A-Z GUIDE TO MOVIES AND TV SHOWS PARODIED BY MAD, CRACKED, CRAZY, ETC. UP TO 1996. THEY HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS. SPOILERS AND OTHER NON-SEQUITURS, TOO. SOMETIMES THESE THINGS HAVE WORDS OR SITUATIONS WE DON'T USE ANYMORE. YOU KNOW, 'CAUSE THEY'RE OLD.
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SLEEPWALKER, TEXAS STRANGER
MAD #343, March 1996
w: Dick DeBartolo
a: Angelo Torres
A regular police show about Cordell Walker (Chuck Norris) a member of the Texas Rangers, a part of the state police. His partner was Jimmy Trivette (Clarence Gilyard) and they worked with D.A. Alex Cahill (Sherree North). His former captain was C.D. Parker (Noble Willingham) who now owns a bar and in this parody is mistaken for his Uncle Ray.
Around the start of the internet which was around the time of this show's popularity, we had 'Chuck Norris jokes' based on this program that were all factoids people made up about his strength and masculinity like “Chuck Norris was bitten by a poisonous snake and than the snake died” or “Chuck Norris' bearskin rug isn't dead, it's a live one afraid to move”
WRECKER, TEXAS MANGLER
Cracked #308, July 1996
w: Lou Silverstone
a: Walter Brogan
Lou Silverstone makes a reference to his former MAD co-worker Sergio Aragones.
The officers at the end are James McDaniel, Dennis Franz, and Jimmy Smits of NYPD Blue which was notorious for showing nudity.
VOYAGE TO SEE WHAT'S ON THE BOTTOM
MAD #101, March 1966
w: Dick DeBartolo
a: Mort Drucker
This was a science-fiction series that took place in the future of 70s aboard the USS Seaview and starred Admiral Harry Nelson (Richard Basehart), Capt. Lee Crane (David Hedison), CPO Jones (Henry Kulky), and Chip Morton (Robert Dowdell)
Just in case there was any doubt these photos were staged, heres one of the stars responding to being parodied, but the issue he's reading is not the issue that featured the article.
THE VIRGINIAHAM
MAD #99, December 1965
w: Lou Silverstone
a: Mort Drucker
The Virginians, a 90-minute western series and one of the first TV shows in color, featured Judge Garth (Lee J. Cobb), his daughter Betsy (Roberta Shore), Deputy Ryker (Clu Gulager), Trampas (Doug McClure), and the Virginian (James Drury). It was about the people who ran Shiloh Ranch in Medicine Bow, Wyoming.
The guest star is Lee Marvin...or is it James Coburn? I'm going with the former.
And in the photos of celebrities seeing themselves department:
THE VERDICCH
MAD #239, June 1983
w: Stan Hart
a: Angelo Torres
Frank Galvin (Paul Newman) is an alcoholic lawyer who hasn't won a case or been to trial for years, and turns it down in a malpractice settlement in favor of taking the suit to court out of pride and proving he can win.
The parody opens with references to other movies that were around at the time. Tootsie, which was also spoofed in MAD, starred Dustin Hoffman as an actor who appeared in drag to get a part in a soap, 48 Hrs was a good cop/bad cop comedy/action movie with Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy, Six Weeks had Dudley Moore and Mary Tyler-Moore as the parents of a girl with cancer, Clint Eastwood had been in dozens of movies at that point, and Ben Kingsley did a biopic of Gandhi.
Frank Galvin goes to funeral homes to try and get clients, but gets kicked out. His former partner Mickey (Jack Warden) tries to help him with a settlement from a hospital he would get a percentage of. A young woman was given anaesthesia during childbirth at a Catholic hospital and choked on her own vomit which has rendered her comatose.
Her family has been given the settlement by the hospital, which Frank refuses despite the protests of her sister and brother-in-law (Roxanne Hart, James Handy) because he thinks the case should be tried. He's at great odds with the church. He meets Laura (Charlotte Rampling) at a bar and gets involved with her.
The hospital's attorney Ed Conannon (James Mason) is better prepared and has a bigger team behind him. The bishop (Edward Binns) wants to stop Frank.
The bishop's office has pictures of Ayatollah Khomeini, Menachem Begin, and Jerry Falwell.
