your people will wear cardigans and drink highballs.

November 23, 2016 9:59 AM

"I watched Addams Family Values for the first time when I was 11 years old. I don’t think I’d seen the first movie, or knew that it existed. That year, I dressed up as Wednesday Addams in the Thanksgiving scene for Halloween. My four best friends were all blonde and I hadn’t even noticed. When people made comments about what a sweet Pocahontas I was—people were less political then—I told them, “No, I’m not Pocahontas. I’m Wednesday as Pocahontas.” I wanted to be her in that scene, the one where she stops everything and tells everyone how the Thanksgiving story really goes. The one where she sets everything on fire." (By Alexa Carrasco for Paste Magazine)
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome (39 comments total)

Poor Amanda Buckman, first this, then turned into a vampire.
posted by leotrotsky at 10:03 AM on November 23, 2016 [13 favorites]

I love these movies. I still miss Raul Julia.
posted by rtha at 10:19 AM on November 23, 2016 [31 favorites]

Wow, I had no idea that the actress who played Amanda was also Harmony.

I remember seeing Addams Family Values in the theater and the Thanksgiving play was definitely the highlight. I always considered it a victory for outcasts and nerds. Go Wednesday!
posted by Ber at 10:25 AM on November 23, 2016 [2 favorites]

Wednesday Addams is my alter-ego. My ideal. The girl I always wanted to be. A little homicidal, and all NGAF. She was like the girl version of Spock. Except for the killing for sport.
posted by Sophie1 at 10:29 AM on November 23, 2016 [17 favorites]

I am still distracted by whatever David Krumholtz is doing off to the side here. On the other hand I guess it's a pretty realistic portrayal of some kid in a pageant, so ok.
posted by rewil at 10:29 AM on November 23, 2016 [1 favorite]

A Tribe Called Red has a great song that samples this - Burn Your Village to the Ground
posted by cadge at 10:33 AM on November 23, 2016 [25 favorites]

She was like the girl version of Spock. Except for the killing for sport.

Eh, I wouldn't be too sure.
posted by leotrotsky at 10:42 AM on November 23, 2016 [1 favorite]

I was just talking about this movie last night! The Thanksgiving scene is the only part I remember.
posted by hopeless romantique at 10:46 AM on November 23, 2016

I'm just like any modern woman trying to have it all. Loving husband, a family. It's just, I wish I had more time to seek out the dark forces and join their hellish crusade. 
posted by the man of twists and turns at 10:47 AM on November 23, 2016 [37 favorites]

the Thanksgiving play was definitely the highlight. I always considered it a victory for outcasts and nerds

Virginia Algonquians: the original nerds
posted by beerperson at 10:48 AM on November 23, 2016 [1 favorite]

Wednesday was one hundred percent my favorite thing about any version of the Addams Family, with the sole exception of Thing. (I was five when I started watching the old reruns in the wee hours of Saturday mornings on PBS or somewhere. Disembodied hands in boxes are catnip to five-year-olds, and you never get over your first love.)

I also feel like both of the Addams Family movies really captured some of the essence of the original show (which in turn managed to translate more of the comics' morbid humor than one might have thought possible for a sitcom in that era.) Addams Family Values is one of the rare sequels that might actually have improved on the original, at least with the B plot of Wednesday at camp. (The rehashing of "Fester gets brainwashed" was not as great, although it did give us, "All of these things I could forgive. But Debbie... pastels?")

That was an awesome song that cadge linked, too. It made my four-year-old spontaneously dance.
posted by Scattercat at 10:48 AM on November 23, 2016 [12 favorites]

My wife loves this movie. She will watch it any time it's on, and the Thanksgiving scene, in fact the whole camp plot, is her favorite part.
posted by uncleozzy at 10:50 AM on November 23, 2016 [1 favorite]

The rehashing of "Fester gets brainwashed" was not as great, although it did give us, "All of these things I could forgive. But Debbie... pastels?")
posted by Scattercat at 10:48 AM on November 23 [+] [!]

