The Addams Family (1964 TV series)

First released

Last released

1

34

September 18, 1964 (1964-09-18)

May 21, 1965 (1965-05-21)

2

30

September 17, 1965 (1965-09-17)

April 8, 1966 (1966-04-08)

Special

October 30, 1977 (1977-10-30)

John Astin

Gomez Addams

A retired lawyer, Gomez is of Castilian descent, as he refers to Spain as his "ancestral home". Gomez is passionately in love with his wife, often referring to her with Spanish pet names such as "Querida" and "Cara Mía". His ardor is greatly intensified when she speaks French (a running joke has Gomez mistaking other languages, including Yiddish, for French). Gomez is very wealthy, apparently as a result of owning numerous companies and stocks, and is often following the tape from a stock ticker installed in the living room. Gomez has a desk drawer and a safe full of cash. He squanders money in a cavalier manner and loses it on stocks, yet remains wealthy. His hobby is gleefully crashing and detonating model trains. He sometimes stands on his head as he reads the newspaper or plays solitaire. He is a member of the Zen Yogi society which seems to be a form of yoga where the positions often look strange or difficult for the human body. Regularly dressed in a double-breasted and chalk-striped suit with a black tie (even around the house), Gomez is almost always seen smoking a cigar. Astin based the character of Gomez on Groucho Marx. Like Groucho, Astin was also a cigar smoker; he then quit cigars after the series ended. As of Oct. 1 2025, John Astin is the only surviving member of the cast.

Carolyn Jones

Morticia Addams (née Frump)

A cultivated and beautiful woman, she knits, dabbles in art, plays the shamisen, raises a carnivorous plant, and trims roses by clipping off the buds and arranging the thorny stems in a vase. With long, straight ebony-black hair, she is always attired in a floor-length, black hobble dress that ends, apparently, in a full set of tentacles. With her aristocratic bearing and detachment, she is often the calm center of the chaotic events of the household, but she performs magical feats effortlessly; for instance, in "Winning of Morticia Addams", she bounces a basketball through three baskets. She is an elegant woman that is devoted to her family; she and Gomez are deeply in love.

Jackie Coogan

Uncle Fester

Morticia's exuberant uncle, he is completely bald and usually dressed in a dark, floor-length coat or robe with a large, fur collar. Fester is quite fond of dynamite and blasting caps. He often relaxes on a bed of nails, by inserting his head into a book press, or by being stretched on a wooden torture rack. Fester powers light bulbs by placing them into his mouth.

Ted Cassidy

Lurch

The Addams' loyal butler, he mainly speaks in grunts or groans. Morticia and Gomez summon him with a hangman's-noose bell pull, to which he immediately appears on screen and replies, "You rang?" On occasions, items such as an emergency bell or banging the knight armor can summon him if the usual bell ends up out of order. Lurch is very tall and physically imposing, and plays the 1503 vintage "Krupnik" harpsichord that was originally in Cousin Crimp's family for 400 years. After Lurch answers the door, he removes the hats of male visitors, usually crushing them in the process. He is frequently seen with a feather duster. Cassidy made a cameo appearance as Lurch on an episode of the Batman TV series, and on TV music shows while promoting the pop song of the era "The Lurch" (and the dance which it accompanied).

Blossom Rock

Grandmama Addams

Gomez's mother, she is a witch who conjures potions and spells and dabbles in fortune telling with a crystal ball, and knife throwing. Sometimes, she is carrying a battle axe or sharpening it on a grinding wheel in the middle of the living room.

Lisa Loring

Wednesday Addams

Gomez and Morticia's daughter and the youngest member of the family, Wednesday is a strange yet sweet-natured little girl who enjoys keeping bizarre pets such as a black widow spider named Homer and a lizard named Lucifer, in addition to playing with a headless doll named Marie Antoinette.

Ken Weatherwax

Pugsley Addams

Gomez and Morticia's son and Wednesday's older brother, he is chubby, kind-hearted, and smart, and occasionally conforms to conventional standards contrary to his family, such as joining the Boy Scouts. He also enjoys engineering various machines, playing with blasting caps, and playing with his pet octopus Aristotle.

