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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The final third day now of one of the most parodied TV shows of the seventies. You can click on "previous post" for the last two. Everyone's favorite sitcom about growing up in the fifties that evolved into its own thing about the myth of the fifties with America's favorite greaser hoodlum.
EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT "THE FONZE" AND MORE
Cracked #134, August 1976
a: John Severin
This was apparently the all-time highest selling issue of Cracked of all time. They knew what sold.
The Fonz (Henry Winkler) was cool and Richie Cunningham (Ron Howard) was a nerd. That's the way it was.
In the earlier episodes The Fonz wasn't allowed to wear his leather jacket unless he was on his motorcycle, lest he seem scary, so the producers got around it by incorporating the motorcycle into any scene they could.
Within the reality of the show, was The Fonz copying people he saw on the screen or was he actually one of the people he was supposed to be based on?
a: Don Orehek
From If Frankenstein's Monster Did Guest Appearances on TV in #151, July 1978, drawn br Howard Nostrand.
Back cover to #157, January 1979, by John Severin
From If the Characters from Star Wars Appeared in Other TV Shows in #149, March 1978
From The Final Episodes of Soured Sitcoms in Cracked #232, November 1987, by Frank Caruso. Happy Days. The show was only on in reruns by then. Pat Morita, who played Arnold, was Mr. Miyagi, the teacher in The Karate Kid.
HAMMY DAYS
Crazy #23, March 1977
w: Sara Arthur
a: Murad Gumen
Like I said a couple days ago, the chronological fifties weren't really "the fifties" so I wouldn't include the Korean War in this. The other Cunninghams were his sister Joanie (Erin Moran) and his parents Marion (Marion Ross) and Howard (Tom Bosley).
Ron Howard had been in American Graffiti which, as far as I'm concerned, was the fifties.
The Fonz started out as an auto mechanic, but they soon dropped that.
Potsie (Anson Williams) and Ralph (Donny Most) were two of Richie's friends that were part of the regular cast. The tiger in the second panel was the mascot for Exxon oil (also designed by MAD artist Bob Jones)
Laverne (Penny Marshall) and Shirley (Cindy Williams) had a show that was a spinoff of Happy Days but sometimes came back. The age difference between them and the teenagers of Happy Days was whatever was convenient to the plot. The salesman is supposed to be Milton Berle.
Just like in this parody, the show eventually had to take place in the sixties. Chronologically, though. The sixties didn't really happen until the Beatles appeared on Ed Sullivan, and "the sixties" didn't happen until around 1967 or 1968.
Crazy also did a Happy Days/Cinderella mash-up just like the one from Cracked that was reprinted yesterday. I don't know if it was a coincidence or plagiarized.
THE STORY OF FONZERELLA
Crazy #50, May 1979
w: Michael Pellowski
a: Walter Brogan
The fairy godmother is Sylvester Stallone. I don't know if it's as Rocky or as himself.
The cab driver looks like Telly Savalas with hair.
Characters would sing the first line of Chuck Berry's Blueberry Hill to denote they got lucky. Is the stepfather supposed to be Don Rickles?
Honorable mention: My friend Bobby and I did a comic called Acne Days when we were about twelve or thirteen. The plot was that The Fuzz lost his coolness when Fitchie and all the other teens were getting girls. Their secret was that they had zits. The Fuzz, trying to become cool again, ate a lot of chocolate so he'd get zits too, but ended up getting fat instead. We did a lot of zines in junior high and high school but unfortunately half of the comics we did were never reproduced and are lost forever.
UPDATE: HOPPY DAYS
Parody #2, June 1977
a: Vance Rodewalt
I still argue that the fifties were actually more like 1955-1964 and even if you go chronologically, 1950 was still part of the forties. That's the hill I'm willing to die on. But Happy Days stopped really being about the 50s after its first two seasons anyway.
In that last panel are McCarthy, McArthur, and Eisenhower
Here's the second of three posts parodying Happy Days. Cracked was known for doing a show several times whenever there were cast changes, or just to exploit a trend.
