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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AIRPLANE! (1980)
dirs: David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, Jerry Zucker
from Cracked's Sequels to Classic Movies in #180, September 1981, art by John Severin.
Done in the era when Cracked's parodies were less parodies and more like homages. I don't think the person that wrote this knew it was a comedy.
There actually was a sequel to Airplane!, though it wasn't as funny because it was mostly a repeat of the first one, and further ruined the premise by letting you know it was supposed to be funny.
MAD VISITS JOE LEVENAL, HOLLYWOOD'S LATEST PRODUCING GENIUS
Mad #66, October 1961
w: Larry Siegel
a: Mort Drucker
Joseph E. LeVine was the owner of Avco Embassy Pictures. They released plenty of well-known films but were best known for repackaging the Godzilla and Hercules franchises. Hercules Unchained was the most recent of the latter when this was written.
The Hercules movies were financed in Italy and starred Steve Reeves.
There's Marlon Brando in line at the movie.
This was in Movie Land Magazine in issue #54, April 1960, written by Larry Siegel, art by Joe Orlando. The joke here, of course, is a nerd like Arnold Stang playing a he-man like Hercules, though in Hercules in New York, considered by most to be even worse than the Avco series, Stang plays Hercules' sidekick.
Most people know of the series from Mystery Science Theater 3000.
As much as these movies are looked down on, there were imitations with even smaller budgets and production values.
Airport inspired another sequel before sequels were all the rage, and by this time the disaster movie with the all-star cast was a full-fledged genre.
AIRPLOT '75
MAD #176, July 1975
w: Dick DeBartolo
a: Mort Drucker
MAD was obsessed with the barf bag for some reason, devoting at least three covers to one, and many mentions of them in articles. I've seen air sickness bags on planes and have experienced occasional air sickness, but I've never had to use one or seen one being used. Maybe they just thought the concept of a barf bag was funny, or just the word “barf”.
Jerry Stiller, who passed away earlier this year, has a credit lots of actors of higher stature don't. An appearance on the cover of MAD.
Airplot '75 opens with an establishing shot of most of the cast. Many are not named and do not show up later. There's Norman Fell and Jerry Stiller talking to Myrna Loy. Those two guys and Conrad Janis (the obscured bald head) play the comedy relief as three drunks. Gloria Swanson plays herself on board writing her memoirs.
There's an affair alluded to, one between flight instructor Alan Murdock (Charlton Heston) and stewardess Nancy Pryor (Karen Black, whom they missed out on an opportunity to call “Karen Blecch”).
Mrs. Patroni (Susan Clark) wife of Joe Patroni, the character played by George Kennedy, is on the flight. Rounding out the cast is co-pilot Julio (Erik Estrada).
Scotty Freeman (Dana Andrews, who happened to be the lead in Airplane! parody Zero Hour!) is a businessman taking his own flight in the bad weather.
A sick girl, Janice (Linda Blair), is in transit and one of the nuns offers to entertain her with her singing (probably why they cast Helen Reddy as Sister Ruth). I mentioned before Airplane! Was mostly taken from Zero Hour!, but it also borrowed this subplot.
The parodies of it from Airplane! are probably better known, though.
The jet has to land because of the fog and Scott Freeman's private plane, also in the air, also has to land.
The two planes have crashed into each other, killing and injuring the crew of the commercial jet, leaving Nancy the only one who can land it.
On the ground at the airport, reporter Glen Purcell (Larry Storch) is getting a story on this flight.
Now let's see Cracked's version, which they called the same thing...
AIRPLOT 1975
Cracked #127, September 1975
a: Sururi Gumen
Captain Stacy (Efram Zimbalist Jr.) is used on the first page here.
Linda Blair's previous film is referenced here too. They tried to put her in other things all throughout the 70s and 80s but she could never shed the image of her debut character.
Helen Reddy was best known for “I Am Woman”, so they had to reference that as well.
Two of the drunks played by Norman Fell and Jerry Stiller are used here.
Cracked also ended with a cliffhanger “coming soon” ending. There was no installment in 1976 but there was a later one the year after that with a completely different location and cast. The fact that George Kennedy existed in all Airport movies put them in the same universe.
AIRPLOT
MAD #139, December 1970
w: Larry Siegel
a: Mort Drucker
Airport was considered sort of a return to normal at the time. Most of Hollywood's product then was aimed toward youth and full of sex and violence and this was only suspense. It was also the start of the disaster movie trend, spawning several sequels and other movies with the theme of man-made or natural disasters, almost all of which were parodied by MAD and its imitators (and which we'll get to in due time). Before heroic fantasy became the predominant “event” movie, disaster movies were it.
The angle of this parody is how the movie is presented with an all-star cast and has several plots at once. This type of thing is now typical of a season of any series on pay-cable or streaming TV but was considered novel when the difference between movies and television was so huge.
It is a common misnomer that Airplane! is a parody of Airport. It's actually a remake of a 50s B-movie called Zero Hour!, using its plot and most of the same dialogue. And while Airplane! is promoted as a parody of the disaster genre as a whole, uses many of the same conventions, (and owes the rapid-fire joke formula to MAD), that's where the similarities end.
But back to the MAD parody.
Mel Bakersfield (Burt Lancaster) is manager at an airport in Lincoln, IL and is having marital problems because he spends too much time at work, where he's having an affair with his assistant Tanya Livingston (Jean Seberg).
Then there's the pilot Vernon Demarest (Dean Martin).
Residents nearby are complaining about the noise of the planes and he's proposing a new model that will cut down on the noise.
There is a stowaway on one of the flights, Ada Quonsett (Helen Hayes).
There is a bomber (Van Helfin) boarding one of the planes.
Meanwhile, pilot Vermin Swinger is also having an affair with his stewardess Gwen Meighen (Jacqueline Bisset) and has knocked her up.
On the plane, we have many of the archetypes common to all disaster movies.
The plane is piloted by Anson Harris (Barry Nelson)
Now we get to the bomb, the “disaster” of the movie.
Given MAD's penchant for using Yiddish words (I'm sure that's how most of us goyim know them), wouldn't it make more sense to call the parody Air-PLOTZ?
The MAD imitations often instructed their artists to draw just like the MAD artists. This caricature of Dean Martin from the article When People Moonlight in Different Jobs from Crazy #38 (May 1978) is taken from the Dean Martin caricature from this parody, right down to the captain's hat. I think the passenger is supposed to be Helena Kallianiotes taken from their Five Easy Pieces parody.
AIRPOT
Cracked #91, March 1971
a: John Severin
Cracked's parody also played up the multiple story arc angle.
Missing from MAD's parody is the plotline of snow on the tarmac and the George Kennedy character. I'm not sure who these other cameos are.
Also played up here is Dean Martin's persona as an alcoholic, since that was his schtick as an entertainer in real life.
The Edsel was a Ford model that was a big flop when it came out.
Airport was originally a novel written by Arthur Hailey, who coincidentally wrote the screenplay for Zero Hour! in the above video clip.
One of the passengers is Spiro Agnew.
SQUAREPORT
Sick #80, November 1970
w: Fred Wolfe (Paul Laikin)
a: Jack Sparling
This version begins with the Dean Martin character being like his real-life persona and already on the plane.
And the characters are called by the actors' names.
On the ground Burt Lancaster divorces his wife, who I don't think you see in the movie.
Somehow Dean Martin is on the ground now even though he was just up in the air.
The bomber's wife (Maureen Stapleton) wonders what his motive is.
This parody doesn't mention the many other subplots.
