The New Addams Family


The New Addams Family is an American-Canadian sitcom that aired from October 1998 to August 1999 on YTV in Canada and Fox Family in the United States and CITV in the United Kingdom on weekends. It was produced by Shavick Entertainment and Saban Entertainment as a revival of the 1960s series The Addams Family.
The series was cancelled after one season.

Plot

The Addams Family consists of husband and wife, Gomez and Morticia Addams, their children, Wednesday and Pugsley, as well as Grandmama, Uncle Fester, and their butler, Lurch. The Addams' are a close-knit extended family with decidedly macabre interests and supernatural abilities. No explanation for their powers is explicitly given in the series. Some of the episodes in this series are remakes of the original TV series' episodes with some episodes being exclusive to this show.
Later episodes introduce a relative named Grandpapa Addams who had similar traits to Gomez.

Cast

Main cast

Development

The series—shot in Vancouver—featured a new cast and was well received by viewers. Gomez Addams was played by Glenn Taranto, and Morticia by Ellie Harvie. The show reworked several storylines from the original series while incorporating modern elements, jokes, and references to episodes from the original series. John Astin, who played Gomez in the original series, appeared in a recurring role as Grandpapa Addams; Taranto patterned his performance after Astin's original version of Gomez.

Writing

One of the notable differences between the original show and the new series was that Wednesday and Pugsley were given expanded roles that highlighted their violent and sadistic personalities, made popular by the Addams Family film. Another element carried over from the films was Fester being Gomez's brother, whereas in the original show he had been Morticia's uncle.

Theme music

The new theme music, performed by the cast, was a departure from the familiar tune that had served most previous adaptations of the series. The familiar finger-snapping was present, albeit at a faster pace, accompanied by two different characters saying the word "snap" twice in rapid succession to match the beat. It was written by Barron Abramovitch, Jeremy Sweet, and Michael Whittaker.

Syndication

The series currently airs on Canadian television channel OutTV.

Episodes

There were 65 episodes in the series; one more than the original series.
No.TitleDirected ByWritten ByOriginal air date

Reception

Awards and nominations