Released on Nov. 19, 1993, the sequel to the film remake of Charles Addams’ classic cartoons has since become a cult favorite. The stars talk to BuzzFeed about what happened on set. *Snap snap*
Paramount / Courtesy Everett Collection
Nearly 60 years after Charles Addams' first Addams Family comics appeared in The New Yorker and a quarter century after the hit TV sitcom had been laid to rest, Paramount Pictures revived Gomez, Morticia, Wednesday, Pugsley, Fester, and Co. for the big screen. Producer Scott Rudin managed to sign Anjelica Huston, Raúl Juliá, and Christopher Lloyd on for the main three roles respectively and The Addams Family was a hit. The film was released on November 22, 1991 and grossed nearly $113.5 million domestically. So, of course, the studio wanted a sequel.
Almost exactly two years later, on November 19, 1993, Addams Family Values hit theaters, reuniting the original cast (except for Carol Kane as Grandmama, who replaced Judith Malina) and earning coveted praise for any follow-up installment in a film franchise. "It's the rare sequel that is better than its original, and yet Addams Family Values qualifies," Roger Ebert wrote in his review at the time. Though the sequel failed to bring in the box office numbers of its predecessor (in total nearly $49 million), it's become a modern classic, a film that airs on television every Halloween (thanks to the natural ghoulishness that the family casts off) and Thanksgiving (due to a particularly hilarious pilgrims-meet-Pocahontas play at Wednesday and Pugsley's camp, one of the movie's highlights).
"Is there not another movie they can play during this time?" lamented Mercedes McNab, who played Wednesday's sleepaway camp nemesis Amanda Buckman. "That was probably my awkward stage so every year, around Halloween and Thanksgiving, I have to relive my awkward stage ... It's been like 20 years. I was actually dwelling on that. I was thinking, Wow, it's been 20 years. Oh my god, that's terrifying. I can't believe I'm that old."
Two decades later though, those involved with Addams Family Values still have incredibly fond memories.
"I think the way that particular cast just embodied those characters was just perfection," screenwriter Paul Rudnick told BuzzFeed. "We were all such odd characters, even though we were a really functional family, in a way, as eccentric and crazy as we were," Christopher Lloyd noted with a laugh. "And it was such a wonderful feeling amongst us of being a family almost. We were The Addams Family!"
Below, the cast and crew of Addams Family Values look back on making macabre movie magic, their auditions, the lines they can't escape, first kisses, some unexpected Michael Jackson drama, and how they remained close through it all.
Rudin and Rudnick had been working together on Sister Act since 1987 (some creative differences led the screenwriter to ask to be credited with the pseudonym Joseph Howard after the script went through excessive changes) and the producer asked Rudnick to be the original Addams Family script doctor. "Scott Rudin brought me on board right before the movie started shooting to do an overhaul and work on throughout the shooting process," Rudnick recalled.
"The first film had done well so the studio was eager for a sequel and because Scott managed to reunite that amazing cast and Barry Sonnenfeld, who was the terrific director, I was brought on board too," he said of getting the gig penning Addams Family Values, his first solo screenwriting credit. "I think we were allowed to get away with a lot more because the first movie had been successful. The reins were a little looser."
Despite the extremely morbid jokes ("Everyone knows it. When you have a new baby, one of the other children has to die," Wednesday explains), alarmingly elaborate pranks involving guillotines and electric chairs, and, of course, some heavy sexual undertones, Rudnick doesn't recall anything having to be cut from the film to maintain a PG-13 rating. "I remember there was one moment on set when Barry called his wife gleefully and said, 'Guess what? Today I threw a baby off a roof!'" the screenwriter remembered with a laugh. "So once that proved normal, there were very few boundaries."
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