MUPDATES

Got a bunch of parodies from Muppet magazine. These were also parodied by other magazines and are hyperlinked to. All other parodies from the magazine will be featured here will be when they come up alphabetically. I assume you're familiar with all the Muppets here, so I need not get into their personalities.

GHOSTBUSTERS (1984)
dir: Harold Ramis

GROSSBUSTERS
#10, Spring 1985
w: Jay Itzkowitz
a: Jon McIntosh

Ghostbusters starred Sigourney Weaver, Dan Aykroyd, and Bill Murray.

MIAMI VICE
NBC 1984-1990

MIAMI MICE
#14, Spring 1986
w: Jay Itzkowitz
a: Frank Springer

Cracker and Ricotta are the roles of Crockett and Tubbs played by Don Johnson and Phillip Michael Thomas.

The song Dr. Teeth's band is playing is parodying Glenn Frey's You Belong to the City, at 4:30 in the video in the link.

DYNASTY
ABC 1981-1989

SWINESTY
#20, Fall 1987
w: Steve Morgenstern
a: Jon McIntosh

The leads on this show were Blake Carrington (John Forsythe), his wife Krystie (Linda Evans), and Alexis Colby (Joan Collins)

Kermit is J. R. Ewing (Larry Hagman) of Dallas.

THE COSBY SHOW
NBC 1984-1992

THE FROGSBY SHOW
#22, Spring 1988
w: Steve Morgenstern
a: Jon McIntosh

References are also made to Ozzie and Harriet and Leave it to Beaver. Heathcliff Huxtable (Bill Cosby) had a wife Claire (Phylicia Rashad) and their children Theo (Malcolm Jamal-Warner), Vanessa (Tempestt Bledsoe) and Rudi (Keshia Knight-Pulliam)

CROCODILE DUNDEE (1987)
dir: Peter Faiman

“CROCODILE” KERMIE
#23, Summer 1988
w: Steve Morgenstern
a: Nate Butler & Marie Severin

Romantic comedy about Australian outback hunter in America with Paul Hogan and Linda Kozlowski.

DIRTY DANCING (1987)
dir: Emile Ardolino

NERDY DANCING #25, Winter 1989

MARCH UPDATES

NIGHTLINE
ABC 1980-2005

NIGHT TIME TAKES A MAD LOOK AT A ROCK VIDEO
MAD #254, April 1985
w: Dick DeBartolo
a: Harry North

Similar to the Person of the Year articles they did, parodying Ted Koppel interviewing Bob Pittman of MTV and Quincy Jones.

I think this was a misspelling of the name 'Pia Zadora' rather than a pun on it, considering the other names aren't changed.

LITTLE ANNIE FANNY
Playboy, c.1965
w: Harvey Kurtzman
a: Will Elder, Jack Davis, Frank Frazetta

The topless bathing suit was something in a fashion show designed by designer Rudi Gernreich, though it was used in comic strips and comedy sketches more than it was ever worn in public. Annie's manager Solly Brass was patterned after Phil Silvers.

Among the cops here are caricatures of Fred Gwynne and Al Lewis from Car 54, Where Are You?. Raymond Burr from Perry Mason is the lawyer featured here.

The other lawyers are E. G. Marshall and Robert Reed of The Defenders.

The Nazi here is George Lincoln Rockwell.

In one of Chris Elliott's appearances on Late Night with David Letterman, he came on to plug his real appearance on Miami Vice.

MIAMI PRICE

MIAMI VICE
NBC 1984-1990

MIAMI PRICE
MAD #261, March 1986
w: Lou Silverstone
a: Mort Drucker

If one were to ask what the eighties was like, this would be it. The colors, the fashions, the music, etc. It was just the eighties personified. That's all I have to say about that.

As the title says, it was about the police department, specifically the vice squad, in the city of Miami. The main characters were Sonny Crockett (Don Johnson) and Ricardo Tubbs (Phillip Michael Thomas). Their supervisor was Lt. Marty Castillo (Edward James Olmos). Other detectives were Gina (Saundra Santiago) and Trudy (Olivia Brown)

Snoopy was used as the mascot for the Metropolitan Life bank in the eighties. It seems every time someone has a name similar to 'Ricardo', the pun for their name is something that's considered a slur now but wasn't 35 years ago and I have to explain that to people who weren't born yet, so here I go again. I'm not going to comb over posts again in 2040 for what will be problematic in the future. That's something people will have to figure out for themselves.

The show was an unofficial commercial for fashions.

The program often used the latest hits to carry scenes, similar to music videos, another element epitomizing the eighties.

From When American TV Programs Are Shown in Russia in MAD #272, July 1987, by Silverstone and Angelo Torres.

Cover to Mexican edition. I guess the joke is how they go undercover and Florida is full of alligators. I don't know if it's also a pun on how the Don Johnson character's name is similar to Croc. Crocodiles are on the other hemisphere though.

Same with the German edition.

MIAMI NICE
Cracked #216, November 1985
a: John Reiner

In the office are detectives Cagney and Lacey, and the Mort Drucker newspaper character Benchley. John Reiner was an assistant to Drucker at the same time he was imitating him.

The drug dealer appears to be Dustin Hoffman.

THE OLDEN GIRLS

THE GOLDEN GIRLS
1985-1992 NBC

THE OLDEN GIRLS
MAD #263, June 1986
w: Arnie & Jay Kogen
a: Angelo Torres

Sitcom about four women who live together in a rest home in Miami. The cast was Dorothy (Bea Arthur), Rose (Betty White), Blanche (Rue McClanahan), and Dorothy's mother Sophia (Estelle Getty).

Bea Arthur and Rue McClanahan were together on Maude ten years earlier. Betty White, now 99, is the only member of the cast still alive. Estelle Getty was actually younger than Bea Arthur. Rue McClanahan was the same age I am now because people aged faster then.

THE MOLDIN GIRLS
Cracked #222, September 1986
w: Stu Schwartzberg
a: Marie Severin

The cops here are from Miami Vice.

They have a cameo by Mary Tyler Moore here. They make a reference to her attempt at doing a comeback show in the 80s but don't mention that Betty White co-starred on her original 70s sitcom.