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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More horror parodies for Halloween. You don't need to have seen the movies for this, a franchise with sequels and remakes. All you really need to know is Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) haunts people in their dreams
This German cover copies the American cover they did for their Planet of the Apes parody.
Here were a couple covers for Cracked Monster Party. In the lower right hand corner is Morton Downey Jr. because he was popular and pro-wrestling conservatism was still considered a joke.
A friend of mine made this video about how Freddy Krueger's lost his bite since the eighties.
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968)
dir: George Romero
NIGHT OF THE LIVING HAND
Crazy #81, December 1981
w & a: Dan Gutman
Happy Halloween, everyone! I do this in alphabetical order but moved things around for Halloween. First up is this. Living Dead, as you know, spawned an entire genre and made George Romero one of the reigning horror directors. Once a theme that would give you an X rating but now all kinds of TV shows and comics have zombies.
The Finger Family was an occasional feature in Crazy and did a few movie parodies such as this. This version, like its target, takes place in Pennsylvania.
THE MILLIONAIRE a/k/a IF YOU HAD A MILLION
CBS 1955-1960
THE MILLIONEARS
Cracked #7, January 1959
a: John Severin
Anthology show that began each week with Michael Anthony (Marvin Miller) introducing each show, telling the audience how he gave a million dollar check to a random stranger on behalf of John Beresford Tipton, and each week the body of the program had a different story showing what each person did with that million dollars.
The final sentence of the spoof introduction is from Dragnet.
From Endings for Old TV Shows in Cracked #11, October 1959, by Paul Laikin and Jack Davis.
THE ZILLIONAIRE
Cracked #243, March 1989
w & a: Stosh Gillespie (Daniel Clowes)
This was one of the very first venues for Clowes before Lloyd Llewelyn and Eightball, and becoming one of the biggest names in comics. He was a longtime friend of Cracked editor Mort Todd and lore has it that the publisher hated his art, but when he submitted work in later issues, he used a pen name and the publisher said nothing and didn't even realize it was the same person.
The Uggly Family was a recurring feature in Cracked in the eighties and it was obvious the staff cared more about older fare than the juvenile properties their audiences related to and tried to work them in at any opportunity.
MIKE HAMMY
MAD #255, June 1985
w: Dick DeBartolo
a: Sam Viviano
Mike Hammer was a series of novels, novies, comics, and TV shows originated by Mickey Spillane. Most of the cliches of the 1940s film-noir gumshoe detective archetype originate from here. This particular iteration was updated to take place in the present-day eighties with Stacy Keach as this version of Mike Hammer. His secretary was Velda (Lindsay Bloom). The versions were all known for their voice-overs.
Stacy Keach was indicted for cocaine possession, temporarily shutting down production of the show.
The sayings on the Coke machine are graffiti from the comic strip Smokey Stover.
BLOOD, GUTS, A ROSCOE, AND YOU
MAD #38, March 1958
w: Tom Koch
a: George Woodbridge
This parodies the Spillane novels long before there was a TV show.
MY GUN IS THE JURY
Panic #1, February-March 1954
w: Al Feldstein
a: Jack Davis
Combines the book titles I, the Jury and My Gun Is Quick.
Pat Chambers was the Captain.
The themes of cross-dressing and trans-gender were a punchline in and of themselves two generations ago.
THE COLDGATE TRAGEDY THEATER
Eh! #7, November-December 1954
artist and writer unknown
There was a TV show called The Colgate Comedy Hour. In addition to parodying the title I, The Jury and My Gun Is Quick, it also combines the titles Vengeance Is Mine and One Lonely Night.
MIGHTY MORONIC CHOWDER RANGERS
Cracked #290, July 1994
w: Greg Grabianski
a: John Severin
Kids series adapted from Japanese series about superhero robot team featuring Jason (Austin St. John), Kimberly (Amy Jo Johnson), Zack (Walter Emanuel Jones), Trini (Thuy Trang), Billy (David Yost), and Tommy (Jason David Frank). Their enemy, Rita (Michako Sago) is from the Japanese show with her voice dubbed into English. The action scenes are from Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger, the show in Japan this comes from. With the use of their coins, the are able to transform into the Power Rangers.
Clever. The Asian stereotype of substituting Ls for Rs. Other places stopped using it by the 60s, but Cracked continued into the 90s. The Putties were Rita's army and “Cement Mixer (Put-Ti, Put-Ti)” was a popular song in the 40s.
The theme song (see clip above) went “Go go power rangers”
Almost all afternoon childrens' shows had some kind of built-in public service announcement at the end.
WHEN THE POWER RANGERS' FORMAT SPREADS TO OTHER SHOWS
Cracked #297, March 1995
w: Greg Grabianski
a: John Severin
Dan Rather's rival here is Connie Chung.
Billy and Allison were Andrew Shue and Courtney Thorne-Smith.
This may be the only NYPD Blue parody that didn't mention the show's nudity.
Cover to the Brizilian edition of MAD.
A MAD LOOK AT THE MIGHTY MORPHIN' POWER RANGERS
MAD #333, January 1995
w & a: Sergio Aragones
A couple of these I just don't get. Probably because I shouldn't.
MIGHTY JOE YOUNG (1949)
dir: Ernest B. Schroedsack
SON OF KONG (1933)
dir: Ernedt B. Schroedsack
SON OF MIGHTY JOE KONG
MAD #94, April 1965
w: Dick DeBartolo
a: Mort Drucker
I did a group of posts parodying the 1976 and 1933 versions of King Kong. There were countless others, King Kong basically became a generic character like Tarzan or the Lone Ranger. MAD occasionally parodied the type of old movies you'd catch on late night TV, before streaming or cable when TV was more casual and you used to find things by coming across them flipping through channels. Also when commercial TV showed movies more than 20 years old, and the move from b/w to color made 20 years seem like an eternity.
When MAD parodied old movies, they'd update them using today's stars. (Today meaning the date of the magazine, not 2022). Here they took the guesswork out of who's being caricatured by labeling everyone. The poster lampoons the names Robert Armstrong, Fay Wray, and Bruce Cabot.
