Wednesday Addams, Unveiling The Insightful Origins Of This Curious, Eye-Opening Franchise
In a world of eccentric tales and extravagant gothic characters, not many families are as known or as iconic as Wednesday Addams and her family. People always know of her but not how this spooky and witty girl came to be, and how the young girl from this family became one of the most popular franchises today. What inspired the creation of her, who managed to capture this interesting individual? Let’s journey through the minds of the creators of the Wednesday Addams and how they created such a wonderful franchise.
The Creation of Wednesday Addams: A Ghoulish Beginning
Wednesday did not begin on television or film like it is commonly believed, she started as a cartoon in the New Yorker along with her family. The well-known individuals like Wednesday we know today were conceived and brought to life by American cartoonist Charles Addams. Charles was born in 1912 and masterminded the dark humour and bizarre filled comic strip in 1938. The original cartoons of her and her family with a singular panel and intricate details caught the eye of audiences across America with their ironic twists on conventional life.
Charles Addams had made a world where the weird and whacky was going against the confines of normal society norms, and people were eating it up. The hilariously dark and grim humour allowed a franchise to flourish in an otherwise plain world. It was a new take that not many had experience with. The franchise Wednesday was born from forged an unforgettable legacy that now surpasses its initial form of media.
Transitioning to the Screen: Wednesday's First Moving Appearance
The people of America were fascinated by the wild girl that consistently threw curveballs. It’s hard to believe that the franchise wouldn’t transition to the screen from pen and paper eventually. Once they were creating the television show named after and heavily inspired by the New Yorker cartoon, it completely changed the landscape of 1960s television.
The original television adaptation of this crazy girl and her family had aired on ABC from 1964 to 1966. The gothic show was influenced by the minds of David Levy and Nat Perrin who were producers who were quite influential in the process of transitioning the cartoon into a live action show. Perrin, with the assistance of Levy, managed to have a wonderful mix of clever and creative dialogue, with a fair amount of slapstick comedy. The blend of humour and the dark energy which is presented provide a great building block that helped cement the young girl in popular culture.
For a lot of the fans, the whole family from Wednesday to even Uncle Fester were relatable and endearing in one way or another in their own special way at least.
The Evolution of Wednesday Addams
From this diverse cast of weirdos lies a fan favourite who has stood the test of time. Wednesday Addams has become an icon for the franchise. She has had an influence ever since her debut with her unique style and morbid curiosity over pop culture and fashion.
Initially, this little girl was portrayed as sweet yet sinister in the New Yorker cartoon and 1960s show. As the movie franchise arrived in the 1990s, she was reinvented as a straight faced and quick-witted teenager with an unrivalled intelligence. Caroline Thompson, screenwriter for the original movie that our favourite lady appeared in, was the mind behind the recreation of the character played perfectly by Christina Ricci. This made Wednesday a significant icon of rebellious and nonconformist youth.
As Wednesday became a household name, the franchise expanded even further. Largely in the nightwear industry, there was socks, pyjamas, and slippers that were released and became such popular products that many families had some form of Wednesday Addams product in there home. To this day, Misirli uses the Wednesday license to its full potential with its own range of socks and nightwear in general.
In Conclusion
The Wednesday franchise is currently thriving, especially with the new season of Wednesday releasing on Netflix early next year and it’s all stemmed from a small one panel comic in the late 1930s about a quirky, gothic family living their strange but relatable life. Now, we see manufacturing of all kinds of products that resemble our weird and loveable family members. If you would like to see some of the products that we make from our Wednesday partnership, please feel free to check out more on our website or check out our social media pages where we display many upcoming or popular products.