text:
The Addams Family

The Addams Family is a fictional family created by American cartoonist Charles Addams. They originally appeared in a series of 150 standalone single-panel comics, about half of which were originally published in The New Yorker between 1938 and their creator's death in 1988. They have since been adapted to other media, such as television, film, video games, comic books, a musical, and merchandise.

The Addamses are an eccentric old-money clan who delight in the macabre and are seemingly unaware or unconcerned that other people find them bizarre or frightening. The family members were unnamed until the 1960s. Matriarch Morticia and daughter Wednesday received their names when a licensed doll collection was released in 1962; patriarch Gomez and son Pugsley were named when the 1964 television series debuted. The Addams Family consists of Gomez and Morticia Addams, their children, Wednesday and Pugsley, and close family members Uncle Fester and Grandmama, their butler Lurch, and Pugsley's pet octopus, Aristotle. The dimly seen Thing (later a disembodied hand) was introduced in 1954, and Gomez's Cousin Itt, Morticia's pet lion Kitty Kat and Morticia's carnivorous plant Cleopatra in 1964. Pubert Addams, Wednesday and Pugsley's infant brother, was introduced in the 1993 film Addams Family Values.

The live-action television series premiered on ABC on Friday, September 18, 1964, and ran for two seasons. It subsequently inspired a 1977 telefilm titled Halloween with the New Addams Family and cameos from the cast in other shows. An unrelated animated series aired in 1973.

The franchise was revived in the 1990s with a feature film series consisting of The Addams Family (1991) and Addams Family Values (1993). The films inspired a second animated series (1992–1993) which is set in the same fictional universe. The series was rebooted with a 1998 direct-to-video film and a spin-off live-action television series (1998–1999). In 2010, a live musical adaptation featuring Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth opened on Broadway with tepid reviews, but it was nominated for two Tony Awards and eight Drama Desk Awards, winning one Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Set Design. The series was rebooted again in 2019 with the animated film The Addams Family, which led to a sequel in 2021. In 2022, Netflix debuted the original series Wednesday, which is a spin-off from the original 1964 series.

The franchise has spawned a video game series, academic books and soundtracks, which are based around its Grammy-nominated theme song. A staple in pop culture for eight decades, The Addams Family has influenced American comics, cinema and television. The goth subculture and its fashion have also been influenced by The Addams Family.

Origins and The New Yorker cartoons (1933–1964)
Charles Addams began as a cartoonist in The New Yorker with a sketch of a window washer that ran on February 6, 1932. Addams first drew the then-unnamed Morticia some years before her first published appearance in The New Yorker. Some sources give a date of 1933, while Addams himself when asked in interview suggested "around 1937." Media speculation at the time often connected Morticia to Charles Addams' first wife Barbara Jean Day, but he had yet to meet her. In an interview in 1981 he acknowledged that Morticia reflected the qualities he was attracted to. Because of this, the women he married later on resembled the character. He described Morticia as "not patterned after anyone in particular, although I’ve often thought there was a little Gloria Swanson in her."

The first Addams Family cartoon was published in 1938, in a one-panel gag format. Charles Addams became a regular contributor to The New Yorker, and drew approximately 1,300 cartoons between then and his death in 1988. 58 of these would feature the Addams Family, almost all of which were published in the 1940s and 1950s. Members of the family were introduced one by one, with Morticia first, Gomez (based on Thomas E. Dewey) joining four years later, Pugsley, and finally Wednesday and Fester shortly after. Addams indicated that Fester resembled himself, "plus a little more hair." A Christmas 1946 strip, showing the family pouring boiling oil on carolers, was well received and was later sold on Christmas cards. Outside of The New Yorker, Addams also published several collections, the most notable being Dear Dead Days: A Family Album in 1959. The family members were initially not named; Wednesday was first given a name in 1962 for a licensed doll collection, while the others were named during the development of the television series in 1963. The editor of The New Yorker, William Shawn, prevented any further Addams family cartoons from being printed after the 1964 launch of the television franchise.

Science fiction writer Ray Bradbury created a series of tales chronicling a family of Illinois monsters, the Elliotts, that bear a strong resemblance to the Addams family. These stories were anthologized in From the Dust Returned (2001), with a connecting narrative, an explanation of his work with Addams, and a 1946 illustration Addams drew for Bradbury's short story "Homecoming" in Mademoiselle magazine, the first in the Elliot family series.

TV adaptations and rise to popularity (1964–1977)
In the early 1960s, NBC executive David Levy stumbled across one of Addams' books in a New York bookstore, and realized that the tone would be perfect for television. He purchased the book and met with Addams in the Plaza Hotel, and the topic of a television adaptation was raised. Addams had been approached about television adaptations by others in the past, but he was inclined to take Levy up on the offer because of their shared friend in the author John O'Hara. At the next meeting, at Addams' apartment, Levy indicated the characters would need to be named, and Addams came up with a list for the third meeting. According to Levy, Addams had little involvement with the series after those three meetings. He retained the right to veto casting decisions and other choices, but did not make use of the power. Some rights to the franchise were given to Filmways, the production company for the show.

The 1964 television adaptation brought the series to a much wider audience and was well received publicly. Producer Nat Perrin took a "less evil" approach to the characters and stories than Addams had in the cartoons, emphasizing lighter, more comedic elements. Stephen Cox later referred to the series as "more zany than spooky". The popular series, broadcast on the ABC network, ran only two seasons. No official reason was given for the cancellation, though Smithsonian Magazine speculated that it was due to the adoption of colour programming on the network the following year. Charles Addams himself was less happy with the series, criticising the characters for being "half as evil" as in the comics.

The sudden cancellation in 1966 also brought issues for Charles Addams, as he faced a sudden drop in income with the show no longer in development. His second wife Barbara Barb was a practicing lawyer who had engaged in "diabolical legal scheming" during their marriage, and had convinced Addams to sign over the rights to future television and film adaptations, as well as rights to some of his other cartoons. Following their divorce she remained in possession of these rights until 1991, when she sold them to allow development of the Sonnenfeld films. Shawn would not allow any further strips to be printed in The New Yorker, as he did not want the brand of his publication associated with a sitcom. Addams became bitter towards the magazine "for disowning his family". The franchise remained in the popular consciousness even after the series concluded, with the "Lurch" dance move remaining popular through the 1960s. The television series was often re-run through television syndication for years afterward, particularly in Australia.

Hanna-Barbera parodied the show in November 1964 by introducing a family named "The Gruesomes" to The Flintstones, and the Gruesomes appeared occasionally in Flintstones media into the early 1970s. The studio later animated a 1972 Addams Family crossover with Scooby-Doo, which led to a 1973 animated series. The animated incarnation featured a new cast except for Felix Silla, who returned as Cousin Itt. The show had good ratings and spawned a line of children's merchandise, but only aired 16 episodes. A pilot was also produced that year for a new live action series entitled The Addams Family Funhouse, using a different cast. The pilot was aired in 1973 but never picked up for a full series.

A 1977 special, Halloween with the New Addams Family, reunited most of the original cast from the 1964 series, with Blossom Rock absent due to her health. The made-for-TV movie faced issues during production and was poorly received. It was shot using a house set that had been constructed for the horror film Ben, which didn't resemble the original Addams mansion and caused technical issues with lighting. The film was widely criticised for the script, direction, and the performances of some of the actors. Jackie Coogan in particular was recovering from a mild stroke during filming.

Wave of interest in Australia (1979-1989)
While William Shawn's ban on further Addams Family comics in The New Yorker persisted until 1987; Addams was able to sneak in several of the characters as a cameo in Z Line Subway, a 1979 strip. He married Marilyn Matthews Miller in 1981, in an Addams family themed ceremony conducted in a cemetery. Filmways, the production company of the 1964 series and holder of some franchise rights, was purchased in 1982 by Orion Pictures. The retirement of Shawn in 1987 allowed a brief return of the cartoons to The New Yorker, though Addams died only a year later. While largely inactive in the United States, the franchise did however see a wave of popularity in Australia, brought on by widely watched reruns on TCN-9. New merchandise was released in Australia and a "Morticia Boutique Dress Shop" opened in Melbourne in 1988. A satellite-linked interview with surviving members of the original cast was also aired on Australian television. A fan quoted by Cox credited the tone of the Addams family for its success in 1980s Australia, noting that the characters were "less American" than the Munsters, and that Australians had a different life-style. Astin reprised his role as Gomez for a 1989 episode of Nick at Nite's Sitcom Zone, in which he introduced reruns of shows for a two-hour programming block. A 1989 video game Fester's Quest was developed by Sunsoft, and is now considered among the worst games of all time. To promote the game some black-and-white advertisements were filmed using the characters.

Film series and The New Addams Family (1991–2001)
The head of production at 20th Century Fox, Scott Rudin, pitched an Addams Family film but Fox did not have the rights to the franchise. The rights were at the time split between two parties: The late Addams' second wife Barbara Barb, and Orion Pictures. The latter were in possession of film rights in particular after purchasing Filmways in 1982. Fox attempted to purchase those rights but failed, as Orion had plans for a new TV series. The studio's plans changed however after Barb sold her rights to Orion, and the studio brought Rudin on board to produce a film. Caroline Thompson and Larry Wilson wrote a script, and faced many re-writes early on. Tim Burton was considered for director, but the role ultimately went to Barry Sonnenfeld. The film featured a new cast, Blossom Rock (Grandmama) having died in 1978, Ted Cassidy (Lurch) in 1979, Carolyn Jones (Morticia) in 1983 and Jackie Coogan (Fester) in 1984. Production on the film was troubled, with Sonnenfeld blacking out on set, and a burst blood vessel in Raul Julia's eye further delaying the shoot. Director of photography Owen Roizman quit the production three months from completion, forcing Sonnenfeld to take on the role in addition to his existing responsibilities. Orion faced financial issues and sold the project and Addams family rights to Paramount mid-production- though the deal did not include overseas home media rights, which harmed distribution after release. Orion retained those, and those rights passed to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer when the studio was bought out in 1997.

While the 1991 film received mixed reviews from critics, it performed reasonably well at the box office despite its production issues. A second film in 1993, Addams Family Values was highly regarded by critics but performed poorly at the box office unexpectedly, and earned less than half the revenue of its predecessor. This, and the sudden death of Julia in 1994, prevented Sonnenfeld from producing further films. Both films received nominations for Academy Awards, BAFTA Awards, and Hugo Awards. For her role as Morticia, Anjelica Huston was twice nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress, and Raul Julia (as Gomez), Christina Ricci (as Wednesday), Christopher Lloyd (as Fester), and Joan Cusack (as Fester's wife, Debbie Jellinsky, in the sequel) received multiple Saturn Award and American Comedy Award nominations for their portrayals.

