WEBVTT - 9 Spooky, Ooky Facts About Charles Addams 0:00:11.440 --> 0:00:14.880 Hey, everybody, it's Mango here and I have great news. 0:00:15.120 --> 0:00:20.040 My friends Dana Zarin and Jason, people I really love, 0:00:20.239 --> 0:00:24.360 are back with their show Very Special Episodes. There's a 0:00:24.400 --> 0:00:27.120 brand new season, and if you aren't familiar with the show, 0:00:27.120 --> 0:00:29.600 you need to get familiar because I'm a huge fan 0:00:29.840 --> 0:00:32.240 and I know you're gonna love it too. Jason was 0:00:32.280 --> 0:00:35.960 actually the editor in chief of Mental Floss, the vgazine 0:00:35.960 --> 0:00:37.680 and I started, so I know him from forever ago. 0:00:37.880 --> 0:00:40.560 Dana used to write for us, and Zaren we worked 0:00:40.600 --> 0:00:44.600 on this amazing show called Black Cowboys together. They're really 0:00:44.640 --> 0:00:47.800 sort of like this supergroup anyway. They bring you one 0:00:47.800 --> 0:00:50.800 incredible true story, like the real crime that inspired two 0:00:50.840 --> 0:00:55.000 young comic artists to create Superman, or the secret spy 0:00:55.160 --> 0:00:58.000 operation that ran out of a doll shop in New 0:00:58.080 --> 0:01:01.400 York City during World War Two, all sorts of insane 0:01:01.520 --> 0:01:04.800 and incredible history like that. And if you've ever wondered 0:01:04.840 --> 0:01:07.640 if the truth is stranger than fiction, this podcast is 0:01:07.680 --> 0:01:10.640 absolutely your answer. So check out the new season right 0:01:10.680 --> 0:01:13.560 now and subscribe to Very Special Episodes wherever you get 0:01:13.560 --> 0:01:20.160 your podcasts. You're listening to part Time Genius, the production 0:01:20.240 --> 0:01:29.600 of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio. Guess what gave? What's that mango? So? 0:01:30.000 --> 0:01:34.039 Cartoonist Charles Adams is best known for creating the endearingly 0:01:34.200 --> 0:01:36.880 morbid Adams Family, which I know you and I both 0:01:36.920 --> 0:01:39.360 know about. It kicked off a whole new genre of 0:01:39.440 --> 0:01:43.040 macabre humor in the US. But something I never realized 0:01:43.080 --> 0:01:46.319 before this week is that the Adams Family didn't appear 0:01:46.360 --> 0:01:49.360 that often in his work. In fact, out of the 0:01:49.400 --> 0:01:52.520 more than thirteen hundred comic strips that Adams published in 0:01:52.640 --> 0:01:55.640 his lifetime, only about one hundred and fifty of them 0:01:55.680 --> 0:01:56.960 featured his famous family. 0:01:57.320 --> 0:02:00.400 That's a pretty impressive restraint on his part. Like for 0:02:00.480 --> 0:02:02.480 a lot of creators, you know, it feels like once 0:02:02.520 --> 0:02:05.120 in idea hits like that, the impulse is to go 0:02:05.240 --> 0:02:07.480 back to the well, like over and over again to 0:02:07.600 --> 0:02:08.280 really milk it. 0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:11.040 Yeah, of course, but in this case it probably helped 0:02:11.040 --> 0:02:14.320 the Adams never set out to create a big, enduring franchise, right, Like, 0:02:14.600 --> 0:02:17.359 most of his work ran in the New Yorker, and 0:02:17.560 --> 0:02:20.240 that meant it ran as like single panel strip, so 0:02:20.520 --> 0:02:22.440 it was like a newspaper comic that came out every 0:02:22.520 --> 0:02:23.839 day or every week. Right. 0:02:23.919 --> 0:02:28.120 Yeah, there wasn't a dedicated Adams Family strip like Peanuts 0:02:28.200 --> 0:02:29.760 or Garfielder. 