AIRPLOT

AIRPORT (1970)
dir: George Seaton

AIRPLOT
MAD #139, December 1970
w: Larry Siegel
a: Mort Drucker

Airport was considered sort of a return to normal at the time. Most of Hollywood's product then was aimed toward youth and full of sex and violence and this was only suspense. It was also the start of the disaster movie trend, spawning several sequels and other movies with the theme of man-made or natural disasters, almost all of which were parodied by MAD and its imitators (and which we'll get to in due time). Before heroic fantasy became the predominant “event” movie, disaster movies were it.

The angle of this parody is how the movie is presented with an all-star cast and has several plots at once. This type of thing is now typical of a season of any series on pay-cable or streaming TV but was considered novel when the difference between movies and television was so huge.

It is a common misnomer that Airplane! is a parody of Airport. It's actually a remake of a 50s B-movie called Zero Hour!, using its plot and most of the same dialogue. And while Airplane! is promoted as a parody of the disaster genre as a whole, uses many of the same conventions, (and owes the rapid-fire joke formula to MAD), that's where the similarities end.

But back to the MAD parody.

Mel Bakersfield (Burt Lancaster) is manager at an airport in Lincoln, IL and is having marital problems because he spends too much time at work, where he's having an affair with his assistant Tanya Livingston (Jean Seberg).

Then there's the pilot Vernon Demarest (Dean Martin).

Residents nearby are complaining about the noise of the planes and he's proposing a new model that will cut down on the noise.

There is a stowaway on one of the flights, Ada Quonsett (Helen Hayes).

There is a bomber (Van Helfin) boarding one of the planes.

Meanwhile, pilot Vermin Swinger is also having an affair with his stewardess Gwen Meighen (Jacqueline Bisset) and has knocked her up.

On the plane, we have many of the archetypes common to all disaster movies. The plane is piloted by Anson Harris (Barry Nelson)

Now we get to the bomb, the “disaster” of the movie.

Given MAD's penchant for using Yiddish words (I'm sure that's how most of us goyim know them), wouldn't it make more sense to call the parody Air-PLOTZ?

The MAD imitations often instructed their artists to draw just like the MAD artists. This caricature of Dean Martin from the article When People Moonlight in Different Jobs from Crazy #38 (May 1978) is taken from the Dean Martin caricature from this parody, right down to the captain's hat. I think the passenger is supposed to be Helena Kallianiotes taken from their Five Easy Pieces parody.


AIRPOT
Cracked #91, March 1971
a: John Severin

Cracked's parody also played up the multiple story arc angle.

Missing from MAD's parody is the plotline of snow on the tarmac and the George Kennedy character. I'm not sure who these other cameos are.

Also played up here is Dean Martin's persona as an alcoholic, since that was his schtick as an entertainer in real life. The Edsel was a Ford model that was a big flop when it came out.

Airport was originally a novel written by Arthur Hailey, who coincidentally wrote the screenplay for Zero Hour! in the above video clip.

One of the passengers is Spiro Agnew.


SQUAREPORT
Sick #80, November 1970
w: Fred Wolfe (Paul Laikin)
a: Jack Sparling

This version begins with the Dean Martin character being like his real-life persona and already on the plane.

And the characters are called by the actors' names.

On the ground Burt Lancaster divorces his wife, who I don't think you see in the movie.

Somehow Dean Martin is on the ground now even though he was just up in the air.

The bomber's wife (Maureen Stapleton) wonders what his motive is.

This parody doesn't mention the many other subplots.