ANTENNA ON THE ROOF

FIDDLER ON THE ROOF (1971)
dir: Norman Jewison

MAD # 156, January 1973
w: Frank Jacobs
a: Mort Drucker

Musical performed by just about every high school and summer stock acting group, made into a big-budget movie in 1971 when musicals were still the major big-budget movie genre.

The premise here is that Fiddler on the Roof took place around the turn of the 20th century and ended with the family leaving for a better life in America, but this is about the life of the descendants of that family. It's a portrayal of Jewish suburban life of the sixties and seventies that has been portrayed in the Coen Brothers' A Serious Man, Allan Sherman records, and...well... MAD magazine.

The movie, like this, opens with the song Tradition, a monologue from Tevye, a milkman, explaining how the Jewish religion is practiced in their town. MAD doesn't have a "Sung to the tune of" footnote since the song is more spoken than sung.

The main plot is Tevye looking for husbands for his three daughters. They go off and marry on their own,signifying how the ritual of marriage is changing.

Zero Mostel Was the lead for years in the Broadway musical and here plays Tevye's great-grandson, in the movie Tevye is played by Topol who is seen here at the end.

FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, 1972, MAD, FRANK JACOBS, MORT DRUCKER, NORMAN MINGO