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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“What in the wide world of sports is going on here?”
--Slim Pickens, BLAZING SADDLES
ABC TV'S WILD WORLD OF SPORTS
MAD #102, April 1966
w: Al Jaffee
a: George Woodbridge
Sports show before there were several all-sports channels covering lesser-known events like racing and skiing. The show was hosted by Jim McKay. Ken Sanguine and the other field commentators don't seem to be based on anyone in particular.
From When American TV Programs Are Shown in Russia by Lou Silverstone and Angelo Torres in #272, July 1987.
THE WIDER WORLD OF SPORTS
Cracked #139, January 1977
a: John Severin
Howard Cosell, obligatory appearances by Kojak and The Fonz.
Chris Schenkel. Bill Flemming
The Ty-D-Bol Man was a mascot that lived in the toilet tank.
WEIRD WORLD OF SPORTS
Sick #107, December 1975
w: Kim Bene
a: Tony Tallarico
Jean-Claude Killy was the biggest downhill sking star then and Evel Kneivel started the daredevil motorcycle craze of the 70s.
Keith Jackson and Frank Gifford were also correspondents on the show.
Yesterday, this blog looked at the movie, which was about how Elliott Ness assembled a group that brought down Al Capone. The series was also based on Ness' memoirs, but veered off into fiction as it was about how Ness (Robert Stack) stayed on with the Department of the Treasury and fought Frank Nitti (Bruce Gordon), who took over Capone's empire, and other gangsters, real and made up.
THE TOUCHABLES
Yak Yak #2, March-May 1962
a: Jack Davis
Jack Davis had his own humor comic for a couple issues through Dell's tryout series Four Color Comics, and probably didn't write the material himself.
The Lawless Years was a police show set in the twenties that existed prior to this.
THE UNTOUCHYBULLS
Cracked #16, October 1960
w: Paul Laikin
a: John Severin
The show was narrated by journalist Walter Winchell.
Jerry DeFuccio was an editor at MAD for a long time but was always good friends with John Severin and contributors to competing magazines, and when he was eventually let go by MAD became editor at Cracked for a while. And The Untouchables was one of many movies and TV shows that got complaints from Italian-Americans for stereotyping them.
From Channel Fem-9 in Cracked #38, August 1964, art by John Severin
MAD never did a full parody of the program but used it in several articles.
From When Culture Comes to Top-Rated TV Shows in #69, March 1962, by Larry Siegel and Mort Drucker
From TV's Effect on Children by Stan Hart and Wallace Wood in #79, July 1963.
From Combined TV Shows by Paul Laikin and Mort Drucker, in #47, June 1959. This is a combination of this with The Millonaire.
From Adult TV Cartoons by Al Jaffee and Wallace Wood in #63, June 1961.
THE RETOUCHABLES
Sick #1, August 1960
artist unknown
THE UNTOUCHABLES
Sick #11, February 1962
a: Angelo Torres
TO TELL THE TRUTH
CBS 1956-1968
SYND (1968-1976, 1980-1981)
NBC (1990-1991)
This game show had several hosts over the years. Its first was Bud Collyer. The show's concept was that three challengers would come on, each claiming to be the main character, and a group of panelists would ask questions to the challengers and through those questions find out which of the challengers was the real character.
From The Minute After That TV Show Is Over from MAD #85, March 1964, by Stan Hart and Mort Drucker.
From Adult TV Cartoons in MAD #63, June 1961, by Al Jaffee and Wally Wood.
From Combined TV Shows in #47, June 1959, by Paul Laikin and Mort Drucker, which combined it with The Line-Up.
From Russian TV Shows by Paul Laikin and John Severin in Cracked #19, April 1961
WHY TELL THE TRUTH
Humbug #6, January 1958
w: Harvey Kurtzman
a: Bill Elder
The first contestant is mobster Frank Costello and the third contestant is Charles Atlas.
The panelists are Polly Bergen, Ralph Bellamy, Dorothy Killgallen, and Hy Gardner. Dorothy Killgallen was also a panelist on What's My Line?, which often used the question “Is it bigger than a breadbox?”, which is why she is holding one. She was also on a show called Breakfast with Dick and Dorothy which took place at her home and occasionally featured her children. Hy Gardner looked similar to Sen. John McClellan, which is why John Kennedy is also in one panel.
Panelists on What's My Line had blindfolds.
MAD writer Dick DeBartolo was also a writer for To Tell the Truth which is also probably why MAD publisher William Gaines was once a panelist.
STAR ROARS
MAD #196, January 1978
w: Larry Siegel & Dick DeBartolo
a: Harry North, Esq.
After two weeks of showing every known Star Trek parody, here's the other “Star” franchise. Don't blame me, it's how the alphabet works. The movie that's changed the way all movies are made to this day. This is from when it was considered the first one when it came out, it's since become the fourth part and retitled A New Hope. This blog has already shown the parodies of its two sequels, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Here's the first of three posts with MAD's parodies of the original Star Wars. I'm sure everyone reading this knows the movie by heart, but I'll try to tell the plot in a nutshell.
The Rebel Alliance has the plans for the Empire's Death Star, which they are trying to get, and only Princess Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) of Alderaan knoes where they are. She is kidnapped by Empire leader Darth Vader (David Prowse/James Earl Jones) but before she does she hides them inside R2D2 (Kenny Baker), who flees to Tattoine with fellow droid C3PO (Anthony Daniels).
On Tattoine, C3PO and R2D2 are sold by the Jawas to Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and his family.
When this was first published, kids my age were surprised to find a slur in MAD, though we didn't know one of the co-writers was gay himself. The article has been reprinted several times, and the slur has since been replaced with “gay robot” for contemporary audiences, and not those in a galaxy far, far away.
Luke finds the recording inside R2D2 of Leia begging for help from Obi-Wan “Ben” Kenobi (Alec Guiness), who Luke's late father fought with in the past. They find Ben, who travels with them to Alderaan to rescue the princess. Ben says Luke must learn the Force to guide him through future travels. He uses the force to hypnotize stormtroopers at a checkpoint.
At the Cantina bar, Ben and Luke look for a pilot that can take them to Alderaan, and find Han Solo (Harrison Ford), who, with his pet Wookie Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) take them on the Millenium Falcon for a price. Luke practices using the Force, which involves fighting a flying target blindfolded.
Grand Moff Tarkin (Peter Cushing), Darth Vader's second-in-command, is interrogating Princess Leia, who still won't talk. The Millenium Falcon is sucked into the Death Star, and Han Solo and the gang hide in compartments to avoid capture. They disguise themselves as stormtroopers (which isn't shown here) to get through, while Ben fends everyone off by fighting Darth Vader, who was once a student of his that turned evil.
Han and Luke find the captured Princess, about to be executed, rescue her, and end up in the system's trash disposal unit in order to escape storm troopers. C3PO rescues them at the last minute. Ben Kenobi fights Darth Vader but is defeated.
The Rebels, now at war with the Empire, and Luke, using the Force, is able to blow up the Death Star, with the aid of Han Solo, who previously was only in it for the money, but had a change of heart at the last minute. Both are rewarded after all is done.
Here was how Sergio Aragones parodied it in the next issue, including a take on Darth Vader using the Force that woudn't be accepted by modern audiences,
Cover for the Mexican MAD.
And two German covers
The Fold-In in #199, June 1978
MAD #203, December 1978
After plans were announced for several sequels, MAD published this in #230, April 1982. After I cut the pages, I realized I did it the wrong way, but it shouldn't matter.
Tomorrow, a look at all the parodies Cracked did, and the day after that, all the rest.
