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.
Updated daily. There's posts besides this one archived in the sidebar on the right, you clods!
if you're at a laptop or desktop, right-click and open link on pages and they'll be clearer and legible in a new window.
YOUNG SURESCHLOCK HOMELY
MAD #263, June 1986
w: Dick DeBartolo
a: Mort Drucker
The origin of Sherlock Holmes (Nicholas Rowe), how he met Watson (Alan Cox), and their first major case.
The prologue to the movie has someone shot with a blowdart and being injected with a poison that makes them hallucinate, part of the case they end up breaking. John Watson enrolls in Brompton boarding school where he meets Sherlock Holmes, who guesses his name and identity based on his clothing and belongings, a foreshadowing of the deductions we know him for. At the beginning of the film, Sherlock is challenged by a classmate to find a hidden trophy, which he concludes is inside an antique vase based on clues he discovers while looking for it. He's expelled from the school for cheating by schoolmaster Rathe (Anthony Higgins) who is also his friend and fencing instructor. Rupert Waxflatter (Nigel Stock), a former professor of Sherlock's and eccentric inventor, kills himself while the victim of the same mysterious blowdart perpetrator. Dr. Waxflatter's niece is Elizabeth (Sophie Ward) is Sherlock's girlfriend, and with Watson they decide to solve the case and find what happened.
Sherlock seeks the aid of Lt. LeStrade of Scotland Yard (Roger Ashton-Griffiths) who refuses to help. In their search for what's been happening in town, Sherlock and Watson come across an Egyptianh sacrificial cult, who has just kidnapped Elizabeth.
They find Rathe has been the leader of the cult all along and create a distraction to destroy the temple while saving Elizabeth. Sherlock challenges Rathe to a duel and wins. Elizabeth is shot in all this. The case is solved and Sherlock Holmes goes home for the year, promising Watson that some day they'll meet again.
A CRACKED LOOK AT YOUNG SCHLOCK HOLMES
Cracked #220, July 1986
w: Joe Catalano
a: Walter Brogan
It would be better to see more of this style from Walter Brogan than the Mort Drucker swipes they usually printed but I guess it's what they wanted. It would also be nice if I got some of these gags. But if “ifs and buts” were candy and nuts...
THE BLUNDER YEARS
MAD #291, December 1989
w: Stan Hart
a: Sam Viviano
Inspired by Stand by Me and Jean Shepherd specials about growing up in the past, this was a similar series about a guy looking back at his sixties childhood. It starred Kevin Arnold (Fred Savage). He wasn't seen in the narration, his voice as an adult was Daniel Stern. His brother was Wayne (Jason Hervey), sister Karen (Olivia d'Abo), and parents Jack (Dan Lauria) and Norma (Alley Mills). His best friend was Paul (Josh Saviano) and girlfriend Winnie (Danica McKeller).
The TV in the background has photos from sixties events but also pictures from MAD parodies by Mort Drucker and Angelo Torres.
THE BLUNDER YEARS
Cracked #239, October 1988
w: Joe Catalano
a: Walter Brogan
In the late eighties there was a whole spate of movies where children and adults switched bodies. One was Vice-Versa with Fred Savage and Judge Reinhold.
MAD #266, October 1966
w: Dennis Snee
a: Mort Drucker
“Will they or won't they?” sitcom about Tony Micelli (Tony Danza), en ex-ball player, who leaves Brooklyn with his daughter Samantha (Alyssa Milano) and moves to Connecticut to be a live-in maid for Angela Bower (Judith Light) and her son Jonathan (Danny Pintauro). Rounding the cast is Angela's mother Mona Robinson (Katherine Helmond. An older horny woman named Robinson. You get it?)
1Benchley was a newspaper strip Drucker was doing in the late eighties that he'd plug in every MAD piece. He's pictured later.
WHAT'S THE BEEF?
