Rewatching The Magic: A Nostalgic Fandom Podcast
Oct 19, 2026 · 1 hr 55 min · 13 segments
They're creepy, kooky, and all together ooky. We discuss the first feature film adaptation of The Addams Family, and find out why this seemingly became the standard-bearer of all future adaptations…
Since he brought up grandma, I do want to get into for, for anybody who didn't grow up as like a fan of the Adams family and maybe this movie was your first introduction to it or if you're too young to have seen this in theaters originally and this is just what you grew up with as like well that is the adams family you know there is such an interesting backstory to the adams family original comic you know cartoons the single panel new yorker cartoons up through like eventually this you know because they did move the family into various things.
Even though you had an adult man and adult woman that were holding hands and being lovey-dovey and there were two children, it was never outright stated in those cartoons that they were a married couple and those were their children.
Yeah, and the interesting thing is that Charles Adams himself, even when describing Gomez, is like, well, he lives with his wife.
I mean, is she even his wife? And that was a thing he said in his own personal description of Gomez.
He was maybe attempting to be like, hey, even if they're not legally married, they're still a family.
the Addams Family was originally, which Barry Sonnenfeld nails to a T in this movie.
To an extent, as much as we both enjoyed the musical, there is a little bit of, are they really understanding what the Addams Family are in
this play? There are parts of that play where you're like, absolutely, this is 100% pure, unadulterated Addams Family.
And then there are parts of that play where it's like, and you forgot who you were writing about.
But, sorry, getting back to the reason why Grandma Mop sparked it is because the Adam's Family originally as a cartoon, and then especially...
in the television series, which kind of made some of that subtext a little more just text, is it was always a weird satire of the American ideal of the nuclear family.
You know, the father, the mother, the 2.5 kids or whatever, and, you know, the kind of extended family that comes in with Fester and Grandma Ma and And the fact that they are an elite, wealthy family, you know, they have a butler, they have, you know, a large mansion and things like that.
Since he brought up grandma, I do want to get into for, for anybody who didn't grow up as like a fan of the Adams family and maybe this movie was your first introduction to it or if you're too young to have seen this in theaters originally and this is just what you grew up with as like well that is the adams family you know there is such an interesting backstory to the adams family original comic you know cartoons the single panel new yorker cartoons up through like eventually this you know because they did move the family into various things.
Even though you had an adult man and adult woman that were holding hands and being lovey-dovey and there were two children, it was never outright stated in those cartoons that they were a married couple and those were their children.
Yeah, and the interesting thing is that Charles Adams himself, even when describing Gomez, is like, well, he lives with his wife.
I mean, is she even his wife? And that was a thing he said in his own personal description of Gomez.
He was maybe attempting to be like, hey, even if they're not legally married, they're still a family.
the Addams Family was originally, which Barry Sonnenfeld nails to a T in this movie.
To an extent, as much as we both enjoyed the musical, there is a little bit of, are they really understanding what the Addams Family are in
this play? There are parts of that play where you're like, absolutely, this is 100% pure, unadulterated Addams Family.
And then there are parts of that play where it's like, and you forgot who you were writing about.
But, sorry, getting back to the reason why Grandma Mop sparked it is because the Adam's Family originally as a cartoon, and then especially...
in the television series, which kind of made some of that subtext a little more just text, is it was always a weird satire of the American ideal of the nuclear family.
You know, the father, the mother, the 2.5 kids or whatever, and, you know, the kind of extended family that comes in with Fester and Grandma Ma and And the fact that they are an elite, wealthy family, you know, they have a butler, they have, you know, a large mansion and things like that.
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