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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MAD #194, October 1977
w:Stan Hart
a: Mort Drucker
Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) is an average fighter in his south Philadelphia neighborhood, as he calls himself, a “ham and eggs” fighter. Winning some fights, losing some. His best friend is Pauly (Burt Young) and he has his eye on Pauly's sister Adrian (Talia Shire). Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) is the national heavyweight champion Rocky boxes. Mickey (Burgess Meredith) runs the local gym where Rocky practices and initially has no faith in him.
Rocky lives alone in his small apatment with his tutles and goldfish. Every day he goes to the pet store and tries to flirt with Adrian, the shy and homely clerk there, who doesn't respond.
In his day job, he collects for a loan shark and gets in hot water for being too easy on clients. At the gym he finds he has his locker taken from him. Meanwhile, Apollo's challenger had to pull out of his big match because of an injury, and he's figured it would be good for publicity for the upcoming Bicentennial that he give a local unknown fighter somewhere a shot at the championship.
Apollo decides on Rocky, “The Italian Stallion”. Pauly wants Rocky to get him a job with the loanshark and agrees to fix Rocky up with his sister on Thanksgiving at the house they live in. She's too shy too meet with him and locks herself in her room. Pauly gets angry and throws the Thanksgiving turkey out the window. Adrian finally gives in and Rocky takes her to an ice rink, which is closed, but agrees to open a few minutes for them.
Rocky takes Adrian up to his apartment and they officially begin dating. He meets with Apollo Creed's management and agrees to the fight. Mickey becomes his trainer, puts him on a strict schedule requiring him to get up early in the day and eat raw eggs.
Part of his training is using raw meat at Pauly's store for a punching bag, which gets him on the local news. He has to withdraw from sex to be a mean fighter. Pauly is too much of a hothead for Adrian to live with and she moves in with Rocky. On the day of the fight, Apollo shows up in patriotic garb.
”I coulda been a contender” comes from Marlon Brando's monologue in On the Waterfront. Peter Finch posthumously beat Sylvester Stallone in Best Actor category in Network in 1976, though Rocky won the Oscar for Best Picture
It's a split decision Rocky and Apollo as both have gone the distance and have there have been no knockouts, Apollo is declared the winner, though, for winning the most rounds. Adrian runs into the ring and they profess their love for each other, it assumed they get married. Do they? There were four sequels so surely we'll find out what happened in one of them.
Muhammad Ali as the heavyweight champion in the U.S. was known in Germany as well.
ROCKEY
Cracked #143. August 1977
a: John Severin
Rocky doesn't make much boxing since he has so many fees deducted for use of the equipment.
John Severin always put a sign from Krimson in the background in his parodies. Probably his son's band.
Mr. Jergens was Apollo's agent.
Twice it says “God Bless Anita Bryant” in the background. Probably serious, since she was a known homophobe activist often used in these parodies and Severin was always sneaking right-wing messages into the background.
Around this time, there was a big King Kong blockbuster and Cracked was always trying to put him in every issue just like they would with The Fonz.
IF ROCKEY APPEARED IN OTHER MOVIES AND TV SPOTS
Cracked #145, October 1977
a: Bill Ward (John Severin)
The Mary Tyler Moore Show with Lou Grant (Ed Asner), Murray Slaughter (Gavin McLeod), and Ted Baxter (Ted Knight)
Cracked artists often signed the names of other Cracked artists to their work, making it look like they knew each other. “God bless John Wayne” was definitely meant to be taken seriously.
Wild Kingdom with Marlin Perkins.
In Jaws, Sheriff Brody (Roy Scheider), marine biologist Matt (Richard Dreyfuss), and hunter Quint (Robert Shaw) teamed up to kill the shark that was menacing the town.
Welcome Back, Kotter with Arnold Horshack (Ron Pallilo), Juan Epstein (Robert Hegyes), Vinnie Barbarino (John Travolta), Freddy Washington (Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs) and Principal Woodman (John Sylvester White)
ROOKY
Crazy #31, November 1977
w: Sara Arthur
a: Kent Gamble
Kent Gamble often swiped caricatures from Mort Drucker, but I can't find where the Jackie Gleason caricature is taken from. Maybe he came up with it on his own. The Rocky one is from one of Dustin Hoffman in a parody of The Graduate, though. (????)
And Burgess Meredith is LBJ. Swiping caricatures—I'm hard on people who do it, but I'd probably do the same thing if I were just starting out or wasn't paid much. But using people who look nothing like each other—I don't get.
SLOCKY
Sick #115, June 1977
w: Joe Gill
a: Dave Manak
ON YOUR OWN
Sick #121, June 1978
w: Joe Gill
a: Jack Sparling
Forgettable sitcom nobody remembers. I certainly don't. Good thing magazines like Sick were around to chronicle the ephemera we otherwise would have forgotten.
From what I gather, it was about two girls that were roommates, Julia (Bess Armstrong) and Maria (Lynnie Greene). They were, well, on their own, and worked in an advertising agency. Their co-worker were April (Dixie Carter) and Craig (Dan Resin). But who knows how faithful it is to the series since there's no way to see it.
First of two posts looking at our parodies of Laverne & Shirley. Originally characters from Happy Days, they were spun off into their own show which had more of a slapstick slant.
LAVOINE AND SHOILEY
MAD #194, October 1977
w: Lou Silverstone
a: Angelo Torres
Laverne DeFazio (Penny Marshall) and Shirley Feeney (Cindy Williams) were two single young women who worked in the Shotz brewery in Milwaukee and lived in a basement apartment.Laverne's father Frank (Phil Foster) often dropped in on them, as did their upstairs neighbors Lenny (Michael McKean) and Squiggy (David Lander). The Fonz from Happy Days (Henry Winkler) often came onto the show as well.
Frank owned a pizzeria/bowling alley and their landlady was Edna (Betty Garrett), The show also took place in the 50s like Happy Days and would cash in on nostalgia.
A recurring bit was somebody would say something about creepy guys or degenerates, and Lenny and Squiggy would happen to show up.
Carmine Ragusa, “The Big Ragu” (Eddie Mekka), was an aspiring dancer and choreographer. Funny they're referred to as 'easy' since that's how they were portrayed when they were the characters on Happy Days Fonzie set up on a double date with Richie.
“Vo-dee-oh-doh-doh” was how they would refer to sex since it was a network family sitcom and it was the seventies.
Another recurring joke was that every article of clothing of Laverne's had an L on the left breast, even a towel.
From TV Spinoffs Yet to Come in MAD #206, April 1979, by Tom Koch and Harry North.
I didn't write down the issue this was in, probably Frank Jacobs and Bob Clarke.
From If Frankenstein's Monster Did Guest Appearances on TV in Cracked # 151, July 1978, drawn by Howard Nostrand
From The Final Episodes of Soured Sitcoms in Cracked #232, November 1987, by Frank Caruso
LAVAIN & SURLY
Crazy #19, August 1976
w: Len Herman
a: Murad Gumen
“The beer that made Milwaukee famous” was Schlitz's ad campaign.
The network executive is drawn as Milton Berle.
The psychiatry patient is Ed Asner.
LAVOINE AND SHOILEY IN A MASSAGE PARLOR
Sick #116, August 1977
w: Joe Gill
a: Jack Sparling
Another Sick parody with no evidence of ever having seen the show and a way for Jack Sparling to go back to his cheesecake past.