And my favorite one-liner of all time.
posted by gc at 10:51 AM on November 23, 2016 [12 favorites]

Paging The Whelk, The Whelk to Post #163569.
posted by overeducated_alligator at 10:53 AM on November 23, 2016 [6 favorites]

I introduced the old TV show to my seven year old daughter several weeks ago and she ate it up. The thing that it reminded me most of after all these years was, of all things, Phineas and Ferb. Both shows feature protagonists that are certified loony but are also friendly and positive to a fault.

That makes me smile. That and John Astin.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 10:56 AM on November 23, 2016 [5 favorites]

When they first screened the film, teenagers said they thought Amanda was killed, that Wednesday really burned her like the scene suggested. The directors didn’t want kids to think that had happened, so they added a short clip with Amanda on the plane later on.

In my memory, this final scene didn't happen. I always found the movie a little unsettling for that reason.
posted by hopeless romantique at 10:58 AM on November 23, 2016 [3 favorites]

I too was 11 when this movie came out and desperately wanted to be Wednesday. (I tried to imitate her voice for a while, but turned out to be constitutionally incapable of maintaining that much deadpan for any length of time.) Growing up outside the US, this movie actually meant that my first introduction to the American Thanksgiving tradition and my first ever view of it being systematically taken apart happened simultaneously. I didn't understand it all at the time, but that didn't stop me from memorising the speech. Intermittently for years I would come across something - a reference to highball glasses in The Shining - and suddenly flash back to Addams Family Values and go "Ohhh!"

I also remember reading an interview with Christine Ricci in a teen magazine at the time when she talked about how the Addamses creepiness and kookiness were tempered by a great deal of loyalty and love. The exact quote (which I also memorised) was "they're basically the only functional family I know." I remember being struck at the time by how insightful and articulate this girl my own age was being about the movie characters and didn't notice until later how much that quote was a commentary about her own family.
posted by the latin mouse at 10:58 AM on November 23, 2016 [19 favorites]

Oh god it's playing at the local arthouse on Saturday morning. Please don't tell my wife. We have other plans.
posted by uncleozzy at 11:01 AM on November 23, 2016 [1 favorite]

Anyone remember Adult Wednesday Addams? Good stuff.
posted by leotrotsky at 11:01 AM on November 23, 2016 [18 favorites]

The rehashing of "Fester gets brainwashed" was not as great, although it did give us, "All of these things I could forgive. But Debbie... pastels?"

I can forgive the offenses of the A-plot only because of Joan Cusack.
posted by muddgirl at 11:17 AM on November 23, 2016 [13 favorites]

My life motto might as well be, "I'll stop wearing black when they invent a darker color."
posted by Sophie1 at 11:18 AM on November 23, 2016 [17 favorites]

John Astin versus Raul Julia is probably the only time I've ever seen a character played by two actors and didn't have a clear favorite. Their interpretations of Gomez are different, but I love them both.

(I was once asked, "If you could have the personality of any television character, who would it be?" At the time I said Jean-Luc Picard, which I still think is a good answer, but now I would say Gomez Addams.)
posted by Faint of Butt at 11:24 AM on November 23, 2016 [14 favorites]

In much the same way that Native peoples are slaughtered and oppressed even today, I was never very popular in high school
posted by beerperson at 11:40 AM on November 23, 2016 [36 favorites]

We held an Addams Family-themed party on Hallowe'en one year. Everybody wants to be Wednesday.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 12:25 PM on November 23, 2016

cadge: A Tribe Called Red has a great song that samples this - Burn Your Village to the Ground

Damn, that's good, and dark. (Here's the movie quote on IMDb)
posted by filthy light thief at 12:37 PM on November 23, 2016 [2 favorites]

Amanda: Why are you dressed like somebody died?