Following the wave of interest in the franchise, a 1992 animated television series notably saw John Astin reprise his role as Gomez, almost thirty years after his first appearance in the role in 1964. It was nominated for four Daytime Emmy Awards, including one for Astin. That year a pinball machine based on the franchise was also released, featuring original voice acting from Julia and Huston as Gomez and Morticia. It went on to become the highest selling pinball machine of all time at over 20,000 units.

A direct-to-video film, The Addams Family Reunion produced by Saban Entertainment in 1998, featured the return of Carel Struycken as Lurch, but was otherwise unrelated to the Sonnenfeld films. It was very poorly received. The film was intended as the pilot for a Canadian-produced live-action television series, The New Addams Family, made with a mostly different cast and airing the following year. Astin, then in his late 60s, returned as Grandpapa Addams in the TV series, rather than Gomez, who was played by Glenn Taranto. The show concluded after a single season in 1999. A video game adaptation of The New Addams Family was released in 2001 for the Game Boy Color.

Musical and animated adaptations (2007-2021)

In 2007, Elephant Eye Theatrical announced that they had obtained the rights to a musical adaptation of the comic series, which at that time were held by the Tee and Charles Addams Foundation. After a try-out in Chicago in 2009, the musical was performed on Broadway in 2010, and thereafter in a sequence of international tours until 2021.

The rights to the franchise were purchased by Illumination Entertainment in 2010, and the studio shortly announced a Tim Burton stop-motion led film. However, Burton withdrew from the project in 2013 over a decision to use computer animation rather than stop motion as he had intended. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer acquired the remaining rights and announced a computer animated film the same year, and entered into production in the late 2010s. Unlike the Burton version, this would use 3D computer animation. The film was eventually released in 2019, to a moderate box-office reception. A sequel, released in 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, was far less successful. The first film received mixed audience reception, while the second film received negative audience reception with the two films scoring 45% and 28% on review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, respectively.

Wednesday (2022- present)
Miles Millar and Alfred Gough began work on a live action spin off series entitled Wednesday in 2019, financed by MGM. The writers room for the series took place during the start of the COVID-19 Pandemic, and so was conducted remotely. The project was formally announced in 2020, with Burton as executive producer. The first series was released in 2022 to critical acclaim. Amazon purchased MGM in 2021, which in turn means that the Addams Family rights now rest with the company.

Premise and background

 * Gomez and Pugsley are enthusiastic. Morticia is even in disposition, muted, witty, sometimes deadly. Grandma Frump is foolishly good-natured. Wednesday is her mother's daughter. A closely-knit family, the real head being Morticia – although each of the others is a definite character – except for Grandma, who is easily led. Many of the troubles they have as a family are due to Grandma's fumbling, weak character. The house is a wreck, of course, but this is a house-proud family just the same, and every trap door is in good repair. Money is no problem.
 * — Charles Addams

The family appears to be a branch of an extensive Addams clan, with relatives all over the world. In the original television series they are said to be related to "those one-D Adamses", a fact the family are deeply ashamed of. According to the film version, the family credo is, Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc (pseudo-Latin: "We gladly feast on those who would subdue us"). Charles Addams was first inspired by his hometown of Westfield, New Jersey, an area full of ornate Victorian mansions and archaic graveyards. In the original comics series they live in a 'gothic' house on Cemetery Ridge. According to the television series, the residence is a gloomy mansion adjacent to a cemetery and a swamp located in an unspecified American town. In the musical (first shown in Chicago in 2009), the house is located in Central Park. In the 2019 film, the Addamses live in an abandoned asylum located in the outskirts of the state of New Jersey which is haunted by a disembodied resident who demands the property to remain undisturbed.

Although most of the humor derives from the fact that they share macabre interests, such as putting each other and themselves in the way of bodily harm (none of which seems to have any effect), the television Addamses are not evil. They are a close-knit extended family. Morticia is an exemplary mother, and she and Gomez remain passionate towards each other; as established in the television series: She occasionally fondly calls him bubbeleh, to which he responds by kissing her arms, behavior which Morticia can also provoke by speaking a few words in French (their meanings are not important; any words in French will do). The parents are supportive of their children (except in the 2019 film when Wednesday arrives home wearing a pink dress). The family is friendly and hospitable to visitors; in some cases, it is willing to donate large sums of money to causes (television series and films), despite the visitors' horror at the Addamses' peculiar lifestyle. The characters were unnamed until the advent of the 1964 television adaptation, except for Wednesday and Morticia who were first named for a 1962 licensed doll collection.

The Addams Family (1964–1966)
In 1964, the ABC TV network created The Addams Family television series based on Addams's cartoon characters. The series was shot in black-and-white and aired for two seasons in 64 half-hour episodes (September 18, 1964 – September 2, 1966). During the original television run of The Addams Family television series, The New Yorker editor William Shawn refused to publish any Addams Family cartoons. However, he continued to publish other Charles Addams cartoons. Shawn regarded his magazine as targeting a more refined readership and he did not want it to be associated with characters who could be seen on television by the more general public. After Shawn's 1987 retirement, the characters were welcomed back to The New Yorker.

The New Scooby-Doo Movies (1972)
The Addams Family's first animated appearance was on the third episode of Hanna-Barbera's The New Scooby-Doo Movies, "Scooby-Doo Meets the Addams Family" (a.k.a. "Wednesday is Missing"), which first aired on CBS Saturday morning, on September 23, 1972. Four members of the original cast (John Astin, Carolyn Jones, Jackie Coogan, and Ted Cassidy) returned for the special, which involved the Addamses in a mystery with the Scooby-Doo gang. The Addams Family characters were drawn to the specifications of the original Charles Addams cartoons. After the episode aired, fans wanted more animated adventures featuring the Addamses, and Hanna-Barbera obliged.

The Addams Family Fun-House (1973)
In late 1972, ABC produced a pilot for a live-action musical variety show which was titled The Addams Family Fun-House. The cast included Jack Riley and Liz Torres as Gomez and Morticia (the pair also co-wrote the special), Stubby Kaye as Uncle Fester, Pat McCormick as Lurch and Butch Patrick (who had played Eddie Munster on The Munsters) as Pugsley. Felix Silla reprised his role as Cousin Itt, connecting it to the original TV series. The pilot aired in 1973, but it was not picked up for a series.

The Addams Family (1973)
The first animated series ran on Saturday mornings from September 8 – December 22, 1973 on NBC. In a departure from the original series, this series took the Addamses on the road in a Victorian-style RV. This series also marked the point where the relationships between the characters were changed so that Fester was now Gomez's brother, and Grandmama was now Morticia's mother (though the old relationships between the characters would be revisited in the 1977 television movie, in order to retain its continuity with the original sitcom). Although Coogan and Cassidy reprised their roles as Uncle Fester and Lurch, Astin and Jones did not; their parts were recast with Hanna-Barbera voice talents Lennie Weinrib as Gomez and Janet Waldo as Morticia, while a ten-year-old Jodie Foster provided the voice of Pugsley. Again, the characters were drawn to the specifications of the original Charles Addams cartoons. The show also had appearances from Thing, Cousin Itt, Kitty Kat and Cleopatra from the original series. The show also introduces new Addams Family's animal companions, such as Ali the alligator, Ocho the octopus and Mr. V the vulture. One season was produced, and the second season consisted of reruns. The show's theme music was completely different and it had no lyrics and no finger snaps, although it retained a bit of the four-note score from the live-action show.

The Addams Family Comic Book
From 1974 to 1975, Gold Key Comics produced a comic book series in connection with the show, but it only lasted three issues. Each issue was adapted from a TV episode, starting with "In Search of the Boola-Boola" (October 1974).

Halloween with the New Addams Family (1977)
A television reunion movie, Halloween with the New Addams Family, aired on NBC on Sunday, October 30, 1977. It features most of the original cast, except Blossom Rock, who had played Grandmama. She was still alive but was very ill at the time; Jane Rose replaced her. Veteran character actors Parley Baer and Vito Scotti, who both had recurring roles on the original series, also appeared in the movie. The movie has a slightly different version of the theme song; the finger snaps are used but not the lyrics.

Gomez and Morticia have had two more children, Wednesday Jr. and Pugsley Jr., who strongly resemble their older siblings. Gomez's brother, Pancho, is staying with the family while Gomez attends a lodge meeting in Tombstone, Arizona. Gomez is jealous of his brother, who once courted Morticia. Halloween is nigh, and Pancho tells the children the legend of the Great Pumpkin-like character of Cousin Shy, who distributes gifts and carves pumpkins for good children on Halloween night. Wednesday (now called "Wednesday, Sr.") is home from music academy, where she is studying the piccolo (breaking glass with it). Pugsley (now "Pugsley, Sr.") is home from Nairobi medical school, where he is training to be a witch doctor. The family's home has been bugged by a gang of crooks which intends to steal the family's fortune. Lafferty, the boss, sends a gang member named Mikey into the house to investigate. Mikey panics and flees after treading on the tail of Kitty Kat the lion. The crooks employ a fake Gomez and Morticia to help them carry out their plans, along with two strong-arm goons, Hercules and Atlas. Gomez returns home to celebrate the Halloween party and trim the scarecrow. Lafferty poses as Quincy Addams (from Boston) to gain entrance to the house during the party. He has his men tie up Gomez and Morticia, and his doubles take their places, confusing Pancho, who is still in love with Morticia, and Ophelia, who is still in love with Gomez. Gomez and Morticia escape (thanks to the "Old Piccolo Game"), and rejoin the party, only to have Lafferty use various methods to try to get rid of them. Lurch scares off the thugs and terrifies Lafferty's other assistant. Fester, trying to be nice, puts Lafferty on the rack. Lafferty tries to escape through the secret passage and steps on Kitty Kat's tail. When the police arrive, the crooks gladly surrender. The Addamses are then free to celebrate Halloween happily, ending the night by singing together in welcome for Cousin Shy.

The Addams Family: The Animated Series (1992–1993)
The remake series ran on Saturday mornings from 1992 to 1993 on ABC after producers realized the success of the 1991 Addams Family movie. This series returned to the familiar format of the original series, with the Addams Family facing their sitcom situations at home. John Astin returned to the role of Gomez, and celebrities Rip Taylor and Carol Channing took over the roles of Fester and Grandmama, respectively. Veteran voice actors Jim Cummings, Debi Derryberry, Jeannie Elias and Pat Fraley did the voices of Lurch, Wednesday, Pugsley and Cousin Itt, respectively. New artistic models of the characters were used for this series, though still having a passing resemblance to the original cartoons. Two seasons were produced, with the third year containing reruns. Oddly in this series, Wednesday maintained her macabre, brooding attitude from the Addams Family movies. Still, her facial expressions and body language conveyed the happy-go-lucky, fun attitude of her portrayal in the original television show. The original Vic Mizzy theme song, although slightly different, was used for the opening.

