DRAG UPDATES

Came across a bunch of spoofs from Drag Cartoons, most of which were not parodied by other magazines. Drag Cartoons was a spinoff of CARToons, which published a slew of auto-themed humor magazines, and was published out of the West Coast by Petersen Publishing, using artists primarily based in California.

ONE STEP BEYOND
ABC 1959-1961

ONE SHIFT BEYOND
Drag Cartoons #1, June-July 1963

Hosted by John Newland, this was an anthology series dealing with short stories about the supernatural similar to Twilight Zone or Outer Limits.

CAR 54, WHERE ARE YOU?
NBC 1961-1963
CAR FORTY, WHERE ARE YOU?
Drag Cartoons #1, June-July 1963

Gunther Toody (Joe E. Ross) and Francis Muldoon (Fred Gwynne) were two New York City cops in this sitcom, Muldoon the more bookish one and Toody more working class and known for his catchphrase “Oo! Oo!”

DR. KILDARE
1961-1966 NBC

DR. KILDEAR
Drag Cartoons #2, December 1963
a: Alexander Toth

Dr. Kildare (Richard Chamberlain) is the young intern working in the shadow of Dr. Gillespie.

Raymond Massey had previously plated Abraham Lincoln.

Ben Casey (Chad Everett) was the other “Dr. McDreamy” on TV at the time and also had a mentor (Sam Jaffe).

HIGH NOON (1952)
dir: Fred Zinneman

HIGH GEAR
Drag Cartoons #5, July 1964
a:Dennis Ellefson

Western about a marshal (Gary Cooper) conflicted between facing a gang of killers or abandoning them to leave town with his wife. The team here seems to have taken this more from the Kurtzman/Davis MAD parody Hah! Noon than the movie itself.

777 SUNSET STRIP

77 SUNSET STRIP
(1958-1964) ABC

Stu Bailey- Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.
Jeff Spencer- Roger Smith
Gerald “Kookie” Kookson- Edd Byrnes

777 SUNSET STRIP
MAD #52, January 1960
w: Larry Siegel
a: Mort Drucker

Kookie was the breakout star, not given top billing yet, but would by the end of the show. Kind of the Fonz of his time.

Maybe that's an equally dated reference. Who would be the equivalent now?

The main stars were intended to be heart-throbs.

Because the client for their newest case is not attractive by Hollywood standards, they pawn her off on Paladin (Richard Boone), mercenary from Have Gun, Will Travel.

Kookie parked cars next door at Dino's Lodge, the real life lounge of Dean Martin.

Peter Gunn tells them they'd better shape up.

There were five issues of a comic book of this series published, drawn by Alex Toth.

UPDATE:

77 PENNSY STRIP
Help! #10, May 1961
w: Harvey Kurtzman
a: Bill Elder

The premise here is that the New Frontier of the Kennedys has glamourized the Presidency the same way everthing else on television is glamourizesd.

The secretary is meant to be Jackie Kennedy. During Kennedy's election ballots in Illinois were disposed of. The names are being removed from the door because they were the former President and V.P.

Police chief Hammerhold is meant to be UN Secretary-General Dag Hammorskjold. Fidel Castro's Beard is compared to that of the Smith Brothers' Cough Drops mascot. Krushchev is carrying an ice skate because he was often portrayed holding a shoe, known for banging it on a table at a United Nations meeting and shouting “We will bury you!”.