MRS. DOUBTFUL

MRS. DOUBTFIRE (1993)
dir: Chris Columbus

MRS. DOUBTFUL
MAD #327, May 1994
w: Stan Hart
a: Angelo Torres

Miranda Hillard (Sally Field) is too caught up in her career as an architect to spend time with her children, leaving most of the parental duties to her husband Daniel (Robin Williams). He's too irresponsible, she divorces him, and gets sole custody of the children. Daniel wants more than visitation rights, and seeks the aid of his brother Frank (Harvey Fierstein), a makeup artist, to help him dress up as the family's new housekeeper in order to spend time with Lydia (Lisa Jakub), Chris (Matthew Lawrence), and Natalie (Mara Wilson)

Daniel gets fired from his job as a voice artist and Miranda walks in on him throwing a choatic birthday party for Chris and decides it's the final straw. In Daniel and Miranda's divorce trial, the judge decides he can only see his children when he has suitable living conditions and is gainfully employed. He shows his talent for voices (basically for being Robin Williams) while seeking employment.

See Burt Reynolds in the audience in the panel where they joke about him. The other two people are probably MAD staffers. Rodney King was a bystander in the Los Angeles police riots of the early nineties in a trial many found was unjust.

Miranda starts to see Stu Dunmeyer (Pierce Brosnan), one of her clients. Daniel lives in a decrepit apartment (decrepit by movie standards. If things were unpacked it would be pretty nice). Miranda comes to pick up the children and leaves the application for the housekeeping ad on a table, which Daniel alters when she's not looking so only he'll be able to call. He then calls later with a woman's voice and they use the usual cliché of him taking his alias from the first words he sees, this case being “Doubt Fire” from a newspaper headline. He is Mrs. Doubtfire unbeknownst to everyone.

Jack Lemmon is in the background in the fifth panel. Boys in the Band was a movie Fierstein starred in.

Daniel's social worker comes to his apartment while he's Mrs. Doubtfire and he has to change back and forth between costumes pretending to be both people. He/she's jealous of Miranda dating Stu when she asks for advice he/she says Stu's only “after one thing”. Chris walks in on Daniel/Mrs. Doubtfire peeing while standing up and he/she has to confess who he really is. (I don't say “he/she” as a political 'identifies as' thing, just a way of telling this story)

Dustin Hoffman is in the panel where Mrs. Doubtfire's breasts catch fire. Norma Rae was a film Sally Field starred in.

The family goes to a restaurant for Miranda's birthday, Mrs. Doubtfire saves Stuart from choking, and during this his mask falls off and he reveals he's Daniel. There's an update of the custody case, and Daniel is ruled unfit because of his behavior, but Miranda has a change of heart.

The Flying Nun, in the picture in the next to last panel is another of Sally Field's earlier roles.

MRS.DOUBTFUL
Cracked #290, July 1994
w: Andy Simmons
a: Walter Brogan

In a suplot that wasn't in the MAD version, Daniel gets a job in the shipping department at an educational TV station, and while fooling around backstage after hours one day, his comedic skills catch the eye of station president Mr. Lundy (Robert Prosky) and he gets his own show.

Frank tries several different prostheses on Daniel before using the one that will be Mrs. Doubtfire. They joke about him making twice as much as a housekeeper but animation voice-overs pay a lot more, plus there's SAG royalties which pay even more than that.

As Mrs. Doubtfire, He has a more strict regimen, forbidding the kids to watch TV.

Part of Daniel/Mrs. Doubtfire's jealousy is that he doesn't approve of Miranda dressing provocatively when they all go out to dinner.

The suplot involves Daniel running around at the restaurant while he has dinner with the family as Mrs. Doubtfire as well as with Mr. Lundy as himself, while getting progressively drunker, and accidentally sitting down with Mr. Lundy in costume, which gets him a TV show.

Arrested Development did a parody of the movie as one of their story arcs, involving one of the characters going through a divorce, also disguising himself to see his daughter, but not fooling anyone.