JUNE UPDATES 2: PARODY MAGAZINE #3

Sadly, this blog on a daily basis will come to a close the end of this month. I'm doing most of it in alphabetical order now, but as I mention in the sidebar, I still have holes to fill, so I'll always come back for that, and things always stay on the internet, but here are a few more things I've filled in. Thanks again to Chris Ekman, who has most of them.

The rest I'll have tomorrow. Here are the pieces from the third issue of Parody in September 1977. I don't feel the need to summarize everything so I'll just make the titles highlighted in orange (or underlined or whatever settings you have for links) link to previous parody posts that have texts about them and what the characters' real names are. You can check off these boxes on your seventies references: Rocky, Starsky and Hutch, Muhammad Ali, Howard Cosell, Wonderama, King Kong, Gerald Ford, Bobby Riggs, Olga Korbut, Ali McGraw, Gong Show, Jaws, Charlie'a Angels, The Godfather, Polish jokes.

ROCKY
dir: John Avildsen

ROCKIE
a: Walter Brogan

Marlon Brando is in the corner of the first panel, being a contender I guess.

MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL
ABC 1970-2005

KING KONG
dir: John Guillermin

HOWARD COSELL INTERVIEWS KING KONG
a: Ed Kaye (Alan Kupperberg)

CHARLIE'S ANGELS
ABC 1976-1981

CHEERLIE'S ANGELS
a: John Reiner

This was the original cast of Kate Jackson, Jaclyn Smith, and Farrah Fawcett-Majors.

Surprisingly, among the seventies refences, no jokes about Billy Carter or Anita Bryant.

WHAT HAPPENED?

WHAT'S HAPPENING!!
ABC 1976-1979

WHAT HAPPENED?
MAD #199, June 1978
w: Lou Silverstone
a: Angelo Torres

What's Happening!! (spelled with exclamation points and not a question mark) was quite similar to Happy Days, following the adventures of three teenagers, Roger Thomas a/k/a Raj (Ernest Thomas), Dwayne Nelson (Heywood Nelson), Rerun (Fred Berry), and Raj's sardonic kid sister Dee (Danielle Spencer). Shirley (Shirley Hemphill) was the waitress at Rob's Place where they all hung out. The show was called that because of how Duane said “Hey-hey-hey. What's Happening?”in a sing-songy voice.

Raj and Dee's mother was played by Mabel King.

Richard Pryor was probably the hottest comedian at that time. The word “cancelled” applying to a person existed that far back.

Rene(e) Richards was a trans tennis player before being trans was usually one of the last things on the list mentioned to describe someone. Come to think of it, being black was pretty high up there in the MAD bubble.

WHAZ' HAPPENING
Cracked #147, December 1977
a: Powers (John Severin)

Darth Vader's appearance in one panel doesn't seem to make sense, even in the context of the whole issue, except in 1977 everyone put Star Wars characters in any free space they could.

WAATS HAPPENING?
Crazy #33, January 1978
a: Walter Brogan

Not sure if the artist didn't finish drawing Dee and the editors didn't notice or if the fact that she's just a head in the opening panel is supposed to be the bouncing ball in the opening credits. Either way it makes no sense and we'll never know.

There was an absentee father that appeared in a few shows. I don't think he looked like this and he doesn't even look the same from panel to panel in this parody.

The last panel is Robert Young from Father Knows Best.

THE GERIATRIC GAME

THE GENERATION GAME
1971-2018, BBC1

MAD UK #189, c. 1977
w: Les Lilley
a: Clive Collins

The Generation Game was a game shoe that was a combination of Breat the Clock and Family Feud. Teams competed in physical activities to win prizes, but each team was a member of the same family. The original host was Bruce Forsyth, and his co-host was Anthea Redfern.

Certain racism was acceptable in the seventies, particularly overseas and particularly when it applied to martial arts. Sessue Hayakawa was an actor in Japan.

STAR WARTS

STAR WARS (1977)
dir: George Lucas

(Sorry, folks. Every trailer I look for is the same one. Updated ones don't count)

I'm sure everyone in the world has seen Star Wars and knows its plot. Those who don't can press “Previous Post” twice and see MAD's summary. While you're at it, you can click just once and see all of Cracked's spoofs. Here are all the rest.

STAR WARTS
Crazy #32, December 1977
w: Paul Kupperberg
a: Alan Kupperberg

Eddie Fisher was Carrie Fisher's father.

Other magazines would wait two, three, four years to reprint material. Crazy waited ...um... five months.

When you couldn't find MAD as a kid. You'd go down the line--Cracked, Crazy, Sick, then you'd get to Trash.

A LONG, LONG, TIME FROM NOW IN A GALAXY REAL CLOSE
Trash #2, June 1978
artist unknown (or maybe they just didn't want to be associated)

Covers for Kaputt, the German version of Cracked. The second one also parodies McCloud.

STAR BORES
Sick #118, December 1977
w & a: Dave Manak

The middle panel has Woody Allen disguised as the robot from Sleeper.

Yet another comparison to Star Trek.

SUPER STARS WAR
Muppet Magazine #3
w: Dick DeBartolo
a: Frank Springer