The New Addams Family (1998–1999)
The New Addams Family was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and ran for 65 episodes (one more than the original TV series) during the 1998–1999 season on the then-newly launched Fox Family Channel. Many storylines from the original series were reworked for this new series, incorporating more modern elements and jokes. John Astin returned to the franchise in some episodes of this series, albeit as "Grandpapa" Addams (Gomez's grandfather, a character introduced in Addams Family Reunion). The cast included Glenn Taranto as Gomez Addams, Ellie Harvie as Morticia, Michael Roberds as Fester, Brody Smith as Pugsley, Nicole Fugere (the only cast member from Addams Family Reunion to return) as Wednesday, John DeSantis as Lurch, Betty Phillips as Grandmama and Steven Fox as Thing.

Wednesday (2022)
In 2021, Netflix announced a live-action TV series adaptation based on Wednesday Addams, produced by MGM Television and starring Jenna Ortega as the title character. Alfred Gough and Miles Millar were the showrunners and Tim Burton directed several episodes in his first televised directorial effort. Wednesday, a student at Nevermore Academy, solves mysteries using her psychic ability. These include murders and a 25-year-old mystery involving her family. Luis Guzmán stars as Gomez, and Catherine Zeta-Jones stars as Morticia. In addition, Fred Armisen appears as Uncle Fester, George Burcea as Lurch, Victor Dorobantu as Thing, and Isaac Ordonez as Pugsley. Hunter Doohan, Georgie Farmer, Moosa Mostafa, Emma Myers, Naomi J. Ogawa, Joy Sunday, Percy Hynes White, Riki Lindhome, Jamie McShane and Gwendoline Christie were also added to the cast as series regulars. In March 2022, Christina Ricci, who portrayed Wednesday in The Addams Family (1991) and Addams Family Values (1993), joined the cast as a series regular.

Feature films

 * {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; width:100%"

! rowspan="2"| Crew/detail ! colspan="3"| Live action ! Colspan="2"| Animated ! The Addams Family (1991) ! Addams Family Values (1993) ! Addams Family Reunion (1998) ! The Addams Family (2019) ! The Addams Family 2 (2021) ! Director Greg Tiernan Greg Tiernan Co-directed by: Laura Brousseau Kevin Pavlovic ! Producer Conrad Vernon Alex Schwartz Alison O'Brien Conrad Vernon Danielle Sterling Alison O’Brien ! Writer(s) Larry Wilson Scott Sandin Matt Lieberman Story by: Matt Lieberman Erica Rivinoja Conrad Vernon Dan Hernandez Benji Samit Ben Queen Susanna Fogel Story by: Dan Hernandez Benji Samit ! Composer Jeff Danna ! Cinematography ! Editor(s) Jim Miller ! Production company Scott Rudin Productions Bron Creative Nitrogen Studios Cinesite Studios The Jackal Group Bron Creative Nitrogen Studios Cinesite Studios The Jackal Group Glickmania ! Distributor ! Runtime ! Release date
 * colspan="2"| Barry Sonnenfeld
 * Dave Payne
 * Conrad Vernon
 * Conrad Vernon
 * colspan="2"| Scott Rudin
 * Mike Elliott
 * Gail Berman
 * Gail Berman
 * Caroline Thompson
 * Paul Rudnick
 * Rob Kerchner
 * Screenplay by:
 * Screenplay by:
 * colspan="2"| Marc Shaiman
 * Amotz Plessner
 * colspan="2"| Mychael Danna
 * Owen Roizman
 * Donald Peterman
 * Christian Sebaldt
 * colspan="2" N/A
 * Dede Allen
 * Arthur Schmidt
 * J. J. Jackson
 * David Ian Salter
 * Ryan Folsey
 * Paramount Pictures
 * Scott Rudin Productions
 * Saban Entertainment
 * Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
 * Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
 * Paramount Pictures (United States and Latin America) Columbia Pictures (International)
 * Paramount Pictures
 * Warner Home Video
 * colspan="2"| United Artists Releasing (United States) Universal Pictures (International)
 * 99 minutes
 * 94 minutes
 * 91 minutes
 * 87 minutes
 * 93 minutes
 * November 22, 1991
 * November 19, 1993
 * September 22, 1998
 * October 11, 2019
 * October 1, 2021
 * }

The Addams Family (1991)
In the 1990s, Orion Pictures (which by then had inherited the rights to the series) developed a film version, The Addams Family (released on November 22, 1991). Because of the studio's financial troubles at the time, Orion sold the US rights to the film to Paramount Pictures. On October 1, 2019, Paramount Pictures released double feature of Addams Family and Addams Family Values on Blu-ray in the United States.

Addams Family Values (1993)
Upon the last film's success, a sequel followed: Addams Family Values (released on November 19, 1993, with worldwide distribution by Paramount). Loosened content restrictions allowed the films to use far more grotesque humor that strove to keep the Addams cartoons' original spirit (in fact, several gags were lifted straight from the single-panel cartoons). The two films used the same cast, except for Grandmama, played by Judith Malina and Carol Kane in the first and second films, respectively. A script for a third film was prepared in 1994, but was abandoned after the sudden death of actor Raul Julia that year.

Addams Family Reunion (1998)
Another film, Addams Family Reunion, was released direct-to-video on September 22, 1998, this time by Warner Bros. through its video division. It has no relation to the Paramount movies, being in fact a full-length pilot for a second live-action television version, The New Addams Family, produced and shot in Canada. The third movie's Gomez, played by Tim Curry, follows the style of Raul Julia, while the new sitcom's Gomez, played by Glenn Taranto, is played in the style of John Astin, who had played the character in the 1960s. The only actors in this Warner Bros./Saban Entertainment production to have played in the previous Paramount films were Carel Struycken as Lurch and Christopher Hart as Thing.

Cancelled film
In 2010, it was announced that Illumination Entertainment, in partnership with Universal Pictures, had acquired the underlying rights to the Addams Family drawings. The film was planned to be a stop-motion animated film based on Charles Addams's original drawings. Tim Burton was set to co-write and co-produce the film, with a possibility to direct. In July 2013 however, it was reported that the film was cancelled.

The Addams Family (2019) and The Addams Family 2 (2021)
On October 31, 2013, it was announced in Variety that Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer will be reviving The Addams Family as an animated film with Pamela Pettler to write the screenplay and Andrew Mittman and Kevin Miserocchi to executive produce the film and they were in final negotiations with BermanBraun's Gail Berman and Lloyd Braun to produce it. By October 2017, Conrad Vernon had been hired to direct the film, which he will also produce along with Berman and Alex Schwartz, based on a screenplay written by Pettler, with revisions by Matt Lieberman. The film was released on October 11, 2019. On October 8, 2020, MGM announced that a sequel is in the works with an announcement trailer. The original cast set to return. Bill Hader and Javon "Wanna" Walton have also been cast to voice. Bill Hader played a new character named Dr. Cyrus Strange, while Javon replaced Finn Wolfhard as the voice of Pugsley Addams. Directors Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon returned as directors. The film was released on October 1, 2021.

Homages and adaptations

 * In 1959 an animated television homage was produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. Mr. & Mrs. J. Evil Scientist, a family of fictional characters inspired by The Addams Family, appeared on the Snagglepuss and Snooper and Blabber shows and was later adapted into a comic book.
 * In 1964, the year The Addams Family debuted, Hanna-Barbera introduced Weirdly and Creepella Gruesome and family, based in part on Mr. & Mrs. J. Evil Scientist and in part on the Addamses, as recurrent characters on The Flintstones.
 * A 2012 episode of Horrible Histories features a song titled "The Borgia Family" in reference to the Addams Family Theme.
 * In 2015, comedian Melissa Hunter wrote the web series Adult Wednesday Addams, which is a comedic adaptation of the franchise. Hunter was forced to remove the series due to legal action.

Video games
Ten video games released from 1989 to 2021 were based on The Addams Family.
 * Fester's Quest (1989) is a top-down adventure game that features Uncle Fester.
 * The Addams Family LCD Video Game by Tiger Electronics is a handheld unit released in 1991.
 * ICOM Simulations published The Addams Family video game for the TurboGrafx-CD in 1991.
 * Between 1992 and 1994, four versions of The Addams Family were released by Ocean Software based on the 1991 movie: an 8-bit home console version for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Master System, and Sega Game Gear; an 8-bit portable console version for the Game Boy; an 8-bit home computer version for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC; and a 16-bit version released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Amiga, Atari ST, and Sega Mega Drive/Genesis. The releases on Sega platforms were published by Acclaim Entertainment's Flying Edge imprint.
 * The games' sequel, The Addams Family: Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt (1993), also by Ocean Software, was based on the ABC animated series and was released for SNES, NES, and Game Boy (although the latter two are 8-bit remakes of the first SNES game, swapping Pugsley's and Gomez's roles).
 * Addams Family Values (1994) by Ocean is based on the movie sequel and returns to the style of gameplay seen in Fester's Quest.
 * An arcade shocker, The New Addams Family Electric Shock Machine (also known as Electrifying), was released by Eurocom and Nova Productions in 1999.
 * A Game Boy Color game was released in 2001 for promotion of The New Addams Family. The game was titled The New Addams Family Series. In this game, the Addams mansion had been bought by a fictional company called "Funnyday" that wanted to tear down the house and surrounding grounds to make room for an amusement park.
 * A 2019 mobile game for Android and iOS, The Addams Family Mystery Mansion, was released by Animoca.
 * The Addams Family: Mansion Mayhem, a movie tie-in game for Steam, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox and Google Stadia developed by PHL Collective and published by British publisher Outright Games, was released on September 24, 2021.

Pinball
A pinball game by Midway (under the Bally label) was released in 1992 shortly after the movie. It is the best-selling pinball game of all time.

The Addams Family
This first novelisation of the television series, written by Jack Sharkey, was released near the end of the show's second season. The book details the family's arrival in their new home and explains how it got its bizarre décor. The arrival and origins of Thing are explained. Each chapter reads as a self-contained story, like episodes of the television show. The novel concludes with the Addams family discovering that their lives will be the basis for a new television series. It was published in paperback by Pyramid Books in 1965.

The Addams Family Strikes Back
The Addams Family Strikes Back by W.F. Miksch tells how Gomez plans to rehabilitate the image of Benedict Arnold by running for the local school board. The tone and characterizations in this book resemble the TV characters much more closely than in the first novel. Cousin Itt appears as a minor character in this story, but as a tiny, three-legged creature rather than the hairy, derby-hatted character seen on television and in the movies. The novel was published in paperback form by Pyramid Books in 1965.

