THE CHINA SIN-DOME

THE CHINA SYNDROME (1979)
dir: James Bridges

MAD #211, December 1979
w: Dick DeBartolo
a: Mort Drucker

Kimberly Wells (Jane Fonda) is a reporter for a local news show in Los Angeles. She does fluff like singing telegrams.

The first page has William Holden and Faye Dunaway from Network which will be listed in due time.

One of Kimberly's pieces has her covering the nuclear power plant. She's given a tour by Bill Gibson (James Hampton).

The control room is below them which they're not allowed to film for security reasons. There are sudden vibrations in the ground and an alarm goes off. The control room assures them it is nothing. There doesn't seem to be the usual protocol and the cameraman Richard Adams (Michael Douglas) is secretly filming without anyone noticing.

Back in the newsroom, Kimberly assures them there was an accident and they have a story that needs to be the lead. The heads of the station tell her it would be irresponsible to air it without the facts. At the plant, they have done an investigation and found nothing wrong, letting Jack Godell (Jack Lemmon) and Ted Spindler (Wilford Brimley) off the hook. The station, because the story they have the information on doesn't have the facts, has it locked in a vault to avoid a potential lawsuit, but Richard has stolen it and Kimberly must get it back. She goes to a bar to meet him and runs into Godell. Everyone at the plant is there celebrating that the investigation is over.

Kimberly goes to an anti-nuke demonstration hoping to get the film but when she gets there he has two experts with him who saw the film and told him what happened is dangerous. If the radiation had leaked into the earth it would go all the way through the earth (to the other side, China, thus the name of the movie).

(Missing from parody: they know Adams has the film. His assistant rushes to bring it to the meeting and they run him off the road).

Meanwhile, Godell rushes to the power plant. He wants to go on the air with an exclusive about how everyone is covering up the accident, chases everyone away at gunpoint, takes control of the plant and asks Kimberly to interview him. The executives stall him while they have a SWAT team break in and arrest him.

They come in and shoot him before they can reveal the information. He's dismissed by the executives as some disgruntled employee even though his co-workers know otherwise and Kimberly knows the truth.

A movie ad was used in William Shakespeare... Movie Critic in MAD #224, July 1981.

Crazy took their shot too.

THE CHINA SIN-DUMB
Crazy #56, November 1979
w & a: Murad Gumen

This movie premiered at almost the same time as a similar real-life nuclear meltdown at the Three-Mile Island plant near Harrisburg, PA, which led to a rise in nationwide anti-nuclear sentiment, as well as a higher profile for this movie.

Jack Lemmon dressing in drag in the top panel doesn't seem to have anything to do with the movie or this story other than to make a reference to his role in Some Like It Hot.

And just this month when the error of Asian stereotypes in the media is brought to our attention, it has to rear its ugly head.

Sick had The Chopstick Syndrome.

THE CHOPSTICK SYNDROME
Sick #129, October 1979
w & a: Dave Manak

Richard's assistant Hector (Daniel Valdez) isn't mentioned in the other two parodies.

Saturday Night Live did a sketch called The Pepsi Syndrome, where somebody spilling a a can of Pepsi in the control room at a power plant resulted in President Carter (Dan Aykroyd) and the cleaning lady (Garrett Morris) growing 50 feet tall and falling in love.