dir: Michael Ritchie
THE CANDIDATE
Cracked #107, March 1973
a: John Severin
A team for the Democratic party, led by Marvin Lucas (Peter Boyle) must have someone to run for Senator against the current Republican incumbent, and choose Bill McKay (Robert Redford), current lawyer and son of a former governor. They expect to lose anyway, but let him speak his mind to help get the message of the party across.
The parody has McKay trailing far behind, but he never was by that much.
McKay agrees to a publicized debate with challenger Sen. Crocker Jarmon (Don Porter). In the debate he brings up that some issues weren't mentioned.
Sen. Thomas Eagleton was George McGovern's first choice as a running mate. Soon after, Eagleton's history of psychiatric treatments was leaked to the press. McGovern initially said he stood by Eagleton "1000 percent", but was forced to drop him from the ticket a few weeks later.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the joke at the end about "singing and acting lessons" may be a reference to George Murphy, a Hollywood song-and-dance man who served as a senator from California. He was defeated in 1970 after one term, and his challenger's race is said to have inspired this movie.
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