The New Addams Family


The New Addams Family is a Gothic sitcom that aired from October 1998 to August 1999 on YTV in Canada, 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 shot in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

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 Grandpapa Addams, Gomez's grandfather, who had similar traits to Gomez. Grandpapa Addams was played by John Astin, who had played Gomez in the original series.

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 – who was a fan of the original show – 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 and subsequent 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.

Episodes

Home media

As with many other Saban Entertainment series, the only major English-language DVD release is by Czech distributor North Video, featuring both Czech and English audio and original video in the original production order. The first 39 episodes were released on 12 volumes, from February 15 to May 3, 2010.

Reception

Awards and nominations

  • Leo Awards for Best Overall Sound in a Dramatic Series – Tony Gronick
  • Leo Award for Best Production Design in a Dramatic Series – Cathy Robertson
  • Leo Award for Best Lead Performance by a Female in a Dramatic Series – Ellie Harvie
  • Canadian Comedy Awards for Television – Performance – Female – Ellie Harvie
  • Leo Award for Best Editing – Picture of a Music, Comedy or Variety Program or Series – Michele Conroy For episode "Tale of Long John Addams"
  • Leo Award for Best Overall Sound in a Music, Comedy or Variety Program or Series – Rick Bal, Chester Biolowas, Vince Renaud, and Jo Rossi
  • Leo Award for Best Screenwriter of a Music, Comedy or Variety Program or Series – Rich Hosek and Arnold Rudnick For episode "Tale Of Long John Addams"
  • Leo Award for Best Performance or Host in a Music, Comedy or Variety Program or Series – Ellie Harvie
  • Leo Award for Best Sound – Greg Stewart

    Video games

7th Sense developed a Game Boy Color game based on the series, which was released in 2001 by Microids exclusively in Europe. Titus Interactive was going to release the game in America with the title The New Addams Family, but the American version was cancelled. Nova Productions released an electric shock machine based on the series in 1999, which was distributed by H. Betti Industries in America.