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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Wednesday, January 12, 2022
HEAVING CAN WAIT
HEAVEN CAN WAIT (1978)
dir: Warren Beatty, Buck Henry
MAD #206, April 1979
w: Stan Hart
a: Mort Drucker
Joe Pendleton (Warren Beatty) is a LA Rams quarterback killed prematurely and put in the body of business executive Leo Farnsworth. His trainer is Max Corkle (Jack Warden). Here his coach is caricatured as Vincent Gardenia, though Gardenia had a role as a police detective that wasn't used in the parody. This also might be because of Gardenia's role in Bang the Drum Slowly. Mr. Farnsworth's assistant Tony Abbott (Charles Grodin) has been carrying on an affair with Farnsworth's wife Julia (Dyan Cannon) and is trying to kill him. Betty Logan (Julie Christie) lives on the land Farnsworth is trying to build property on.
Max has come to see Joe and tell him he will be in the Super Bowl. During the visit Joe fixes a pain in Max's back. Joe later dies when his motorcycle crashes in a tunnel.
Joe finds himself in heaven and wanders around wondering what he's supposed to do while his escort (Buck Henry) tries to rein him in. The escort's supervisor Mr. Jordan (James Mason) tries to explain everything. The escort made an error bringing him up and they have to put him back into a newly dead body.
-The Concorde was a commuter jet that was discontinued because its speed was faster than sound and therefore made noise that disrupted neighborhoods.
-There was a series of magazine ads for New England Life Insurance in the late 70s with a gag cartoon of someone unknowingly about to face death, telling their friend "My insurance company? New England Life, of course. Why?"
They look for a suitable replacement body, his last choice is eccentric businessman Leo Farnsworth, who has just been drugged and is about to drown in his bathtub. He's not sure he wants to do it, because he wants a body that can get him back in the Rams. He runs through the house trying to warn all the help that a body is drowning, but they can't see or hear him because he's dead. Enter Betty Logan, who wants to talk to Mr. Farnsworth about his company relocating the people of her town, and when Joe sees this, he decides he does want to go into Farnsworth's body and help her. We the audience see Joe Pendleton even though everyone else thinks it's still Leo Farnswoth.
Not in this parody: Tony and Julia not believing Leo keeps staying alive even though they keep killing him.
Joe/Leo has a board meeting and shocks everyone by being a different person and wins over Betty by not being the cruel billionaire tycoon she was expecting. He continues with his desire to be in the Super Bowl and hires Max to put him back in shape. He has to do some convincing to let Max know that it's him. To solve the problem of being allowed on the team, he's bought it on the condition they make him quarterback.
Joe/Leo practices with the team and has proven capable of keeping up. At home Mr. Jordan returns telling him he has to leave this body for a new one, and there's nothing he can do about it. He has already told Betty he will be divorced soon and has asked her to marry him, and now has to tell her something may happen to him. On Leo's property, the flag is lowered every night and a cannon goes off, and Tony finally shoots him in sync with the cannon so nobody will hear it.
Tommy Jarrett, another one of the Rams, is killed during the game, and that's the body Joe Pendleton ends up going into, fulfilling his dream of playing in the Super Bowl, but memory of past lives and experiences have been erased. Max realizes the body transference happened, but nobody else knows about it. Betty shows up at the stadium drawn to something, she's not sure what, and Tommy/Joe thinks he might recognize her from somewhere.
HEAVEN'LL WAIT
Cracked #157, January 1979
a: John Severin
Joe was always walking around with a clarinet. Here it's a tuba.
A running gag was that the escort and Mr. Jordan would come to check on him and he'd have to find a space to talk to them where nobody could see him, like a closet, but servants would overhear him and they thought he was going there to talk to himself.
They didn't have the police investigation into the death of Leo Farnsworth in the MAD parody, which was happening at the same time as the Super Bowl, and ended with Tony Abbott and Mrs. Abbott confessing to the murder but both blaming each other.
HEAVEN CAN WHAT-T-T?
Sick #125, February 1979
a: Jack Sparling
It's confusing enough when none of the characters in the parody look like ones in the movie, but then the Charles Grodin character looks like James Mason, making you wonder if they were even following the movie closely when they were watching it.
This was the original it was based on, if you were curious.
On the last page of the Cracked parody, there's a sportscaster who Severin has labelled 'Galloping Gordon'. I think that might be Graham Kerr, the Galloping Gourmet. I admit there are problems with this theory, mainly 1) his hair is parted on the wrong side, and 2) it doesn't make a lick of sense.
On the last page of the Cracked parody, there's a sportscaster who Severin has labelled 'Galloping Gordon'. I think that might be Graham Kerr, the Galloping Gourmet. I admit there are problems with this theory, mainly 1) his hair is parted on the wrong side, and 2) it doesn't make a lick of sense.
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