Ancient Web: Addams Family Fans Kept a 1996 Tribute Talking

Part of the Ancient Web Collection.

The Addams Family has been revived so many times that keeping track of all its incarnations is a small job for an archivist. Jon A. Davis appears to have volunteered for that job before 'fan wiki' was a household term.

Visit the Unofficial Addams Family Web Site.

The surviving site preserves a dense mix of old and newer announcements about the comic strips, 1960s television series, feature films, stage musical, and collectibles. The page still links to coverage of the original show's DVD releases, a Google Doodle commemorating cartoonist Charles Addams, and fan-contributed items such as photographs of a Morticia sculpture.

Dig into the history page and the site's roots become clearer. It carries a 1996 copyright attribution to Davis and a 2004 update marker. The page offers a biography of Charles Addams, information about the 1964–1966 television show, and a bibliography of the cartoonist's books. It ends with personal thanks to people who sent graphics, supplied book information, and helped the webmaster learn HTML.

The strange case of Cemetery Lane

A fan site's most useful details are often the ones nobody at a studio thought to catalog. The FAQ records the series' competing addresses for the family's home, including versions of Cemetery Lane and Cemetery Drive. It also lists the television cast and preserves production trivia about Cousin Itt's voice and performers.

On the main page, Davis shares fan correspondence, old interviews, magazine material, and news about subsequent adaptations. A section on DVD publicity photographs carefully explains that studio-supplied scans are for personal enjoyment and not unrestricted commercial use. That concern with permissions shows the website operating as an informal archive rather than simply a place to post pictures.

The page has all the recognizable marks of incremental old-Web maintenance: dated inserts, repeated 'Return to top' links, a maze of anchors, and announcements still present long after the associated event.

Some historical statements are the webmaster's summaries, not substitutes for primary production documents. But the material's value is clear. It preserves not just Addams Family facts, but the work of a fan who spent decades collecting them.

Explore the original site and FAQ.

Part of the Ancient Web Collection.