Full of the strange adventures of a family that isn’t like others living in a house with lots of strange objects, The Addams Family features many colorful characters – such as the famous Wednesday – a young girl with a gothic look of an undetermined age who has a sense of humor like no one else.
Discover our latest podcast
Portrayed in the TV series by Lisa Loring and then in the films by Christina Ricci, the origin of Wednesday’s name has never really been explained. But on 30th July this year, Joan Blake from Southern Pines told the New Yorker where Charles Addams got the name for his heroine.
‘I met Addams in New York more than fifty years ago. I lived in North Carolina, but had travelled to the city for a court case involving the custody of my children. I was staying with my college roommate, and she threw a large party, which Addams attended. I was so depressed that I sat on the couch all evening. Addams sat down beside me and asked what was wrong. I told him. He took my arm, walked me to the elevator and took me to P.J. Clarke’s. He made me laugh and told me that the Addams Family was being made into a television show, and that he had no name for the little girl. I said, ‘Wednesday – Wednesday’s child is full of woe,’ And Wednesday became her name.’
Born from Charles Addams’ imagination, the Addams family was originally a cartoon published in the New Yorker in the 1930s, which over time, led to multiple film and TV series adaptations. Among the most well-known is the black and white series entitled ‘The Addams Family’ which was released in the sixties, as well as the films from Barry Sonnenfeld called The Addams Family (1991) and The Addams Family Values (1993).