THE SAPPY DAYS
Cracked #118, August 1974
a: John Severin
The first was from its first season when there were still exterior shots and the show concentrated more on the adventures of Richie Cunningham (Ron Howard) and Potsie Weber (Anson Williams)
Happy Days was partly inspired by American Graffiti and also starred Ron Howard. The show was full of anachronisms and had more as time went on. The parents were Marion (Marion Ross) and Howard (Tom Bosley), and his sister Joanie (Erin Moran).
Early on, there was an older brother Chuck that appeared on occasion and wasn't always played by the same actor, eventually he was written out. He didn't have a steady girlfriend early on either. That came much later.
The Fonz (Henry Winkler) started out as an occasional supporting characterbefore becoming the breakout star. The leather jacket wasn't his trademark yet. TV censors wouldn't even allow it except when he was riding his motorcycle because they thought it was too thuggish.
FONZERELLA
Cracked # 135, September 1976
a: Sigbjorn (John Severin)
Soon the Fonz, based or James Dean or Marlon Brando, was the main focus and lived above the Cunninghams with them relegated to the background. The show took place in Milwaukee, but Levittown was close enough, since it could have been any suburban town.
Another Godfather reference to another of the top five media events of the decade.
John Severin was always plugging "Krimson" in his comics around this time. Maybe it was one of his kids' bands.
HAPPY DAZE
Cracked #144, September 1977
a: Zimmerman (John Severin)
Lori Beth (Lynda Goodfriend) was Richie's on-and-off girlfriend that eventually became his wife. Ralph Malph (Donny Most) was another part of the gang. Once the show started having the malt shop as a set rather than a location, the Cunningham parents showed up more often.
A show can't be about teenagers forever. Eventually the characters have to graduate high school and go to college. Hamburger U. is a real place. It's not a four-year college that gives degrees, just a six-month course to prepare you in managing a McDonald's.
Joanie sometimes referred to her friend Jenny Piccolo who you never saw. The Fonz called the Cunninghams Mr. and Mrs. C. and despite being a greaser rebel was the moral compass of the show.
Potsie, Richie, and Ralph had a band. The Fonz called the malt shop bathroom his office.
From Cracked #140, March 1977, If King Kong Made Guest Appearances on TV art by Howard Nostrand.
HAPPIER DAYS
Cracked #189, September 1982
a: John Severin
By this time, almost all the original cast had left. Since the show was 20 years earlier chronologically, they stopped using fifties tropes by then. Fonz was still on the show but was now co-owner of the malt-shop with "Big" Al (Al Molinaro). Chachi (Scott Baio) started out as a mini-Fonz, then became a heart throb in his own right. He and Joanie had their own series, Joanie Loves Chachi for a few months, then went back to this one. Jenny Piccolo (Cathy Silvers) was originally the friend you didn't see like Norm's wife or the naked guy from Friends. Roger (Ted McGinley) was nephew of the Cunninghams, the Cunningham parents were still there. Ron Howard left the show and Richie was always referred to but his girlfriend and later wife was a regular character.
They actually did do a show in one of the first two seasons where Richie Cunningham meets Howdy Doody and everyone mentions how they look alike.
I always wondered if, since the show took place twenty years earlier, when it was originally on people my age didn't see it as nostalgic but just a few years ago. I still have most of the same furniture I had twenty years ago and still forget there's no longer a World Trade Center.
The third part is tomorrow. There are even more Cracked articles with Happy Days and Crazy has a couple versions too.
UPDATE:
Bananas Looks At TV (reprinted from earlier issue, c. 1980)
w: Jovial Bob Stine
a: Sam Viviano
From The Last Episode of... in Bananas #48, c. 1981, by Stine and Viviano
From Isn't It Time That..., also in Bananas Looks at TV
From More TV Moments We'll Never See in Bananas #61, c. 1983
