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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THE WICKED DREAMS OF PAULA SCHULTZ (1968)
dir: George Marshall
MOVIE SPOOF
Sick #62, August 1968
w: Bill Majeski
Sorry everything's all scrunched up. It's all I could find on YouTube. Well, there are a couple other things. Another copy of the whole movie's there, but the link's only been there a year and I don't trust any links to stay if they've been up less than two years. There's also the opening titles on my own web page, which contains mostly animated sequences from movies. (Suggestions always welcome, but do a search to make sure they're not already there first). Almost everything I've posted a spoof of is on YouTube for that matter, the catch is they charge money, and I ain't payin' fer nuthin'.
The Broadway musical that became a movie (and remade a couple years ago) was parodied a few times. The premise, based on Romeo and Juliet, about members of two rival gangs falling in love, lent itself to the issues of other then-current rivalries.
EAST SIDE STORY
MAD #78, April 1963
w: Frank Jacobs
a: Mort Drucker
When Mort Drucker died a few years ago, this was cited as one of the pieces he was the most proud of. Instead of the Sharks and the Jets in a pre-gentrified Upper West Side, the backdrop is the newly-founded United Nations and the leaders of the Western World versus leaders of Eastern bloc countries. Here we have Marshall Tito of Yugoslavia, Wladyslaw Gomolka of Poland, and Fidel Castro of Cuba among other communist nations representing a gang led by Nikita Kruschev. A lot of the world leaders aren't likenesses of anyone in partocular.
The Western nations are a gang led by JFK that included Charles DeGaulle of France and Harold MacMillan of the United Kingdom,
Barry Goldwater is in the Western gang as well.
WEST COAST STORY
MAD #142, April 1971
w: Frank Jacobs
a: Jack Davis
With campus protests in the news just this week, this article is another example of history repeating itself.
CURLYLOCKS AND THE THREE HOODS
Sick #12, March 1962
BEST SIDE STORY
Not Brand Ecch #6, February 1968
w: Gary Friedrich
a: Tom Sutton
This takes on the rivalry between Marvel and DC (or “Distinguished Competition” as Marvel called them). Dr. Strange and Wonder Woman fall in love.
Leonard Bernstein composed the music for West Side Story.
VALLEY OF THE DOLLARS
MAD #121, September 1968
w: Larry Siegel
a: Mort Drucker
Based on a book by Jacqueline Susann.
Anne Welles (Barbara Parkins) leaves her small new England town and moves to New York, getting a job as a secretary at a theatrical agency and soon starts dating her boss' partner Lyon Burke (Paul Burke). The agency represents Broadway star Helen Lawson (Susan Hayward, shown later in the parody), who fires Neely O'Hara (Patty Duke) from her upcoming show for fear of being upstaged. Anne and Neely become friends. Anne and Lyon have dinner with Neely and her husband Mel (Marty Milner). At the restaurant is lounge singer Tony Polar (Tonny Scotti) singing to Jennifer North (Sharon Tate), an actress who gets by on looks more than talent.
As the womens' careers rise, Neely finds herself becoming a star just as difficult as the singer that fired her. Jennifer marries Tony and becomes an actress in French art films, though living under the supervision of Tony's domineering sister Miriam (Lee Grant). Anne becomes a TV spokesmodel for perfumes. Lyon leaves Anne to try and become a writer.
Anne (it's Jennifer in the movie) goes to visit Neely, who's addicted to pills and booze, and Mel walks out on her after not being able to stand her belligerence. Tony has a muscular disorder, which his sister has been hiding from Jennifer, so he must he be hospitalized and she's pregnant with their baby. She needs to get an abortion, finds out she has cancer, and overdoses on pills.
Neely has checked into rehabilitation, and while at the hospital sees a disabled Tony Polar and tries to reach out to him with his hit “Come Live With Me” (see clip below).
The parody has an appearance by director Mark Robson with MPAA head Jack Valenti. Jacqueline Susann has a part as a reporter when the press comes to the hotel where Jennifer North is found dead.
Later, Neely O'Hara gets in a fight with Helen Lawson at a charity event, ripping off Helen's wig and flushing it down the toilet.
The movie ends with Anne, after a bout with pill addiction herself and moving back home after realizing the insanity of show business.
There was a sequel to this film in name only, written by Roger Ebert and directed by Russ Meyer, a subtle spoof of the "power corrupts" genre.
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.
THE WADER
Sick #65, February 1969
w: Fred Wolfe (Paul Laikin)
a: Harry “The Professor” Borgman
1968 drama about Neddy Merrill (Burt Lancaster) realizing that all the pools in his town lead to his home, and he can get back home by swimming there. The story is mainly a symbol of a man trying to relive his past, with various chapters of his life told through the homes he visits. The women he's had affairs with, families that have haven't lost faith in him, all people who seem to know scandalous things about his past he's seemed to have forgotten—all leading to him coming home to find it abandonned, and along he may or may not be deluded into thinking he was someone he's not while his neighbors see who he truly is.
Another film that did fair-to-middling at the box office that you wonder why Sick parodied. My theory is that it had Burt Lancaster in it, and they chose to parody movies with stars that had been in several movies parodied by MAD, so they could use those caricatures as reference to make a pre-teen audience think something was drawn by someone they could never afford.
THE STEVE ALLEN SHOW
1956-1960 NBC 1961 ABC 1962-1964 SYNDICATION
THE STEVE ALLAN STORY
MAD #32, April 1957
a: Bob Clarke
Precedent for The Tonight Show and basically all talk shows to this day.
They're referring to Gene Rayburn and Skitch Henderson. The last panel has caricatures of Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, Mickey Rooney, and Martin & Lewis.
One of the early issues of the magazine (#25, September 1955) reprinted his novelty song A Very Square Dance.
From MAD's TV Alfie Awards by Larry Siegel and Mort Drucker in #56, July 1960
With all the talk about “nepo babies” now, we should note the phenomenon is nothing new, as shown here.
MAD'S THEATRICAL AGENT OF THE YEAR
MAD #116, January 1968
w: Lou Silverstone
a: Bruce Stark
Bruce Stark only did four pieces for them. He would have been a great addition to the “usual gang of idiots”. I wonder what happened.
Peter Fonda and Nancy Sinatra starred in The Wild Angels and These Boots Are Made for Walking was one of her hits.
THE STEVE ALLEN SHOW
Cracked #34, February 1964
a: John Severin
Remember, the idea of the talk show as we know it now was considered something new and unusual then.
MAD always had photos of celebrities holding up issues they appeared in. Not so much Cracked.
LATE NIGHT TV
Sick #21, June 1963
w: Al Hastings
a:: Richard Doxsee
Steve Allen's audience has caricatures of Mitch Miller and Ernest Borgnine as his character from McHale's Navy.
THE STEVE ALLEY SHOW
Eh! #7, November/December 1954
a: Fred Ottenheimer
The ghost is referring to Bennett Cerf, TV panelist and book publisher.
