Where Were The Live-Action Addams Family Movies Filmed?

Summary

The Addams Family and Addams Family Values were filmed primarily in Los Angeles, California, using sound stages and various locations throughout the city.
The Hollywood Center Studios in Los Angeles was used for interior shots of The Addams Family, including the mansion. Unfortunately, there are no house tours available for fans.
Specific locations such as Toluca Lake, Ebell of Los Angeles, Brentwood Theater, Sylmar, Linda Vista Seniors Complex, and Pasadena & Palos Verdes Peninsula were used for different scenes in the films.

The Addams Family and Addams Family Values are '90s cult classics with signature visual worlds, so where were the live-action Addams Family movies filmed? As it turns out, everything from the spooky mansion of the quirky Addams Family to their children's school were all filmed in and near Los Angeles, California. Based on the cartoon strip by Charles Addams that later became a popular TV show in the '60s, the live-action Addams Family movies were inspired by his hometown of Westfield, New Jersey, an area of the United States known for its ornate Victorian homes and crumbling graveyards.

In order to create the many specific locations used throughout what are considered the best Addams Family movies, the production teams primarily used three separate sound stages in Los Angeles. This allowed them to have multiple intricate sets built at one time to use simultaneously, which, given the bespoke nature of the Addams Family mansion, was ideal. For everything else, specific locations all around Los Angeles were used for scenes like the school play, the auction house, and of course, Camp Chippewa.

Hollywood Center Studios

The Addams family stands on the stairs in the 1991 movie

Most of the interior shots for The Addams Family were filmed at the Hollywood Center Studios in Los Angeles, specifically Stage 3/8. This is the same location where the original Addams Family TV show was filmed back in the '60s. Unfortunately, this means that there isn't a house tour that fans can take to look at the rooms in the Addams Family mansion.

Toluca Lake

Unfortunately, there isn't any Addams Mansion that exists for fans to visit. The front of the house was built specifically for The Addams Family and Addams Family Values on a mountain that overlooks the Burbank Hills at Toluca Lake, and the rest of the interior was shot on sound stages. Fortunately, fans can still visit the Addams Family house used for the pilot of The Addams Family TV show located on none other than Adams Boulevard near Hollywood.

The Ebell Of Los Angeles

The cast of The Addams Family sitting in a car.

Though they might look scary, the Addamses have a big heart, and they decide to donate an antique finger trap to a charity auction. The scene at the auction house where they end up bidding on (and winning) their own item is The Ebell of Los Angeles, a notable women's club. This is a well-known movie location that's appeared in Catch Me If You Can, Forrest Gump, Air Force One, and even as another auction house for George Calentin's possessions in The Artist.

Brentwood Theater

Ever the encouraging and ive parents, Gomez and Morticia attend a school play in which Wednesday and Pugsley end up performing a bloodthirsty version of a Shakespearian play. Whereas they find the performance riveting, the rest of the audience practically loses their collective lunches at the sight of so much blood. The school theater where they dazzle (and shock) their peers is the Brentwood Theatre located on the grounds of the Sawtelle Veteran's istration Medical Center.

Sylmar

When the Addams get exiled from their own home, they stay at a rundown place called the Wampum Court Motel. Wednesday and Pugsley try to earn money with a lemonade stand, Morticia tries to secure a job, but Gomez spends all day in the room watching Gilligan's Island. The hotel scenes were all filmed in Sylmar in the San Fernando Valley off the Golden State Freeway.

Linda Vista Seniors Complex

The Addams welcome a new family member, Pubert, in Addams Family Values, and Morticia goes into labor at Linda Vista Senior Complex. It's located in the Pico Gardens district of Los Angeles which functions as an apartment complex for senior citizens. Fans can stroll by the very same building where Gomez and Morticia's little bundle of despair first arrived.

Pasadena & Palos Verdes Peninsula

Morticia stands in the basement in The Addams Family Values

While the majority of the interior shots of the Addams Family mansion were created on sound stages, two mansions located in Pasadena and Palos Verdes Peninsula were used for a few shots. This includes the moment when all the Addams are crowding around Pubert's cradle to get a look at the newest member of the family. The two mansions were selected because of the spooky elements of their architectural design, which had to be aided by the work done on the sound stages.

Sequoia National Forest

Christina Ricci in the Thanksgiving Play in The Addams Family Values

The Sequoia National Forest was used for the iconic Camp Chippewa scenes in Addams Family Values, one of the few environments that couldn't be recreated on a sound stage quite so realistically. Two separate summer camps were used to bring Camp Chippewa to life, including the Thanksgiving Day performance. The idyllic summer camp location, complete with overly cheery camp counselors, is a stark juxtaposition to everything that the Addams Family represents, which makes all the camp scenes even funnier, and provides the material for some of Wednesday Addams' best quotes.

Camp Sequoia & Sequoia Lake

Gomez lights Pugsley's cigar in Addams Family Values

Camp Sequoia and Sequoia Lake were used for the camp scenes and the lifesaving course that solidifies the drama between Amanda and Wednesday. When they're paired up to demonstrate what to do in a real drowning emergency, Wednesday doesn't bother to try to save Amanda in one of the film's most hilarious scenes. Camp Sequoia is a real YMCA-run camp, and devoted fans can even sign up to attend if it's not too crowded over the summer.

CBS Studio Center

While the scenes involving Debbie and Fester's Hawaiian honeymoon might look like they were filmed on location, the tropical paradise was actually created at CBS Studio Center in Studio City, located Northwest of Los Angeles. So named for the numerous studios it contains, CBS Studio Center is the perfect place to build several sets close together while shooting a film like Addams Family Values. That way, scenes can be shot out of order and quickly, thus keeping the film under budget where a costly trip to Hawaii for a couple of gags involving Fester, a bathtub, and a boombox.

Long Beach Airport

Debbie doesn't manage to kill Fester in Hawaii and get ahold of his inheritance, so the newlyweds fly home. When they land, Debbie must handle the presumptuous funeral director whose hearse is waiting to cart a very much alive Fester away. This scene was filmed at the Long Beach Airport in Long Beach, California, which isn't very far away from the Palos Verde Peninsula where the two mansions used in The Addams Family interior shots are located.