0:02:29.600 --> 0:02:35.720 Yeah, or Hagar the Horrible shout out to Hagar Well. 0:02:35.760 --> 0:02:38.360 Adams was a regular contributor to The New Yorker for 0:02:38.400 --> 0:02:41.040 the first thirty years or so of his career, and 0:02:41.240 --> 0:02:44.200 the vast majority of his strips featured one off scenarios 0:02:44.240 --> 0:02:47.440 and characters. The Adams Family proved the exception to that rule, 0:02:47.480 --> 0:02:51.360 but their development did come out organically. Over the course 0:02:51.400 --> 0:02:54.079 of eight years. The family members were invented one by 0:02:54.120 --> 0:02:57.680 one based on the needs of each strip. So Martsha arrived, 0:02:57.760 --> 0:03:00.959 first appearing in a nineteen thirty eight cartoon that saw 0:03:01.000 --> 0:03:03.600 her as a mistress of a dirty old house. The 0:03:03.680 --> 0:03:06.600 family butler Lurch, stood by her side in the strip, 0:03:06.680 --> 0:03:09.359 sporting a beard for some reason, and they both looked 0:03:09.440 --> 0:03:11.680 puzzled and kind of annoyed at this door to door 0:03:11.800 --> 0:03:14.200 salesman who was trying to sell them a vacuum. Then 0:03:14.360 --> 0:03:17.880 in nineteen foury two, Mortitia was joined by her husband Gomez. 0:03:18.680 --> 0:03:21.400 His squat pig nosed appearance was actually based on New 0:03:21.480 --> 0:03:24.760 York's then Governor Thomas Dewey, which is kind of amazing. 0:03:25.840 --> 0:03:29.000 The couple's son Pugsley debuted the following year, he was 0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:33.959 first seen building a coffin and shop class and their daughter, Wednesday, 0:03:34.040 --> 0:03:37.280 arrived in nineteen forty four, and in her first strip, 0:03:37.560 --> 0:03:40.080 Wednesday complains to her mother that Pugsley is trying to 0:03:40.120 --> 0:03:43.480 poison her, and Mortitia says, well, don't come winding to me, 0:03:43.680 --> 0:03:46.920 go tell him You'll poison him right back. That's perfect 0:03:47.880 --> 0:03:52.040 A plus parenting for sure. Yeah. Well, how about Uncle Fester? 0:03:52.160 --> 0:03:55.400 When did he turn up? In true weird uncle style, 0:03:55.520 --> 0:03:59.000 He was the last to arrive. His appearance was in 0:03:59.040 --> 0:04:01.400 a wordless one panel strip that ran in The New 0:04:01.480 --> 0:04:04.880 Yorker in nineteen forty six. It shows an audience at 0:04:04.880 --> 0:04:07.520 the movies and every single person is either crying or 0:04:07.560 --> 0:04:11.320 on the verge of crying, except this one ghoulish, little 0:04:11.360 --> 0:04:16.400 bald guy who is just laughing hysterically. So basically me. 0:04:16.680 --> 0:04:21.680 Last week at the third Tron movie. Everyone around me 0:04:21.880 --> 0:04:24.400 was just checking their watch wondering why they came, and 0:04:24.480 --> 0:04:25.279 I'm just over. 0:04:25.080 --> 0:04:28.359 There lapping it up. So I was Uncle Fester. I 0:04:28.360 --> 0:04:32.479 guess maybe don't sound so proud when you say that, 0:04:32.640 --> 0:04:36.120 but seriously, that strip is a great example of what 0:04:36.240 --> 0:04:39.080 makes Charles Adams work so special. Even though the humor 0:04:39.160 --> 0:04:42.200 is morbid, it's a little off kilter. The strips are 0:04:42.200 --> 0:04:47.520 grounded in everyday experiences like resolving family disputes or going 0:04:47.560 --> 0:04:50.320 to the movies. And Adam's had a real talent for 0:04:50.400 --> 0:04:54.080 finding unexpected intersections between the bizarre and the mundane. And 0:04:54.440 --> 0:04:57.800 today we're celebrating all that spooky joy he brought the 0:04:57.839 --> 0:05:01.040 world by counting down nine of our favorite fact about 0:05:01.080 --> 0:05:04.480 his life and work. So snap twice for good luck 0:05:06.000 --> 0:05:30.839 and let's dive in. Hey there, podcast listener, as welcome 0:05:30.880 --> 0:05:33.800 to Part Time Genius. I'm Monga's Articular and today I 0:05:33.839 --> 0:05:37.480 am joined by my fellow comics fan Gabe Luzier. Will 0:05:37.520 --> 0:05:40.080 need a little more time to work on his Halloween costumes, 0:05:40.160 --> 0:05:43.080 so Gabe is graciously filling in for him. Yeah. 0:05:43.120 --> 0:05:46.839 You said it's one of those two person horse costumes, right, 0:05:46.920 --> 0:05:47.840 that's what he's going with. 0:05:48.480 --> 0:05:50.520 Yeah, I think so, but I'm not sure his wife 0:05:50.560 --> 0:05:54.040 is going to participate, so he's got a monolize to 0:05:54.040 --> 0:05:57.000 figure it out. That's smart. 