Cracked #220, July 1986
w: Joe Catalano
a: John Reiner
“Where's the beef?” was a slogan for Wendy's that became the “Whassup?”/”Yeah, Baby!”/”My wife” of the mid-eighties. Even those references are just as dated. What's the equivalent now?
Richie's brother Chuck was in the first three or four episodes of Happy Days, then disappeared and was never mentioned again.
WE'LL MAKE A FORTUNE
MAD #266, October 1986
w: Dick DeBartolo
a: Will Elder & Harvey Kurtzman
This was a daytime and nighttime game show where guests had to figure out letters in the blank spaces that spelled out a quotation or a title of something. It was hosted by Pat Sajak but its presenter Vanna White was just as big a celebrity in the eighties.
From what I've been told by friend who've been on game shows is it's a scam, in that the IRS collects on the value of a prize, including a consolation prize, at what it's valued even though the show that awarded it to you paid nothing themselves.
From TV Spin-Offs Yet to Come in MAD #269, March 1987, by Tom Koch and Angelo Torres
SQUEEEAL OF FORTUNE
Cracked #222, September 1986
w: Joe Catalano
a: John Reiner
Guests here are Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Dee Snider of Twisted Sister, and producer Merv Griffin.
STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE(1979)
dir: Robert Wise
Like with most of the spoofs they did around this time, Cracked would use something more than once. They didn't do it as much with this, though.
STAR DREK: THE MOVING PICTURE
Cracked #169, July 1980
a: John Severin
One thing MAD's version of the movie didn't use was the exposition at the beginning showing the cloud devouring the Klingon ship or Spock (Leonard Mimoy) going through his final Vulcan conversion ritual. “What is the cloud?” you may ask. We shall see.
Kirk (William Shatner) is now an admiral. He is reunited again with crew members Scotty (James Doohan), Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), Sulu (George Takei), and Chekhov (Walter Koenig). He is taking over as command of the Starship Enteprise despite the protests of Captain Decker (Stephen Collins) who is already captain and doesn't think Kirk can run a ship that has been redesigned.
A sentient cloud is barreling towards the Earth as it did at the beginning and it is up to the Enterprise to see what it wants. “Bones” McCoy (DeForest Kelley) has been brought aboard to help in the crew.
Ilia (Persis Khambatta) and Spock have been brought aboard as well.
The mysterious cloud is swallowing up the Enterprise and has abducted Ilia.
There are Telly Savalas and Black Hole references in this just like in MADyesterday.
Ilia has been brought back but is now part of the cloud, known as V'Ger, in human form, to study human life, in order to gobtain knowledge of it before swallowing it up for its library of all knowledge in the universe. Spock goes out of the ship to see what it's all about.
Bones is making a reference to Alien
V'Ger, lacking human ability to make decisions or understand thought, has the mind of a child.
V'Ger has dust on its sign, and is actually Voyager, a space probe that was sent by Earth three hundred years earlier to gather knowledge and in doing so has acquired a mind of its own. The only way to defeat it is to have a human join with it so it can have human experience and thought, so Decker sacrifices himself.
CRACKED INTERVIEWS THE TREKKER KING
Cracked #169, July 1980
a: Bill Ward
They were accurate in that StarTrek fans hate the term 'trekkie', preferring to be called 'trekkers'.
USING STAR TREK LOGIC AND TECHNOLOGY TO SOLVE EVERYDAY PROBLEMS
Cracked #170, August 1980
a: Don Orehek
Here are a couple covers for Kaputt, the German version of Cracked.
Cracked used this same gag for their Battlestar Galactica parody.
STAR DREK: THE LAST HURRAH
Cracked #184, January 1982
w: Joe Catalano
a: John Severin
Non-spoof of any particular entity was done in between the first two movies.
There were characters from other science fiction movies and shows like Flash Gordon, Superman, Buck Rogers, Outland, The Greatest American Hero, and Battlestar Galactica behind this all along.
