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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E. C.: THE EXTRA CELESTIAL
Muppet Magazine #1, January 1983
w: Dick DeBartolo
a: Bruce McNally
There were several issues of Muppet magazine in the eighties, and almost all of them had movie parodies with their characters playing the roles, unfortunately this is the only one I can find that has high enough resolution. The other parodies of E. T. I posted last year and their trailers can be found here and here. Any scans of pages from the magazine that I can use are welcome.
Kermit playing Elliott, Fozzie and Miss Piggy as the brother and mother. Elliott left a trail of Reese's Pieces to lure the alien out of the shed where it was hiding.
Elliot fakes sickness so he could stay home from school. Gonzo is E.T.
Elliot has some kind of telepathic link with E.T., so while he was in school and E.T. was home and got drunk, his intoxication was shared with Elliot. In the movie E.T. also co-incidentally learned to read by watching Sesame Street.
Blooper: the steering wheel is on the wrong side. The artist must be British.
THE ADDAMS FAMILY
THE ADDARNS FAMILY
Cracked Monster Party #16, April 1992
w: Lou Silverstone
a: Walter Brogan
Every generation has a different Addams Family. It started with the New Yorker cartoons in the 40s and 50s, then the 60s TV show, the 70s Saturday Morning cartoon, the 90s movie, the 10s CGI animation, and the upcoming streaming show, MAD and Cracked parodied the 90s movie, which can be seen here. This is a parody of the sixties TV show that Cracked did in the 90s
The TV show starred Jon Astin (Gomez), Carolyn Jones (Morticia), Jackie Coogan (Uncle Fester), Ted Cassidy (Lurch), Lisa Loring (Wednesday), Ken Weatherwax (Pugsley), and Marie Blake (Grandma). Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) of Silence of the Lambs had nothing to do with the show.
THE ADDAMNEDS FAMILY DEVALUED
Cracked Monster Party #23, Spring 1994
w: Steve Strangio
a: Walter Brogan
Gomez (Raul Julia) and Morticia (Angelica Huston) Addams have just given birth to Pubert while Uncle Fester (Christopher Lloyd), Granny (Carol Kane), Lurch (Carel Struyken), Wednesday (Christina Ricci) and Pugsley (Jimmy Workman) look on.
Pubert was the original name considered for Pugsley when The Addams Family was being developed for television in the sixties.
Wednesday and Pugsley just want to kill the baby. The Addamses interview new nannies for him.
There was controversy in the 90s when Beavis and Butthead were accused of teaching kids to burn their house down. It didn't hold water when it turned out the angry parent who scapegoated them didn't even have cable, but this didn't stop channels from censoring “imitative behavior”. Readers of this blog already know about Pee-Wee Herman getting caught with his pants down. Hannibal Lecter just liked to eat people.
Debbie (Joan Cusack) is the nanny they eventually hire but she puts up a cheery front while robbing them. Uncle Fester, who own the Addams' wealth doesn't realize this and is smitten by her. The kids go to camp for the summer.
Debbie and Fester eventually get married, Wednesday and Pugsley are on to her but can't tell anyone because they're stuck at summer camp. Debbie tries to kill Fester now. Gomez and Morticia find out through the TV that she's a famous black widow fugitive who's killed other rich men.
The punchline here is that the nanny is Michael Jackson.
Not used are the camp Thanksgiving pageant and Wednesday's first love.
HUSH, HUSH...SWEET CHARLOTTE (1964)
dir: Robert Aldrich
WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? (1962)
dir Robert Aldrich
HACK, HACK, SWEET HAS-BEEN
MAD #100, January 1966
w: Larry Siegel
a: Mort Drucker
Both are examples of thrillers which had older actresses supposedly past their prime and chewing scenery. Bette Davis was the only woman to star in both. The follow-up was meant to team up Bette Davis (b. 1908) and Joan Crawford (b. 1904-08?) again but they couldn't get along the first time, and Crawford was replaced by Olivia DeHavilland (b. 1916). This mostly borrowed the plot of Hush, Hush... but had elements of both. Neither had Tallulah Bankhead (b. 1902) or Barbara Stanwyck (b. 1907)
The alternate title in this parody is either a play on What Ever Happened to Cousin Charlotte?, the story it was based on, or What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?. This begins similarly to Hush, Hush..., with the DeHavilland character coming in from the city to return to the Southern mansion she was raised in. The credits also pun Mary Astor and Agnes Moorehead. The theme from the movie was a hit song.
Joseph Cotton played a doctor in Hush, Hush... Sweet Charlotte.
Victor Buono, who was also in both films, is also named in the credits of the parody.
Joan Crawford was married to the president of Pepsi and was spokesperson for them.
Annette Funicello (b. 1942) was star of beach movies, another prominent genre at the time.
Charles Addams did magazine ads for What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
There was a TV series a few years ago called Feud about the making of Baby Jane, and how their animosity in real life was perfect for the screen.
Other examples in the "hagsploitation" or "psycho-biddy" genres (hey, I didn't make those words up) were What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice?, What's the Matter with Helen?, and Who Slew Auntie Roo?.
