter.
    [Show full text]
  • Light Shadows: Loose Adaptations of Gothic Literature in American TV Series of the 1960S and Early 1970S
    TV/Series 12 | 2017 Littérature et séries télévisées/Literature and TV series Light Shadows: Loose Adaptations of Gothic Literature in American TV Series of the 1960s and early 1970s Dennis Tredy Electronic version URL: http://journals.openedition.org/tvseries/2200 DOI: 10.4000/tvseries.2200 ISSN: 2266-0909 Publisher GRIC - Groupe de recherche Identités et Cultures Electronic reference Dennis Tredy, « Light Shadows: Loose Adaptations of Gothic Literature in American TV Series of the 1960s and early 1970s », TV/Series [Online], 12 | 2017, Online since 20 September 2017, connection on 01 May 2019. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/tvseries/2200 ; DOI : 10.4000/tvseries.2200 This text was automatically generated on 1 May 2019. TV/Series est mis à disposition selon les termes de la licence Creative Commons Attribution - Pas d'Utilisation Commerciale - Pas de Modification 4.0 International. Light Shadows: Loose Adaptations of Gothic Literature in American TV Series o... 1 Light Shadows: Loose Adaptations of Gothic Literature in American TV Series of the 1960s and early 1970s Dennis Tredy 1 In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, in a somewhat failed attempt to wrestle some high ratings away from the network leader CBS, ABC would produce a spate of supernatural sitcoms, soap operas and investigative dramas, adapting and borrowing heavily from major works of Gothic literature of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. The trend began in 1964, when ABC produced the sitcom The Addams Family (1964-66), based on works of cartoonist Charles Addams, and CBS countered with its own The Munsters (CBS, 1964-66) –both satirical inversions of the American ideal sitcom family in which various monsters and freaks from Gothic literature and classic horror films form a family of misfits that somehow thrive in middle-class, suburban America.
    [Show full text]
  • The Addams Family
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Urbandale High School Theatre Arts Presents: The Addams Family The Addams Family: the musical takes you inside the funny, kooky, upside-down ​ world of the Addams Family! There, to be sad is to be happy, to feel pain is to feel joy, and suffering is the stuff of dreams. Nonetheless, this quirky family still has to deal with many of the same challenges faced by any other family: the Addams kids are growing up! The Addamses have lived by their unique values for hundreds of years and Gomez and Morticia, the patriarch and matriarch of the clan, would be only too happy to continue living that way. Their beloved daughter Wednesday, however, is now an eighteen year-old young woman who is ready for a life of her own. She has fallen in love with Lucas Beineke, a sweet, smart boy from a normal, respectable Ohio family — the most un-Addams Family sounding person out there! And to make matters worse, she has invited the Beinekes to their home for dinner. In one fateful, hilarious night, secrets are disclosed, relationships are tested, and the Addams family must face up to the one horrible thing they’ve managed to avoid for generations: change. This musical comedy is fun for all ages so bring the whole family for a night of laughs, entertainment, and a heartwarming story about loving those around us. Performance Dates: Scan to Order ​ Tickets! th th April 26 ​ and 27 ​ at 7:00 p.m. t​ h t​ h April 27 ​ and 28 ​ at 2:00 p.m.
    [Show full text]
  • Wednesday Addams Is a Fictional Character Created by American Cartoonist Charles Addams in His Comic Strip the Addams Family
    Wednesday Addams is a fictional character created by American cartoonist Charles Addams in his comic strip The Addams Family. In Addams' cartoons, which first appeared in The New Yorker, Wednesday and other members of the family had no names. When the characters were adapted to the 1964 television series, Charles Addams gave her the name "Wednesday", based on the well-known nursery rhyme line, "Wednesday's child is full of woe." The idea for the name was supplied by the actress and poet Joan Blake, an acquaintance of Addams. She is the sister of Pugsley Addams, and she is the only daughter of Gomez and Morticia Addams. Wednesday's most notable features are her pale skin and long, dark twin braids. She seldom shows emotion and is generally bitter. Wednesday usually wears a black dress with a white collar, black stockings and black shoes. In the 1960s series, she is significantly more sweet-natured, although her favorite hobby is raising spiders; she is also a ballerina. Wednesday's favorite toy is her Marie Antoinette doll, which her brother guillotines (at her request). She is stated to be six years old in the television series' pilot episode. In one episode, she is shown to have several other headless dolls as well. She also paints pictures (including a picture of trees with human heads) and writes a poem dedicated to her favorite pet spider, Homer. Wednesday is deceptively strong; she is able to bring her father down with a judo hold. Wednesday has a close kinship with the family's giant butler Lurch.
