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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Showing posts with label HOME IMPROVEMENT. Show all posts
Showing posts with label HOME IMPROVEMENT. Show all posts
QUANDARY HEAP
MAD #309, March 1992
w: Dick DeBartolo
a: Angelo Torres
Premise was that Dr. Sam Beckett (Scott Bakula) was a physicist who can travel through time and uses it to travel through time and change history. He doesn't always know where he'll end up and travels with the help of Al Calivacci (Dean Stockwell), a hologram only he can see, and Al's computer Ziggy.
Famous disasters throughout history are depicted in this splash panel. Counter-clockwise are the Exxon Valdez, Mt. Saint Helen, George Steinbrenner's purchase of the Yankees, the Titanic, Dukakis' election, the Hindenberg, and Three-Mile Island. “A thousand points of light” was George H.W. Bush's campaign slogan.
Zsa Zsa Gabor had hit a policeman while being stopped for traffic. Darryl Gates was head of the Los Angeles police department in one of the first national new beatings.
Bill and Ted make an appearance. As does Roger Kaputnik, Dave Berg's alter ego from MAD's The Lighter Side Of... Yet another joke about Pee-Wee Herman being caught at an adult theater (I don't remember it being that big a story. I guess it was good comedy fodder, though) in his home town of Sarasota, FL.
AQUATIC LEAP
Cracked #280, May 1993
w: Eric Goldberg & Mark Howard
a: John Severin
Apologies for the incomplete page here. You can still follow the story and the complete page will be swapped in when I get it.
On Home Improvement, Tim Allen's character was known for a he-man persona. A recurring bit was the neighbor on the other side of the fence.
Madonna's book Sex was big at the time. Jim Backus, Mr. Howell on Gilligan's Island, was also the voice of Mr. Magoo.
Spike Lee directed X, a biopic about the life of Malcolm X, and many people wore baseball caps associated with the movie.
NYPD BOOBS
MAD #329, July/August 1994
w: Stan Hart
a: Mort Drucker
The cover has Andy Sipowicz (Dennis Franz), Laura Kelly (Sherry Stringfield), John Kelly (David Caruso), Lt. Arthur Fancy (James McDaniel), Janice Licalsi (Amy Brenneman), and producer Stephen Bochco.
The conceit of NYPD Blue, and what made it stand apart from other police shows, was that it flouted regular TV standards and had profanity and nudity, hence the title, and featured a disclaimer at the beginning of each episode.
The man who accidentally walked in is Alan Rachins, who played a character on L.A.Law, a previous series of Steven Bochco. Rev. Donald Wildmon was the head of a Christian media watchdog group called the Americam Family Association, obsessed with filth on TV.
The Rodney King tape was one of the first home videos to show police brutality before such a thing was exposed every day. The background of the panel with Giuliani has his son Andrew who as a kid was known for upstaging his father on TV. “Only your own base matters” isn't a joke that ages well considering what's happened in the intervening thirty years.
Sipowicz was the swearing, bigoted “bad cop” of the show. John and Laura Kelly used to be husband and wife. Nicholas Turturro, who played James Martinez, is drawn in one panel because he isn't used anywhere else in the parody.
NYPD BLUE MOON
Cracked #293, October 1994
w: Lou Silverstone
a: Walter Brogan
The comedy world was obsessed the Lorena Bobbitt incident in the nineties. I guess the idea of someone cutting their husband's penis off does write jokes for itself.
Detective Medavoy (Gordon Clapp) was a character added to the cast later.
The neighbor Wilson on Home Improvement was a character you only saw on the other side of the fence from the eyes up.
Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) was a radio call-in psychiatrist whose father lived with him.
SeaQuest was a series that took place in the near future (i.e. now) about undersea exploration that focused mainly on a dolphin character. Terry Rakolta was head of Americans for Responsible Television (there were a lot of these groups in the eighties and nineties) that started with her offense at Married: With Children.
GNOME IMPROVEMENT
MAD #311, June 1992
w: A. J. Marly (Arnie Kogen)
a: Angelo Torres
Sitcom was based on the stand-up comedy act of Tim Allen. He plays Tim Taylor, host of the show Tool Time, and the show centers on his home life with his wife Jill (Patricia Richardson) and their three children Brad (Zachery Ty Bryan), Mark (Taran Noah Smith), and Randy (Jonathan Taylor Thomas). His assistant and sidekick on the show within a show was Al (Richard Karn), The neighbor he often talked to was Wilson (Earl Hindman) and the running gag was you only saw the top of his head over the fence. Herve Villechaise of Fantasy Island was not a regular, but his catchphrase there was "Boss! De plane!" Crow from Mystery Science Theater 3000 is about to be taken apart by a "Crow Bar". Get it?
Tim Allen's recurring grunt was from his stand-up act and appears in the opening credits.
-The character of Tim Taylor is loosely based on PBS personality Bob Villa.
-Longevity of network TV shows used to be determined by random "Nielsen" families having a box attached to their televisions to see what they watched.
-I forgot all about Anything But Love, probably so did a lot of people.
Here's Tim Allen pretending to be offended by the parody they probably told him about in advance.
SOME IMPROVEMENT
Cracked #273, August 1992
w: Tony Frank (Lou Silverstone)
a: Walter Brogan
Neil Bush, George H.W. Bush's brother, was implicated in a savings and loans scandal in the early nineties.
Fun Fact: a few episodes of Home Improvement were written by Bob K. Taylor, the only cartoonist to have worked for MAD, Cracked, Crazy, Sick, AND National Lampoon.
FLAKIER
MAD #329, July 1994
w:Dick DeBartolo
a: Paul Coker
Spinoff from Cheers that lasted just as long. Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) was originally a guest star as one of Diane's boyfriends and became a regular character that got married, with his wife becoming a regular as well. On this show he has relocated from Boston to Seattle and is a call-in radio psychiatrist with a family and a maid.
Niles (David Hyde-Pierce) is his brother who is also a psychiatrist and intellectual. It is true that he has played similar roles in almost everything else. Martin (John Mahoney) is the blue-collar father who lives with Frasier. Daphne (Jane Leeves) has been hired for the upkeep of the house and to take care of Martin, despite his thinking he doesn't need to be taken care of. Roz Boyle (Peri Gilpin) works at the radio station producing his show and screening calls. Eddie is the dog filling the role in the time-honored sitcom tradition of pets who are just as smart as the rest of the cast. Lilith (Bebe Neuwirth) fills the role in the time-honored sitcom tradition of former cast members from previous programs who show up sporadically in their spinoffs.
Niles, despite the time-honored sitcom tradition of unrequited and one-sided love for Daphne, has a wife Maris, who fills the role in the time-honored sitcom tradition of recurring characters you never see. Norm and Cliff, regulars from Cheers, also had invisible wives.
FROZEN
Cracked #297, March 1995
w: Greg Grabianski
a: Walter Brogan
-Kurt Cobain committed suicide two years earlier.
-"I'm Listening" was how Frasier always greeted callers on his radio show.
Kelsey Grammer is well-known for being a conservative.
Wilson on Home Improvement is another recurring character that's never seen.