0:05:57.080 --> 0:05:59.800 Yeah, making it a one person horse costume is gonna 0:05:59.800 --> 0:06:01.120 make it so much scarier. 0:06:01.360 --> 0:06:03.960 And over there in the booth, wearing a bald cap 0:06:03.960 --> 0:06:06.120 and clenching a light bulb in his teeth. That is 0:06:06.240 --> 0:06:11.000 our friend and super producer, Dylan Fagan. I'm guessing this 0:06:11.040 --> 0:06:13.080 has something to do with Uncle Festa, right. 0:06:13.520 --> 0:06:15.719 Yeah, Yeah, that's a trick that he does in the 0:06:15.720 --> 0:06:18.120 old TV show and actually in the movie from the 0:06:18.200 --> 0:06:20.719 early nineties too. He puts a bulb in his mouth 0:06:20.800 --> 0:06:24.200 and somehow lights it up with his own electricity. It 0:06:24.240 --> 0:06:27.039 doesn't work if you do it bulb first, though, so 0:06:27.480 --> 0:06:29.200 turn it around, Dylan, try that. 0:06:29.600 --> 0:06:33.599 Try that way. So it is late October, where in 0:06:33.600 --> 0:06:36.479 the heart of spooky season, and there's a new season 0:06:36.520 --> 0:06:39.520 of Wednesday streaming on Netflix. It feels like the perfect 0:06:39.560 --> 0:06:42.400 time to get into the Charles Adams spirit and get 0:06:42.440 --> 0:06:45.320 to know this creator a little better. So, Gabe, one 0:06:45.360 --> 0:06:47.400 of the things that's been funny for me is that, 0:06:48.000 --> 0:06:51.640 you know, these franchises that I thought would disappear still 0:06:51.720 --> 0:06:55.200 somehow are in existence. You know, Like my kids love Wednesday, 0:06:55.279 --> 0:06:59.599 and I vaguely, vaguely remember watching reruns of Adam's Family 0:06:59.680 --> 0:07:01.960 during the day as a kid. It used to come 0:07:02.000 --> 0:07:04.480 on when when I was sick at home, and and 0:07:04.600 --> 0:07:07.400 like either you could watch soap operas or kind of 0:07:07.720 --> 0:07:10.400 these TV shows that were on the cusp of black 0:07:10.440 --> 0:07:13.120 and white in color, you know, so like Gilligan's Island, 0:07:13.240 --> 0:07:16.400 Leave It to Beaver and Adam's Family, you know, things 0:07:16.440 --> 0:07:19.760 like that, And that's actually how I was exposed to 0:07:20.080 --> 0:07:22.520 some of those shows. What was your experience with Adam's Family. 0:07:23.040 --> 0:07:27.280 My first introduction was definitely the movies from the nineteen nineties, 0:07:27.560 --> 0:07:30.640 the ones with Christina Ricci is Wednesday and Christopher Lloyd 0:07:30.720 --> 0:07:33.440 is Uncle Fester. I watched those, you know, all the 0:07:33.520 --> 0:07:36.240 time as a kid, and I did watch some reruns 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:38.240 I think on TV Land or something like that, of 0:07:38.320 --> 0:07:41.360 the old TV show Nick at Night. But somehow I 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:43.400 never picked up at the show, you know that they 0:07:43.400 --> 0:07:46.960 were actually based on comic strips. I mean, you weren't 0:07:47.000 --> 0:07:49.880 reading The New Yorker as like a six year old. Yeah, 0:07:49.960 --> 0:07:53.000 to my eternal shame, I guess not. But you know, 0:07:53.080 --> 0:07:56.320 that's probably a good thing, because some of Adam's cartoons 0:07:56.320 --> 0:07:58.800 they would have seriously freaked me out as a little kid, 0:07:58.840 --> 0:08:01.400 Like He's got this one strip that's just a pair 0:08:01.440 --> 0:08:03.960 of unicorns standing on a rock in the middle of 0:08:04.000 --> 0:08:07.200 the ocean and they're like watching Noah's Arc drift over 0:08:07.280 --> 0:08:08.000 the horizon. 0:08:08.160 --> 0:08:10.400 It's so sad. I would have cried for days if 0:08:10.400 --> 0:08:13.960 I saw that as a kid. But you know, I mean, 0:08:14.360 --> 0:08:16.960 just get into your fact, because I know you've got one. 0:08:17.040 --> 0:08:20.679 I mean the early Peanuts strips right like are actually 0:08:20.680 --> 0:08:23.200 pretty dark too. Oh yeah, yeah, I know that. 0:08:23.200 --> 0:08:26.000 That's the very first strip is just a you know, 0:08:26.040 --> 0:08:28.440 two kids watching Charlie Brown walk by and they're like, 0:08:28.800 --> 0:08:31.600 good old Charlie Brown, How I hate him? 0:08:32.920 --> 0:08:36.000 So just like right off the bat, so much darker 0:08:36.040 --> 0:08:36.840 than you'd expect. 