How To Watch The Addams Family Movies & TV Shows In Order

The true story of "The Addams Family" franchise stretches back a lot farther than you probably imagine. Almost 30 years before any Addams ever graced the screen, the family were making themselves known in the pages of The New Yorker. "The Addams Family" began as a comic strip created by cartoonist Charles Addams. The very first "Addams" comic was published in 1938, and the "Addams Family" TV show that helped make the characters household names didn't debut until 1964.

Addams' comic strip highlighted the darkest aspects of the titular family, who all have an obsession with the macabre and various, unexplained supernatural abilities. And in many ways, the characters in the comics are very different from the on-screen figures we've come to know. Addams himself never named the characters in his strip, but as the Addams family gained popularity, adaptations of Addams' work gave them names.

Today the Addams family has grown far beyond comic frames and even the big and small screens. "The Addams Family" franchise includes numerous TV shows, movies, books, video games, a successful stage musical, and there are even fan-made projects like the YouTube series "Adult Wednesday Addams." "The Addams Family" franchise is a sprawling behemoth with many delightfully weird additions to uncover. The on-screen versions of the Addams family have been the main places where the characters have evolved, so to help you get up to speed, here's a look at how to catch up on everything Addams in order.

Even though they had technically already been around for decades, in 1964, a black and white TV show gave us the Addams Family that we all know today. "The Addams Family" was the first piece of media in the franchise that actually gave a name to all the characters in the titular family. Prior to this series, only Wednesday and Morticia (played by Lisa Loring and Carolyn Jones, respectively) had been named, but now viewers got to meet Gomez (John Astin), Pugsley (Ken Weatherwax), Uncle Fester (Jackie Coogan), Grandmama (Marie Blake), and Lurch (Ted Cassidy). Created by David Levy, "The Addams Family" show ran for 64 episodes from 1964 to 1966, and without it, we almost certainly wouldn't have the sprawling Addams franchise that exists today.

The TV series gave the Addams a much broader appeal than the original comic strip had, largely because the series focused less on dark humor and leaned more on the ridiculousness of the gothic Addamses living next to traditional families. The series also allowed comic relief characters like Cousin Itt and the Thing to really shine, and in doing so it helped change the overall tone of the universe that cartoonist Charles Addams had created.

The original "Addams Family" comic strip was funny but fairly dark, and it's hard to imagine that version of the family ever having a crossover with the gang from "Scooby-Doo.” Thanks to "The Addams Family" TV series, though, the Addamses had a softer image heading into the '70s, and they got their next chance to appear on the small screen in the "Scooby-Doo" episode "Wednesday is Missing." The Addams family members are all drawn in the style of their original comic strip versions, and several actors from the 1960s series showed up to voice the characters.

In the episode, the Scooby gang's van breaks down near the Addams family mansion. That happens to be a fortunate bit of car trouble because Wednesday (Cindy Henderson) has just been kidnapped. Gomez (John Astin) and Morticia (Carolyn Jones) discover a ransom note, and it's up to Scooby (Don Messick) and his friends to track down Wednesday before it's too late. This ended up being so popular that it acted as a backdoor pilot for the 1973 animated "Addams Family" series.

Of all the pieces of "Addams Family" media we've gotten over the years, "Fun-House" is definitely the strangest. It's also, sadly, the only one that you're probably not going to be able to watch for yourself. In 1973, writers Jack Riley and Liz Torres came up with a concept for a variety show hosted by the Addams family. The show included skits and musical numbers, and Riley and Torres would have starred as Gomez and Morticia Addams. The series would have recast the entire Addams family except for Cousin Itt, who was set to be played by Felix Silla returning from the original 1960s series.

Unfortunately, "The Addams Family Fun-House" never made it past the pilot. With no network willing to take on the show, this became just a footnote in the franchise's history. Today it's almost impossible to track down the pilot episode for yourself, but some who've seen it say they completely understand why the series never got to stretch its wings. One blogger called the pilot, "The absolutely worst version of 'The Addams Family' that ever went down." Luckily, the very same year that "Fun-House" failed to take off, a different "Addams Family" series helped keep the franchise alive.

Not long after the Addams family appeared in "Scooby-Doo," they became the stars of their very own animated series. The 1973 "Addams Family" series borrowed the same designs and art style as the "Scooby-Doo" crossover that had featured the Addamses just a year earlier. This show, however, did something a little different with the characters, sending them on a cross-country road trip in their Creepy Camper — a scaled down, mobile version of the classic mansion.

