The Addams Family Mansion
The Addams family's mansion has had many different incarnations over the years. It made its first appearance (at least, the interior did) at the same time as Morticia and Lurch, in one of Charles Addams' cartoons. The house was depicted as a dilapidated mansion that had been condemned (and was seemingly haunted, due to the strange creatures at the top of the staircase). Since then, it had become almost a character itself, and served as the main setting for the rest of the cartoons featuring the Addams family. Stories surrounding the mansion (in video games, primarily) are common, and the house's origins and specific nature are explored more deeply in The New Addams Family than any other incarnation.
Television Series[edit | edit source]
In the Addams Family Series, the house was given an address: 0001 Cemetery Lane. Its design was also changed somewhat. Instead of being a dilapidated house, it was now practically a museum filled with odd statues, trophies, and other interesting things. The house also sported a Play Room with medieval racks, nailbeds, iron maidens, and stockades for "relaxing."
The house once again became a condemned mansion in the New Scooby-Doo Movies TV show, in which the Addamses made a guest appearance. In the following series, the Addamses bought a recreational vehicle which resembled their mansion and drove it around the country. In the Halloween special an entirely different mansion is shown.
Film Series[edit | edit source]
The two Addams Family movies, 1991's The Addams Family and 1993's Addams Family Values, along with the 1990's animated series, resurrected the mansion's original exterior design from the Charles Addams cartoons. The movie The Addams Family had the mansion appearing exactly as it did in Charles Addams' drawing of the family about to dump boiling oil on a group of carolers from the roof (a gag that was acted out in the opening sequence of the previous film).
The New Addams Family[edit | edit source]
The New Addams Family provided a cross between the original TV show's mansion and the movie/comic strip's mansion. The mansion remained a condemned building (According to Morticia, it had actually been condemned five times), and the interior had various dangerous objects and odd statues just like the original TV show. The entrance gate (nicknamed, appropriately, "Gate" in the original TV show and the 1991 film) was now overgrown with foliage. A cemetery was moved next to the house (a change that also occurred in the two feature films and the 1977 reunion special), and there were now various secret rooms and passages. The mailbox and door knockers seem to be alive. When Gomez and Morticia first moved in as the home's owners (though Gomez and Grandmama had been residents even before then), they thought it was haunted. They regret that it wasn't, "but you can't have everything." But the existence of the ghost of Aunt Minerva proves otherwise (though she may have "moved in" just recently). It's also mentioned that the home is made of titanium instead of wood (and is consequently bomb-proof),[1] has 26 (or maybe 27) rooms -- if Fester has made a new addition with his cannon[2] -- and the house has apparently been in the family for centuries. The area surrounding the house can be described briefly as a wasteland, with swamps, a moat, and the like. The address was also changed to 1313 Cemetery Lane, perhaps in a reference to 1313 Mockingbird Lane, the home of The Munsters.
The interior of the house seens to be disproportionately bigger than the outside view suggests, as seen in how many runaway guests become competely lost in what seems to be dozens of rooms, hallways and staircases. The house is also filled with deathtraps (carefully or carelessly positioned by Fester or Wednesday, deadly beasts, deadly plants, booby traps, explosives and whatnot.
In the stage musical, the mansion was moved to four acres in Central Park, New York City.
The Rooms and places[edit | edit source]
There are somewhere between 25 and 30 rooms in the Addams Family Mansion. There are other rooms that are not always displayed/featured.
- The Foyer
- The Living Room
- The Conservatory
- The Dining Room*
- The Kitchen
- The Kids Bedroom (sometimes Pugsley and Wednesday had separate bedrooms)
- The Play Room
- The Master Bedroom (Gomez and Morticia's bedroom)
- Uncle Fester's Bedroom
- Uncle Fester's lab
- Grandmama's bedroom
- The Guest Room
- The Study*
- Gomez's Office*
- Lurch's bedroom
- The Gallery[3]
- The Attic
- The Tower[4][5]
- The Vault - (The 1990's movies had a vault)
- Thing's boxes (Thing's miniature house in the movies)
- The Tunnels
- The Dungeons
- The Ravine
- The Quicksand[6]
- The Bottomless Pits
- The Abyss
- Unknown number of secret rooms and passages
Other rooms, such as the bathroom(s) and the hallways.
Outside, but still on the property are:
- The Cottage[7]
- The Treehouse[8]
- The Swamp
- The Cemetery - The 1990's movie had the statues of the dead Addams Family relatives.
* Note:In the original series, the Dining Room, the Study, and Gomez' Office, are three adjoining walls of one set, so parts of each can sometimes be seen in scenes set in these rooms.
Gallery[edit | edit source]
- Addamshouse.jpg
The original house.
- Addhousefront.jpg
The house in The New Addams Family TV Series
- Afhouse1.jpg
The front yard in 1991 movie.
- Entrance2.jpg
The Living Room
- Foyer.jpg
The Foyer
- Wed.jpg
Wednesday's room.
- Tunnel.jpg
The underground tunnel.
- Living.jpg
A bigger view of the living room.
- 3021327-inline-675-colors.jpg
- Addamslivingroom.jpg
- Af mansion wed.jpg
Wednesday Is Missing (1972)
- 1991 13.jpg
The Addams Family (1991)
- Family values 04.jpg
Addams Family Values (1993)