HAR TO HAR
MAD #224, July 1981
w: Lou Silverstone
a: Angelo Torres
TV detective series modeled after Thin Man movies but in an 80s Los Angeles setting. Jonathan Hart (Robert Wagner) is a corporate millionaire and his wife Jennifer (Stefanie Powers) come across mysteries as they trot across the globe. The show is narrated by their chauffeur Max (Lionel Stander).
Switch was Robert Wagner's previous detective series. O. J. Simpson, back when he was benign, did commercials for Hertz at an airport.
Freeway was their dog that helped them on mysteries, similar to the Charles' Asta.
J. R. was the breakout character on Dallas, a show at the same time that jumped in the ratings when he was shot on the show.
HEART TO HEART
Cracked #192, January 1983
a: John Severin
HARM TO HARM
Crazy #83, February 1982
w: Murad Gumen
a: Kent Gamble
The possible benefactors are TV's Addams Family- Gomez (Jon Astin), Carolyn Jones (Morticia), Pugsley (Ken Weatherwax), Lurch (Ted Cassidy)...
...Uncle Fester (Jackie Coogan) and Wednesday (Lisa Loring). The rest of Thing's body is revealed to be Don Rickles. Jim Arness was the lead in Gunsmoke.
They next go and see Arthur (Dudley Moore) from Arthur, which came out that year. His girlfriend was played by Liza Minelli.
Raul Julia- Gomez
Anjelica Huston- Morticia
Christopher Lloyd- Uncle Fester
Elizabeth Wilson- Abigail Craven
Judith Malina- Granny
Carel Struycken- Lurch
Christina Ricci- Wednesday
Jimmy Workman- Pugsley
Christopher Hart- Thing
Cousin Itt- John Franklin
Dan Hedaya- Tully
THE ADNAUSEUM FAMILY
#311, June 1992
w: Dick DeBartolo
a: Mort Drucker
“The Addams Family started
When Uncle Fester farted
And now they're all r-t-rd-d
The Addams Family”
[da-da-da-da *snap-snap*]
--Anon
(I know we don't say that word anymore. Don't @ me!)
Movie based on the TV show from 25 years earlier, which was based on the Charles Addams cartoons from the New Yorker. The plot of the movie involves someone claiming to be the long-lost Uncle Fester coming to claim the Addams family fortune, but who is actually a con artist in disguise.
Madison Avenue is not only where all the advertising is but also co-incidentally where MAD was at the time.
In a scene not in the movie, Edward Scissorhands, who in his own movie is celebrated for his topiary skills, and here is inexplicably part of the Addams Family, gives the hirsute Cousin Itt a haircut. They also note the fact that talk show host Sally Jesse Raphael has a cameo in the movie.
Kirk and Spock beam into the mansion for one panel in MAD's oft-repeated joke “you're in the wrong movie”.
In the real movie, the actual Uncle Fester shows up at the last minute and here he's portrayed as the original Charles Addams drawing.
Saddam Hussein, Clarence Thomas, Leona Helmsley, Dan Quayle, and Al Sharpton are revealed to also be members of the family at the end. Those were the bogeymen of that year and were also an excuse for Mort Drucker to show his talent for caricature.
There was yet another remake last year, making it a reboot of a reboot of a reboot. I didn't see it but probably with almost all comedy for kids now, it contains the usual “jokes for adults that would go over kids heads” (meaning references to things from before 2000 and a few double entendres) that wouldn't be possible without MAD.
THE ADDLED FAMILY
Cracked #271, May 1992
w: Vic Bianco (Lou Silverstone)
a: Walter Brogan
The parody begins just how the movie begins.
Note that Jon Astin is one of the carolers, as are Mike Myers and Dana Carvey. I believe the others are supposed to be people but I'm not sure who.
This is actually taken from one of the original Charles Addams cartoons.
Present at the party are Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter, Robert DeNiro as Max Cady, and Beauty and the Beast.
With their fortune legally taken away, they now have to live in a hotel until the real Uncle Fester shows up. In Parodyland, other monsters show up angry that they made a mockery of real movie monsters.
THE ADDAMS FAMILY
(1964-1966) ABC
Jon Astin- Gomez
Carolyn Jones- Morticia
Ted Cassidy- Lurch
Jackie Coogan- Uncle Fester
SICK VISITS A MONSTER FAMILY
Sick #38, August 1965
w: Jim Atkins
a: Angelo Torres
As I mentioned before, The Addams Family was a TV show before it was a movie. It wasn't done by MAD or Cracked but Sick had their version of it.
It is supposed to be Barry Goldwater in the plane, who ran for President with the slogan “AuH20”
The person in the final panel is Dr. Zorba from Ben Casey.
Besides originally being a series of gag cartoons, a TV show, a movie, a sequel, a Broadway musical, and a CGI movie, it was also a cartoon in 1973.
And there was a comic book of the cartoon.
UPDATE:
From TV Scenes That Make More Sense in Sick #47, September 1966, art by Angelo Torres
