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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YELLOWSTREAK
MAD UK #247, November 1982
a: Dave Stoten
A lot of TV detective spoofs of the seventies put all the detectives together, usually because the premise was the detective had some kind of gimmick or trait. This is supposed to by about this premise taken to its most absurd conclusion as a detective called Yellowstreak, who's supposed to be Orson Welles as all their traits combined.
This article seems to pre-date right-wing rancor against “woke” by forty years, lamenting how detectives used to be like Sam Spade, then TV made them disabled (Ironside, Raymond Burr), black (Shaft, Richard Roundtree), female (Police Woman, Angie Dickinson), fat (Cannon, William Conrad), streetsmart (Columbo, Peter Falk), and old (Barnaby Jones, Eddie Albert). McCloud is in the background of the splash panel as well.
Winifred Atwell was a jazz/ragtime musician. I have no idea why she's referenced here.
There are appearances by Quincy, Efrem Zimbalist and Roger Smith from 77 Sunset Strip, and Starsky & Hutch. There seems to be a picture of James Garner in Quincy's lab. In the last panel Orson Welles looks more like Tim Curry.
I'm familar with Karl Malden and Michael Douglas from Street of San Francisco and Robert Wagner from Hart to Hart, but I must say I'm stumped by the two in the same panel as with Kojak. They must be the only non-American detectives.
V-V-VENOM!
Crazy #90, September 1982
w: Stu Schwartzberg
a: Kent Gamble
Not to be mistaken for the Spider-Man movie. British horror film involving snakes and a kidnapping. Philip (Lance Holcomb) is a boy whose hobby is snakes, his mother is going away and has asked the grandfather, Howard Anderson (Sterling Hayden), to watch after him. While she is gone, the maid Louise (Susan George) and her boyfriend Jacmel (Klaus Kinski) have decided to take the boy hostage and Louise has seduced the chauffer Dave (Oliver Reed) so he can help them with their plot.
Philip goes to the pet store to get a snake for his collection against the protests and the maid, because Philip has to be at home when Jacmel arrives. Philip goes anyway, but we find out his snake was mixed up with the deadly black mamba, which was to be delivered to the local institute, and the mix-up is discovered by Dr. Stowe (Sarah Miles).
The kidnapping plot goes awry when the black mamba snake bites Louise, taking her life before Dr. Stowe can arrive with the antidote. Dave accidentally shoots a cop. Howard used to be a hunter and can find the mamba snake and hunt it down, but the kidnappers don't want it to interfere with their plot.
The police and everyone outside assume Louise is still alive, and Jacmel uses these false pretenses to lure Dr. Stowe in and hold her hostage as well, and cuts off Louise's fingers to give to the police making them think they;re Dr. Stowe's fingers and that he means business.
The black mamba snake gets Jacmel just as the police shoot him so it's assumed they got both him and the snakes, but while the snake was in the house, it reproduced. So the film ends with a “The End?”-type ending.
TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT
1980-1983 ABC
1983-1987 SYND
TOO GROSS FOR COMFORT
MAD #226, October 1981
w: Stan Hart
a: Angelo Torres
Henry Rush (Ted Knight) was the cartoonist for Cosmic Cow who lived in a house in San Francisco with his wife Muriel (Nancy Dussault), with their daughters Jackie (Deborah Van Valkenburgh) and Sara (Lydia Cornell) downstairs. Monroe (Jm J. Bullock) was Sara's friend that was always around.
TOO DUMB FOR COMFORT
Cracked #187, July 1982
a: Samuel B. Whitehead
Even as a kid, it bothered me that Henry drew while wearing a puppet on his hand.
Muriel's pregnancy was a big story arc in the second season.
The other Bill.besides Cosby, is Bixby with his tattered clothing after hulking out. Sometimes they would mention Henry's boss, Mr. Wainwright.