That new approach might have something to do with the show's short lifespan. "The Addams Family" only aired for a single 16-episode season, with each episode followed the Addams to a new location. After this, it was nearly two decades before someone attempted another animated take on the family. Even though this "Addams Family" show wasn't particularly successful, it does have at least one notable claim to fame: The series featured Jodie Foster, then just 11 years old, as the voice of Pugsley Addams.

Oddly enough, the TV movie "Halloween with the New Addams Family" is the dividing line between two eras of the franchise. The movie aired in 1977, and it featured most of the cast members of the 1960s "Addams Family" TV series. The film brought the original cast together for their first and last on-screen reunion, and it also acted as an informal send off for the franchise as a whole — there wouldn't be another "Addams Family" show or movie for almost 15 years after this.

The story of this Halloween special, however, doesn't frame this as a bittersweet reunion or a tragic last goodbye. Instead, it's a pretty standard story about the Addams family. Initially, we see the family getting ready for Halloween and having their preparations disrupted by some local thieves. The movie also introduces Pancho Addams, Gomez's brother who at one point was also vying for Morticia's affections. When the thieves kidnap Gomez and make a move to steal the Addams family fortune, Halloween is put aside as the family bands together to protect their home.

In the '90s the Addams family had a major comeback, and it started with the franchise's first theatrically-released movie, 1991's "The Addams Family." The film debuted to mixed critical reception, but the box office numbers spoke for themselves. Globally, the movie made well over $100 million off of a $30 million budget, which is a big part of why so many other projects about the Addams family were greenlit throughout the next decade.

The film stars Anjelica Huston and Raul Julia as Morticia and Gomez Addams, while a young Christina Ricci plays Wednesday Addams. It's possible the movie took some inspiration from "Halloween with the New Addams Family," because the plot once again revolves on a pair of crooks determined to steal the family fortune. This time around the criminal mastermind is a woman named Abigail Craven (Elizabeth Wilson). She uses Gomez's long-lost brother Fester Addams (Christopher Lloyd), who suffers from amnesia after an accident, to get close to the family and discover where they hide all their money. This version of the Addams family perfectly captures both their love for each other as well as their penchant for violence and darkness. It's family-friendly and still manages to sneak in plenty of things only adults will notice. If you were going to only watch a single "Addams Family" project, this is the one. 

The same year that the Addamses hit the big screen, they also made a grand return to television. "The Addams Family: The Animated Series" brought a new animation style and a mostly new cast to the franchise. Each member of the family was recast from the movie, but Gomez Addams was actually voiced by John Astin, the man who famously played Gomez in live action back in the '60s and '70s.

This was the second time we got an animated "Addams Family" series, and this version learned from the mistakes of the show that aired three decades earlier. In "The Animated Series," the Addams are firmly planted in their mansion, and many of the storylines focus on their encounters with their "normal" neighbors and classmates. Like many of the other Addams family projects we've already looked at, "The Animated Series" continued to push the family away from the kinds of dark humor that fueled the original comic strip. Still, this series proved that the franchise could work as a Saturday morning cartoon sitcom, and it got greenlit for a second season. In total the series ran for 26 episodes before being cancelled, but it was far from the last "Addams Family" project in the '90s.

If you've been working your way through the "Addams Family" franchise in chronological order, you've definitely noticed by now that the series isn't big on continuity. For the most part, every "Addams Family" movie and TV show episode can be watched like it's a standalone story, and as long as you're generally familiar with the Addams themselves, you can watch anything without getting too lost. 1993's "The Addams Family Values" is the first true sequel in the franchise, but even though it's a direct follow-up to the 1991 film, it keeps its story as self-contained as possible.

The cast of the 1991 movie all return for the sequel, which opens by introducing a new member of the Addams family, Morticia's and Gomez's newborn son Pubert. The Addams decide to hire a nanny for the baby, and they unwittingly hire a serial killer named Debbie (Joan Cusack). Debbie marries rich men before killing them off, and she marks Uncle Fester as her latest victim. Wednesday and Pugsley, meanwhile, have been sent off to summer camp, but the whole family will need to come back together in order to stop Debbie's plot. "The Addams Family Values" didn't have the same box-office impact as its predecessor, but the movie did perform well enough to keep interest in the "Addams Family" franchise alive.

Barry Sonnenfeld directed the first two "Addams Family" movies, but the third "Addams Family" movie of the '90s was overseen by Dave Payne. That wasn't the only major change that happened behind the scenes between "The Addams Family Values" and this movie. Raul Julia tragically died in 1994, and Warner Bros. and Saban had begun collaborating on an "Addams Family" live-action TV series that would reboot the franchise.

