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Ophelia Frump was the queen of the lovelorn in the Sixties
From flings with Cousin Itt, to a broken heart in nearly every appearance, Ophelia never knew love like Morticia.
On The Addams Family, Ophelia Frump was never as lucky in love as her sister Morticia was.
Starting from the moment in the two-part episode "Morticia’s Romance" when Gomez Addams rejects Ophelia for Morticia, Ophelia’s love life remained topsy turvy, nearly always driving her to tears.
The first new love for Ophelia following her break-up with Gomez is Cousin Itt, but we’re eventually told that Cousin Itt was too big a "playboy" to settle down with her — or anyone.
After that, Ophelia returns to the Addams Family mansion in "Ophelia Finds Love," along with her current beau Horatio Bartholomew.
While Ophelia is blinded by love and smitten throughout this episode, the rest of the family quickly detects that Horatio is a fraud, pretending wealth he does not have, with Morticia dubbing him a "lonely hearts club Bluebeard!"
Because it’s The Addams Family, though, a comedic twist bears out that Horatio is actually as wealthy as he claims.
Fickle Ophelia, though, dumps him by the episode’s end when the would-be love of her life turns out not to be into doing Zen yoga. (Guess that was a major dealbreaker back in the Sixties?)
Perhaps Ophelia is too picky, but at the end of this episode, she’s fallen back under Cousin Itt’s charms, and their relationship, just like that, is back on.
Through the rest of the original series, Ophelia appears twice more, always described as newly dumped, with only one more boyfriend appearing in one of the episodes.
In "Ophelia Visits Morticia," Ophelia starts the episode heartbroken after her boyfriend Montrose leaves her. We find out that Montrose is the sixth to refuse her within the past year.
Playing Montrose in this episode was a memorable character actor named George Cisar, who played recurring characters on The Andy Griffith Show and Dennis the Menace.
On The Addams Family, Montrose jilts Ophelia when he joins the Peace Corps, but by the episode’s conclusion, he actually comes back for her.
It seems like perhaps Ophelia has found love at last, but it’s practically written in The Addams Family lore that that was never meant to be for Ophelia. Today, Ophelia Frump is known as one of the Sixties’ most jilted TV characters, with as many loves bygone as Dobie Gillis.
In the very last episode of The Addams Family, "Ophelia’s Career," we see Ophelia one last time.
As is customary, Ophelia is visiting the mansion because her latest beau has ended things between them.
Arriving in tears, Ophelia’s romantic rollercoaster throws the entire family into action, desperately hoping to find a career for Ophelia, something to distract her from her endless string of bad romances.
That’s how it comes about that Ophelia’s most frequent companion that we know of, Cousin Itt, starts to teach her how to sing opera.
The entire series ends with Ophelia emerging as a successful singer, singing the same curious way that Cousin Itt talks, and cutting a record.
It’s a happy ending for Ophelia after all, even if it isn’t Cousin Itt’s hand in marriage that she wins, but a unique joining of voices.
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