The Addams Family: An Evilution
The Addams Family: An Evilution is a book about the "evilution" of The Addams Family characters, with more than 200 published and previously unpublished cartoons, and includes text by Charles Addams and H. Kevin Miserocchi, Director of the Tee and Charles Addams Foundation. Pomegranate Press published the book in 2010.

Advertising
In 1994, the actors cast as the Addamses in the first two films (sans the recently deceased Raul Julia) were in several Japanese television spots for the Honda Odyssey. The Addamses are seen speaking Japanese—most prominently Gomez (for whom a voice actor was used to impersonate Julia while footage from Addams Family Values was seen) and Morticia.

In 2007 and 2008, the Addams Family appeared as M&M's in an advertising campaign for M&M's Dark Chocolate.

Soundtrack
A theme song for the 1964 TV series as well as a soundtrack album the next year were released, both composed by Vic Mizzy and the latter containing all of his compositions for the series entitled Original Music From The Addams Family.

The Addams Family
In May 2007, it was announced that a musical inspired by The Addams Family drawings by Charles Addams was being developed for the Broadway stage. Broadway veterans Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice wrote the book, and Andrew Lippa wrote the score. Julian Crouch and Phelim McDermott (Improbable theatre founders) directed and designed the production, with choreography by Sergio Trujillo. A workshop and private industry presentation was held August 4–8, 2008. Featured in the cast were Bebe Neuwirth as Morticia, Krysta Rodriguez as Wednesday, and Nathan Lane as Gomez. In addition, Kevin Chamberlin played Uncle Fester and Zachary James played Lurch.

The musical opened in previews at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on Broadway on March 8, 2010, with an official opening on April 8, after an out-of-town tryout in Chicago at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts from November 13, 2009, to January 10, 2010. The cast includes Lane as Gomez, Neuwirth as Morticia, Terrence Mann as Mal Beineke, Carolee Carmello as Alice Beineke, Chamberlin as Uncle Fester, Jackie Hoffman as Grandma, Zachary James as Lurch, Krysta Rodriguez as Wednesday, and Wesley Taylor as Wednesday's love interest, Lucas Beineke. The Broadway production ran for 22 months, closing on December 31, 2011, after 35 previews and 722 performances.

On September 5, 2016, it was announced that the musical would premiere in the UK, on a major UK and Ireland tour produced by James Yeoburn and Stuart Matthew Price for United Theatrical. The production was directed by Matthew White and it opened at Edinburgh Festival Theatre on April 20, 2017, starring Samantha Womack, Les Dennis and Carrie Hope Fletcher.

Cast and characters

 * {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; width:100%;"

!style="width:20%;" rowspan=2| Live-action media !width=9%| Gomez !width=9%| Morticia !width=9%| Pugsley !width=9%| Wednesday !width=9%| Uncle Fester !width=9%| Grandmama !width=9%| Lurch !width=9%| Thing !width=9%| Cousin Itt !scope="row"| 1964 TV series !scope="row"|The Addams Family Fun-House (1973) !scope="row"| Halloween with the New Addams Family (1977) ! scope="row" | 1991 film ! scope="row" | Addams Family Values (1993) ! scope="row" | Addams Family Reunion (1998) !scope="row"| The New Addams Family (1998) !scope="row"| Wednesday (2022)
 * rowspan="1"|  John Astin
 * rowspan="1"|  Carolyn Jones
 * colspan="1"|  Ken Weatherwax
 * colspan="1"|  Lisa Loring
 * rowspan="1"|  Jackie Coogan
 * colspan="1"|  Blossom Rock
 * rowspan="1"|  Ted Cassidy
 * colspan="1"|  Ted Cassidy / Jack Voglin
 * rowspan="3"|  Felix Silla
 * colspan="1"|  Jack Riley
 * colspan="1"|  Liz Torres
 * colspan="1"|  Butch Patrick
 * colspan="1"|  Noelle von Sonn
 * colspan="1"|  Stubby Kaye
 * colspan="1"|  —
 * colspan="1"|  Pat McCormick
 * rowspan="1"|  —
 * colspan="1"|  John Astin
 * colspan="1"|  Carolyn Jones
 * colspan="1"|  Ken Weatherwax
 * colspan="1"|  Lisa Loring
 * rowspan="1"|  Jackie Coogan
 * colspan="1"|  Jane Rose
 * colspan="1"|  —
 * colspan="1"|  Ted Cassidy
 * rowspan="2" |  Raul Julia
 * rowspan="2" |  Anjelica Huston
 * rowspan="2" |  Jimmy Workman
 * rowspan="2" |  Christina Ricci
 * rowspan="2" |  Christopher Lloyd
 * colspan="1" |  Judith Malina
 * rowspan="3" |  Carel Struycken
 * rowspan="2" |  Christopher Hart
 * rowspan="2" |  John Franklin
 * colspan="1" |  Carol Kane
 * colspan="1" |  Tim Curry
 * colspan="1" |  Daryl Hannah
 * colspan="1" |  Jerry Messing
 * rowspan="2" |  Nicole Fugere
 * colspan="1" |  Patrick Thomas
 * colspan="1" |  Alice Ghostley
 * rowspan="1" |  —
 * colspan="1" |  Phil Fondacaro
 * colspan="1"|  Glenn Taranto
 * colspan="1"|  Ellie Harvie
 * colspan="1"|  Brody Smith
 * colspan="1"|  Michael Roberds
 * colspan="1"|  Betty Phillips
 * colspan="1"|  John DeSantis
 * colspan="1"|  Steven Fox
 * colspan="1"|  David Mylrea / Paul Dobson
 * colspan="1"|  Luis Guzmán
 * colspan="1"|  Catherine Zeta-Jones
 * colspan="1"|  Isaac Ordonez
 * colspan="1"|  Jenna Ortega
 * colspan="1"|  Fred Armisen
 * colspan="1"|  Joanna Lumley
 * colspan="1"|  George Burcea
 * colspan="1"|  Victor Dorobantu
 * colspan="1"|  —
 * }

 * {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; width:100%;"

! style="width:20%;" rowspan=2 | Animated media !width=10%| Gomez !width=10%| Morticia !width=10%| Pugsley !width=10%| Wednesday !width=10%| Uncle Fester !width=10%| Grandmama !width=10%| Lurch !width=10%| Cousin Itt !scope="row"| Wednesday Is Missing (1972) ! scope="row" | 1973 animated series ! scope="row" | 1992 animated series !scope="row"| 2019 animated film !scope="row"| The Addams Family 2 (2021)
 * rowspan="1"|  John Astin
 * rowspan="1"|  Carolyn Jones
 * rowspan="2"|  Jodie Foster
 * rowspan="2"|  Cindy Henderson
 * rowspan="2"|  Jackie Coogan
 * rowspan="2"|  Janet Waldo
 * rowspan="2"|  Ted Cassidy
 * rowspan="2"|  John Stephenson
 * colspan="1" |  Lennie Weinrib
 * colspan="1" |  Janet Waldo
 * colspan="1" |  John Astin
 * colspan="1" |  Nancy Linari
 * colspan="1" |  Jeannie Elias
 * colspan="1" |  Debi Derryberry
 * colspan="1" |  Rip Taylor
 * colspan="1" |  Carol Channing
 * colspan="1" |  Jim Cummings
 * colspan="1" |  Pat Fraley
 * rowspan="2"|  Oscar Isaac
 * rowspan="2"|  Charlize Theron
 * colspan="1"|  Finn Wolfhard
 * rowspan="2"|  Chloë Grace Moretz
 * rowspan="2"|  Nick Kroll
 * rowspan="2"|  Bette Midler
 * rowspan="2"|  Conrad Vernon
 * rowspan="2"|  Snoop Dogg
 * colspan="1"|  Javon Walton
 * }
 * }

 * {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; width:100%;"

!style="width:20%;" rowspan=2| Video games !width=10%| Gomez !width=10%| Morticia !width=10%| Pugsley !width=10%| Wednesday !width=10%| Uncle Fester !width=10%| Grandmama !width=10%| Lurch !width=10%| Cousin Itt !scope="row"|The Addams Family: Mansion Mayhem (2021)
 * rowspan="1"|  Jonathan Lipow
 * rowspan="1"|  Alexa Kahn
 * rowspan="1"|  Paul Castro Jr.
 * rowspan="1"|  Cristina Vee
 * rowspan="1"|  Bill Rogers
 * rowspan="1"|  Jocelyn Blue
 * rowspan="1"|  Kaiser Johnson
 * rowspan="1"|  Jonathan Lipow
 * }
 * }

Legacy
The family has had a profound influence on American comics, cinema and television,  and it has also been seen as an inspiration for the goth subculture and its fashion. According to The Telegraph, the Addamses "are one of the most iconic families in American history, up there with the Kennedys". Similarly, Time has compared "the relevance and the cultural reach" of the family with those of the Kennedys and the Roosevelts, "so much a part of the American landscape that it's difficult to discuss the country's history without mentioning them". For TV Guide, which listed the characters in the top ten of the "60 greatest TV families of all time", the Addamses "provid[ed] the design for cartoonish clans to come, like the Flintstones and the Simpsons". Owing to their popularity, the first feature-length adaptation has been identified as a "cult film", while Addams Family Values was listed as one of the "50 best family films" by The Guardian and nominated for the American Film Institute's '100 Years ... 100 Laughs' at the turn of the century. Ricci's portrayal of Wednesday in the film series was ranked one of the "100 greatest movie characters" by Empire, and in 2011 AOL named Morticia one of the "100 most memorable female TV characters".

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: The Addams Family


text:
Charles Addams

Charles Samuel Addams (January 7, 1912 – September 29, 1988) was an American cartoonist known for his darkly humorous and macabre characters. Some of his recurring characters became known as the Addams Family, and were subsequently popularized through various adaptations.

Early life
Addams was born in Westfield, New Jersey. He was the son of Grace M. (née Spear; 1879–1943) and Charles Huey Addams (1873–1932), a piano company executive who had studied to be an architect. Known as "something of a rascal around the neighborhood," as childhood friends recalled, Addams was distantly related to U.S. presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams, despite the different spellings of their last names, and was a first cousin twice removed to noted social reformer Jane Addams.

Addams would enjoy the Presbyterian Cemetery on Mountain Avenue in Westfield as a child, where – according to author and Addams expert Ron MacCloskey – he would wonder what it was like to be dead. In the cartoons, his ghoulish creations lived on Cemetery Ridge with a dreadful view.

A house on Elm Street and another on Dudley Avenue – into which police once caught him breaking and entering – are said to be the inspiration for the Addams Family mansion in his cartoons. College Hall, the oldest building on the current campus of the University of Pennsylvania, where Addams studied, was also an inspiration for the mansion. One friend said of him: "His sense of humor was a little different from everybody else's." He was also artistically inclined, "drawing with a happy vengeance", according to a biographer. His father encouraged him to draw, and Addams did cartoons for the Westfield High School yearbook, Weathervane. He attended Colgate University in 1929 and 1930. At the corners of West Kendrick and Maple Avenues in Hamilton, is another home, and myth, that may have inspired the Addams Family house. He also attended the University of Pennsylvania in 1930 and 1931. He then studied at the Grand Central School of Art in New York City in 1931 and 1932.

