Creepy and Kooky Things Most People Weren't Aware Of About The Addams Family

They’re creepy and they’re kooky, mysterious and spooky, but they’re also endlessly fascinating! It might be hard to believe, but the Addams Family has been spreading their unique brand of strangeness for over 50 years. The beloved family returned to screens in Netflix's popular reboot, Wednesday. But Wednesday and her "strange, deranged" family were first introduced to viewers many decades ago. Still, there are several secrets most people don't know about the kookiest family in history.

1. Meet the Addams Family

The Addams Family movies were based on the TV show, but the TV show itself was actually based on a series of macabre little cartoons that Charles Addams drew for The New Yorker. The characters didn’t even have names at that point. In fact, they weren’t given names until the TV show!

2. Charles Addams was the original kook

Charles Addams, the brains behind The Addams Family, was every bit as odd as the characters were. For instance, he collected crossbows, and he wasn’t afraid to use them. In fact, he was once reported as saying, “I have this fantasy. A robber breaks into my apartment and just as he comes through the door, I get him – right through the neck.”

3. Charles Addams is buried in "The Swamp"

The creator of the Addams family wasn’t about to let a little thing like death stop him from being weird. After a heart attack killed him aged 76, he was cremated – and his ashes were buried in the pet cemetery of his property, a place he called “The Swamp.” A cartoon published after his passing showed the Addams Family standing over the artist’s grave while he, of course, clambered out of it.

4. Wednesday’s name has a fitting meaning

Wednesday Addams was first introduced to audiences in the TV show by child actress Lisa Loring, who tragically passed away in 2023 at age 64. Loring set the tone for Wednesday, then Christina Ricci went on to reinterpret in the movies, but the character's name comes from the nursery rhyme line, “Wednesday’s child is full of woe.” Lots of woe, as it turned out. However, it’s not all doom and gloom, as Wednesday’s middle name is Friday, and Friday’s child was “loving and giving!”