0:08:36.960 --> 0:08:40.440 Yeah, I guess it hits harder in a medium like 0:08:40.440 --> 0:08:42.840 that because it's a little unexpected, right you think. 0:08:42.640 --> 0:08:44.680 About it completely, You think it's gonna be sweet. 0:08:45.360 --> 0:08:49.040 Yeah, pulls the rail gua out from under you. But that, actually, 0:08:49.120 --> 0:08:51.480 you know, sets up my first fact pretty well, which 0:08:51.559 --> 0:08:55.880 is that the man behind these terrifying strips wasn't nearly 0:08:55.920 --> 0:08:59.000 as creepy or as kooky as his work might suggest. 0:08:59.440 --> 0:09:02.400 So people had assumed that Adam's home life was as 0:09:02.440 --> 0:09:04.920 strange as that of the family that bore his name, 0:09:05.320 --> 0:09:07.600 but by all accounts, he was a pretty down to 0:09:07.640 --> 0:09:11.760 earth guy. He had a normal upbringing in Westfield, New Jersey, 0:09:11.920 --> 0:09:14.920 as the only child of a piano salesman and he 0:09:15.080 --> 0:09:18.400 was well liked by his teachers and his classmates. In fact, 0:09:18.400 --> 0:09:21.640 Adams once told an interviewer quote, I know it would 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:25.440 be more interesting, perhaps if I had a ghastly childhood 0:09:25.640 --> 0:09:28.240 chained to an iron beam and thrown a can of 0:09:28.280 --> 0:09:32.280 alpo every day. But I'm one of those strange people 0:09:32.640 --> 0:09:34.360 who actually had a happy childhood. 0:09:34.760 --> 0:09:37.440 You know, I'm obviously glad that his parents didn't making 0:09:37.480 --> 0:09:41.400 me dog food. But it is kind of disappointing, right 0:09:41.440 --> 0:09:44.640 You want like something dark to be inspiring him, or 0:09:44.760 --> 0:09:46.480 him to be like, you know, kind of more of 0:09:46.480 --> 0:09:47.000 a weirdo. 0:09:47.480 --> 0:09:49.920 Yeah, definitely, And you know, I do have some good 0:09:49.920 --> 0:09:52.600 news on that front, because while there isn't any truth 0:09:52.640 --> 0:09:55.480 to the rumors that Charles Adams slept in a coffin 0:09:55.800 --> 0:09:59.439 or garnished his martinis with eyeballs, he did have. 0:09:59.400 --> 0:10:00.520 A few quirk so. 0:10:00.760 --> 0:10:04.000 As a child, he liked to explore local graveyards, where 0:10:04.040 --> 0:10:06.080 he tried to imagine what the people in the graves 0:10:06.120 --> 0:10:08.160 looked like and then you know, bring them back to 0:10:08.240 --> 0:10:11.839 life in his sketchbook. And as an adult he had 0:10:11.880 --> 0:10:15.920 a let's say, peculiar taste in home decor. He displayed 0:10:15.920 --> 0:10:20.040 his collection of antique crossbows over the living room sofa. 0:10:20.480 --> 0:10:24.000 His coffee table was a Civil War era embalming table, 0:10:24.440 --> 0:10:28.400 and he used the maybe creepiest of all, he used 0:10:28.440 --> 0:10:32.760 the salvaged tombstone of a child, Little Sarah, aged three, 0:10:33.360 --> 0:10:34.760 as a cocktail table. 0:10:35.800 --> 0:10:41.559 I mean that is so dark, but you know, I 0:10:41.679 --> 0:10:46.000 like how it plays to type, right, Yeah, absolutely kind 0:10:46.000 --> 0:10:50.600 of amazing. So my next fact is about Adam's early 0:10:50.720 --> 0:10:53.000 art career and his big break at The New Yorker. 