Did You Know?

Though Uncle Fester is a regular on the TV series, Charles Addams' prototype for Fester in the New Yorker cartoons was almost exclusively solitary, never shown indoors with the other family (except once as a painted portrait), and only once outdoors with the children (going fishing with dynamite).

Cousin Itt is the only character whose name was carried over from the original New Yorker cartoons, where he was just "It".

Wednesday's pet, Homer, was a black widow spider. Her headless doll was named Marie Antoinette.

Morticia's man-eating plant was named Cleopatra.

It took Carolyn Jones two hours every day to put on Morticia's make-up. Topping it all off, she wore a wig made of human hair.

Charles Addams never named his characters, but he had to come up with names for the characters on the TV show (it was one of the few contributions he made to the series). Within a week he decided on all of them - except for Mr. Addams, who almost wound up being called Repelli (for "repellent") instead of Gomez.

Thing was usually a right hand. Ted Cassidy (Lurch) occasionally used his left hand just to see if anybody would notice. Thing also had an arm, which was seen when it reached outside for something while in its box.

Gomez's favorite food was eye of newt.

Wednesday Addams' name is a reference to the nursery rhyme that says, "Wednesday's child is full of woe."

John Astin was given the choice of two names for his character, and selected Gomez over Repelli. The son's name was originally to be Pubert, but was changed to Pugsley because Pubert sounded too sexual.

The train-crash sequence, in which the model trains collide and explode, was shot once, and that footage was used every time Gomez wrecked model trains.

The name of the Addamses' pet lion was "Kitty Cat".

Blucher (prounounced "Blooker") was the name of Gomez's stockbroker.

Almost all episodes open in the Addamses' living room with the family playing and having fun. Activities included Gomez doing yoga headstands, flamenco dancing, sword fighting, bull whip practice, shooting thrown apples with crossbows and other bizarre games.

The Addamses often refer to the many cousins of their extended family. Cousins named are Blah, Bleak, Bleep, Blink, Blob, Cackle, Caliban, Clot, Creep, Crimp, Cringe, Curdle, Droop, Farouk, Fungus, Goop, Gripe, Grisly, Grope, Imar, Manuel, Melancholia, Nanook, Plato, Slimey, Slosh, Slump, Trivia, Turncoat, and Vague.

Cousin Itt was related to Gomez.

There was a sign in the Addams front yard that read "Beware of the Thing".

Gomez originally was engaged to Morticia's sister, Ophelia, in a arranged marriage. A few days before the wedding, however, he met and fell in love with Morticia and wound up marrying her instead.

Grandmama Addams and Granny Frump were high school classmates.

Even though Gomez would kiss Morticia up and down her arm when she spoke French or called him "bubeleh", we never saw him kiss her on the lips.

The name of the city where the Addamses lived was never mentioned on the show, although it was somewhere in New York City in the cartoons.

According to John Astin, during his first meeting with Filmways executives concerning his possible participation in the show (with executive producer David Levy in attendance), he was originally offered the role of the Butler (Lurch), being told that the show would be centered around this character. Astin left this initial meeting with many reservations, wondering if he would have to wear stilts/lifts to portray this character, etc., and finally convinced himself that this part was just not going to work for him. The very next day, he received a call directly from Levy (who, according to Astin, had said little during the previous days' meeting), inviting him to lunch at a popular Hollywood restaurant. Over lunch, after expressing his doubts about playing the butler to Levy, Levy then offered him the role of Gomez; Astin accepted, and the focus of the show was changed.

Filmways didn't want to pay singers to record the theme song, so composer Vic Mizzy triple overdubbed his own voice to simulate a trio.

One of the sponsors of "The Addams Family" was Dutch Masters Cigars.

In the pilot, Ted Cassidy, who plays Lurch, ad-libbed the famous line, "You rang?" Originally, Lurch didn't have lines. But the line got a wave a laughter and Cassidy got more dialog.

The Addams Family home consisted mostly of recycled sets from the movie The Unsinkable Molly Brown.

John Astin originally tried out for the part of Lurch.

Lurch got fan mail from teenage girls who insisted that he was cuter than The Beatles.

The Broadway musical version of "The Addams Family" opened at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on April 8, 2010 and starred Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth.

According to Wednesday Addams in the episode where Uncle Fester tries to find a mate, the polar bear rug that growls whenever someone walks on it is named "Bruno".

When Lurch is at the harpsichord, he was playing a dead keyboard. The music was actually played by composer Vic Mizzy and added to the soundtrack.

In México Gomez was called "Homero", Uncle Fester "Tío Lucas", Pugsley "Pericles" and Wednesday "Merlina".