JANUARY UPDATES 1

Took a while longer than I thought to comeback but here I am again. And having been gone for so long I have a buttload of updates that'll last a whole month now. So let's start, shall we?

Usually, I start with a trailer or clip to the show or movie being parodied, but in these cases I already did that, so each heading is a link to the post it's updating. The post also summarizes the plots and premises, which I usually do, but since the link has most of the info, I won't get into it much here.

THE A-TEAM
1983-1987 NBC

THE F-TEAM
Bananas #66, circa 1983
w: Jovial Bob Stine
a: Sam Viviano

ALIEN NATION
1989-1990 FOX

ALIEN RATION
Barf #2, July 1990
w: Herb Shapiro
a: Ken Landgraf

Barf was Revolutionary Comics' short-lived entrance into the humor magazine field. They were primarily known for Rock n Roll Comics and various spin-offs. They were cut short when the publisher Todd Loren was mysteriously murdered in the early nineties, further fueling conspiracies they were known for espousing as well.

Alien Nation was both a movie and TV show. This loosely parodied the latter.

ALIEN³ (1992)
dir: David Fincher

Australian MAD #319, June 1993
w & a: Andrew Goodall

The Australian version of MAD, in addition to parodying their own movies and TV shows (a lot coming down the pipe soon), did a few parodies of US movies that weren't covered here. The numbering of their editions didn't start at #1, they were trying to coincide with the American edition.

BLOODY MAMA (1970)
dir: Roger Corman

BLOODY MOMMY
Sick #78, September 1970
w: Fred Wolfe (Paul Laikin)
a: Jack Sparling

Movie about the life of Kate “Ma” Barker (Shelley Winters) her four sons. She vows to take care of her family and take what she feels is rightfully hers after a traumatic childhood, and involves her four adult sons in her crime sprees.

Herman (Don Stroud), becomes engaged to Mona (Diane Varsi) who joins the Barker family.

They kidnap a local millionaire for ransom. Here it's a young Nelson Rockefeller.

BONNIE AND CLYDE (1967)
d: Arthur Penn

THE TRUTH ABOUT BONNIE AND CLYDE
Wild! #3, November 1968
writer and artist unknown

Bonnie Parker's character wrote poems on the side, this was was probably parodying that.

CANDID CAMERA
1948-2014 CBS, NBC, ABC, SYNDICATION

CANDID CAMERAMA Loco #1, August 1958
a: Chic Stone

Here's a weird one. It steals the story from the Trump version of someone accidentally setting their life savings on fire while trying to see inside a mailbox. Plagiarism aside, there's an 'insurance machine' and it's somewhere out in the middle of nowhere. This is another example of an editor deciding that since MAD's panels are full of sight gags, they need to have a lot too, to the point where the sight gags distract from the actual plot of the story.

SNEAKY CAMERA
Sick #6, June 1961
artist unknown

CANDID CAMERA CONSCIOUS
Sick #10, December 1961
artist unknown

CAPTAIN VIDEO AND HIS VIDEO RANGERS
1949-1955 DUMONT

CAPTAIN KIDDEO, SPACE BUM
Bughouse #3, July-August 1954
artist unknown

THREE'SA COMPANY

THREE'S COMPANY
1977-1984 ABC

The show was about a guy named Jack Tripper (John Ritter) who moved in with three women, Janet (Joyce DeWitt) and Chrissy (Suzanne Sommers) to split the rent, but in order for their landlord to believe nothing was going on between them, Jack had to pretend he was gay.

Suzanne Somers was fired from the show for demanding equal pay and replaced by Cindy (Jenilee Harrison), who was Chrissy's cousin, which only lasted a couple seasons before being replaced by Terri (Priscilla Barnes). The Ropers were the original landlords who left to do a spinoff and were replaced by Mr. Furley (Don Knotts). Jack's friend Larry (Richard Kline) was also added.

THREE'SA COMPANY
Cracked #186, May 1982
a: Samuel B. Whitehead

Eventually, they got rid of the conceit of Jack pretending to be gay. There was a character named Lana that got top billing for a few episodes, a cougar that chased after Jack, but they dropped her since they almost never used her.

TREE'S COMPANY
Cracked #201, January 1984
a: John Severin

3'S COMFY
Bananas #70, circa 1983
w: Jovial Bob Stine
a: Sam Viviano

And this was the porno movie parodying the series.

The earlier incarnation of the show was posted yesterday. Click "older post".

TAXING

TAXI
ABC 1978-1982 NBC 1982-1983

TAXING
MAD #212, January 1980
w: Stan Hart
a: Angelo Torres

Sitcom that took place at the garage of a taxi station. Alex Reiger (Judd Hirsch) was the starring character. Most of the other drivers had other pursuits. Latka Gravas (Andy Kaufman) was the mechanic there. Bobby Wheeler (Jeff Conaway) was an aspiring actor, Elaine Nardo (Marilu Henner) was an aspiring art dealer, and Tony Banta (Tony Danza) was an aspiring boxer. John Burns (Randall Carver) was a hayseed from flyover country that was only used in the first season. Louie DePalma (Danny DeVito) was the dispatcher that was only shown at the garage.

Happy Days and Three's Company were on ABC that same night.

TAXING
Crazy #57, December 1979
w: Murad Gumen
a: Kent Gamble

Robert DeNiro made his mark in Taxi Driver and Raging Bull.

TAXIII!
Sick #127, June 1979
w: Arnold Drake
a: Jack Sparling

HEY, TAXI!
Bananas Looks at TV (most likely a reprint), circa 1980
w: Jovial Bob Stine
a: Sam Viviano
John was later replaced by “Reverend” Jim Ignatowski (Christopher Lloyd), a burnt-out ex-hippie.
Latka's dialogue is from Mork and Mindy, Smokey Stover, and The Day the Earth Stood Still.