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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Saturday, January 1, 2022
HAMMY DAYS (part 3)
HAPPY DAYS
1974-1984 ABC
The final third day now of one of the most parodied TV shows of the seventies. You can click on "previous post" for the last two. Everyone's favorite sitcom about growing up in the fifties that evolved into its own thing about the myth of the fifties with America's favorite greaser hoodlum.
EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT "THE FONZE" AND MORE
Cracked #134, August 1976
a: John Severin
This was apparently the all-time highest selling issue of Cracked of all time. They knew what sold.
The Fonz (Henry Winkler) was cool and Richie Cunningham (Ron Howard) was a nerd. That's the way it was.
In the earlier episodes The Fonz wasn't allowed to wear his leather jacket unless he was on his motorcycle, lest he seem scary, so the producers got around it by incorporating the motorcycle into any scene they could.
Within the reality of the show, was The Fonz copying people he saw on the screen or was he actually one of the people he was supposed to be based on?
a: Don Orehek
From If Frankenstein's Monster Did Guest Appearances on TV in #151, July 1978, drawn br Howard Nostrand.
Back cover to #157, January 1979, by John Severin
From If the Characters from Star Wars Appeared in Other TV Shows in #149, March 1978
From The Final Episodes of Soured Sitcoms in Cracked #232, November 1987, by Frank Caruso. Happy Days. The show was only on in reruns by then. Pat Morita, who played Arnold, was Mr. Miyagi, the teacher in The Karate Kid.
HAMMY DAYS
Crazy #23, March 1977
w: Sara Arthur
a: Murad Gumen
Like I said a couple days ago, the chronological fifties weren't really "the fifties" so I wouldn't include the Korean War in this. The other Cunninghams were his sister Joanie (Erin Moran) and his parents Marion (Marion Ross) and Howard (Tom Bosley).
Ron Howard had been in American Graffiti which, as far as I'm concerned, was the fifties.
The Fonz started out as an auto mechanic, but they soon dropped that.
Potsie (Anson Williams) and Ralph (Donny Most) were two of Richie's friends that were part of the regular cast. The tiger in the second panel was the mascot for Exxon oil (also designed by MAD artist Bob Jones)
Laverne (Penny Marshall) and Shirley (Cindy Williams) had a show that was a spinoff of Happy Days but sometimes came back. The age difference between them and the teenagers of Happy Days was whatever was convenient to the plot. The salesman is supposed to be Milton Berle.
Just like in this parody, the show eventually had to take place in the sixties. Chronologically, though. The sixties didn't really happen until the Beatles appeared on Ed Sullivan, and "the sixties" didn't happen until around 1967 or 1968.
Crazy also did a Happy Days/Cinderella mash-up just like the one from Cracked that was reprinted yesterday. I don't know if it was a coincidence or plagiarized.
THE STORY OF FONZERELLA
Crazy #50, May 1979
w: Michael Pellowski
a: Walter Brogan
The fairy godmother is Sylvester Stallone. I don't know if it's as Rocky or as himself.
The cab driver looks like Telly Savalas with hair.
Characters would sing the first line of Chuck Berry's Blueberry Hill to denote they got lucky. Is the stepfather supposed to be Don Rickles?
Honorable mention: My friend Bobby and I did a comic called Acne Days when we were about twelve or thirteen. The plot was that The Fuzz lost his coolness when Fitchie and all the other teens were getting girls. Their secret was that they had zits. The Fuzz, trying to become cool again, ate a lot of chocolate so he'd get zits too, but ended up getting fat instead. We did a lot of zines in junior high and high school but unfortunately half of the comics we did were never reproduced and are lost forever.
UPDATE: HOPPY DAYS
Parody #2, June 1977
a: Vance Rodewalt
I still argue that the fifties were actually more like 1955-1964 and even if you go chronologically, 1950 was still part of the forties. That's the hill I'm willing to die on. But Happy Days stopped really being about the 50s after its first two seasons anyway.
In that last panel are McCarthy, McArthur, and Eisenhower
Regarding the Story of Fonzerella: the last panel of page 3 is based off one from Drucker's American Graffiti spoof, so the cab driver is Paul Le Mat without hair, kind of sort of. As for the stepfather, at the end, Brogan did swipe a drawing of Rickles from Drucker's 'Typical Beach Movie'. But at the beginning, he swiped a drawing of Rod Steiger from Drucker's spoof of The Eleventh Hour. So the answer is, nobody cared.
Regarding the Story of Fonzerella: the last panel of page 3 is based off one from Drucker's American Graffiti spoof, so the cab driver is Paul Le Mat without hair, kind of sort of. As for the stepfather, at the end, Brogan did swipe a drawing of Rickles from Drucker's 'Typical Beach Movie'. But at the beginning, he swiped a drawing of Rod Steiger from Drucker's spoof of The Eleventh Hour. So the answer is, nobody cared.
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