Lisa Loring as Wednesday in the 1964 Addams Family television series. ABC Television publicity photo, public domain (published without a copyright notice), via Wikimedia Commons. Netflix's own images of the series are not freely licensed.
Wednesday
What it took directly
- statedThe name "Wednesday" took from Joan Blake, who suggested it to Charles Addams at P. J. Clarke's when he had no name for the little girl and the family was being made into a TV show"I said, “Wednesday—Wednesday’s child is full of woe.” And Wednesday became her name." Joan Blake, in a letter to The New Yorker (2018), quoted by The A.V. Club, which finds it in line with the account in H. Kevin Miserocchi's The Addams Family: An Evilution that "a friend" suggested the name
- statedWednesday took from Tim Burton's own 1976 high-school prom, the year Carrie came out"It was the year Carrie came out. I felt like a male Carrie at that prom." Tim Burton, director, to Empire (2022)
- statedWednesday's Rave'N dance took from Siouxsie Sioux's moves in the Siouxsie and the Banshees "Happy House" video"I feel kinda bad because I ripped off a couple of her moves. There’s a bit in Wednesday’s [Rave’N] dance where I’m jumping to the left and I have my arms to the side and that’s something that [Siouxsie] did on stage later in her career." Jenna Ortega, who choreographed the dance herself, to NME (2022)
- statedWednesday's Rave'N dance took from Bob Fosse's "Rich Man's Frug", Lisa Loring, Lene Lovich, Denis Lavant and archival footage of goths dancing in '80s clubs"Thanks to Siouxsie Sioux, Bob Fosse’s Rich Man’s Frug, Lisa Loring, Lene Lovich, Denis Lavant, and archival footage of goths dancing in clubs in the ’80s" Jenna Ortega, in her own post thanking her sources, quoted by CBR (2022)
- statedWednesday took from Christina Ricci, the Wednesday of the 1991 and 1993 films, cast so the two Wednesdays could share a scene"Even casting Christina Ricci was just something that we felt was such a delicious moment to have the two Wednesdays in a scene together." Miles Millar, co-creator, to The Hollywood Reporter (2022)
- statedThe shop fronts in Wednesday's town of Jericho took from Charles Addams's single-panel cartoons: a florist's, a cobbler's, a thrift store"In the town, a lot of the shop fronts were stolen right out of the Chas Addams cartoons. There’s a florist’s shop, a cobbler’s shop, a thrift store" Mark Scruton, production designer, to Variety, quoted by Collider (2022)
- statedPrincipal Weems' office in Wednesday took from Tim Burton's Beetlejuice: a little shrunken head"In Principal Weems’ office, there’s a little shrunken head referencing ‘Beetlejuice.'" Mark Scruton, production designer, to Variety, quoted by Collider (2022)
What it learned to do
- statedWednesday's Addams family learned from the silhouettes of Charles Addams's cartoons, with Gomez shorter than Morticia, as Burton wanted"He wanted the silhouette to look more like the Charles Addams cartoons, which is Gomez shorter than Morticia, versus the kind of suave Raul Julia version in the movies" Alfred Gough, co-creator, to Vanity Fair (2022)
- statedWednesday learned from Smallville, Gough and Millar's earlier series: how to mix many tones in one show"So, I think it was really kind of evolving that sort of mix of tones in one show that I think we then took to Wednesday and refined" Alfred Gough, co-creator, to The Hollywood Reporter (2022)
- statedWednesday learned from the creators' own four daughters"but we’re also the father of four daughters between us. So, we have definitely culled from life for this one" Miles Millar, co-creator, to The Hollywood Reporter (2022)
- documentedJenna Ortega's Wednesday learned from Lisa Loring's classic look and Christina Ricci's expressionless mask"Ortega takes the best bits from her predecessors – the classic look of Loring; that expressionless, painted mask from Ricci" NME (Alex Flood, 2022), the critic's reading
- statedJenna Ortega's Wednesday answered Christina Ricci's Wednesday, by keeping away from it on set"I didn't want to rip her off and I didn't want to be too much like her." Jenna Ortega, quoted by Collider (2022)
The tradition it sits in
- statedWednesday comes from Stephen King's small towns and teenage emotions, and Charles Addams"The Stephen King element of small towns and teenage emotions run rampant felt like was sort of the elements that [we went for], and then Charles Addams" Miles Millar, co-creator, to The Hollywood Reporter (2022)
- statedNevermore Academy comes from the boarding school itself, not Harry Potter or Percy Jackson: the resemblance comes with the setting"It wasn’t any homage to Percy Jackson or anything like that, or Harry Potter, but as soon you get to boarding school, the comparisons are there." Miles Millar, co-creator, to The Hollywood Reporter (2022)
- statedWednesday answered the 1960s TV show and the 1990s movies, without remaking them"It’s something that lives within the Venn diagram of what happened before, but it’s its own thing. It’s not trying to be the movies or the ’60s TV show." Miles Millar, co-creator, to Vanity Fair (2022)
- inferredWednesday comes from Tim Burton's own place as an outsider, more than from any one of his films"You know, Wednesday and I have the same worldview," inferred — Burton says he and Wednesday share a worldview, and his set designer and the press point to Burton's films; Burton himself names no film as the model
Where the whole form comes from
- documentedWednesday Addams comes from Charles Addams's cartoons in The New Yorker, which became the 1964 TV series"The Addams Family first appeared in Charles Addams' New Yorker comics in the 1930s, and made their television debut in the 1964 television series of the same name." Collider (2022)
- documentedThe name "Wednesday" comes from the nursery rhyme "Monday's Child": "Wednesday's child is full of woe""It’s generally accepted that Addams named Wednesday after the 19th century nursery rhyme “Monday’s Child,” which contains the “Wednesday’s child is full of woe” line that Blake is referencing." The A.V. Club (Caroline Siede, 2018)
Start here