Career
Charles Addams joined the layout department of True Detective magazine in 1933, where he retouched photos of corpses to remove the blood for appearance alongside magazine stories. Addams complained: "A lot of those corpses were more interesting the way they were."

The New Yorker Obituary of October 17, 1988 says his first drawing for The New Yorker, ran February, 1932. However, his first drawing actually appeared in the February 4, 1933 issue. Here he drew the first in the series that came to be called The Addams Family in August 6, 1938 and ran regularly until his death. Addams remained a freelancer throughout that time.

During World War II, Addams served at the Signal Corps Photographic Center in New York, where he made animated training films for the U.S. Army.

Addams created a 1952 mural for the library at Penn State depicting prominent Addams Family members.

Television producer David Levy approached Addams with an offer to create The Addams Family television series, with a little help from the humorist. Addams gave his characters names as well as qualities for actors to use in portrayals; the series ran on ABC from 1964 to 1966.

Cartoons
Addams regularly had cartoons in The New Yorker, and he also created the syndicated single-panel comic Out of This World between 1955 and 1957. Collections of his work include Drawn and Quartered (1942) and Monster Rally (1950), the latter with a foreword by John O'Hara. One cartoon shows two men standing in a patent attorney's office; one points a bizarre gun out the window toward the street, saying: "Death ray, fiddlesticks! Why, it doesn't even slow them up!".

Dear Dead Days (1959) is a scrapbook-like compendium of vintage images (and occasional pieces of text) that appealed to the author's sense of the grotesque, including Victorian woodcuts, vintage medicine-show advertisements, and a boyhood photograph of Francesco Lentini, who had three legs.

Addams drew more than 1,300 cartoons over the course of his life. Beyond The New Yorker pages, his cartoons appeared in Collier's and TV Guide, as well as books, calendars, and other merchandise.

The 1957 album Ghost Ballads, featuring folk songs with supernatural themes by singer-guitarist Dean Gitter, was packaged with cover art by Addams depicting a haunted house.

The Mystery Writers of America honored Addams with a Special Edgar Award in 1961 for his body of work. The films The Old Dark House (1963) and Murder by Death (1976) feature title sequences illustrated by Addams.

In 1946, Addams met science-fiction writer Ray Bradbury after having drawn an illustration for Mademoiselle magazine's publication of Bradbury's short story "Homecoming", the first in a series of tales chronicling a family of Illinois vampires named the Elliotts. The pair became friends and planned to collaborate on a book of the Elliott Family's complete history with Bradbury writing and Addams providing the illustrations, but it never materialized. Bradbury's stories about the "Elliott Family" were finally anthologized in From the Dust Returned in October 2001, with a connecting narrative and an explanation of his work with Addams, and Addams's 1946 Mademoiselle illustration used for the book's cover jacket. Although Addams's own characters were well-established by the time of their initial encounter, in a 2001 interview, Bradbury stated: "[Addams] went his way and created the Addams Family, and I went my own way and created my family in this book."

Janet Maslin, in a review of an Addams biography for The New York Times, wrote: "Addams's persona sounds cooked up for the benefit of feature writers ... was at least partly a character contrived for the public eye," noting that one outré publicity photo showed the humorist wearing a suit of armor at home, "but the shelves behind him hold books about painting and antiques, as well as a novel by John Updike."

Filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock was a friend of Addams, and owned two pieces of original Addams art. Hitchcock references Addams in his 1959 film North by Northwest. During the auction scene, Cary Grant discovers two of his adversaries with someone who he also thinks is against him and says: "The three of you together. Now that's a picture only Charles Addams could draw."

Personal life
Addams met first wife Barbara Jean Day in late 1943, who purportedly resembled his cartoon character Morticia Addams. The marriage ended eight years later after Addams declined to have children (she later married New Yorker colleague John Hersey, author of the book Hiroshima).

Addams married second wife Barbara Barb (Estelle B. Barb) in 1954. A practicing lawyer, she "combined Morticia-like looks with diabolical legal scheming," by which she wound up controlling the Addams Family television and film franchises and persuaded her husband to give away other legal rights. At one point, she got her husband to take out a US$100,000 insurance policy. Addams consulted a lawyer on the sly, who later humorously wrote: "I told him the last time I had word of such a move was in a picture called Double Indemnity starring Barbara Stanwyck, which I called to his attention." In the movie, Stanwyck's character plotted her husband's murder. The couple divorced in 1956.

Addams was "sociable and debonair". A biographer described him as being "a well-dressed, courtly man with silvery back-combed hair and a gentle manner, he bore no resemblance to a fiend". Figuratively a "ladykiller", Addams accompanied women such as Greta Garbo, Joan Fontaine, and Jacqueline Kennedy on social occasions. For about a year after the death of Nelson Rockefeller, Addams dated Megan Marshack, the aide who was with the former US vice president when he died.

Addams married his third and final wife Marilyn Matthews Miller, best known as "Tee" (1926–2002), in a pet cemetery. The Addamses moved to Sagaponack, New York in 1985, where they named their estate "The Swamp".

Death
Addams died on September 29, 1988, at the age of 76, at St. Clare's Hospital and Health Center in New York City, having suffered a heart attack after parking his automobile. An ambulance took him from his apartment to the hospital, where he died in the emergency room. As he had requested, a wake was held rather than a funeral; he had wished to be remembered as a "good cartoonist". In accordance with Addams's wishes, he was cremated, and his ashes were interred in the pet cemetery of "The Swamp" estate.

Legacy
The Tee & Charles Addams foundation was established in 1999 "to interpret and share the artistic achievement of Charles Addams’s life through exhibitions and programs developed from all works by Charles Addams including the Foundation’s own collections and from its copyrights of the Addams oeuvre." Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic the foundation offered tours of the couples' property and displayed artefacts from Addams' life.

The Charles Addams Fine Arts Hall in Philadelphia was named in his tribute by the University of Pennsylvania in 2001.

On the occasion of his 100th birthday, January 7, 2012, Charles Addams was honored with a Google Doodle.

Addams was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2020.

On April 30, 2021, the original art for his macabre holiday illustration "Addams and Evil", a 1947 interior book cartoon from The Addams Family Christmas, sold for $87,500, the author's world auction record, over seven times initial estimates.

Works

Books of Addams's drawings or illustrated by him: Addams also illustrated two books by other authors. First was But Who Wakes the Bugler? (Houghton & Mifflin, 1940) by Peter DeVries. The other was Afternoon In the Attic (Dodd, Mead, 1950) by John Kobler. He also provided the cover art for such books as The Compleat Practical Joker (Doubleday, 1953) by H. Allen Smith and Here at The New Yorker (Random House, 1975) by Brendan Gill.

 * (illustrations) But Who Wakes the Bugler? (1940) by Peter DeVries
 * Drawn and Quartered (1942), first anthology of drawings/cartoons (Random House); re-released 1962 (Simon & Schuster)
 * Addams and Evil (1947), second anthology (Simon and Schuster)
 * (illustrations) Afternoon in the Attic (1950), John Kobler's collection of short stories
 * Monster Rally (1950) third anthology of drawings (Simon & Schuster)
 * Homebodies (1954), fourth anthology (Simon & Schuster)
 * Nightcrawlers (1957), fifth anthology (Simon & Schuster)
 * Dear Dead Days: A Family Album (1959), compilation book of photos (G.P. Putnam & Sons)
 * Black Maria (1960), sixth anthology of drawings (Simon & Schuster)
 * The Groaning Board (1964), seventh anthology (Simon & Schuster)
 * The Chas Addams Mother Goose (1967), Windmill Books; reissued with additional material 2002
 * My Crowd (1970), eighth anthology of drawings (Simon & Schuster)
 * Favorite Haunts (1976), ninth anthology (Simon & Schuster)
 * Creature Comforts (1981), tenth anthology (Simon & Schuster)
 * The World of Charles Addams, by Charles Addams (1991), posthumously compiled from works with the copyright owned by his third wife, Marilyn Matthews "Tee" Addams (Knopf) ISBN 0-394-58822-3
 * Chas Addams Half-Baked Cookbook: Culinary Cartoons for the Humorously Famished, by Charles Addams (2005), anthology of drawings, some previously unpublished (Simon & Schuster) ISBN 0-7432-6775-3
 * Happily Ever After: A Collection of Cartoons to Chill the Heart of Your Loved One, by Charles Addams (2006), anthology of drawings, some previously unpublished (Simon & Schuster) ISBN 978-0-7432-6777-9
 * The Addams Family: An Evilution (2010), about the evolution of The Addams Family characters; arranged by H. Kevin Miserocchi (Pomegranate) ISBN 978-0-7649-5388-0
 * Addams' Apple: The New York Cartoons of Charles Addams (2020), anthology of drawings (Pomegranate) ISBN 978-0764999369

title: Charles Addams


text:
Bábism

Bábism, also known as the Bábi Faith, is a monotheistic religion founded in 1844 by the Báb (b. 'Ali Muhammad). The Báb, an Iranian merchant-turned-prophet, professed that there is one incorporeal, unknown, and incomprehensible God who manifests his will in an unending series of theophanies, called Manifestations of God. The Báb's ministry, throughout which there was much evolution as he progressively outlined his teachings, was turbulent and short lived and ended with his public execution in Tabriz in 1850. A campaign of extermination followed, in which thousands of followers were killed in what has been described as potentially one of the bloodiest actions of the Iranian military in the 19th century.

According to current estimates, Bábism has no more than a few thousand adherents, most of whom are concentrated in Iran,  but it has persisted into the modern era in the form of the Bahá'í Faith, to which the majority of Bábís eventually converted.

The Bábi Faith flourished in Iran until 1852, then lingered on in exile in the Ottoman Empire, especially Cyprus, as well as underground in Iran. An anomaly amongst Islamic messianic movements, the Bábí movement signaled a break with Shia Islam, beginning a new religious system with its own unique laws, teachings, and practices. While Bábism was violently opposed by both clerical and government establishments, it led to the founding of the Bahá'í Faith, whose followers consider the religion founded by the Báb as a predecessor to their own. Bahá'í sources maintain that the remains of the Báb were clandestinely rescued by a handful of Bábis and then hidden. Over time the remains were secretly transported according to the instructions of Bahá'u'lláh and then 'Abdu'l-Bahá through Isfahan, Kermanshah, Baghdad, Damascus, Beirut, and then by sea to Acre on the plain below Mount Carmel in 1899. On 21 March 1909, the remains were interred in a special tomb, the Shrine of the Báb, erected for this purpose by 'Abdu'l-Bahá, on Mount Carmel in present-day Haifa, Israel.

