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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THE SIX MILLION DOLLARS, MAN!
MAD #172, March 1975
w: Lou Silverstone
a: Angelo Torres
All children that were alive in the seventies know of The Six Million Dollar Man, how Col. Steve Austin (Lee Majors) got in a bad accident astronauting and was rebuilt by the government as a cyborg, costing six million dollars to make him robotic. His origin is explained in the opening credits.
”Verner Won Ton” is a play on Werner Von Braun, a former scientist for the Nazi party that was brought to the U.S. during our Space Race with Russia. 'Eastworld' is a play on 'Westworld', a movie about a robot amusement park long before it was a TV series. The tennis player is Bobby Riggs, referring to Billy Jean King, who beat him in the well-publicized Battle of the Sexes game.
Steve Austin's supervisor at the Office of Strategic Operations, a CIA stand-in, was Oscar Goldman (Richard Anderson).
WFL was the World Football League. Mark Spitz was the Olympic champion swimmer.
Dr. Balsawood is Martin Balsam, who only co-incidentally was Steve Austin's doctor in the pilot episode.
From MAD's “Whatever Became of”... TV Characters Edition in #266, October 1986, by Mike Snider.
Cracked did several parodies and mash-ups, just as they did of a lot of TV shows and movies. Here are two:
THE SIX BILLION DOLLAR MAN
Cracked #120, October 1974
a: John Severin
Mr.Phelps was the lead character on Mission:Impossible
THE FAR-OUT FOUR
Cracked #123, March 1975
a: Polly Titian (John Severin)
Gerald Ford and VP Nelson Rockefeller have enlisted the aid of Henry Kissinger, Steve Austin, Billy Jack (Tom Laughlin), and Kwai Caine (David Carradine)
Henry Kissinger had a reputation for being a ladies' man.
At one time, politicians actually did their job of getting things done rather than hating the other party. Billie Jean King is called “Billie Joe” here. I'm not sure if that was intentional or just out of ignorance.
But that's not all! Tomorrow a look at even more Cracked takes on The Six Million Dollar Man, including a Star Wars mashup!
THE $6,000,000 MAN-IAC
Crazy #18, July 1976
w: Len Herman
a: Ernie Colon
Yesterday saw the first part of the Kung Fu parodies I know of, here's the second half.
KUNG FOOEY
Crazy #1, October 1973
w: Stu Schwartzberg
a: Mike Ploog
TV series about Kwai Chiang Caine (David Carradine), a fugitive from justice in China, that now must flee in the American West in the late nineteenth century and stay one step ahead of his captors, and each time he came to a new town, there was a problem he would help the locals with. Each week he was in a different town with a different cast.
Caine always had flashback to his training as a Shaolin monk and learning the martial arts under the tutelage of Master Po (Keye Luke)
The next to last panel is a quote from The Desiderata, a poem that became a new-age self-help guide in the 70s
“Grasshopper” was Po's nickname for Caine.
Caine didn't believe in violence, but had to use kung-fu for self-defense, and it was the “money shot” in each episode.
KUNG FOOEY
Crazy #7, October 1974
w: Marv Wolfman
a: Marie Severin & Herb Trimpe
This issue was supposedly articles rejected from previous issues of Crazy. The photo is of Marv Wolfman (who was also the editor).
Each show would begin with Caine as a child being told by Master Po he would finish his training once he was able to grab a pebble from Po's hands.
The man eating is portrayed is Frank Cannon, a TV detective who was a gourmet, which translates here to just being a glutton. Like in yesterday's Cracked parody, John Wayne also makes an appearance because it was the West.
“It's not nice to fool Mother Nature” was an ad campaign for Chiffon margarine.
The man at the end here is Fred Williamson.
From What Today's TV Programs Would Look Like If They Appeared in 2001 A. D. in Cracked #132, May 1976.
KUNG FOOEY
Sick #96, December 1973
w: Fred Wolfe (Paul Laikin)
Not a parody of the show, but of the kung-fu craze in motion pictures at the time, and included here because it was printed to make readers think it was a parody of the TV show.
“No tickee, no shirtee” and “an hour later, you're hungry again” were two of the racist tropes used in comedy at that time.
Sketch from The Carol Burnett Show which had lots of MAD's writers on staff. Some of them may have worked on this, who knows?
UPDATE:
From If TV Characters Aged While Their Shows Stayed the Same, art by Sururi Gumen, in Cracked #128, October 1975
“Man on the run” series, the most famous of which was The Fugitive, about Kwai Chiang Caine (David Carradine), who had been trained in the martial arts in China, and had to flee after a murder and now must roam the United States to escape his would-be captors. Basically an anthology show with a different cast each week.
The show began each week showing Caine going through training, with his teacher Po (Keye Luke) telling him his training wouldn't be complete unless he could grab the pebble from his master's hand.
MAD #164, January 1974
w: Dick DeBartolo
a: Angelo Torres
Caine often had flashbacks to his childhood with Po relating to the current situation. Po would call him “Grasshopper”.
Much of the railroad was built by Chinese workers.
from Singable Themes for TV Shows in MAD #168, July 1974, by Frank Jacobs and Angelo Torres.
cover to German edition
cover to Dutch edition
KUNG PHEW
Cracked #112, October 1973
a: John Severin
Master Po is not an elderly man drawn like Keye Luke in this.
Because it was network TV in the 70s, they had a Caucasian playing the part. As a Shaolin master, Caine did not believe in violence.
The motor companies used for sound effects were all Japanese but it's not like you'd refer to Cracked for lessons in Asiatic studies.
The elderly lady is Jonathan Winters as Maude Frickert. In the last panel is Frankie Laine.
INTERVIEW WITH DAVID CARROTSEED
Cracked #119, September 1974
a: John Severin
There is no Kung Fu poster inside
Richard Nixon owned homes in San Clemente and Key Biscayne.
Tomorrow is the second part of the Kung Fu parodies.