0:10:53.440 --> 0:10:56.600 He had contributed cartoons to his high school newspaper, and 0:10:56.640 --> 0:10:59.280 by the time he graduated nineteen twenty nine, he knew 0:10:59.360 --> 0:11:01.880 he wanted to be a professional artist. For the next 0:11:01.880 --> 0:11:05.000 few years, he drifted through multiple colleges in search of 0:11:05.080 --> 0:11:08.520 a decent arts program, and he ended up at Grand 0:11:08.600 --> 0:11:11.000 Central School of Art in New York City. He was 0:11:11.040 --> 0:11:13.760 still a student when he sold his first cartoon to 0:11:13.800 --> 0:11:16.760 The New Yorker. It was an unsigned sketch of a 0:11:16.800 --> 0:11:19.800 window washer on the side of a tall building, and 0:11:20.920 --> 0:11:24.760 it ran in the February sixth, nineteen thirty two issue 0:11:24.800 --> 0:11:27.079 of The New Yorker. But while it did give him 0:11:27.080 --> 0:11:29.599 his first paycheck, it wasn't for that much. It was 0:11:29.640 --> 0:11:32.080 a whopping seven dollars and fifty cents. 0:11:32.440 --> 0:11:35.079 I'm sure that went a lot further back in those days, right, 0:11:35.120 --> 0:11:37.600 but still not enough to live on I wouldn't think. 0:11:38.000 --> 0:11:40.880 Yeah, definitely, not, especially like on a freelance basis. And 0:11:40.880 --> 0:11:43.360 that's why Adams decided to try a different kind of gig. 0:11:43.480 --> 0:11:46.400 Just a few months later, he started retouching these gory 0:11:46.480 --> 0:11:49.599 crime scene photos for True Detective magazine. So for the 0:11:49.679 --> 0:11:52.640 next few years he spent most of his days painting 0:11:52.679 --> 0:11:57.480 the bloodstains out of murder scenes. It sounds kind of creepy. 0:11:57.520 --> 0:11:59.760 It wasn't as glamorous as drawing for The New Yorker, 0:11:59.800 --> 0:12:02.240 but it did pay the bills, and it gave him 0:12:02.240 --> 0:12:06.000 a chance to hone that delicate ink wash technique that 0:12:06.440 --> 0:12:09.720 kind of becomes his signature style. Plus he was still 0:12:09.760 --> 0:12:12.400 able to draw cartoons in his free time, including five 0:12:12.440 --> 0:12:14.920 strips that he sold to The New Yorker in nineteen 0:12:14.960 --> 0:12:18.520 thirty three for about thirty dollars a piece, which was 0:12:18.640 --> 0:12:23.320 twice his weekly salary at True Detective. These bigger paydays 0:12:23.360 --> 0:12:26.040 soon allowed him to quit True Detective and focus on 0:12:26.080 --> 0:12:29.560 cartooning full time, and then in nineteen forty Adams drew 0:12:29.600 --> 0:12:32.600 his first breakout hit for The New Yorker. It was 0:12:32.640 --> 0:12:35.400 a strip called The Skier. You've probably seen this. It 0:12:35.440 --> 0:12:38.600 shows a downhill skier who's just left a single track 0:12:38.679 --> 0:12:41.280 on either side of a tree, suggesting that, you know, 0:12:41.320 --> 0:12:43.480 he somehow went through it rather than around it. And 0:12:44.000 --> 0:12:48.280 this baffling image that he'd created received more requests for 0:12:48.400 --> 0:12:52.200 reprints than any other cartoon that year, and that actually 0:12:52.200 --> 0:12:55.200 cemented adams Place as one of the magazines most popular 0:12:55.280 --> 0:12:59.240 and seemed to be highest paid contributors. But to his fans, 0:12:59.480 --> 0:13:03.000 he was Charles Adams. He was actually Chaz Adams, because 0:13:03.559 --> 0:13:04.920 that's how we signed his pieces. 0:13:05.320 --> 0:13:08.120 Chaz has got to be one of the coolest abbreviations 0:13:08.160 --> 0:13:11.400 for a common name. I think, like, remember Chucky's dad 0:13:11.440 --> 0:13:13.120 on Rugrats Chaz Finster. 0:13:14.000 --> 0:13:17.720 I do not, But if you say it's cool, I've 0:13:17.720 --> 0:13:20.000 gotta trust you. He was so cool. 0:13:20.480 --> 0:13:23.880 But okay, speaking of names, most of the Adams family 0:13:23.920 --> 0:13:27.520 didn't have any until the nineteen sixties. Before that, they 0:13:27.520 --> 0:13:30.959 were never billed as the Adams family or even given 0:13:31.040 --> 0:13:35.040 individual names, and that finally changed in nineteen sixty three, 0:13:35.360 --> 0:13:38.120 when Adams was approached by a TV producer to adapt 0:13:38.160 --> 0:13:41.160 the strips into a live action show, it was a 0:13:41.200 --> 0:13:44.000 no brainer to use his own surname for the family, 0:13:44.240 --> 0:13:46.360 but coming up with first names for each of the 