Etymology
The name Báb (lit. 'Gate') is a reference to the gate to the Twelfth Imam.

Bábism, a term originating from Orientalists rather than the followers of the religion, comes from the Arabic noun "gate" (باب). Additionally, comes from the Semitic root ب ي ن, which forms a class of words relating to concepts of clarity, differentiation, and separation, including, which can refer to explanation, commentary, or exposition as well as the branch of Arabic rhetoric dealing with metaphors and interpretation.

Antecedents
Twelver Shia Muslims regard the Twelfth Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi, as the last of the Imams. They contend that Muhammad al-Mahdi went into the Occultation in 874 CE, at which time communication between the Imam and the Muslim community could only be performed through mediators called ('gates') or  ('representatives'). In 940, the fourth claimed that Imam Muhammad al-Mahdi had gone into an indefinite "Major Occultation", and that he would cease to communicate with the people. According to Twelver belief, the Hidden Imam is alive in the world, but in concealment from his enemies, and will only emerge shortly before the Last Judgment. At that time, acting as Qa'im Al Muhammad ("He who will arise"), a messianic figure also known as the Mahdi ("He who is rightly guided"), the Hidden Imam will start a holy war against evil, would defeat the unbelievers, and would start a reign of justice.

In 1830s Qajar Persia, Kazim Rashti was the leader of the Shaykhis, a sect of Twelvers. The Shaykhis were a group expecting the imminent appearance of al-Qāʾim. At the time of Kazim's death in 1843, he had counselled his followers to leave their homes to seek the Lord of the Age whose advent would soon break on the world.

Origin

On 22 May 1844, Mullá Husayn, of Boshruyeh in Khorasan, a prominent disciple of Sayyid Kāẓim, entered Shiraz following the instruction by his master to search for al-Qā'im. Soon after he arrived in Shiraz, Mullá Husayn came into contact with the Báb. On the night of 22 May 1844, Mulla Husayn was invited by the Báb to his home; on that night Mullá Husayn told him that he was searching for the possible successor to Sayyid Kāẓim, al-Qā'im, and the Báb told Mullá Husayn privately that he was Sayyid Kāẓim's successor and the bearer of divine knowledge. Through the night of the 22nd to dawn of the 23rd, Mullá Husayn became the first to accept the Báb's claims as the gateway to Truth and the initiator of a new prophetic cycle; the Báb had replied in a satisfactory way to all of Mullá Husayn's questions and had written in his presence, with extreme rapidity, a long commentary on the surah of Yusuf, which has come to be known as the Qayyūmu l-Asmā' and is often considered the Báb's first revealed work, though he had before then composed a commentary on Surat al-Fatihah and Surat al-Baqara. This night and the following day are observed in the Bahá'í Faith as a holy day since then.

After Mullá Husayn accepted the Báb's claim, the Báb ordered him to wait until 17 others had independently recognized the station of the Báb before they could begin teaching others about the new revelation.

Within five months, seventeen other disciples of Sayyid Kāẓim had independently recognized the Báb as a Manifestation of God. Among them was one woman, Zarrin Tāj Baraghāni, a poet, who later received the name of Táhirih (the Pure). These 18 disciples were later to be known as the Letters of the Living and were given the task of spreading the new faith across Iran and Iraq. The Báb emphasized the spiritual station of these 18 individuals, who along with himself, made the first "Unity" of his religion.

After his declaration, he soon assumed the title of the Báb. Within a few years the movement spread all over Iran, causing controversy. His claim was at first understood by some of the public at the time to be merely a reference to the Gate of the Hidden Imám of Muhammad, but this understanding he publicly disclaimed. He later proclaimed himself, in the presence of the heir to the Throne of Persia and other notables, to be al-Qā'im. In the Báb's writings, the Báb appears to identify himself as the gate to Muhammad al-Mahdi and later he begins to explicitly proclaim his station as equivalent to that of the Hidden Imam and a new messenger from God. Saiedi states the exalted identity the Báb was claiming was unmistakable, but due to the reception of the people, his writings appear to convey the impression that he is only the gate to the Hidden Twelfth Imam. To his circle of early believers, the Báb was equivocal about his exact status, gradually confiding in them that he was not merely a gate to the Hidden Imam, but the Manifestation of the Hidden Imam and al-Qā'im himself. During his early meetings with Mullá Husayn, the Báb described himself as the Master and the Promised One; he did not consider himself just Sayyid Kāẓim Rashti's successor, but claimed a prophetic status, with a sense of deputyship delegated to him not just from the Hidden Imam, but from Divine authority. His early texts, such as the Commentary on the Sura of Yusuf, used Qur'anic language that implied divine authority and identified himself effectively with the Imam. When Mullā ʿAlī Basṭāmī, the second Letter of the Living, was put on trial in Baghdad for preaching about the Báb, the clerics studied the Commentary on the Sura of Yusuf, recognized in it a claim to divine revelation, and quoted from it extensively to prove that the author had made a messianic claim.

Spread
"The Babi movement[...] [became] an important catalyst of social progressiveness in mid-nineteenth-century Iran, promoting interreligious peace, social equality between the sexes and revolutionary anti-monarchism. Babism was a reflection of an older Iran that had been mass-producing messiahs in opposition to mainstream Islam since the seventh century[...] And yet the new current was also a product of Iran's grappling with novelty and change, and [the Babi movement] went on to present a vision of modernity that was based on secularism, internationalism, and the rejection of war. It is this vision which has enabled it to survive to the present day – as Bahaism, which emerged from Babism in the late nineteenth century – in pockets and communities peopled by 5million souls, and which qualifies it for inclusion in any narrative about modernisation in the Middle East."

The Báb's message was disseminated by the Letters of the Living through Iran and southern Iraq. One of these initial activities was communicated to the West starting 8 January 1845 as an exchange of diplomatic reports concerning the fate of Mullá ʿAli-e Bastāmi, the second Letter. These were exchanges between Sir Henry Rawlinson, 1st Baronet who wrote first to Stratford Canning, 1st Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe. Followups continued until in 1846 he was sentenced by the Ottomans to serve in the naval shipyards at hard labor—the Ottoman ruler refusing to banish him as it would be "difficult to control his activities and prevent him spreading his false ideas." Separately each of the Letters and other early believers were sent on various missions to begin public presentations of the new religion. Indeed various activities the Báb initiated were devolved to various Letters of the Living like preaching activities and answering questions from the community. In particular, as these first public activities multiplied, opposition by the Islamic clergy arose and prompted the Governor of Shiraz to order the Báb's arrest. The Báb, upon hearing of the arrest order, left Bushehr for Shiraz in June 1845 and presented himself to the authorities. This series of events become the first public account of the new religion in the West when they were published 1 November 1845 in The Times of London. The story was also carried from 15 November by the Literary Gazette which was subsequently echoed widely. Meanwhile the Báb was placed under house arrest at the home of his uncle, and was restricted in his personal activities, until a cholera epidemic broke out in the city in September 1846.

The Báb was released and departed for Isfahan. There, many came to see him at the house of the imám jum'ih, head of the local clergy, who became sympathetic. After an informal gathering where the Báb debated the local clergy and displayed his speed in producing instantaneous verses, his popularity soared. After the death of the Governor of Isfahan, Manouchehr Khan Gorji, an Iranian Georgian, who had become his supporter, pressure from the clergy of the province led to the Shah, Mohammad Shah Qajar, ordering the Báb to Tehran in January, 1847. After spending several months in a camp outside Tehran, and before the Báb could meet the Shah, the Prime Minister sent the Báb to Tabriz in the northwestern corner of the country, and later Maku and Chehriq, where he was confined. During his confinement, he was said to have impressed his jailers with his patience and dignity. Communication between the Báb and his followers was not completely severed but was quite difficult, and more responsibilities were devolved to the Letters as he was not able to elucidate his teachings to the public. With Bábí teachings now mostly spread by his followers, they faced increasing persecution themselves.

The role played by Táhirih in Karbalāʾ was particularly significant. She began an effort of innovation in religion based on her station as a Letter of the Living and the incarnation of Fatimah. In his early teachings, the Báb emphasized observing sharia and extraordinary acts of piety. However, his claim of being the Báb, i.e. the authority direct from God, was in conflict with this more conservative position of supporting sharia. Táhirih innovated an advance in the understanding of the priority of the Báb's station above that of Islamic sharia by wedding the concept of the Báb's overriding religious authority with ideas originating in Shaykhism pointing to an age after outward conformity. She seems to have made this connection c. 1262/1846 even before the Báb himself. The matter was taken up by the community at large at the Conference of Badasht.

This conference was one of the most important events of the Bábí movement when in 1848 its split from Islam and Islamic law was made clear. Three key individuals who attended the conference were Bahá'u'lláh, Quddús, and Táhirih. Táhirih, during the conference, was able to persuade many of the others about the Bábí split with Islam based on the station of the Báb and an age after outward conformity. She appeared at least once during the conference in public without a veil, heresy within the Islamic world of that day, signalling the split. During this same month the Báb was brought to trial in Tabriz and made his claim to be the Mahdi public to the Crown Prince and the Shi'a clergy.

Several sources agree that by 1848 or 1850 there were 100,000 converts to Babism. In the fall of 1850 newspaper coverage fell behind quickly unfolding events. Though the Báb was named for the first time he had in fact already been executed.

Uprisings and massacres
By 1848 the increased fervour of the Bábís and the clerical opposition had led to a number of confrontations between the Bábís and their government and clerical establishment. After the death of Mohammad Shah Qajar, the shah of Iran, a series of armed struggles and uprisings broke out in the country, including at Tabarsi. These confrontations all resulted in Bábí massacres; Bahá'í authors give an estimate of 20,000 Bábís killed from 1844 to present, with most of the deaths occurring during the first 20 years. The first major killings of Bábís recorded in history took place in Qazvin. Since then, attacks against the Bábís by prominent clerics and their followers became more common and some Bábís started to carry arms. In remote and isolated places the scattered Bábís were readily attacked and killed while in places where large numbers of them resided they acted in self-defense. One of these attacks occurred in Babol of Mazandaran which led to the death of several Bábís and their opponents, as well as an armed conflict between Bábís and their enemies in fort Ṭabarsí. After that, two other big clashes between the Bábís and their opponents took place in the cities of Zanjan and Neyriz in the north and south of Iran, respectively, as well as a smaller conflict in Yazd. A total of several thousand Bábís were killed in these conflicts. In the three main conflicts in Ṭabarsí, Zanjan and Neyriz, Bábís were accused by their enemies of revolting against the government. However, it seems unlikely that these actions were purely revolutionary. In all three cases, the battles that took place were of a defensive nature, and not considered an offensive jihad, as the Báb did not allow it and in the case of two urban conflicts (Neyriz and Zanjan), they were related to pre-existing social and political tensions within the towns. There is also no evidence of a coordinated plan of action. Wilson suggests that the Bábí uprisings were deliberate and that their clashes with authority were sometimes extremely brutal to respond to the tactics of the supporters of government. In mid-1850 a new prime-minister, Amir Kabir, was convinced that the Bábí movement was a threat and ordered the execution of the Báb which was followed by the killings of many Bábís.