While Mr. Concannon tries to butter up the judge (Milo O'Shea), Frank is confronted by the woman's family who would have taken the settlement and don't think he can win. Frank unsuccessfully tries to get witnesses and confides to Laura that he thinks he'll lose. He finally gets a doctor (Joe Seneca) to testify.
Frank tries to get more witnesses and finds out Laura has been giving inside information to Ed Concannon.
Jack Warden was also in another courtroom drama, And Justice for All, with Al Pacino.
Frank slaps Laura after finding out he's been betrayed. In the courtroom, he gets Kaitlin Costello (Lindsay Crouse), a nurse in the case, to testify that she had the patient eat an hour in advance and falsify the record. This wins the case.
VERA'S CRUZ
MAD #24, July 1955
w: Harvey Kurtzman
a: Jack Davis
The very first movie parody from MAD as a magazine, when they were trying to be more like a version of Look or Saturday Evening Post than what they became. Kurtzman had wanted to go beyond what the thought was too restrictive and juvenile as a comic book, and you can tell in the later issues he was trying to subvert the magazine form. When they started, their articles were intended to be like magazine articles rather than comedy sketches on paper.
During the Franco-Mexican War, ex-Confederate soldier Ben Trane (Gary Cooper) travels to Mexico seeking a job as a mercenary. He falls in with Joe Erin (Burt Lancaster), a younger gunslinger who heads a gang of cutthroats.
They are recruited by Marquis Henri de Labordere (Cesar Romero) for service with Emperor Maximilian (George Macready). Maximilian offers them $25,000 to escort the Countess Duvarre (Denise Darcel) to the city of Veracruz. Trane gets the emperor to double the offer. During a river crossing, Trane notices that the stagecoach in which the countess is traveling is extremely heavy. Erin and Trane later discover that hidden inside are six cases of gold coins. The countess informs them that it is worth $3 million which is intended to pay for reinforcements from Europe. They form an uneasy alliance to steal and split the gold. Unbeknownst to them, the marquis is listening from the shadows.
The Juaristas, led by General Ramírez (Morris Ankrum), attack the column several times. Pickpocket and Juarista undercover agent Nina (Sarita Montiel) joins the convoy. When Trane, Erin and their men are surrounded by the Juaristas, Trane persuades Ramirez to join forces and agree to pay them $100,000. The marquis succeeds in getting the gold to Veracruz. In the Juarista attack, the French are defeated, but most of Erin's men are killed. Erin attempts to steal the gold for himself by getting the countess to reveal the location of the ship she had hired to transport it. He even kills one of his own men. However, Trane arrives in time to confront him. They face off in a showdown that ends in Erin's death. Trane and Nina leave, while women search the dead for their loved ones.
V-V-VENOM!
Crazy #90, September 1982
w: Stu Schwartzberg
a: Kent Gamble
Not to be mistaken for the Spider-Man movie. British horror film involving snakes and a kidnapping. Philip (Lance Holcomb) is a boy whose hobby is snakes, his mother is going away and has asked the grandfather, Howard Anderson (Sterling Hayden), to watch after him. While she is gone, the maid Louise (Susan George) and her boyfriend Jacmel (Klaus Kinski) have decided to take the boy hostage and Louise has seduced the chauffer Dave (Oliver Reed) so he can help them with their plot.
Philip goes to the pet store to get a snake for his collection against the protests and the maid, because Philip has to be at home when Jacmel arrives. Philip goes anyway, but we find out his snake was mixed up with the deadly black mamba, which was to be delivered to the local institute, and the mix-up is discovered by Dr. Stowe (Sarah Miles).
The kidnapping plot goes awry when the black mamba snake bites Louise, taking her life before Dr. Stowe can arrive with the antidote. Dave accidentally shoots a cop. Howard used to be a hunter and can find the mamba snake and hunt it down, but the kidnappers don't want it to interfere with their plot.
The police and everyone outside assume Louise is still alive, and Jacmel uses these false pretenses to lure Dr. Stowe in and hold her hostage as well, and cuts off Louise's fingers to give to the police making them think they;re Dr. Stowe's fingers and that he means business.
The black mamba snake gets Jacmel just as the police shoot him so it's assumed they got both him and the snakes, but while the snake was in the house, it reproduced. So the film ends with a “The End?”-type ending.
