THE STOOGE-ITIVE

THE FUGITIVE (1993)
dir: Andrew Davis

THE STOOGE-ITIVE
MAD #325, February 1994
w: Dick DeBartolo
a: Angelo Torres

Richard Kimble (Harrison Ford), is a doctor wrongly accused of killing his wife (Sela Ward), and is being grilled by the police. Doctor Nichols (Jeroen Krabbe) is his co-worker and friend, Marshal Sam Gerard (Tommy Lee Jones), the man assigned to bring him to justice, and Frederick Sykes (Andreas Katsulas) is the one-armed man Kimble is going to prove is the real killer.

References are made throughout to other Harrison Ford movies. In the background of the splash panel is David Janssen, who played Richard Kimble in the TV series this is based on.

Kimble is sentenced to death and sent to prison on a transfer bus. In transit, one of the prisoners has a seizure and Kimble, being a doctor, is the only one who can treat him and must have free hands in order to do so. The sick man is faking it and makes the bus crash into a train, and instead of freeing everyone as intended, kills them. Kimble is presumed dead, but Marshal Gerard finds empty leg irons and realizes Kimble has escaped.

Richard Kimble has run away, escaping to a nearby hospital where he has sews the wound he has acquired while escaping and shaved off his beard. He escapes to a sewer, where he is cornered by the marshal and his men in a pipe leading to a dam, which he jumps off. None of the other men think he could have survived and consider the case closed, but Gerard thinks he's still on the loose.

Kimble has used various disguises and his calls from payphones have been traced. He finds Dr. Nichols, asks for change and leaves. The marshal questions Nichols, who refuses to cooperate, telling them Kimble is too smart for them. Kimble has gone to the hospital where he used to work, pretending to be a janitor while looking up the records of one-armed men. A nurse (Julianne Moore) has asked him to transport a sick patient, but he cures the patient which the nurse witnesses. Marshall Gerard catches up to Kimble yet again.

In the middle left panel is Dr. Kevorkian

Kimble escapes yet again into a St. Patrick's Day parade. At a medical conference, Dr. Nichols is speaking to promote a new drug called Provasic. Richard Kimble disrupts the speech to say he knows the records were falsified by Nichols to get FDA approval for the drug he stood to make millions from. He also knows how the murder of his wife went down--it was originally meant for him, Nichols arranged for Sykes, the one-armed man to commit the murder because Kimble would have come forth with this information, and he would have succeeded if it weren't for you meddling kids. This leads to a big fight on the rooftop, Gerard finally catches up again, and says he's known Kimble was innocent all along.

THE PHEWWW-GITIVE
Cracked #287, January 1994
w: Lou Silverstone
a: John Severin

The picture the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have on their wall is of co-creator Kevin Eastman.

Julianne Moore isn't caricatured here. Even though she'd had plenty of roles at that point, Lost World was her big breakthrough. Or maybe John Severin was just lazy.

Also not in the MAD parody are Kimble breaking into Sykes' house to get the evidence, the subsequent questioning by the feds, and Kimble's fight with him on the El train.

THE PHEWGITIVE
1963-1967 ABC
MAD #89, September 1964
w: Stan Hart
a: Mort Drucker

The Fugitive started out as a TV series, which MAD did a parody of back in the day, with Barry Morse in the Marshal Gerard role. The formula was used later for Kung Fu and The Incredible Hulk, which were also parodied by the other major humor magazines, and will be posted soon.

Jack Palance's show was The Greatest Show on Earth, which was only on that one season.

I believe the police chief is supposed to be Bert Lahr.

And the head of the Olympics is Wally Cox.

David Janssen sent MAD a letter of himself enjoying his roasting.

From If TV Shows Were Written by the Ad Agencies in Sick #48, November 1966. Artist unknown.

Chris Elliott did his version for a few years on Late Night with David Letterman.