0:13:46.400 --> 0:13:49.880 members was a little bit tougher, so Adams worked with 0:13:49.960 --> 0:13:53.760 producers to find just the right monikers, with Mortsha and 0:13:53.920 --> 0:13:57.120 Fester being instant approvals, but he had a little harder 0:13:57.160 --> 0:13:59.760 time with the others. So Adams thought that the head 0:13:59.760 --> 0:14:03.160 of the family should be called Repelle rather than Gomez, 0:14:03.600 --> 0:14:08.040 and he wanted to name their son Pubert, before the 0:14:08.120 --> 0:14:10.880 siding at the last minute that that was a little 0:14:10.920 --> 0:14:14.000 too gross for television, and at which point he changed. 0:14:13.760 --> 0:14:17.240 It to Pugsley, which is still weird. But Pugsy is 0:14:17.240 --> 0:14:18.640 so much cuter than Pubert. 0:14:20.320 --> 0:14:23.560 Right, agreed, And you know, the really funny thing is 0:14:23.600 --> 0:14:26.600 the name did find a second life much later on 0:14:27.200 --> 0:14:30.080 when Mortitia and Gomez have a second son in the 0:14:30.160 --> 0:14:34.040 nineteen ninety three movie Adam's Family Values, they decide to 0:14:34.080 --> 0:14:35.239 call him Pubert. 0:14:36.280 --> 0:14:37.920 So what about Wednesday. 0:14:38.320 --> 0:14:40.560 Yeah, that was one of the few names that Charles 0:14:40.560 --> 0:14:43.800 Adams didn't come up with himself. It was chosen by 0:14:43.880 --> 0:14:46.720 a toy company that was making dolls to coincide with 0:14:46.760 --> 0:14:49.320 the launch of the show. They picked the name based 0:14:49.360 --> 0:14:53.040 on this old British nursery rhyme called Monday's Child, you 0:14:53.080 --> 0:14:57.200 know the one. Yeah, Monday's child is fair of face, 0:14:57.320 --> 0:14:58.720 Tuesday's child is. 0:14:58.680 --> 0:14:59.400 Full of grace. 0:14:59.480 --> 0:15:02.960 But when Wednesday's child is full of woe. 0:15:04.200 --> 0:15:07.440 That's so sad. I know what happened on Wednesday? I 0:15:07.480 --> 0:15:08.360 have no idea. 0:15:08.480 --> 0:15:11.120 Yeah, the poem doesn't say. But here are two quick 0:15:11.160 --> 0:15:13.760 bonus facts for you about Wednesday. The first is that, 0:15:13.840 --> 0:15:17.040 according to the original show, her middle name is Friday, 0:15:17.360 --> 0:15:21.440 So kind of a scandal there, uh. And second, there's 0:15:21.480 --> 0:15:24.240 a nod to that old nursery rhyme in the Wednesday 0:15:24.360 --> 0:15:28.000 series on Netflix. The episode titles are puns that all 0:15:28.000 --> 0:15:31.520 include the word whoe, like woe is the loneliest number 0:15:31.760 --> 0:15:35.920 and you reap what you woe, So Wednesday's titles are 0:15:36.160 --> 0:15:38.080 also full of woe. 0:15:38.400 --> 0:15:41.480 You know. It's interesting because from what I've read, suggesting 0:15:41.560 --> 0:15:44.440 names was one of the few contributions that Charles Adams 0:15:44.440 --> 0:15:47.440 actually made to that original TV show, or really to 0:15:47.720 --> 0:15:51.560 any adaptation of his work. He was pretty hands off otherwise, 0:15:51.640 --> 0:15:54.120 but you can still find his influence here and there. 0:15:54.120 --> 0:15:55.760 And after we take a quick break, we'll tell you 0:15:55.800 --> 0:15:59.320 more about that, including how young Charles developed a taste 0:15:59.320 --> 0:16:02.120 for spooky mannss, and of course, the story of that 0:16:02.160 --> 0:16:19.760 famous theme song, Don't Go Anywhere. Welcome back to Part 0:16:19.760 --> 0:16:23.040 Time Genius, where we're celebrating Halloween by counting down nine 0:16:23.160 --> 0:16:25.920 facts about Charles Adams. If you're enjoying the show, be 0:16:26.040 --> 0:16:28.520 sure to subscribe and leave us a nice rating and review. 