    [Show full text]
  • Pros-A180.Pdf
    TheAddAms FAmily an Evilution 1 tthehe FamilyFamily Gomez and Pugsley are enthusiastic. Morticia is even in disposition, muted, witty, sometimes deadly. Grandma Frump is foolishly good-natured. Wednesday is her mother’s daughter. A closely knit family, the real head being Morticia—although each of the others is a definite character—except for Grandma, who is easily led. Many of the troubles they have as a family are due to Grandma’s fumbling, weak character. The house is a wreck, of course, but this is a house-proud family just the same and every trap door is in good repair. Money is no problem. Strong family values are evident throughout Charles Addams’s depictions of the family from the dark side. They hang together; they feel secure with one another; they have rules and morals that keep the family unit intact. Sure, the logs they burn in their fireplace are carved to look like men; they moonbathe instead of sunbathe; they prefer gazing at the sweeping vista of a cemetery rather than sunlit rolling hills; they take their outings in Central Park in the dead of night. The point is, they do these things together. They might be scary, weird, creepy, and macabre, but The Addams Family is our secret envy. If only our family dinners could be so much fun! 2 3 “Well, he certainly doesn’t take after my side of the family.” 4 5 “it’s the children, darling, back from camp.” 6 “you forgot the eye of newt.” 7 the “evilution” of Charles Addams’s singularly eccentric family began long before the television and film interpretations made them icons of American popular culture.
    [Show full text]
  • The Addams Family Is Inspired by the Creations of the Legendary American Cartoonist Charles Addams, Who Lived from 1912 Until 1988
    The Man Behind the Family The musical The Addams Family is inspired by the creations of the legendary American cartoonist Charles Addams, who lived from 1912 until 1988. In 1933, when he was just 21, his work was published in The New Yorker, and over the course of nearly six decades, he became one of the magazine’s most cherished contributors. Bizarre, macabre and weird are all words that have been used to describe Charles Addams’ cartoons. Yet adjectives such as charming, enchanting and Photo: Lane Stewart tender can just as accurately be employed to depict the same body of work, as well as the man himself. His unique style and wonderfully crafted cartoons enabled his work to transcend such dichotomies for his millions of fans worldwide. Charles Addams is most widely known for his characters that came to be called The Addams Family, a group that evolved into multiple television shows, motion pictures and now this Broadway musical. Gomez, Morticia, Uncle Fester, Wednesday, Pugsley, Grandma and Lurch existed in various forms and aspects of Addams’ cartoons dating back to the 1930s but were not actually named by him until the early 1960s, when the television series was created. Surprisingly, The Addams Family characters appear in only a small number of the artist’s several thousand works. The majority of his cartoons are occupied by hundreds of other characters, but there is little doubt that those that come to life on this stage are his most “Are you unhappy, darling?” “Oh yes, yes! Completely.” beloved creations. Over 15 books of his drawings have been published around the world, including the new collection, The Addams Family: An Evilution, the first complete history of The Addams Family, including more than 200 cartoons, many never previously published.
    [Show full text]
  • Pugsley Addams Is a Member of the Fictional Addams Family, Created by American Cartoonist Charles Addams
    Pugsley Addams is a member of the fictional Addams family, created by American cartoonist Charles Addams. Pugsley is depicted as a devious young genius in Charles Addams's original cartoons. He is often shown releasing sailboats in the park with other children, except his boats were more macabre in nature. Pugsley is the oldest child of Morticia and Gomez Addams. He is a pre-teen boy (His age is given as eight years old in the pilot episode but is changed to ten years old in the second episode) who is almost always seen wearing a striped T-shirt and shorts. Originally unnamed (as were all of the family members), the character who was apparently the prototype for Pugsley first appeared in the Charles Addams cartoons in The New Yorker during the 1930s. In this first incarnation, he was portrayed as a deviant child with a vicious nature, shown committing deplorable acts with his sister. In all incarnations, he is overweight. In the television series, Pugsley usually eats over five pieces of cake at birthday parties. When the characters were given names for the television series, he was originally going to be called "Pubert" (a derivation of the word puberty, possibly a reflection of his age) but it was rejected as it sounded too sexual, and the name Pugsley was chosen instead. The Lurch Files' Addams Family Tree lists Pugsley's middle name as Pubert, probably as an homage to Charles Addams' original suggestion. In the American television series, Pugsley is played by child actor Ken Weatherwax. This incarnation of the character is more jovial and inventive; he displays outlandish engineering skills, including the invention of a disintegrator gun, an anti-gravity gun, and other devices.
