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.
Updated daily. There's posts besides this one archived in the sidebar on the right, you clods!
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SICKLY MINUTES MEETS THE CORNBALL COMPANY
Australian MAD #284, January 1989
w & a: Robert Fidgeon
The Comedy Company was a sketch comedy show in Australia. Kylie Mole (Mary-Ann Fahey) was one of the most famous recurring characters, a teenager who often interviewed celebrities, similar to Jiminy Glick or Chris Farley doing The Chris Farley Show on SNL.
The cover gag refers to superstar Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan.
Correspondents on their version of Sixty Minutes were Ian Leslie, Richard Carleton, Jennifer Byrne, Mike Munro, and Jeff McMullen. The cast of The Comedy Company, besides the aforementioned Kylie Mole, were Siobhan Tuke, Glenn Robbins, Kym Gyngell, Tim Smith, Ian McFadyen, and Mike Mitchell.
Another character who continued outside the show was Con the Fruiterer (Mark Mitchell), who became an actual health advocate.
COL'N CARPENTRY
Australian MAD #307, December 1991
w & a: Steve Lopes
The show spun off to a separate sitcom, with the character Col'n Carpenter (Kym Gyngell) sharing a home with Michael (Stig Wemyss) and Linda (Kaarin Fairfax)
BLAND DATE
MAD UK #334, February 1990
w: David Robinson
a: Maurice Mechan
Game show in England is similar to The Dating Game or Love Connection here. Has nothing to do with U.S.'s Blind Date. Three single men or women are introduced to the audience and another contestant of the opposite sex asks them questions, picking her choice of the three and they're given a destination.
The host was Cilla Black, who had been a pop singer in the sixties.
Now that I think about it, maybe this isn't a parody of The Anniversary Game. No way to tell since there's no evidence of it. Stations didn't keep all their shows and a lot of material was erased after it was shown, thinking it wouldn't ever be rerun, and this was a casualty.
The real show seemed to involve the contestants involving themselves in physical activities, but this one seems more like a variation of The Newlywed Game, with their host a takeoff of Johnny Carson.
Australian MAD #307, December 1991
w & a: Steve Lopes
I asked for scans of British and Australian parodies if anyone has then, and got them in spades. So in addition to the month long break that wasn't my fault, it'll be another month to get to the posts I had planned. To you it only means pages by faves like Mort Drucker and John Severin will have to wait a while. But I'm not complaining. One good thing about foreign shows is that YouTube allows them to be shown in this country in their entirety so I'll know what's going on.
All Together Now was a sitcom about a has-been rock star who found out he had two kids and has to take care of them while trying to revive his career. The cast was Thomas Sumner (Steven Jacobs), Bobby Rivers (Jon English), Anna (Jane Hall), Tracy (Rebecca Gibney), Wayne (Bruno Lucia), and Dougy (Garry Who).
The punchline is a commentary about how in Australia pop stars are aften regulars on soaps like Kylie Minogue on Neighbours, Melissa Tkautz, and Craig McLachlan with his hit “Hey, Mona”.
ALL MY DEAD CHILDREN
Stop! #8, c. 1984
w & a: John Holmstrom
Stop! was a free black and white newsprint, and later slick magazine from a bunch of New York cartoonists, some of whom were part of the original wave of punk and later went on to publications such as Weirdo and High Times. Unlike other parodies of daytime soaps that made fun of the genre in general, this seemed to be mock specific actors and plotlines. Most of the contributors to Stop made cameo appearances, and are credited at the end, though I didn't tag everyone.
The show took place in Pine Valley, PA. Since many episodes only aired once, I've tried my best to get information on them, including what was given to me by humor magazine fan Chris Ekman.
Characters here are Palmer Cortlandt (James Mitchell) and his attorney Steve Jacobi (Dack Rambo). Palmer's daughter is Nina Cortlandt (Taylor Miller). She was married to Dr. Cliff Warner (Peter Bergman) who left him for Devon McFadden (Tricia Pursley)
Jenny Gardner (Kim Delaney) was killed, leaving Greg Nelson (Laurence Lau) a widower, and before that was engaged to Tony Barclay (Brant Barrett). Devon nearly had an affair with Lynn Carson .
The man in the bottom middle panel is drawn by J. D. King.
The breakout star was Suan Lucci, who as Erica Kane, made news outside the soap world (soap bubble?) for having been on the show since the beginning and never won an Emmy. Mike Roy (Nicholas Surovy) was one of her many husbands. Tad Martin (Michael E. Knight) had an affair with Liza Colby (Marcy Walker).
Some of the art on this page is by King, Drew Friedman, Peter Bagge, and Ken Weiner.
Daisy Cortlandt (Gillian Spencer) was presumed dead but returned to reconnect with her daughter as Monique Jonvil. Lars Bogard was the father of Kent Bogard, someone who was killed by Erica Kane. Harold Loomis (Thomas Sminkey) was a lover of Brooke English (Julia Barr), who was married to Tom Cudahy (Richard Shoberg). Langley Wallingford (Louis Edmonds) was married to Phoebe Tyler (Ruth Warrick), Grandmother-in-law of Donna Beck (Candice Earley).
Donna was married to Chuck Tyler (Richard Van Vleet). Opal Gardner ran the boutique.
The EPT commercial was drawn by Ken Weiner.
Jessie Hubbard (Darnell Williams) was the town chief of police. Alfred Vanderpool (Bill Timoney) was a banker and Ray Gardner (Gil Rogers) came back from the dead.
ALL MY BRATS
Barf #3, September 1990
w: Todd Loren
a: Dave Garcia
Concentrates on the marriage of Adam Chandler (David Canary) to Erica Kane and how everybody's been on the show so long they're old.
LOONEY GOONS
Australian MAD #305, September 1991
w & a: Steve Lopes
In Australia, the Warner Brothers cartoons were packaged in a show called The Bugs Bunny Show hosted by Sophie Lee, similar to Toon In With Me on MeTV.