Wednesday: Wait.
posted by kyrademon at 12:42 PM on November 23, 2016 [27 favorites]

I was a movie critic when this movie came out and one of the more amusing things I saw related to Addams Family Values was a "For Your Consideration" ad for the film in Variety, which included the suggestion of "Eat Me" for Best Original Song. It wasn't going to happen (and didn't), but I kind of love that they made the effort.

I am also one of those who is of the opinion that Values is better than the first film; in fact substantially so. The story hangs together far better; Paul Rudnick, who was brought in to punch up the first film, got to write the whole thing this time, and it's funnier and sneakier because of it (and it's clear that Rudnick loves Wednesday most of all).
posted by jscalzi at 12:49 PM on November 23, 2016 [11 favorites]

Wow. I hadn't thought about this scene for years, but I think it's the reason I never watched Addams Family Values a second time and sort of lost interest in the entire franchise. I'm thankful for Greg Nog and others who've articulated what's squicky about it better than I can.

The one thing I'd add: "forced to live in mobile homes on reservations" is a really blunt stereotype. It's just as reductive of the lives of modern Native Americans as headdresses and tipis, and no more accurate either. It's wading into some deep racial waters, waters a movie this overwhelmingly white should have avoided.
posted by roll truck roll at 12:51 PM on November 23, 2016 [2 favorites]

This is one of my fave all-time movies. A friend and I saw it at the theater, skeptically, without any clue that it was written by a subversive smart-aleck, and by midway through we were both howling and weeping in delight. Adorably weird-ass David Krumholtz, the always transcendently goofy Joan Cusack, and Raul Julia -- oh my god he's just unctuously deranged throughout the proceedings. He makes John Astin look normal.

Fester: I live in shame... and the suburbs!

posted by FelliniBlank at 1:24 PM on November 23, 2016 [2 favorites]

Gary: Now, one of you will be the drowning victim and the other one gets to be our lifesaver.

Amanda: I'll be the victim!

Wednesday: All your life.
posted by kyrademon at 1:33 PM on November 23, 2016 [24 favorites]

Damn it, kyrademon took mine. Mrs. Example and I still quote that to each other.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 3:33 PM on November 23, 2016

Unlike some movies from my youth, this has aged well and I still find it hilarious. Loved sharing both films with my kids.
posted by gryphonlover at 9:41 PM on November 23, 2016

Was there ever a married couple on television more in love with each other than Gomez and Morticia?
posted by ogooglebar at 5:52 AM on November 24, 2016 [4 favorites]

Thought it was the weekend but it's only Wednesday.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 7:43 AM on November 24, 2016 [1 favorite]

There were three Wednesdays, and a Gomez and Morticia couple at the Halloween party I went to this year.

Why yes I do hang out with a bunch of goths, why do you ask?
posted by cirhosis at 8:09 AM on November 24, 2016 [1 favorite]

Was there ever a married couple on television more in love with each other than Gomez and Morticia?

Nope, but Barack and Michelle are probably tied with them.
posted by FelliniBlank at 10:52 AM on November 24, 2016 [2 favorites]

This was shot at my summer camp and those rowboats were painted like that for years. A quiet subtle nod from the dark side every time you pass the waterfront... it was great.
posted by jrobin276 at 1:11 PM on November 24, 2016 [6 favorites]

A Tribe Called Red has a great song that samples this - Burn Your Village to the Ground
posted by cadge at 10:33 AM on November 23 [24 favorites −] Favorite added! [!]

also in the re-appropriation department is this Neon Natives Remix, which contains some compelling footage and a call to save Oak Flat. nothing about sarah miller here.
posted by eustatic at 4:57 AM on November 25, 2016 [1 favorite]

There's an episode of the excellent 'podcast about fictional dads" Dadfeelings about Gomez and how he's like, the best dad and how the whole joke is the Addams are super healthy and supportive

and My Longish Comment from FanFare: Addams Family Values is about accepting people as they are, not trying to change them.
posted by The Whelk at 10:27 PM on November 27, 2016 [1 favorite]