MAD never actually did a parody of The Tonight Show, but everyone caricatured here has a show that was parodied by them which has been or will be posted here. Featured are Alan Alda (M*A*S*H), Tom Selleck (Magnum, P. I.), Larry Hagman (Dallas), Dan Rather (60 Minutes), Mary Tyler-Moore, Joan Collins (Dynasty), Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd (Moonlighting), Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas (Miami Vice), Bob Denver(Gilligan's Island), Ted Danson (Cheers), Bob Newhart (Newhart), Alan Thicke (Growing Pains), Pat Sajak and Vanna White (Wheel of Fortune), Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Tony Danza (Who's the Boss?), Bill Cosby (The Cosby Show), and Joan Rivers, an occasional guest host who later had her own talk show on Fox, The Muppets are all nondescript.
THE TONAUGHT SHOW WITH JOHNNY CARESNONE
Crazy #85, April 1982
w: Murad Gumen
a: Kent Gamble
At the time this was written, this was basically the only late night talk show in existence. The ones that exist now with a monologue, a comedy sketch, celebrity interviews, and a comedian or musician, were basically patterned after this.
Ed McMahon was the announcer of the show, Doc Severinsen usually was bandleader, but Tommy Newsome ocassionally filled in as announcer and bandleader. Carson himself often had guest hosts when he took a day off, one of his more frequent hosts was comedian David Brenner.
Stump the Band was a regular routine they did, where an audience would mentiona song title and the band would play it. The bit was that they almost never knew the song and would make one up.
Ed McMahon often did commercials built into the show. Usually for Alpo dog food. Joan Embry of the San Diego Zoo was a frequent guest that would bring on a species unfamiliar to Carson that he'd usually be scared of.
4
food.
Being a comedian on a talk show used to be a bigger deal than it was when 15% of the country actually saw you on TV. Back then, several guest would sit with the host at once and getting to sit at the desk next to Carson meant you were “made”.
Loni Anderson was the 15-minute sex symbol then.
A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE HAPPENING
Cracked #65, November 1967
a: John Severin
A weird time when middle-age people were trying to relate to this hippie stuff. Here's Liberace playing a beat club with Jimmy Durante in attendance.
The comedy stylings of Jackie Gleason, Milton Berle, and Soupy Sales were somehow different from what Carson's sketches. Cracked must have known some subtlties that were way over everyone's heads.
COMEDIAN OF THE MONTH: JOHNNY CARSON
Sick #99, August 1974
artist and writer unknown
MAD again. From TV Theme Songs by Frank Jacobs and Sam Viviano from #266, October 1986. The article had lyrics to theme songs that didn't have them, though it did before becoming the show's theme.
TIME BOO-BOOS
Crazy #86, May 1982
w: Paul Kupperberg
a: Bob Camp
Although all six (now four) of the Monty Python troupe haven't done any new material together since the eighties, at least one of them has usually contributed to the others' solo projects. Michael Palin co-wrote the screenplay and appears occasionally with Shelley Duvall as a constantly cockblocked couple throughout different eras of time.
The story is about a boy, Kevin (Craig Warnock), who is awakened by a group of little people who have stolen a map from the Supreme Being (Ralph Richardson) and use it to travel through history and steal objects, escaping through time holes. As we'll see, it's similar in structure to Wizard of Oz.
Randall (David Rappoport), along with Fidgit (Kenny Baker), Strutter (Malcolm Dixon), Og (Mike Edmonds), Wally (Jack Purvis), and Vermin (Tiny Ross), allow Kevin to join them with his superior intelligence and knowledge of history. They find themselves in the time of Napoleon (Ian Holm).
They distract Napoleon by performing a talent show for him while others loot his quarters, jump through time again and are discovered by Robin Hood's merry men.
Kevin and the Time Bandits are being watched by Evil (David Warner) and who wants their map and vows with the help of his minions to lure them into his lair.
Robin Hood (John Cleese) takes their loot to give to the poor. As they travel through time to acquire more loot they continue to be chased by the Supreme Being they took the map from.
Crazy omits a few major scenes. One where Kevin splits with them and ends up in the time of King Agamemnon (Sean Connery) and becomes heir to the throne in Greece, but the thieves find him and bring him back with them. They end up on the Titanic, drown, and are saved by a pirate ship run by a cannibalistic ogre and his wife, whom they throw overboard, and the ship turns out to be the hat of a giant in a scene used on the cover. Jumping to the end, the whole movie was a dream that Kevin wakes up to as his has burns down, and is saved by a fireman who's also Sean Connery. (Another Wizard of Oz parallel.)