Fort Tabarsi

Of the conflicts between the Bábís and the establishment, the first and best known took place in Māzandarān at the remote shrine of Shaykh Tabarsi, about 22 km southeast of Bārfarush (modern Babol). From October 1848 until May 1849, around 300 Bábís (later rising to 600), led by Quddús and Mullá Husayn, defended themselves against the attacks of local villagers and members of the Shah's army under the command of Prince Mahdi Qoli Mirza. They were, after being weakened through attrition and starvation, subdued through false promises of safety, and put to death or sold into slavery.

Zanjan upheaval
The revolt at the fortress of ʿAli Mardan Khan in Zanjan in northwest Iran was by far the most violent of all the conflicts. It was headed by Mullā Muhammad 'Ali Zanjani, called Hujjat, and also lasted seven or eight months (May 1850–January 1851). The Bábí community in the city had swelled to around 3,000 after the conversion of one of the town's religious leaders to the Bábí movement. The conflict was preceded by years of growing tension between the leading Islamic clergy and the new rising Bábí leadership. The city governor ordered that the city be divided into two sectors, with hostilities starting soon thereafter. The Bábís faced resistance against a large number of regular troops, and led to the death of several thousand Bábís. After Hujjat was killed, and the Bábí numbers being greatly reduced, the Bábís surrendered in January 1851 and were massacred by the army.

Nayriz upheaval
Meanwhile, a serious but less protracted struggle was waged against the government at Neyriz in Fars by Yahya Vahid Darabi of Nayriz. Vahid had converted around 1500 people in the community and had thus caused tensions with the authorities which led to an armed struggle in a nearby fort. The Bábís resisted attacks by the town's governor as well as further reinforcements. After being given a truce offer on 17 June 1850, Vahid told his followers to give up their positions, which led to Vahid and the Bábís being killed; the Bábí section of the town was also plundered, and the property of the remaining Bábís seized. Later, in March 1853 the governor of the city was killed by the Bábís. These further events led to a second armed conflict near the city where the Bábís once again resisted troop attacks until November 1853, when a massacre of Bábís happened, with their women being enslaved.

After the execution of the Báb

The revolts in Zanjan and Nayriz were in progress when in 1850 the Báb, with one of his disciples, was brought from his prison at Chehriq citadel, which was called, meaning 'mount extreme', by the Báb, to Tabriz and publicly shot in front of the citadel. The body, after being exposed for some days, was recovered by the Bábís and conveyed to a shrine near Tehran, whence it was ultimately removed to Haifa, where it is now enshrined.

Most Western scholars who reviewed the Faith of the Báb after 1860 saw it as a way of letting in Western and Christian ideals into "a closed and rigid Moslem system" and gave the Báb himself sometimes less or more credit for being authentic in the process. However, some went further. In 1866 British diplomat Robert Grant Watson (1834–1892) published a history of the first 58 years of the 19th century of Persia and would serve in several diplomatic capacities. Watson summarizes the impact of the Báb in Persia:

"Bábism, though at present a proscribed religion in Persia, is far from being extinct, or even declining, and the Báb may yet contest with Mahomed (sic) the privilege of being regarded as the real prophet of the faithful. Bábism in its infancy was the cause of a greater sensation than that even which was produced by the teaching of Jesus, if we may judge from the account of Josephus of the first days of Christianity."

Latter commentators also noted these kinds of views: Ernest Renan, Stephen Greenleaf Bulfinch, son of Charles Bulfinch, and others.

For the next two years comparatively little was heard of the Bábís. The Bábís became polarized with one group speaking of violent retribution against Naser al-Din Shah Qajar, while the other, under the leadership of Baha'u'lláh, looked to rebuild relationships with the government and advance the Babí cause by persuasion and the example of virtuous living.

The militant group of Bábís was between thirty and seventy persons, only a small number of the total Bábí population of perhaps 100,000. Their meetings appear to have come under the control of a "Husayn Jan", an emotive and magnetic figure who obtained a high degree of personal devotion to himself from the group. Meanwhile, Tahirih and Baha'u'lláh, visible leaders of the community previously, were removed from the scene – Tahirih by arrest and in the case of Baha'u'lláh an invitation to go on pilgrimage to Karbila. On 15 August 1852, three from this small splinter group, acting on their own initiative, attempted to assassinate Naser al-Din Shah Qajar as he was returning from the chase to his palace at Niavarān. Notwithstanding the assassins' claim that they were working alone, the entire Bábí community was blamed, and a slaughter of several thousand Bábís followed, starting on 31 August 1852 with some thirty Bábís, including Táhirih. Dr Jakob Eduard Polak, then the Shah's physician, was an eye-witness to her execution. Bahá'u'lláh surrendered himself and he along with a few others were imprisoned in the Siāhchāl ('Black Pit'), an underground dungeon in Tehran. Meanwhile, echoes of the newspaper coverage of the violence continued into 1853.

Bahá'í–Azali split
In most of his prominent writings, the Báb alluded to a Promised One, most commonly referred to as "He whom God shall make manifest", and that he himself was "but a ring upon the hand of Him Whom God shall make manifest." Within 20 years of the Báb's death, over 25 people claimed to be the Promised One, most significantly Bahá'u'lláh.

Shortly before the Báb's execution, a follower of the Báb, Abd al-Karim, brought to the Báb's attention the necessity to appoint a successor; thus the Báb wrote a certain number of tablets which he gave to Abd al-Karim to deliver to Subh-i Azal and Bahá'u'lláh. These tablets were later interpreted by both Azalis and Bahá'ís as proof of the Báb's delegation of leadership. 'Abdu'l-Bahá stated that the Báb did this at the suggestion of Bahá'u'lláh. In one of the tablets, which is commonly referred to as the Will and Testament of the Báb, Subh-i Azal is viewed to have been appointed as leader of the Bábís after the death of the movement's founder; the tablet, in verse 27, orders Subh-i Azal "...to obey Him Whom God Shall Make Manifest." At the time of the apparent appointment Subh-i Azal was still a teenager, had never demonstrated leadership in the Bábí movement, and was still living in the house of his older brother, Bahá'u'lláh. All of this lends credence to the Bahá'í claim that the Báb appointed Subh-i Azal the head of the Bábí Faith so as to divert attention away from Bahá'u'lláh, while allowing Bábís to visit Bahá'u'lláh and consult with him freely, and allowing Bahá'u'lláh to write Bábís easily and freely.

Subh-i Azal's leadership was controversial. He generally absented himself from the Bábí community spending his time in Baghdad in hiding and disguise; and even went so far as to publicly disavow allegiance to the Báb on several occasions. Subh-i Azal gradually alienated himself from a large proportion of the Bábís who started to give their alliance to other claimants. During the time that both Bahá'u'lláh and Subh-i-Azal were in Baghdad, since Subh-i Azal remained in hiding, Bahá'u'lláh performed much of the daily administration of the Bábí affairs.

Bahá'u'lláh claimed that in 1853, while a prisoner in Tehran, he was visited by a "Maid of Heaven", which symbolically marked the beginning of his mission as a Messenger of God. Ten years later in Baghdad, he made his first public declaration to be "He whom God shall make manifest" to a small number of followers, and in 1866 he made the claim public. Bahá'u'lláh's claims threatened Subh-i Azal's position as leader of the religion since it would mean little to be leader of the Bábís if "Him Whom God Shall Make Manifest" were to appear and start a new religion. Subh-i-Azal responded by making his own claims, but his attempt to preserve the traditional Bábísm was largely unpopular, and his followers became the minority.

Eventually Bahá'u'lláh was recognized by the vast majority of Bábís as "He whom God shall make manifest" and his followers began calling themselves Bahá'ís. By 1908, there were probably from half a million to a million Bahá'ís, and at most only a hundred followers of Subh-i Azal. According to Ali Raza Naqavi, Bábism and the Bahá'í Faith are "almost inseparable" and have "almost identical beliefs and doctrines." He writes that in the way Muslims view Judaism as having been abrogated by Christianity and Christianity as having been abrogated by Islam, Bahá'ís view Bábism as having been abrogated and replaced by the Bahá'í Faith.

Subh-i Azal died in Famagusta, Cyprus in 1912, and his followers are known as Azalis or Azali Bábis. Denis MacEoin notes that after the deaths of those Azali Babis who were active in the Persian Constitutional Revolution, the Azali form of Babism entered a stagnation from which it has not recovered as there is no acknowledged leader or central organization. Some few have coined the term Bayání faith though it died out in Cyprus. (Persian: بيانى, ).

In 2001, Azalis were estimated to number no more than a few thousand, living mainly in Iran.

Beliefs and teachings
The Báb's teachings can be grouped into three broad stages which each have a dominant thematic focus. His earliest teachings are primarily defined by his interpretation of the Quran and other Islamic traditions. While this interpretive mode continues throughout all three stages of his teachings, a shift takes place where his emphasis moves to the philosophical elucidation and finally to legislative pronouncements. In the second philosophical stage, the Báb gives an explanation of the metaphysics of being and creation, and in the third legislative stage his mystical and historical principles are explicitly united. An analysis of the Báb's writings throughout the three stages shows that all of his teachings were animated by a common principle that had multiple dimensions and forms.

Hidden Imam
In Twelver Shiʻa Islamic belief there were twelve Imams, the last of whom, known as Imam Mahdi, communicated with his followers only through certain representatives. According to the Twelver's belief, after the last of these representatives died, the Imam Mahdi went into a state of Occultation; while still alive, he was no longer accessible to his believers. Shiʻa Muslims believe that when the world becomes oppressed, the Imam Mahdi (also termed the Qa'im) will come out of occultation and restore true religion on Earth before the cataclysmic end of the world and judgement day.

In Bábí belief the Báb is the return of the Imam Mahdi, but the doctrine of the Occultation is implicitly denied; instead the Báb stated that his manifestation was a symbolic return of the Imam, and not the physical reappearance of the Imam Mahdi who had died a thousand years earlier. In Bábí belief the statements made from previous revelations regarding the Imam Mahdi were set forth in symbols. The Báb also stated that he was not only the fulfillment of the Shiʻi expectations for the Qá'im, but that he also was the beginning of a new prophetic dispensation.

