Grandmama Is a Fictional Character in the Addams Family Television and Film Series

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Grandmama is a fictional character in the Addams Family television and film series. First appearing in the works of cartoonist Charles Addams, she is a supporting character in series film, television and stage adaptations. Grandmama Addams is an aged witch who concocts potions and spells, and dabbles in fortune telling and knife throwing. She is the grandmother of the Addams children, Pugsley and Wednesday, although her relationship to the other family members is less consistent. Grandmama first appeared along with the then-unnamed Addams family in Charles Addams' original cartoons published in The New Yorker, in which she was regularly illustrated with shoulder-length frizzy hair and a fringed shawl. In Charles Addams' original The New Yorker cartoon strips, the character was referred to as Grandma Frump, therefore making her Morticia's mother. For the original television series, her relationship to the family is retconned and she becomes Gomez's mother. In the Broadway musical The Addams Family, Morticia refers to Grandmama as Gomez and Uncle Fester's mother (complaining that she was supposed to move in for two weeks, and it's been twelve years), to which he reacts with surprise and says that he thought she was Morticia's mother; Morticia later says that Grandmama "may not even be part of this family". The character was named "Grandmama" for the 1960s television series in order to avoid confusion with Granny from The Beverly Hillbillies. She was played by Blossom Rock, who won the role over actresses such as Minerva Urecal and Marjorie Bennett, while Alice Pearce had been rejected after the producers deemed her too young for the part. However, due to illness, Rock was the one regular cast member from the show who did not return for the 1977 reunion film Halloween with the New Addams Family, and she was replaced as Grandmama by Jane Rose. .

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