Evil captures them in a cage and they escape, going through time and coming back with armies from different eras and attempt to defeat him, and are saved at the last minute by the Supreme Being, who takes human form and tells him he knew they stole the map and let theme take it as a test.
THE MAN FROM SNOWY RIVER (1982)
dir: George T. Miller
THE HAM FROM SNOWY LIVER
Australian MAD Super Special #41, c. 1982
w: Deane Taylor & Tony Sanderson
a: Deane Taylor
Not the same George Miller who made the Mad Max and Babe movies as I previously thought. Westerns and historical epics are my least favorite genres so hopefully this Wikipedia entry explains what's going on.
When Jim Craig (Tom Burlinson) and his father Henry (Terence Donovan) are discussing their finances, a herd of wild horses called the Brumby mob passes by, and Henry wants to shoot the black stallion leader, but Jim convinces his father to capture and sell them. Jim and Henry are making a yard to trap the mob when they reappear and trample through the area. In the mayhem, the Craigs' horse runs off with the mob and Henry is accidentally killed. Before Jim can inherit the station, a group of mountain men tell him that he must first earn the right – and to do so he must go to the lowlands and work. Jim and his father's old friend, Spur (Kirk Douglas), a one-legged miner, give Jim a horse. Jim then gets a job at a station owned by Harrison (also Kirk Douglas), Spur's brother, on a recommendation by Harrison's friend, Andrew Patterson (David Bradshaw). Meanwhile, Clancy (Jack Thompson) appears at Spur's mine and the two discuss their pasts and futures. Clancy goes to Harrison's station to lead a cattle muster. At dinner, Harrison tells Clancy that "he has no brother" when referring to Spur.
Harrison organises a round-up of his cattle, but Jim is not allowed to go. While the others are gone, Harrison's daughter Jessica (Sigrid Thornton) asks Jim to help her break in a prize colt. The mob appears again, and Jim unsuccessfully gives chase to the valuable horse. When Harrison returns, he sends Jim to bring back 20 strays. Later, Harrison learns of Jim's actions and tells Jessica that Jim will be fired and that she will be sent to a women's college. Impulsively, she rides off into the mountains where she is caught in a storm.
Spur, meanwhile, finally strikes a large gold deposit. Jim finds Jessica's horse and rescues her. She tells him that he's going to be fired, but he still leaves to return the cattle. Jessica is surprised to meet Spur, her uncle, whom she had never been told about. She is also confused when Spur mistakes her for her dead mother and refuses to tell her anything about his past. After returning, Jessica learns that Spur and Harrison both fell in love with her mother, Matilda. Matilda declared that the first to make his fortune would be her husband. Spur went looking for gold, while Harrison bet his life savings on a horse race. Harrison became rich overnight when the horse he bet on won. Having made his fortune, Harrison wed Matilda, but she died while delivering Jessica. Harrison is grateful to Jim for returning his daughter, but he becomes angry when Jim says he loves her. As Jim leaves, a prized colt is let loose by a farmhand named Curly in the hope that Jim will be blamed.
Later, while camping out, Spur tells Jim that he will inherit his father's share of the mine. Clancy joins them and informs them of the colt, but Jim refuses to retrieve the animal. Meanwhile, Harrison offers a reward of £100, attracting riders and fortune-hunters from every station in the area. Clancy does eventually show, accompanied by Jim, whom Harrison finally allows to join the hunt. Several riders have accidents in pursuit and even Clancy is unable to contain the Brumby mob. The riders give up when the mob descends a seemingly impassable grade. However, Jim goes forward and returns the horses to Harrison's farm. Harrison offers him the reward but he refuses. Having cleared his name, Jim would like to return someday for the horses and, looking at Jessica, "anything else that's mine". He rides back up to the mountain country, knowing that he has earned his right to live there.
