Gomez Addams.com

The Addamses are the descendants of a very long line of witches, serial killers, freaks, ghouls, and other assorted social outcasts and monsters. The family that the cartoons, movies, and shows are based around are said to be but one surviving branch of the Addams clan. Many other "Addams families" exist all over the world. Their family credo, according to the film version, is "Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc" (We gladly feast on those who would subdue us).

Gomez Alonzo Addams studied to be a lawyer, but rarely practices while taking absurd pride in losing his cases. He is wealthy from inheritance and extensive investments, though seems to have little regard for money. Gomez is of Castilian origin and loves to smoke cigars and play destructively with his model trains. Though head of the household, he is also the most naïve and childish member of the family, with a short attention span and endless optimism. Gomez is married to Morticia A. Addams (née Frump), a vampish woman who dresses only in black and loves to cut the buds from roses, leaving only the thorny stems. She too comes from a long line of maniacs and monsters.

Gomez and Morticia have two children, Pugsley and Wednesday. Wednesday, whose middle name is Friday, was originally — as her name suggests — a quiet, somewhat pathetic child, full of woe. In the TV show she was a sweet-natured, happy child, largely concerned with her pet spiders. A favorite toy was her Marie Antoinette doll, which she had guillotined and which she often showed to visitors. The movies gave her yet another personality, serious and with a deadpan wit, and a morbid fascination with trying to murder her brother (she was seen strapping him into an electric chair, for example, and preparing to pull the switch). She is apparently often successful, but Pugsley never dies. Like most members of the family he seems to live in a semi-immortal state.

For his part, Pugsley is largely either oblivious of the harm his sister tries to inflict on him, or an enthusiastic supporter of it. Pugsley's first incarnation, originally called Pubert, was that of the ultimate demon child next door. In the show, he was a devoted older brother and an inventive and mechanical genius, although his brilliance was lost in the movies, in which he appears to be of below-average intelligence. In Addams Family Values, Gomez and Morticia had a third son, also named Pubert, a moustachioed and seemingly indestructible baby with the ability to shoot flaming arrows.

Other members of the family who live with Gomez and Morticia include Uncle Fester and Grandmama. In the original television series, Fester was Morticia's uncle, and therefore technically not an Addams, although at times he claims the family name as his own (In one episode, Fester became confused when someone asked what his last name was, implying that he had none at all.). In all other animated and filmed content, Fester became Gomez's older brother, and therefore the uncle of Wednesday and Pugsley. Grandmama is Gomez's mother in only the live-action TV series and the animated TV series. In all animated content, the comics, and the movies, Grandmama is Morticia's mother. In the original TV series, Mother Frump exists as a seperate character than Grandmama.

The family has a servant disembodied hand named "Thing", who has been Gomez's friend since childhood, and a tall, ghoulish manservant named Lurch. ("Lurch" was revealed during the original TV series to be a surname. His given name is still yet to be revealed.) Morticia and Gomez summon him by means of a bell pull ending in a hangman's noose which produces a crashing gong that shakes the house. Lurch responds instantly with "You rang?" Lurch plays the harpsichord well. When a visitor comes Lurch takes their hat from them before walking away. Lurch has ejected several visitors from the premises. Gomez's Cousin Itt often visits the family. Other guests include Morticia's older sister Ophelia and Morticia's mother (and Fester's sister), Hester Frump. Mentioned, but not shown, are the Addamses' many eccentric cousins.

The Addamses are a close-knit and loving family. Morticia and Gomez remain passionately in love, and it drives Gomez crazy when she speaks French. She sometimes calls him "Bubele" (German dialect: Little Boy), which he responds to by kissing her up and down her arms. They are deeply concerned with the well-being of their children. Though they all share an obsession and interest in death, dying, and other gothic and macabre subjects, the Addamses are not evil people (in several of the TV episodes, Gomez is willing to donate large sums to worthy causes, to the shock of the already disturbed visitors), and usually restrict their ghoulish activities to within their own family.

Most of the Addams' neighbours are less than understanding, however. Within the larger community, the Addamses are viewed as oddballs, dangerous, or worse. Both the TV shows and movies deal with outsiders attempting to understand and "correct" the behavior of the family, and remain frustrated and horrified by the things that the Addamses find amusing. The Addamses for their part are just the opposite, and are often shocked and horrified at the actions of "mainstream" society. The underlying moral premise of the series thus seems to be a message against being judgmental and trying to impose universal standards of morality.

Although the Addamses are frequently cited as non-conformists, this is not really the case. While they have little use for conformity, they do not consider their tastes to be non-conformist per se since they are under the impression that most people share them; occasionally, the 1960s series featured guest characters who shared the Addamses' tastes, which, along with the fact that the family obviously purchases its yak meat, explosives, etc. from somewhere, implies an entire subculture of people who share the family's tastes (as seen in several Charles Addams cartoons). In contrast, the Addamses consider such things as daisies, chocolate fudge, the Boy Scouts, and other such traditionally "wholesome" things---as well as any distaste for such things as swamps, octopi, and hanging upside-down from the ceiling---to be odd if not outright disturbing.