0:16:28.840 --> 0:16:31.360 You can also share this episode with a member of 0:16:31.400 --> 0:16:34.520 your own spooky family. I'm sure you have a cousin 0:16:34.600 --> 0:16:38.720 it who's dying to hear from you. But we have 0:16:38.960 --> 0:16:42.040 talked a bit about the Adams characters, but now I 0:16:42.080 --> 0:16:44.680 want to tell you about the eerie house they called home. 0:16:44.760 --> 0:16:48.680 So as a child, Charles Adams had briefly considered becoming 0:16:48.680 --> 0:16:52.720 an architect because he was fascinated by this Rundown Victorian 0:16:52.760 --> 0:16:56.160 house in his neighborhood. I think his neighborhood was actually 0:16:56.200 --> 0:16:58.520 full of these houses, and in fact, when he was eight, 0:16:58.880 --> 0:17:01.440 Adams was caught passing it one of the houses down 0:17:01.480 --> 0:17:04.880 the street. And he later told People magazine that when 0:17:04.880 --> 0:17:07.919 it came time to design the Adams family abode, he 0:17:08.119 --> 0:17:11.600 based it on that very house. His friend and the 0:17:11.720 --> 0:17:15.280 fellow writer, Wilfrid shed remarked that quote, it's nice to 0:17:15.280 --> 0:17:18.280 think of the eight year old Charlie Adams solemnly inspecting 0:17:18.320 --> 0:17:21.639 the house for its future tenants, which is so yeah, No, 0:17:21.840 --> 0:17:22.280 I love that. 0:17:22.400 --> 0:17:25.560 Yeah, that's the perfect blend of creepy and sweet. 0:17:25.320 --> 0:17:29.360 Very very creepy. And the house used for the Adams 0:17:29.359 --> 0:17:32.000 Family TV shows stuck close to that design as well, 0:17:32.520 --> 0:17:38.320 except that there was one notable exception. The walls were pink. Luckily, 0:17:38.359 --> 0:17:41.400 the show's viewers were none the wiser because even though 0:17:41.440 --> 0:17:43.960 the transition to full color TV had begun when the 0:17:43.960 --> 0:17:47.119 show premiered in nineteen sixty four, it was filmed in 0:17:47.160 --> 0:17:50.359 black and white to match that gothic gray scale of 0:17:50.400 --> 0:17:51.480 the original comics. 0:17:51.760 --> 0:17:55.280 Okay, definitely the right call. But while we're on the 0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:58.560 subject of details pulled straight from the comics, I want 0:17:58.560 --> 0:18:02.360 to mention the Adams Family move from nineteen ninety one now. Sadly, 0:18:02.520 --> 0:18:05.479 Charles Adams never got to see the film himself because 0:18:05.520 --> 0:18:08.600 he died three years before it was released, but his 0:18:08.720 --> 0:18:11.800 influence can be felt from the very first scene, and 0:18:11.840 --> 0:18:14.800 that's because it was lifted directly from one of his strips. 0:18:15.240 --> 0:18:17.280 So if you've seen the movie, you know what I'm 0:18:17.320 --> 0:18:21.679 talking about Christmas carollers are singing on the family's front porch, 0:18:21.800 --> 0:18:25.000 and the camera pans up to reveal the Adams clan 0:18:25.119 --> 0:18:28.399 standing on the roof, preparing to dump a cauldron of 0:18:28.480 --> 0:18:29.800 boiling oil on. 0:18:29.880 --> 0:18:32.720 Those Yeah, I remember that in So Dark. 0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:35.520 I know it is a very dark start to a film, 0:18:35.560 --> 0:18:38.080 you know, marketed to children, but it was also an 0:18:38.119 --> 0:18:42.240 homage to one of Adams's most famous cartoons. The uncaptioned 0:18:42.240 --> 0:18:45.440 strip showed the exact same scene, and it first ran 0:18:45.480 --> 0:18:48.880 in The New Yorker back in nineteen forty six, and 0:18:49.080 --> 0:18:52.159 readers liked it so much that the magazine actually released 0:18:52.200 --> 0:18:54.000 the image on Christmas cards. 0:18:55.680 --> 0:18:58.040 I mean, it is so wild that a joke that 0:18:58.119 --> 0:19:00.960 dark could go mainstream, especially like you're about the nineteen 0:19:01.119 --> 0:19:05.720 forties and for a Christmas card, people must have been 0:19:05.760 --> 0:19:08.119 really fed off with krolers coming to their doorsteps. 