"Addams Family Reunion" was created as a TV movie and pilot for the new series. When Anjelica Huston and Christopher Lloyd both declined offers to reprise their roles from the earlier movie, the filmmakers decided to recast the entire family. Tim Curry was cast as Gomez Addams with Daryl Hannah playing Morticia alongside him. Uncle Fester was played by Patrick Thomas, and the children were played by Nicole Fugere and Jerry Messing.

The story follows the Addams on their trip to a family reunion, but their plans go sideways when they accidentally show up at the wrong event and stumble their way into a murder plot. Unfortunately, "Addams Family Reunion" was not at all well received. Despite solid performances from the leads, the movie was held back by a sloppy script and some truly terrible editing. We've seen '90s flops that are still worth watching, but sadly, "Addams Family Reunion" isn't one of them. 

After "Addams Family Reunion" flopped, Warner Bros. and Saban made some changes to, but ultimately forged ahead with, the plans for a TV series, and "The New Addams Family" TV show closed out the '90s for the franchise. The show worked as a reboot of the original 1960 series, and it even featured one original cast member: John Astin, famous for playing Gomez Addams, joined the series in a recurring role as Grandpapa Addams. Nicolo Fugere reprised her role as Wednesday from "Addams Family Reunion," but every other member of the family was new to the Addams lifestyle. Glenn Taranto played Gomez, Ellie Harvie played Morticia, Brody Smith played Pugsley, and John DeSantis played Lurch.

This was arguably the most successful "Addams Family" TV show of all time. At the very least, it gave us the most content. "The New Addams Family" ran for 65 episodes, though the show was cancelled in 1999, not even a full year after it debuted. The series explored some of the most niche characters in the Addams extended family, like Cousin Melancholia, and it also gave plenty of screentime to Wednesday and Pugsley, particularly focusing on their misadventures at the local public school. There's plenty for an "Addams Family" fan to love in this series, and that's good because it marks the end of another era. After this show, we wouldn't get another "Addams Family" project for 20 years.

In 2019 we got a new feature length "Addams Family" movie, only this time it was animated. Naturally 2019's "The Addams Family" features a brand new cast, and there hasn't been a project in the franchise more star-studded than this. The main family includes Oscar Isaac and Charlize Theron as Gomez and Morticia, Chloë Grace Moretz as Wednesday, and Finn Wolfhard as Pugsley. The supporting cast is also full of familiar voices like Nick Kroll, Bette Midler, Martin Short, Catherine O'Hara, and even Snoop Dog.

As with "Addams Family Reunion," a strong cast wasn't enough to impress critics. "The Addams Family" scored a 46% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, making it one of the worst-reviewed "Addams Family" projects of all time. When we ranked every version of the Addams Family, this one came very near the bottom of the list. Despite critical reaction, "The Addams Family" blew up at the box office, earning over $200 million and setting a new record for the franchise. That success alone was enough to guarantee that this version of the Addams family would get another shot at the big screen.

When this franchise commits to making a sequel, it gets the job done quickly. "The Addams Family 2" is only the second time that a movie in the franchise has gotten a direct sequel, and once again every cast member from this version of the Addamses came back for the new movie. In the vein of the 1970s animated series, this movie takes the Addams family on the road as Gomez and Morticia decide that a vacation is exactly what they need to bond with their growing children. Of course, nothing goes as planned, and pretty soon the entire family finds themselves at odds with a mad scientist determined to create human-animal hybrids.

The last time a story focused on an Addams family vacation, it didn't work out, and that was seemingly a lesson the franchise should have taken to heart. "The Addams Family 2" scored even worse with critics than the first movie, ending up with just a 28% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. While the movie definitely didn't flop at the box office — it earned upward of $100 million – it didn't come close to the success of the first film, and that's probably why this particular take on the Addams family never grew into a trilogy.

Tim Burton and the Addams family seem like a match made in heaven, so it's a little surprising that it took until the 2020s for Burton to have his own Addams family project. Burton actually turned down an offer to direct the 1991 film, and in the 2010s he almost directed a stop-motion "Addams Family" movie that ultimately never saw the light of day. After two near misses, though, Burton finally got on board with "Wednesday" after reading the script for the show's pilot.

As the name somewhat implies, "Wednesday" has some big differences from the "Addams Family" movies. The rest of the family appears in the show, but it's really centered on the Addams' oldest daughter. Gomez and Morticia enroll Wednesday in Nevermore Academy, the private school for supernaturally gifted kids that they both attended. Wednesday struggles to fit in at Nevermore, but aside from dealing with the chaos of being a teenager at a magic school, Wednesday also soon finds herself receiving psychic visions that lead her into the heart of a murder mystery. The series was well received by critics and audiences alike, and Netflix greenlit a second season in January 2023 after "Wednesday" became one of the most-watched shows in the platform's history.