Itself

Thing

A disembodied hand, it appears out of boxes and other conveniently placed containers. Thing also appears from a knothole in a tree in the front yard, and in "The Addams Family in Court", Thing reaches out of Gomez's briefcase to hand him a legal paper in court. Gomez's constant "companion" since childhood, Thing is always ready to assist family members with minor daily services and diversions, such as lifting the receiver on telephones, retrieving the mail, lighting cigars, pouring tea, and playing chess. The tagline is, "Thank you, Thing". Thing sometimes appears from different containers at opposite ends of the room within seconds of each other. Though Ted Cassidy often portrayed Thing, assistant director Jack Voglin sometimes portrayed Thing in scenes in which Lurch and Thing appear together. Thing (sometimes "The Thing") was billed as "Itself" in the closing credits; animals in Filmways productions were billed the same way, for instance, Mr. Ed was billed as "Himself".

Felix Silla and Roger Arroyo

Cousin Itt

Gomez's cousin, Itt is a diminutive character composed entirely of floor-length hair accompanied by a bowler hat and sunglasses. He speaks in rapid, unintelligible gibberish that only the family can understand. He has a low-ceilinged room of his own in the house, but sometimes he is in the chimney of the living room fireplace. The character was created specifically for the television series.

Carolyn Jones

Ophelia Frump

Morticia's flighty flower child older sister who is the "white sheep of the family". In the two-part, second-season episode "Morticia's Romance", it is shown in a flashback that Gomez is originally engaged to Ophelia in an arranged marriage, but when he sees the then-22-year-old Morticia, they fall in love with each other. The flowers entwined in Ophelia's hair actually have roots that travel down into her foot, and the foot raises when one of the flowers is tugged on. She sings in three-part harmony and has a love of judo that enables her to flip men (usually Gomez) onto their backs. Ophelia was played by Carolyn Jones in a blonde wig, and along with Cousin Itt, was created specifically for the television series, appearing in family portrait artwork by Charles Addams after the show's debut.

Margaret Hamilton

Granny Hester Frump

The mother of Morticia and Ophelia and the grandmother of Wednesday and Pugsley, and sister of Fester. She is a witch and an old friend of Grandmama Addams'.

Hazel Shermet

Cousin Melancholia

A cousin of Morticia, she was repeatedly jilted. In "Morticia the Matchmaker", after her last fiancé ran off, Morticia and Gomez take her in and try to find her a husband.

Parley Baer

Arthur J. Henson

An insurance executive and politician in the town where the family resides

Eddie Quillan

Joe Digby

An insurance clerk who works for Arthur Henson, Eddie Quillan also played Clyde Arbogast, Arthur Henson's assistant in "Gomez, the People's Choice".

Allyn Joslyn

Sam Hilliard

A truant officer, he is scared to death of the family, although he does "find common ground" with them regarding the inadvisability of exposing children to "fairy-tale violence". Later, he runs a private school where Gomez briefly worked. In one episode, his middle name is given as "Lucifer", much to the family's delight ("Sam Hill" is an older American euphemism for Satan).

Rolfe Sedan

Mr. Briggs

The neighborhood mailman, he delivers the mail to the Addams house.

Vito Scotti

Sam Picasso

A scheming Spanish artist upon whom family members rely for artistic advice

Volume 1

22

August 10, 2006

Audio commentary for "The Addams Family Goes to School" by cast members Lisa Loring, Ken Weatherwax, and Felix Silla, along with Stephen Cox (author of The Addams Chronicles) You Rang, Mr. Addams featurette Snap, Snap featurette Theme Song Karaoke The DVD releases contain alterations to the episodes "Halloween with the Addams Family" and "The Addams Family Meets the Undercover Man". In two scenes, Morticia's song "It's So Nice to Have a 'Thing' Around the House" (to the tune of "It's So Nice to Have a Man Around the House") was cut. The edits were made because MGM/20th Century Fox could not obtain the rights to the original song.

Volume 2

21

March 27, 2007

Mad About the Addams featurette: Experts discuss the history and impact of the show Thing and Cousin Itt commentaries Guest Star Séance interactive featurette: A magical crystal ball conjures guest star clips and trivia Tombstone Trivia on "Morticia's Romance, Part 1" episode Audio commentary with The Addams Chronicles author Stephen Cox

Volume 3

21

September 11, 2007

Thing and Cousin Itt commentaries Audio commentary with Stephen Cox, author of The Addams Chronicles Tombstone Trivia on "Cat Addams" episode

The Complete Series

64

November 13, 2007

Special "velvet-touch" package