0:19:08.560 --> 0:19:11.520 Yeah, I know, But that's not the film's only strip 0:19:11.600 --> 0:19:15.400 to screen. Example, in another scene, Wednesday and Pugsley are 0:19:15.480 --> 0:19:19.600 shown decapitating dolls with a miniature guillotine, and that's a 0:19:19.640 --> 0:19:23.080 gag repeated from a nineteen forties New Yorker strip. There's 0:19:23.119 --> 0:19:26.160 another scene where Gomez is playing with a model train 0:19:26.280 --> 0:19:29.600 set and we see a tiny commuter inside looking out 0:19:29.640 --> 0:19:32.320 the window at him. That's borrowed directly from a nineteen 0:19:32.400 --> 0:19:36.080 fifty four strip. Lastly, in the film's final scene, Mortisia 0:19:36.119 --> 0:19:39.119 reveals that she's pregnant with Pubert, and she does this 0:19:39.160 --> 0:19:43.840 by showing Gomez a freshly knitted onesie with three legs, 0:19:44.320 --> 0:19:47.200 And that's actually a callback to a nineteen fifty cartoon, 0:19:47.320 --> 0:19:49.240 with the only difference being that the sweater in the 0:19:49.280 --> 0:19:51.960 comic has four legs. Of course, all of that's a 0:19:52.040 --> 0:19:54.920 red herring because when Pubert shows up in the next movie, 0:19:54.960 --> 0:19:57.320 he has only two legs, but he does have a 0:19:57.359 --> 0:20:01.720 pencil mustache just like his dad, and that's arguably even creepier. 0:20:01.960 --> 0:20:05.040 Yeah, I feel like baby facial hair is always unnerving, 0:20:05.119 --> 0:20:10.240 especially when it's like fully styled and groomed. Yeah, fully styled. 0:20:11.600 --> 0:20:14.840 So I mentioned earlier that Mortitia was one of the 0:20:14.840 --> 0:20:17.720 first Adams family members to appear in Prince. She was 0:20:17.760 --> 0:20:19.960 the first and fact way back in nineteen thirty eight, 0:20:20.000 --> 0:20:22.760 And I think the reason he drew her first is 0:20:22.800 --> 0:20:26.400 that Martitia was actually his dream girl. 0:20:26.800 --> 0:20:28.800 You mean, he based the character on someone he. 0:20:28.840 --> 0:20:32.600 Knew that's the thing. Adams married three different women in 0:20:32.640 --> 0:20:36.560 his lifetime, and all of them resembled Martitia. They were 0:20:36.800 --> 0:20:40.359 tall and skinny, with dark hair and pale skin. He 0:20:40.480 --> 0:20:44.480 definitely had a type. His final wedding even took place 0:20:44.560 --> 0:20:47.240 in a pet cemetery, with both the groom and the 0:20:47.320 --> 0:20:51.280 bride dressed in all black. But the really interesting part 0:20:51.480 --> 0:20:53.520 is that he had been drawing early versions of the 0:20:53.600 --> 0:20:56.879 character a full decade before his first marriage. 0:20:57.160 --> 0:20:59.920 Oh okay, so it's more like he based his why 0:21:00.280 --> 0:21:01.560 on more Titia then. 0:21:02.080 --> 0:21:05.239 Yeah, And he actually was not shy about this. He 0:21:05.280 --> 0:21:08.480 once told People magazine quote, I married women who looked 0:21:08.480 --> 0:21:12.560 like Martitia. She is my ideal. So even though Adams 0:21:12.560 --> 0:21:15.520 also said he related more to Uncle Fester than the Gomez, 0:21:15.920 --> 0:21:19.240 they definitely had the same taste in women. Another thing 0:21:19.359 --> 0:21:21.400 I just learned this week is that it was actually 0:21:21.480 --> 0:21:25.520 actor John Aston's idea to make Gomez and over the 0:21:25.560 --> 0:21:28.520 top romantic. It's one of the sweetest parts of the show, 0:21:28.560 --> 0:21:31.040 I think, for this family. And after being cast in 0:21:31.080 --> 0:21:33.600 the role for the nineteen sixty four TV show, he 0:21:33.720 --> 0:21:38.040 reportedly told producers that quote, their romance should be unceasing 0:21:38.440 --> 0:21:42.560 and the slightest look or keyword should send Gomez into raptures. 0:21:42.760 --> 0:21:46.159 And this character beat worked so well that it's actually 0:21:46.200 --> 0:21:50.000 been carried forward in every incarnation of the family ever since. 0:21:50.760 --> 0:21:53.000 Yeah, and you know, looking back, that feels like a 0:21:53.040 --> 0:21:56.399 pretty progressive move for the time, Like early TV shows 0:21:56.400 --> 0:21:59.040 were notoriously prudish about that kind of thing. 0:21:59.440 --> 0:22:00.720 I know, read couples. 0:22:00.800 --> 0:22:04.000