    [Show full text]
  • Morticia Addams Is a Fictional Character from the Addams Family Television and Film Series
    Morticia Addams is a fictional character from The Addams Family television and film series. Created by cartoonist Charles Addams, she was based on his first wife Barbara. Morticia first appeared in Charles Addams' newspaper cartoons as the stern, aloof matriarch of the Family. She often appeared with the rest of the family, and was, along with Gomez and Grandmama, one of the few members to actually speak in the cartoons. Morticia is the wife of Gomez Addams and mother of Wednesday, and Pugsley. In the cartoons, none of the family members had names. When the characters were adapted to the 1964 television series, Charles Addams' selection of her name was inspired by "mortician". Morticia's maiden name is "Frump" and she has an older sister named Ophelia (also played by Carolyn Jones). In the television series, her mother (Uncle Fester's sister) was named Hester Frump (played by Margaret Hamilton). Her mother-in-law is Grandmama Addams. In the 1990s Addams Family films, Grandmama is actually Morticia's mother, not Gomez's. • Morticia is described as a witch; she is slim, with extremely pale skin and long flowing straight black hair. • She commonly wears black hobble dresses to match her hair, tightly form fitting, with a hobble dress, with fringe of octopus-like cloth "tentacles" at the lower hem. • According to Wednesday, Morticia applies baking powder to her face instead of actual makeup. • In each episode, she easily allures her husband Gomez by speaking French (or any other foreign language for that matter). • Morticia is musically inclined, and is often seen freely strumming a Japanese shamisen.
    [Show full text]
  • The Addams Family Pdf, Epub, Ebook
    THE ADDAMS FAMILY PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Andrew Lippa | 111 pages | 01 Sep 2010 | Hal Leonard Corporation | 9781423495802 | English | Milwaukee, United States The Addams Family PDF Book Cortney Wolfson. Plot Keywords. Outstanding Set Design. Wednesday Addams Jimmy Workman Do Not Sell My Information. Nestled in the dunes are a regular beach house and a spooky old mansion. Edit page. My lord, this is just an exceptional ensemble of performers. Technical Specs. Patrons who need medical supplies or devices and members of the working media are not subject to the new bag policy, but will need to go through the bag check line at the entry gate for a thorough screening of the bag and the medical items. Cookie banner We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from. John Astin. User Reviews. Crazy Credits. Rating: PG Runtime: 86 minutes. Burton is well known for directing films with a Gothic and horror bent, from Edward Scissorhands and Sleepy Hollow to a big-screen take on the TV vampire soap Dark Shadows. Share this story Twitter Facebook. And yet, there's just something about it that holds it just shy of perfection. Wednesday Addams. The mural was meant for a beach resort, so he set the scene at the beach. Clear your history. Q: Is the series available to own? Though juxtaposing the macabre with the suburban has long been a cornerstone of The Addams Family mythos, there are times when this new film comes perilously close to feeling like a rip-off of the Hotel Transylvania franchise.
