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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IF “MARDY” WERE MADE IN HOLLYWOOD TODAY
MAD #78, April 1963
w: Larry Siegel
a: Mort Drucker
Based on a play about a single guy (Ernest Borgnine) in the Bronx hanging out with his friends and his mother wanting him to settle down to get married. Most people only know about “What do you wanna do, Marty?”/”I dunno. Whatchoo wanna do?” That's all I know, and that's all you really need too.
The angle here is about how movies used to be simply made on a simple budget. Paddy Chayefsky was a famous screenwriter known for The Hospital, Network, Altered States, and many others. He was one of the few screenwriters where his name was usually the bigger draw than the director or actors.
Movies are seen as all big-budget releases now (now being 1963), though big budget epics have been around as long as there's been a Hollywood.
The butcher here is Phil Silvers. The subway race is based on the chariot race in Ben-Hur (again a big budget epic remade countless times before 1963) driven by Tony Curtis, with Heston racing Kirk Douglas, their appearances being a reference to Spartacus.
Burt Lancaster (who co-incidentally co-produced Marty) and Marlon Brando are in the second panel. Brigitte Bardot and Yul Brynner are in the third. The last panel is a reference to Exodus.
Not sure if Marlon Brando as Mr. Christian or Kirk Douglas in the second panel are supposed to be the same characters.
From MAD #33, June 1957. Art by Wally Wood.
From If Famous Authors Wrote For the Comics by Frank Jacobs and Wally Wood, in MAD #46, April 1959.
ARTIE
Riot #4, February 1956
w: Stan Lee
a: Howie Post
Martin Kane, Private Eye was both a TV and radio series that had several different actors eho played him throughout his run and was parodied in multiple comics.
KANE KEEN, PRIVATE EYE
MAD #5, June-July 1953
w: Harvey Kurtzman
a: Jack Davis
MARVIN SHAME, SHAMUS
Nuts! #2, May 1954
a: Hy Fleishman
MARVIN PAYNE, PRIVATE EYE
Eh! #3, April 1954
a: Dick Ayers
A comic existed of the series drawn by MAD artist Wally Wood.
MARTIAN
Cracked #283, September 1993
w: Andrew Osborne
a: John Severin
Martin was a vehicle for comedian Martin Lawrence to play the title character, a DJ at WZUP in Detroit, with his more successful girlfriend and friends.
Martin's girlfriend was Gina (Tisha Campbell). His friends were Cole (Carl Anthony Payne II) and Tommy (Thomas Mikal Ford). Gina's friend was Pam (Tichina Arnold). This parody features Homey the Clown (Damon Wayans), who wasn't on this show but a character on the FOX show In Living Color.
Martin Lawrence played other characters on the program, such as his mother.
The surprise of The Crying Game (30-year-old-spoiler) was that the lead male character was revealed to be female.
Sheneneh was another of Lawrence's characters.
Martin was on right after The Simpsons, which some say Martin owes its success to.
The station engineer at Martin's day job was played by Shawn McDermott, and the radio station is the reason for the presence of Howard Stern as Fartman.
The people in the last panel are Jason Priestley, Shannen Doherty, and Ian Ziering of Beverly Hills 90210, Robin Williams as Mork, and Roseanne & Tom Arnold.
THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES (1980)
NBC dir: Michael Anderson
THE MARZ CHRONICLES
Sick #134, Fall 1980
a: Jack Sparling
The Martian Chronicles is a 3 episode miniseries based on Ray Bradbury's 1950 book The Martian Chronicles and dealing with the exploration of Mars and the inhabitants there. The series starred Rock Hudson, Darren McGavin, Bernadette Peters, Roddy McDowall, Fritz Weaver, Barry Morse, and Maria Schell. The series depicts Mars as having a "thin atmosphere" which humans can breathe with water-filled canals and desert-like vegetation.
Earth sends its first manned probe to Mars in 1999, and a jealous Martian murders the two astronauts when his wife has erotic dreams of meeting them.
Members of a subsequent expedition are hypnotized into believing that they have landed in the childhood community of their leader and have been reunited with deceased family and friends, and they are poisoned by the Martians.
Col. John Wilder leads a third expedition and learns that a chicken pox virus brought to Mars by the first two expeditions has almost eradicated the Martian population. A member of Wilder's team becomes obsessed with protecting Mars from Earthman and murders some of the others in Wilder's party, before Wilder kills him. Colonists arrive on Mars to settle, among them priests seeking God, and a lone Martian masquerades as the most desired persons of various settlers.
Global war on Earth reduces man's natal planet to radioactive waste, and most of the settlers returned there prior to the holocaust.
Wilder struggles to assemble the remaining humans on Mars, who cope with their loneliness in different ways and will not leave their piece of Mars, before Wilder meets a Martian of past or future who tells him the secret of simple Martian life and convinces him to abandon the Earth lifestyle.
BURIED WITH CHILDREN
MAD #292, January 1990
w: Dennis Snee
a: Sam Viviano
Sitcom about a white-trash family that became more of an exaggeration of the sitcom genre over time, considered really dirty when it aired, but pretty tame by today's standards. It was closer in content to The Cosby Show but didn't have the “awww” moments, but didn't have the shock of Family Guy either (which is also guilty of redemptive “awww” moments).
Al Bundy (Ed O'Neill) was the father of the family, and his wife was Peg (Katey Sagal). The two children were Bud (David Faustino) and Kelly (Christina Applegate). Neighbors were Steve (David Garrison) and Darcy (Amanda Bearse). Buck was the Bundy's dog that often delivered punchlines with his thoughts.
Terry Rakolta was a suburban housewife who started a boycott and letter-writing campaign against the program, which ironically made it more popular. Andrew “Dice” Clay is still popular though more as an actor than as a comedian. He was taken too seriously as a threat then because fear of filth in media was the late 80s and early 90s equivalent to reefer madness.
Roseanne and Dan from Roseanne were the new white trash sitcom family, but more realistic.
The German edition featured the Bundys on the cover.
MARTYRED WITH CHILDREN
Cracked #239, October 1988
w: Murad Gumen
a: Rob Orzechowski
The Li'l Abner character of Fearless Fosdick was known for see-through bullet holes. Bill Cosby as imitated by Eddie Murphy was portrayed as the spokesperson of morality, and Married: With Children was kind of the “anti-Cosby”.
They put King Kong Bundy here because he has the same name, though he actually did play a supporting character on the show later.
Rupert Murdoch was and is the head of Fox. References are made to the other shows the Fox Network had in its infancy when it was on only one night, such as Duet, The Tracy Ullman Show, It's Garry Shandling's Show, Werewolf, 21 Jump Street, and the George C. Scott sitcom Mr. President.
Cracked did another spoof of the show focusing on Terry Rakolta's campaign against it.
HARRIED: WITH CHILDREN
Cracked #248, October 1989
w: Rick Kriegel (Lou Silverstone)
a: Rob Orzechowski
Jokes about the Bates Motel. Charles Manson called his entourage his “family”. Al Bundy would always refer to his high school sports days on the show.
