THE PUTRID FAMILY

THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY
1970-1974 ABC

THE PUTRID FAMILY
MAD #150, April 1972
w: Arnie Kogen
a: Angelo Torres

Sitcom about a single mother, Shirley Partridge (Shirley Jones), and her five children Keith (David Cassidy), Laurie (Susan Dey), Danny (Danny Bonaduce), Chris (Brian Forster), and Tracy (Suzanne Crough), all of whom had a band and traveled by bus she drove around.

David Cassidy, the actor who played Keith was a teen idol independently of the program (As was his brother later. They were the real-life sons of Shirley Jones), so both he and the show needed each other to succeed. The actor who played the youngest son was replaced after the first season.

“I Think I Love You” (below) was their big hit.

Shirley Jones had been a star in many Broadway shows before this. Movie actors often ended up on TV when they're considered too washed-up for the movies, though she was not yet forty when she was “greylisted”. Dave Madden was Reuben Kincaid, the band's manager.

Butch Jenkins was a child actor in the 40s.

THE POT-RICH FAMILY
Cracked #107, March 1973
a: John Severin

Hubert Humphrey was the 1968 Democratic candidate for President.

Bernie Cornfield was the Donald Trump of his time before the politics.

Clifford Irving wrote a biography of Howard Hughes that was later revealed to be a hoax.

From The Effect of the Energy Crisis on the Entertainment World in Cracked #119, September 1974, art by John Severin

From The Final Episodes of Soured Sitcoms in #232, November 1987, by Frank Caruso.

Susan Dey later played a lawyer on L.A. Law. A reference is made to pop star Boy George.

Cover to German edition of Cracked.

THE PART-RICH FAMILY
Spoof #3, January 1973
w: Steve Gerber & Bruce Carlin
a: Henry Scarpelli

I don't think they knew both incarnations of the Beatles were the same people. Or that Tom Jones' fans were the same age or older than the average Marvel staffer. Or is that the Beatles? They had the same hair as the Osmonds but they hadn't been a boy band for quite some time.

The Osmonds, the Jackson 5, and Bobby Sherman were other teen idols then. References are made to other bubblegum pop songs from the late 60s and early 70s.

Rick Nelson was “old” at 32.

Their actual items were just as cartoony.

JANUARY UPDATES 2

HOGAN'S HEROES

HOGIE'S HEROES
Wild! #1, January 1967
a: Henry Scarpelli

Hogan's Heroes was set in a German POW camp during World War II. He (Bob Crane) and other American and allied prisoners (Richard Dawson, Ivan Dixon, Larry Hovis) had secret tunnels they tried to escape from and Sergeant Schultz (John Banner) would act neutral and look the other way. Schultz's catchphrase was “I know nothing”.

THE JACK LALANNE SHOW
1951-1985 Syndicated

Sick #4, February 1961
artist unknown

Jack LaLanne was a bodybuilder and motivational speaker for a long time who had various TV programs throughout the years.

LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962)
dir: David Lean

SNODGRASS OF FLUSHING
Sick #20, May 1963

“I'd walk a mile for a Camel” was the slogan for Camel cigarettes.

MIGHTY MORPHIN' POWER RANGERS: THE MOVIE (1995)
dir: Bryan Spicer

MIGHTY MORONIC POWDER RANGERS: THE MOVIE
Cracked Monster Party #20, Winter 1995
w: Greg Grabianski
a: Alan Kupperberg

It begins with them all doing a skydive in the city of Angel Grove.

At a nearby construction site, a giant ancient egg has been dug up. It brings forth the enemies of the Power Rangers who open it and release Ivan Ooze (Paul Freeman), an enemy of Zordon (Nicholas Bell) who condemned him there 6000 years ago. At the command center, the Power Rangers have been summoned by Zordon to fight Ivan and bury him back in the Earth before he can do damage, but it is too late.

Ivan has taken control of the Command Center, incapacitated Zordon rapidly aging him, and robbed the Power Rangers of their powers. The Rangers are sent to the planet Phaedos to find the Great Power source to rejuvenate Zordon. Ivan Ooze sells his ooze to adults which hypnotizes them.

On Phaedos, the Power Rangers are attacked by bird-like creatures called Tengu, They are rescued by a warrior princess named Dulcea (Gabrielle Fitzpatrick) who considers them out of their element until they say why they are there. She gives them all the power of their spirit animals. Aisha (Karan Ashley) is a bear, Rocky (Steve Cardenas) is an ape, Kimberly (Amy Jo Johnson) is a crane, Billy (David Yost) is a wolf, Adam (Johnny Yong Bosch) is a frog, and Tommy (Jason David Frank) is a falcon.

With the power of the ooze and the aid of the hynotized adults, Ivan has been able to unleash monster robots to terrorize Angel Grove.

The Power Rangers, with their powers back, transform into good bots to fight the bad bots that have transformed into one big one (drawn here as Hulk Hogan). Having defeated it breaks the spell of the zombified adults.

Bulk and Skull, the comedy relief that take credit for everything, are not used here.

MISSION: RIDICULOUS

MISSION:IMPOSSIBLE
1966-1973 CBS

MISSION: RIDICULOUS
MAD # 118, April 1968
w: Dick DeBartolo
a: Mort Drucker

This was a long-running TV series that was remade as a film franchise and then another TV series, about an espionage agency known as the Impossible Mission Force. Each week Jim Phelps (Peter Graves) would be given an assignment through an intercom disguised as a regular object which would then self-destruct.

The movie theater is showing Sandy Dennis in Up the Down Staircase which is parodied in that same issue of MAD.

Phelps' crew was Rollin (Martin Landau), Barney (Greg Morris), Cinammon (Barbara Bain), and Willy (Peter Lupus).

Usually casts member of a movie or TV show would write about their appearance in the magazine after the parody was done, here's one where cast members wrote in asking why they hadn't appeared yet, though it was probably also staged.

Martin Landau and Barbara Bain were a real-life husband and wife team that only appeared in TV shows that had colons in the title, later featured in Space:1999.

From A Treasury of Television Poetry and Prose by Tom Koch and Jack Davis, from MAD #152, July 1972.

The back cover of MAD #134 was also a brief Mission:Impossible parody, written by Chevy Chase, which we have in our Caddyshack entry.

MISSION:IMPLAUSIBLE
Cracked #80, October 1969
a: O.O. Severin (John Severin)

From Sneaky TV Cigarette Commercials in Cracked #91, March 1971. Cigarette advertisements were banned from television that year and this article was about how they could theoretically get around it.

From The Effect of the Energy Crisis on the Entertainment World in Cracked #119, September 1974, art by Severin.

From Wild! #1, January 1968

cover for TV Guide by Jack Davis.