    [Show full text]
  • Handbook of Production Information
    HANDBOOK OF PRODUCTION INFORMATION PARAMOUNT PICTURES PRESENTS A SCOTT RUDIN PRODUCTION A BARRY SONNENFELD FILM ANjELlCA HUSTON RAUL JULIA CHRISTOPHER LLOYD JOAN CUSACK CHRISTINA RICCI CAROL KANE Music by MARC SHAIMAN Visual Effects Supervisor ALAN MUNRO Edited by ARTHUR SCHMIDT and JIM MILLER Production Designer KEN ADAM Director of Photography DONALD PETERMAN, A.S.C. Executive Producer DAVID NICKSAY I Based on the Characters created by CHARLES ADDAMS Written by PAUL RUDNICK Produced by SCOTT RUDIN Directed by BARRY SONNENFELD "Addams Family Values" Album available on Atlas Records, A PolyGram Company Read the Paperback from Pocket Books ® A PARAMOUNT COMMUNICATIONS COMPANY TM & COPYRIGHT © 1993 BY PARAMOUNT PICTURES. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ~Q~ DOLBY. STEREO D IGI T A L TH E DIll Morticia Addam s .......................ANjELICA HUSTON Donald ....... .................. STEVEN M . MARTIN Go mez Adda ms .................... RAULjULIA Dex ter " ............... DOUGIAS BRIAN MARTIN Fester Addams......... .. .......... CHRI STOPHER LLOYD Lumpy ... .. ........................................ RYA N HOLIHAN Debbie j elinsky .................................. JOAN CUSACK Delivery Nurse ................................. LOIS deBANZIE W ednesday Addam s ..................... CHRISTINA RICCI Forceps Nurse .......................... VICKILY REYNOLDS Gra nny ................................................. CAROL KANE Heather ........................................... CYNTHIA NIXON Pugsley Addam s ..........................jIMMY WORKMAN Mrs. Montgomery
    [Show full text]
  • Polyptych Adaptation, Television, and Comics
    Polyptych Adaptation, Television, and Comics Edited by Reginald Wiebe Concordia University of Edmonton Series in Critical Media Studies Copyright © 2021 by the authors. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Vernon Art and Science Inc. www.vernonpress.com In the Americas: In the rest of the world: Vernon Press Vernon Press 1000 N West Street, Suite 1200, C/Sancti Espiritu 17, Wilmington, Delaware 19801 Malaga, 29006 United States Spain Series in Critical Media Studies Library of Congress Control Number: 2021931877 ISBN: 978-1-64889-130-4 Product and company names mentioned in this work are the trademarks of their respective owners. While every care has been taken in preparing this work, neither the authors nor Vernon Art and Science Inc. may be held responsible for any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in it. Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the publisher will be pleased to include any necessary credits in any subsequent reprint or edition. Cover designed by Stephan Wiebe. Table of Contents Introduction: Continuous Backgrounds v Reginald Wiebe Concordia University of Edmonton Chapter One From Comicbook to Road Narrative: The Incredible Hulk (1977-1982) as Serialized Drama 1 Fernando Pagnoni Berns Universidad
    [Show full text]
  • Upper Merion Area Middle School Drama Club
    UPPER MERION AREA MIDDLE SCHOOL DRAMA CLUB THE ADDAMS FAMILY Young@Part® A NEW MUSICAL Book by MARSHALL BRICKMAN and RICK ELICE Music and Lyrics by ANDREW LIPPA Based on Characters Created by Charles Addams Originally produced on Broadway by Stuart Oken, Roy Furman, Michael Leavitt, Five Cent Productions, Stephen Schuler, Decca Theatricals, Scott M. Delman, Stuart Ditsky, Terry Allen Kramer, Stephanie P. McClelland, James L. Nederlander, Eva Price, Jam Theatricals/Mary LuRoffe, Pittsburgh CLO/Gutterman-Swinsky, Vivek Tiwary/Gary Kaplan, The Weinstein Company/Clarence, LLC, Adam Zotovich/Tribe Theatricals; By Special Arrangement with Elephant Eye Theatrical Young@Part® Edition adapted by Marc Tumminelli and originally workshopped at Broadway Workshop in NYC THE ADDAMS FAMILY Young@Part® is presented through special arrangement with and all authorized performance materials are supplied by Theatrical Rights Worldwide, 1180 Avenue of the Americas, Suite 640, New York, NY 10036. www.theatricalrights.com The Upper Merion Area School District Board of Directors Dr. Gary Ledebur, Board President Dr. Maxine Gesualdi Alice Budno Hope, Vice President Brett M. Oslon Maura Buri Maggie Philips Eric T. Elvanian Dr. Eric Wellington Melissa Galvan Superintendent Dr. John Toleno Assistant Superintendent oF Curriculum and Instruction Dr. Susan Silver Business Manager Michael Keeley Director oF Student Services John Moody Director oF Human Resources Michelle O'Reilly Director oF Operations Frederick P. Remelius Director oF Curriculum & Instruction – STEM Dr. Sean Gardiner Director oF Curriculum & Instruction – Humanities Dr. Andrew Kuhn Director oF Technology Mark Erb Assistant Director oF Technology Andrew Zirkel Supervisor oF Special Education Staci Futrick Supervisor oF Special Education Treena Sadler Director oF Athletics and Student Activities Robert Devers Upper Merion Area High School Principal Jonathan Bauer Upper Merion Area High School Asst.
    [Show full text]