JANUARY UPDATES 2

Here we go with another batch before I get to what I already had planned when my computer shut me out of all my files.

CHEERS
1982-1993 NBC

BEERS
Elvis Shrugged #1, February 1991
w: Dennis Worden
a: Scott Jackson

Elvis Shrugged used someof the material meant for Barf when publisher Todd Loren was murdered. I know Dennis Worden and don't know exactly why he was writing for them. He's better than that and opposite them politically. Maybe he felt an obligation when the publisher picked up his hilarious Stickboy after his falling out with previous publisher Fantagraphics.

THE CONTINENTAL
1952-1954 CBS, SYNDICATED

THE TRANS-CONTINENTAL
Bughouse #3, July-August 1954
artist unknown

COOL HAND LUKE (1967)
dir: Stuart Rosenberg

HOT HAND DUKE
Wild! #2, June 1968
a: Henry Scarpelli

This parody conflates the crew distracted by seeing the woman washing her car and Luke using the task of fetching the warden's pet from the car as his first escape attempt.

THE COSBY SHOW
1984-1992 NBC

THE NIL FLAWSBY SHOW
Barf #3, September 1990
w: Herb Shapiro and Todd Loren
a: Dave Garcia

THE COURTSHIP OF EDDIE'S FATHER
1969-1972 ABC

THE COURTSHIP OF EDDIE'S DA-DA
Sick #78, September 1970
w: Guy Thomas
a: Jack Sparling

THE COWBOYS (1972)
dir: Mark Rydell

SICK MOVIE REVIEW: THE COWBOYS
w: Fred Wolfe (Paul Laikin)

Moshe Dayan was an Israeli military leader known for having an eyepatch. Ralph Nader, before he was a presidential candidate, wrote about unsafety of consumer products first exposing the auto business.

CROCODILE DUNDEE
dir: Peter Faimann

Australian MAD #272, July 1987
w: Adam Searle
a: Zmud

Like I mentioned before, the Australian version of MAD often does versions of movies not parodied here, yet they did one of Crocodile Dundee, which had already been parodied in the American version. Perhaps the country felt it was their domain, since Paul Hogan was already a well known personality there before making a big splash in the US and launching our brief period of Austro-mania in the late eighties. Apologies for the political incorrectness that doesn't translate as well over the borders.

DRAGNET
1951-1959,1967-1970 NBC

DRAGNET LETTER
Cockeyed #4, c. 1956
author unknown

SEA HAUNT

SEA HUNT
1958-1961 SYNDICATED

SEA HAUNT
Cracked #14, June 1960
w: Paul Laikin
a: Jack Davis

Mike Nelson (Lloyd Bridges) was a Navy Frogman who traveled on the Argonaut and dove for treasures and encountered marine life. That was basically the premise of the show.

Buster Crabbe, serial matinee star, had been an Olympic swimmer in the thirties.

This was from Cracked #12, also by Laikin and Davis, and mislabeled.

From What Do TV Characters Do After the Show Is Over?, in Cracked #45, August 1965, art by Bill Ward

From Combined TV Shows, in MAD #47, by Paul Laikin and Mort Drucker

From Sick #4, February 1961, artist unknown

DRAGGED NET

DRAGNET
(Radio) 1949-1957 NBC
(TV) 1951-1959, 1967-1970 NBC

If you're getting sound from the cartoon at the bottom you can click in it to get the pause button so you can scroll this post without having to hear it. Or maybe your speakers are off already. Or maybe you just don't have this problem at all.

DRAGGED NET
MAD #3, February 1953
w: Harvey Kurtzman
a: Bill Elder

Dragnet has been parodied by MAD many times over the years. here's the very first one from when it was mostly known as a radio show. Here we see Elder in his chicken fat prime and an example of Kurtzman and Elder's Jewish upbringing.

"How's your mom, Ed?", a parody of the small talk on this show, became one of the many throwaway catchphrases they used.

Not much to talk about here as far as references, the story pretty much explains itself. Except maybe Burma-Shave signs, which were knee-high billboards by a roadside, each one giving the line of a poem and finally advertising the product in the last one.

This also might have been meant to be a regular cop story since MAD didn't do much parodying then and you can see by the lettering the characters' names were later added in. Stan Freberg's parody of the show was probably the best known of his bits. He also did a Christmas version.

DRAGGED NET
MAD #11, May 1954
w: Harvey Kurtzman
a: Bill Elder

Second parody, this parodied the TV show, actually showing what Jack Webb looked like this time.

The "Domm-Da-Domm-Domm" of the theme became something they used in all parodies.

'Mark IV' was the name of the production company they often had at the end.
NIGHTWATCH
MAD #27, April 1956
w: Arnold Hayne
a: Bill Elder

Then when Harvey Kurtzman made it into a magazine and started using other writers, they did a third one. I have to say in all honesty I don't get it. I guess you had to be there.

TWO LITTLE MONSTERS
From Here to Insanity (Eh!) #8, February 1955
artist unknown

I think they're trying to parody MAD here as well.

DRAGNUT
Archie Comics #71, December 1954
artist unknown

Most parodies centered around the fact that Jack Webb's character was named Joe Friday, making all other characters named after days of the week.

DRAGNUT
Cracked #232, November 1987
w: Eel O'Brian (Mort Todd)
a: Stosh Gillespie (Daniel Clowes)

Around this time, Cracked was using The Uggly Family as recurring characters. The issues with them seem to be highly sought after collectors' items because they contain the earliest work of Daniel Clowes. Highly unlikely the average sixth grader in 1987 would know what Dragnet was but Todd and Clowes liked to make references to things they loved.

This parodies the later run of the TV show when Harry Morgan was Friday's partner.

Dragnet was also spoofed in popular cartoons.

A film adaptation was made in 1987, foreshadowing the flood in the 00s of TV dramas rebooted as comedies, and when Tom Hanks was primarily a comedy actor.