Resurrection, Judgment Day and cyclical revelation
The Báb taught that his revelation was beginning an apocalyptic process that was bringing the Islamic dispensation to its cyclical end, and starting a new dispensation. He taught that the terms "resurrection", "Judgement Day", "paradise" and "hell" used in Shiʻa prophecies for the end-times are symbolic. He stated that "Resurrection" means that the appearance of a new revelation, and that "raising of the dead" means the spiritual awakening of those who have stepped away from true religion. He further stated that "Judgement Day" refers to when a new Manifestation of God comes, and the acceptance or rejection of those on the Earth. Thus the Báb taught that with his revelation the end times ended and the age of resurrection had started and that the end-times were symbolic as the end of the past prophetic cycle. The Báb wrote: "Verily, the world and the hereafter are two spiritual states. If you turn towards God, exalted be He, then you are in paradise and if you are occupied with your self then you are in hell and in the world. Therefore understand these allusions".

In the Persian Bayán, the Báb wrote that religious dispensations come in cycles, as the seasons, to renew "pure religion" for humanity. This notion of continuity anticipated future prophetic revelations after the Báb.

He whom God shall make manifest
One of the core Bábí teachings is that a new prophet would soon come, whom the Báb termed He whom God shall make manifest (من يظهر الله, ), a messianic figure that would complete the revelation that the Báb begun. The Báb describes this messianic figure as the origin of all divine attributes, and states that his command is equivalent to God's command. Unlike earlier religions in which references to future promised figures were occasional and only in hints and allusions, the entirety of the Bayan, the mother book of the Bábí dispensation, is essentially a discourse on a messianic figure, even greater than himself, that the Báb refers to as "he Whom God shall make manifest". The Báb always discusses his own revelation and laws in the context of this promised figure. The essence and purpose of the Báb's own mission, as he always stressed, was to prepare the people for the advent of him. He asks his followers to independently investigate and look for the promised one, and recognize him out of his own intrinsic reality, works and attributes, and not due to any reasons external to him. He even warns them not to be deprived of the promised one by arguing against him from the works of the Báb, the same way the followers of the previous religions opposed the next prophet while citing their holy scriptures. Furthermore, the Báb speaks of the imminence of the advent of the promised one and refers to the time of his advent as year nine and nineteen. After the Báb's execution in 1850, there were some Bábis who claimed to be "He whom God shall make manifest". Later in 1863, nineteen years after the declaration of the Báb, Baháʼu'lláh privately laid claim to be the messianic figure, and made his claim publicly in 1866–1868. His claim was by far the most successful. The majority of the Bábis followed him and later became known as Baháʼís The Azalis (those Babis who did not accept Baháʼu'lláh) objected to Baháʼu'lláh's statement.

Religious law
The Báb abrogated Islamic law and in the Persian Bayán promulgated a system of Bábí law, thus establishing a separate religion distinct from Islam. Some of the new laws included changing the direction of the Qibla to the Báb's house in Shiraz, Iran and changing the calendar to a solar calendar of nineteen months and nineteen days (which became the basis of the Baháʼí calendar) and prescribing the last month as a month of fasting. The Bab also prohibits confession and seeking forgiveness from anyone but God and His Manifestation.

In many respects, the Báb raised the status of women in his teachings. The Báb taught that, since God transcends the boundaries of male and female, God wishes that "neither men exalt themselves over women, nor women exalt themselves over men". He instructs his followers to not mistreat women "even for the blink of an eye" and sets the penalty for causing grief to women as double that of causing grief to men. (Persian Bayān 7:18) He also encourages the education of women and does not display a gender distinction in Bábi laws on education. Armin Eschraghi notes the context of 19th century Iran and that, "Modern western readers might not appreciate the revolutionary potential" of the Báb's teaching that "Those who have been brought up in this community, men and women, are allowed to look [at each other], speak and sit together" The Primal Will of God is also personified as the female figure of the Maid of Heaven. The Báb also foreshadowed later developments in media, by emphasising the need for a rapid system of news communication, which would be available for all to access, no matter their wealth or social standing. He writes, regarding the news, that "until such a system is made universal, its benefit will not reach those servants of the kingdom unless there come a time when it will be accessible to all the people. Although today the kings have their own special couriers, this is fruitless, for the poor are deprived of such a service." Commenting on the extremes of wealth and poverty in society, the Báb also teaches that the true station of the rich should be as "the depositories of God" and enjoins generosity and charity. He says, "Should ye find one stricken with poverty, enrich him to the extent of your ability ... should ye find one who is in distress, bring him tranquility by any means in your power".

Jack McLean, summarising Nader Saiedi's analysis, writes that "the Báb's writings even foresee current global issues of crisis, such as the protection of the environment and the commodification of natural resources" The Báb specifically calls for the absolute purity of water (Bayán 6:2). It may be easily deduced from this injunction that the environment must not be polluted since all substances return to the inland water table and the oceans. The Arabic Bayán (9:11) also forbids the commodification of the four elements, earth, air, fire and water.

The Báb also created a large number of other rituals, rites and laws. Some of these include the carrying of arms only in times of necessity, abstaining from smoking tobacco, the obligatory sitting on chairs, the advocating of the cleanliness displayed by Christians, the non-cruel treatment of animals, the prohibition of beating children severely, the recommendation of the printing of books, even scripture and the prohibition on the study of logic or dead languages, and abolishment of priesthood. Other laws include elaborate regulations regarding pilgrimage, fasting, the manufacture of rings, the use of perfume, and the washing and disposal of the dead.

Writings
The Báb affirms that the verses revealed by a Manifestation of God are the greatest proof of His mission and the writings of the Báb comprise over two thousand tablets, epistles, prayers, and philosophical treatises. These writings form part of Baháʼí scripture, particularly his prayers, which are often recited individually as well as in devotional gatherings. The Báb's major writings include the Qayyúmu'l-Asmáʼ (a commentary on the Sura of Joseph), and the Persian Bayán, which the Bábís saw as superseding the Qurʼan. The latter has been translated into French; only portions exist in English.

The works of the Báb have also excited scholarly interest and analysis. Elham Afnan describes the writings of the Báb as having "restructured the thoughts of their readers, so that they could break free from the chains of obsolete beliefs and inherited customs". Jack McLean notes the novel symbolism of the Báb's works, observing that "The universe of the Báb's sacred writings is pervasively symbolic. Numbers, colors, minerals, liquids, the human body, social relationships, gestures, deeds, language (letters and words), and nature itself are all mirrors or signs that reflect the profounder reality of the names and attributes (asmá va sifát) of God". Todd Lawson similarly identifies in the commentaries of the Báb an assertion of "the potential and ultimate meaningfulness of all created things, from the highest to the lowest." The Báb's works are characterised by linguistic innovation, including many neologisms whenever He found existing theological terms inadequate. Several scholars have identified the continual repetition of particular words or phrases of religious importance to be a distinct feature throughout the Bab's writings. John Walbridge views the "unquestionably hypnotic" use of repetition in the Bab's Kitab-i-Panj Sha'n, where "the same evocative words are repeated ceaselessly" with gradual variations over time, as anticipating a minimalist aesthetic as well as possibly prefiguring the modernist style of Finnegans Wake. The Báb himself categorised his writings into five modes: divine verses, prayers, commentaries, rational discourse — written in Arabic — and the Persian mode, which encompasses the previous four. Baháʼí scholars have argued that there are commonalities between the Báb's writings and those of Western philosophers such as Hegel, Kant and James Joyce.

Most of the writings of the Báb have been lost. The Báb himself stated they exceeded five hundred thousand verses in length; the Qurʼan, in contrast, is 6300 verses in length. If one assumes 25 verses per page, that would equal 20,000 pages of text. Nabíl-i-Zarandí, in The Dawn-Breakers, mentions nine complete commentaries on the Qurʼan, revealed during the Báb's imprisonment at Máh-Kú, which have been lost without a trace. Establishing the true text of the works that are still extant, as already noted, is not always easy, and some texts will require considerable work. Others, however, are in good shape; several of the Báb's major works are available in the handwriting of his trusted secretaries.

Most works were revealed in response to specific questions by Bábís. This is not unusual; the genre of the letter has been a venerable medium for composing authoritative texts as far back as Paul of Tarsus. Three-quarters of the chapters of the New Testament are letters, were composed to imitate letters, or contain letters within them. Sometimes the Báb revealed works very rapidly by chanting them in the presence of a secretary and witnesses.

The Archives Department at the Baháʼí World Centre currently holds about 190 Tablets of the Báb. Excerpts from several principal works have been published in an English language compilation of the Báb's writings: Selections from the Writings of the Báb, other publications include Prayers from the Bab: The Remembrance of God. Denis MacEoin, in his Sources for Early Bābī Doctrine and History, gives a description of many works; much of the following summary is derived from that source. In addition to major works, the Báb revealed numerous letters to his wife and followers, many prayers for various purposes, numerous commentaries on verses or chapters of the Qurʼan, and many khutbihs or sermons (most of which were never delivered). Many of these have been lost; others have survived in compilations.

Also significant to Bábism are the writings of Quddús, which "display a close similarity to that of the Báb in both form and content" according to Moojan Momen and Todd Lawson, as well as the poetry and prose of Tahirih.

Outside reception
Denis MacEoin, a scholar who was formerly a Baháʼí, describes Bábí law as a "mishmash of rules and regulations that at times are little more than mere whimsy, revolving around some of the Bab's own obsessions about cleanliness, polite behaviour, and elegance. It is a shari'a, but not in any practical sense. Certainly, it does not seem to be going anywhere...Here and there we find indications that the Bab had been impressed by Europeans and that he wanted his followers to emulate them." He further states: "One comes away from the Bayan with a strong sense that very little of this is to be taken seriously. It is a form of a game, never actually intended to be put into practice, much in the same way that whole sections of the Bab's later books don't, in fact, mean anything very much, but are elaborate exercises in interesting things you can do with Arabic roots. Or the way so many of the Bab's early writings, described as tafsirs on this or that sura of the Qurʼan, are really not commentaries at all." He further criticizes the Bábi laws, stating: "The average Babi could hardly hope to afford the three diamonds, four yellow rubies, six emeralds, and six red rubies that he was expected to give to the Babi Messiah, let alone find time to observe all the rules and regulations laid down in the book. For all that, the Babi shari'a made an impact."

Baháʼí scholar Nader Saiedi states that the severe laws of the Bayán were never meant to be put in practice, because their implementation depended on the appearance of He whom God shall make manifest, while at the same time all of the laws would be abrogated unless the Promised One would reaffirm them. Saiedi concludes that these can then only have a strategic and symbolic meaning, and were meant to break through traditions and to focus the Báb's followers on obedience to He whom God shall make manifest.

Encyclopedias

Attribution:

title: Bábism