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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IS THIS YOUR LIFE?
MAD #24, July 1955
w: Harvey Kurtzman
a: Bill Elder
This was a regular show in which a person was taken by surprise, usually from the audience, or on the set of their show in the case of celebrities. The host, Ralph Edwards, would show memories from his book and bring in people from that person's past.
The splash panel has a bunch of celebrities and ad mascots in the audience. The Smith Brothers are using the cough drop of their competitor. Edward Murrow is filling his seat with the cigarette butts that were his trademark, Liberace is sharing sheet music with Harry Truman, Roy Cohn is advising Joseph McCarthy, Bing Crosby, smoking what looks like a golf club pipe, is noticing the likeness of Lincoln on his five-dollar bill isn't accurate, while sitting next to Marlon Brando just off the set of Julius Caesar. Martin and Lewis haven't guessed the “secret woid” is 'Lollabrigida'. Gen. McArthur is being tattooed by Grandma Moses. Julius LaRosa is about to blast TNT into Arthur Godfrey's earphones while Jackie Gleason is caught in the middle. Milton Berle is looking over Ralph Edwards' shoulder. Sen. Estes Kefauver is reading a horror comic before his subcommittee investigates it.
Hazel Bishop cosmetics was the sponsor of the show.
THIS IS YOUR WIFE
Crazy #2, January 1954
w: Stan Lee
a: Al Hartley
THAT WAS YOUR LIFE!
Eh! #5, July 1954
a: Fred Ottenheimer
THIS IS YOUR STRIFE
Panic #1, February-March 1954
w: Al Feldstein
a: Joe Orlando
From Russian TV Shows by Paul Laikin and John Severin
The show was parodied many times on Sesame Street.
COME BACK, LITTLE STREETCAR!
Panic #2, April/May 1954
w: Al Feldstein
a: Jack Davis
Combination of several plays that became dramas, particularly A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, Come Back, Little Sheba by William Inge, and Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller.
THE BLOB (1958)
dir: Irvin Yeaworth
ATTACK OF THE 50-FOOT WOMAN (1958)
dir: Nathan Hertz
THE TALKING BLOB
Cracked #149, March 1978
a: John Severin
This was their parody of youth horror movies. The first use of Cracked's attempt at making the Talking Blob a recurring character. The original film also starred Steve McQueen, who's caricatured here.
Also an homage to Saturday Night Live's Land Shark sketches.
THE STAR TREK SAGA
MAD Star Trek Special, Holiday 1994
w: Frank Jacobs
a: Sergio Aragones
The cover promised a new Star Trek: Generations spoof. This must mean what they meant. All seven movies and four TV series were parodied last month, no need to go into them now.
TALES FROM THE CREEP
Spoof #2, November 1972
w: Marv Wolfman
a: Marie Severin & Jon Costa
Anthology film from Amicus, a British production company that released dozens of horror films, based on the EC comic book from the 50s. The movie adapted five of the stories used in the comic, this parody used three.
The movie has five people who find themselves wondering where they are. They are in the Crypt of Terror and each one is revealed the reason they are there in a story told to them by the Crypt Keeper (Ralph Richardson) about how they will die.
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? and Willard were two horror movies.
In the first story a woman (Joan Collins) has killed her husband for the insurance on Christmas Eve. She also hears a report that a homicidal maniac dressed as Santa Claus is on the loose, and finds herself trying to dispose of her husband's body and hide from the killer at the same time. Her daughter, who she thought she'd put to sleep, wakes up thinking the killer actually is Santa Claus and invites him in.
The next story is a retelling of The Monkey's Paw. A man (Richard Greene) is financially ruined, but his wife (Barbara Murray) discovers a statue and wishes for more money. The couple comes into money and upon going to get it, he dies in a car crash. She wishes he were still alive and he comes back badly mutilated.
The final story in the movie is about a man who runs a home for the blind and lives in luxury with his German shepherd while the residents all keep getting increasing financial cuts in meals and heat, which leads to one of their deaths. They get revenge by first luring his dog into the basement, thenthrowing him into a room next door. They eventually let him out but to exit he has to get through a series of mazes which include walls covered with razors and a hallyway with his dog that has been starving for two days.
Here he's portrayed as Hitler running a concentration camp that's actually a camp. The real story is in the video below.
The Crypt Keeper reveals they're all in the afterlife.
HBO 1989-1995
TALES FROM THE CREEP
Cracked #250, December 1989
w: Archie Falbo (Lou Silverstone)
a: Bill Wray
It later became a series on HBO, also using the same pool of stories from the comic book.
This comic is about the rivalry between MAD and Cracked. Before MAD, Bill Gaines had been publisher of Tales from the Crypt. Cracked was aware of his business practices in keeping and hoarding original art and though paying well, earning dollars on every penny the creator made. It was a coup for Cracked when they were able to poach long-time MAD contributor Don Martin, luring him by allowing him copyrights on his material and giving back his art. MAD writer Lou Silverstone was writing for Cracked simultaneously under a pen name before eventually becoming editor himself, and Bill Wray became one of the regulars at MAD.
The signature parodies “Ghastly”, the way Graham Ingels signed his work.
This also parodies the story And All Through the House that was used in the movie. (original story below) The Crypt Keeper is portrayed as Gaines. Jack Davis' signature is parodied in the upper left, while the story mimics the art of Johnny Craig.