SUPERDUPERMAN II
MAD #226, October 1981
w: Frank Jacobs
a: Mort Drucker
The first few minutes feature a condensed version of the first movie, except that Marlon Brando was in the first one as Jor-El. Kal-El's father. General Zod (Terence Stamp), Ursa (Sarah Douglas), and Non (Jack O;Halloran) are found guilty on the planet Krypton for treason and sentenced to the Phantom Zone, a pane of glass that floats into space. Krypton is about to explode so Jor-el's wife Lara (Susanna York) sends her only son Kal-El to Earth. Kal-El lands and is discovered by the Kents, who raise him as their own child, Clark. When Pa Kent Dies, Clark (Christopher Reeve) seeks life in the city of Metropolis as a newspaper reporter at the Daily Planet. As Superman, Clark has a “will they or won't they” relationship with co-worker Lois Lane (Margot Kidder), and brings his arch enemy Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman) to justice. *Whew!*
George Reeves was the actor who played Superman in the TV series a few decades earlier.
Clark Kent hears from his boss Perry White (Jackie Cooper) that Lois Lane is doing a report at the Eiffel tower, and has just found out it has a bomb planted inside it. Lois tries to investigate it for an inside scoop she hopes will make her famous, but it puts her in danger and is saved in time by Superman. The bomb is in the elevator, which Superman throws up into space, and it hits the Phantom Zone, breaking it and freeing Zod, Ursa, and Non.
$4.00 for a cup of coffee sounds about right but would have worked as a joke in 1981.
Clark and Lois are on assignment in Niagara Falls and pose as a married couple while they stay at a sleazy hotel. They go sightseeing and Clark leaves so that he can turn into Superman and save a falling child. Lois figures out Clark Kent and Superman are the same person, confronting him with it, which he denies. Lex Luthor has escaped from jail and with his girlfriend Eve Teschmacher (Valerie Perrine) go to the North Pole to go to Superman's Fortress of Solitude, which contains all knowledge of Earth.
Zod, with his crew have invaded the town of East Houston, Idaho, demanding to know the leaders of Earth. The army tries to stop them but can't.
They wreak havoc on Earth and find out from the army the President (E.G.Marshall) is commander-in-chief of the military and therefore the one they need to meet.
Clark Kent finally admits to Lois Lane that he and Superman are the same person. He brings her to the Fortress of Solitude and tells his the ghost of his mother they are in love. She tells him the only way they can consummate their relationship is if he gives up his superpowers and becomes a mortal, which he does. The happy couple travels back home, and stops along at a diner, where they get hassled by one of the locals.
Clark is beaten up by a redneck for wanting his seat back, then he and Lois see on the TV that the President needs Superman's help to stop Zod, Ursa, and Non from taking over the world. Clark now regrets his decision and has to go back to the Fortress of Solitude and become Superman again. Zod and his crew wreck the White House, and afterwards Lex Luthor comes in and tells them he'll make a deal with them—he'll tell them all they need to know about Superman, who is really Kal-El, son of Jor-El, who sentenced them to the Phantom Zone, in exchange for ownership of Australia.
Aside: In the movie, the people at the diner turn off the TV when the President is done speaking. You ever notice that in a movie or TV show that whenever there's an emergency report on TV, someone turns off the TV immediately after it's over? Why is that?
Zod, Ursa, and Non look for Superman at the Daily Planet. He shows up and has a big fight with them on that block in Metropolis.
NYC mayor Ed Koch makes an appearance in the parody.
Zod, Ursa, and Non chase Superman to his Fortress of Solitude with Lex in tow. Superman tricks them into entering the molecular chamber, which makes them into mortals. Lex thinks it was his idea and wants credit for it, but Superman isn't having it. Later on, Lois tells Clark she's upset they can't be together now that he's changed back, he kisses her, making her forget everything that ever happened between them.
Here was the back cover for that same issue.
The South American edition.
The German one.
The Portuguese edition. Did they reprint the Kurtzman/Wood Flash Gordon parody or do a new one?
WHAT CHRISTOPHER REEVE WILL BE LIKE WHEN HE GETS OLD
Cracked #183, December 1981
a: Samuel Whitehead
Unfortunately, we know what happened to Christopher Reeve when he got old.
cover for Kaputt, the German version of Cracked.
SOOPERMAN, TOO!
Crazy #81, December 1981
w: Paul Kupperberg
a: Bob Camp
There's Teen-Hulk on the cover. They were doing all these different versions so they could have the trademark.
Zod, Ursa, and, Non wreaked havoc on the Moon before they came to Earth.
