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Grandmama is a fictional character in the Addams Family television and film series. First appearing in the works of cartoonist Charles Addams, she is a supporting character in the film, television, and stage adaptations.
Character background
"This disrespectful old hag is the mother of Gomez (husband of Morticia). She willingly helps with the dishes, cheats at solitaire and is thoroughly dishonest. She, too, is a favorite with the children and will make them cookies in the shape of bats, skulls and bones. Good humored about all and can be garrulous. The complexion is dark, the hair is white and frizzy and uncombed. She has a light beard and a large mole. She wears a shawl on all occasions, thick socks and fleece slippers under a bombazine skirt."
Grandmama Addams is an aged witch who concocts potions and spells, and dabbles in fortune telling and knife throwing. She is the grandmother of the Addams children, Pugsley and Wednesday, although her relationship to the other family members is less consistent. Grandmama first appeared along with the then-unnamed Addams family in Charles Addams' original cartoons published in The New Yorker, in which she was regularly illustrated with shoulder-length frizzy hair and a fringed shawl.
Grandmama and Granny Frump
When asked to name his characters for the then upcoming 1964 TV adaptation, Charles Addams, creator of the original The New Yorkercartoon strips, first named the household's grandmother as Granny Frump and described her as Gomez's mother, thus making her Morticia's mother-in-law and Wednesday and Pugsley's paternal grandmother. But when the show was being made, the characters were instead given the surname of Addams after their creator, yet Grandmama remains Gomez's mother and "Frump" became Morticia's maiden name instead. A different Granny Frump appears in three episodes of the show, Grandmama's best friend Hester Frump and the mother of sisters Morticia Addams and Ophelia Frump (and is, probably, Fester's sister too). These versions of the characters were also used in the TV movie Halloween with the New Addams Family.
However, due to Charles Addams originally naming the character Granny Frump, both the feature films and animated television series had retconned her as being Morticia's mother and Wednesday and Pugsley's maternal grandmother instead. In the first film, Morticia and Fester discuss how "Mother and Father Addams" were killed by an angry mob. In the third film, Grandmama is named Esmeralda and is again Morticia's mother. The character is simply referred to as Granny Frump in the two animated series. In the 1992 series, Grandmama is of Morticia's side of the family, when she introduces herself with the line "the name's Granny Frump".[2]
In the 1998-99 television series The New Addams Family, Grandmama is again Gomez's mother and, for the first time, Fester's mother. A separate Granny Frump also appears, once again as Morticia and Ophelia's mother. Here, Grandmama's full name is Eudora Addams, while Morticia's mother was renamed Griselda Frump.
In the Broadway musical The Addams Family, Morticia refers to Grandmama as Gomez and Uncle Fester's mother, to which Gomez reacts with surprise and says that he thought she was Morticia's mother. Morticia later says that Grandmama "may not even be part of this family".
In the animated film and its sequel, she is again Gomez and Fester's mother while Granny Frump is long dead.
Due to illness, Rock was the one regular cast member from the show who did not return for the 1977 reunion film Halloween with the New Addams Family, and she was replaced as Grandmama by Jane Rose.[6] Granny Frump was also present helping with the Addams Family's Halloween party where she was portrayed by Elvia Allman.
Three different actresses played Granny in the three Addams Family feature films. Judith Malina, who played her in the 1991 film The Addams Family, was ostracized by others working on the movie after making an anti-war joke about burning the American flag,[7][8] and was replaced by Carol Kane for the 1993 sequel Addams Family Values. For the 1998 direct-to-video picture Addams Family Reunion, Granny Frump was played by Alice Ghostley.
Grandmama was played by Betty Phillips in the 1998-99 television series The New Addams Family. Like the original series, Grandmama is good friends with Granny Frump (portrayed by Meredith Bain Woodward).
Bette Midler voiced the character in the 2019 animated film. She is shown to be Gomez's and Fester's mother. When she arrives at the Addams Family house before the Saber Mazurka following her robbery in Spain, she treats Pugsley to the candy that is on her feet. At one point, Grandmama called Lurch by the name of "Fabio". Grandmama is also revealed to have a dwarfish sister named Sloom (voiced by Jenifer Lewis) who oversees Pugsley's Saber Mazurka and had an argument with her which Grandmama claimed that she won.
Granny Frump is also in the film voiced by Catherine O'Hara. She and her husband Grandpa Frump (voiced by Martin Short) are long dead and Morticia holds a séance in the family cemetery to speak to them. It is also shown at the beginning of the film that Morticia possesses urns containing their ashes. When Morticia brings up Wednesday's friendship with Parker Needler, Granny and Grandpa Frump offer their advice to her and also bring up the time when Morticia ran away to join the girl scouts and learned that they roasted marshmallows and not girl scouts. At one point, Grandpa Frump forgot when he died to which Granny Frump stated that he died 20 years ago.
Grandmama Addams appears in The Addams Family 2 voiced again by Bette Midler. While most of the Addams Family went on a cross-country road trip, Grandmama kept an eye on the house and threw a house party. When it got out of control, Grandmama called Cousin Itt to help get it back under control. By the time the Addams Family returned to their house, Grandmama and Cousin Itt had restored the house back to what it was before the party.
In other media
In the 1989 Nintendo Entertainment System game Fester's Quest, the instruction booklet says Grandmama's psychic powers foretold the alien invasion that would come and abduct all the people in the city, so she invokes a curse on the family mansion. As a result, when extraterrestrial scouts scan the Addams residence for life forms they find none, thanks to Grandmama's curse.
Grandmama was played by Jackie Hoffman in the 2010 Broadway musical, in which her relation to the family in the storyline is ambiguous. In Act Two, Morticia tells Gomez that "[his] mother came to our home and now she's here forever" to which he replies "wait, I thought she was your mother", referencing Grandmama's ever changing relation to the family in the franchise. Morticia later says that Grandmama "may not even be part of this family".
^In the BroadwaymusicalThe Addams Family, Morticia refers to Grandmama as Gomez and Uncle Fester's mother, to which Gomez reacts with surprise and says that he had thought she was Morticia's mother. Morticia later says that Grandmama "may not even be part of this family", referencing Grandmama's ever-changing relation to the family.
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