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 SIXTY FOUR THOUSAND DOLLAR QUESTION
CBS 1955-1958
THE $64,000 CRACKED-POT QUESTION
Cracked #1, February/March 1958
a: John Severin
The game, hosted by Hal March, was just contestants answering questions with the jackpot increasingly doubling until the prize got to $64,000. It was one of the major casualties of the fifties quiz show scandal.
THE SIXTY-FOUR MILLION DOLLAR ANSWER
Riot #4, February 1956
w: Stan Lee
a: John Severin
The IRS does carefully audit game show contestants to this day, even when they only win goods. In the last panel are Fess Parker and Jack Webb. John Severin had done a couple Tarzan parodies for MAD before this.
THE SEVEN ITCHY YEARS
MAD #26, November 1955
w: Harvey Kurtzman
a: Will Elder
Comedy about publishing executive Richard Sherman (Tom Ewell) bored after seven years of marriage and when his wife and son go away on vacation, is tempted by and has a dream about an affair with his upstairs neighbor (Marilyn Monroe).
The image of Marilyn Monroe's dress being blown up in the air by a subway grate is the image she's most associated with and the poster is parodied in the splash panel here.
Sonny Tufts and Victor Moore are also in the cast.
THE NEW MARILYN MARONE
MAD #31, February 1957
a: Wallace Wood
Marilyn Monroe was probably the most iconic sex symbol of the twentieth century. Her calendar pose featured in the second bottom panel is one of the most well-known images of the fifties. There was a big publicity boost while she was working to show that she could be taken seriously and wasn't just some dumb blonde like she was constantly portrayed. This is a parody of magazine articles from then that were reminding the public of that.
THE SEVEN-YEAR TWITCH
From Here to Insanity (Eh!) #12
a: Carl Hubbell
Some of the editors of MAD imitations had no idea what funny was. They figured since MAD had all kinds of backround gags, they should too, except there was no explanation for them. There's no reason to have celebrities like Jack Webb, Liberace, Marlon Brando, Groucho Marx or J. Fred Muggs in the crowd, or advertising mascots like the Cream of Wheat man or a Campbell's Kid. They don't exactly fit in except they were popular celebrities. They could have done something with Jane Russell as Marilyn Monroe's co-star in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes but having her floating up in the sky as her character from Underwater doesn't make any sense.
THE SEVENTEEN-YEAR TWITCH
Riot #4, February 1956
w: Stan Lee
a: Joe Maneely
I give credit to Al Hartley because that's what it says at the Grand Comics Database, where I usually look when artist don't sign their work. This looks a bit like Al Jaffee and Russ Heath did some of the faces, but nobody ever collaborated at Atlas. I credit Stan Lee as the writer because he wrote practically everything for them.
MR. JEEPERS
Riot #3, August 1954
w: Stan Lee
a: Al Hartley
Sitcom that was a vehicle for Wally Cox as a junior high science teacher.
Mrs. Gurney (Marion Lorne) was the principal's wife and Nancy (Patricia Benoit) was the school
nurse who was also Mr. Peepers' girlfriend. Neither of them looked kie this.
I think this is supposed to be coach Frank Whip (Jack Warden), who this doesn't resemble either.
IF “MARDY” WERE MADE IN HOLLYWOOD TODAY
MAD #78, April 1963
w: Larry Siegel
a: Mort Drucker
Based on a play about a single guy (Ernest Borgnine) in the Bronx hanging out with his friends and his mother wanting him to settle down to get married. Most people only know about “What do you wanna do, Marty?”/”I dunno. Whatchoo wanna do?” That's all I know, and that's all you really need too.
The angle here is about how movies used to be simply made on a simple budget. Paddy Chayefsky was a famous screenwriter known for The Hospital, Network, Altered States, and many others. He was one of the few screenwriters where his name was usually the bigger draw than the director or actors.
Movies are seen as all big-budget releases now (now being 1963), though big budget epics have been around as long as there's been a Hollywood.
The butcher here is Phil Silvers. The subway race is based on the chariot race in Ben-Hur (again a big budget epic remade countless times before 1963) driven by Tony Curtis, with Heston racing Kirk Douglas, their appearances being a reference to Spartacus.
Burt Lancaster (who co-incidentally co-produced Marty) and Marlon Brando are in the second panel. Brigitte Bardot and Yul Brynner are in the third. The last panel is a reference to Exodus.
Not sure if Marlon Brando as Mr. Christian or Kirk Douglas in the second panel are supposed to be the same characters.
From MAD #33, June 1957. Art by Wally Wood.
From If Famous Authors Wrote For the Comics by Frank Jacobs and Wally Wood, in MAD #46, April 1959.
ARTIE
Riot #4, February 1956
w: Stan Lee
a: Howie Post
THE LIFE AND LEGENDS OF QUIET BURP
Riot #6, June 1956
w: Stan Lee
a: John Severin
Like most of Stan Lee's Atlas humor work, it doesn't require having seen the movie or TV show to follow, and didn't even use likenesses of the cast. It did use the theme song, though. Show about the sheriff of Wichita (Hugh O' Brian).
Stan Lee and John Severin were also doing an actual Wyatt Earp comic at the same time, though it wasn't based on the TV series.
LIVER-ACHE
Riot #3, August 1954
w: Stan Lee
a: Howard Post
Famous piano player known for his, how shall I put this, flamboyance. He had mostly appearances and specials, but also an intermittent TV special so he could have control over it as he did his live performances. Even until the end his spokespeople denied his sexuality, when he died from AIDS they said it was from a watermelon diet. His chauffeur wrote a tell-all biography about him posthumously and a TV movie was made about it.
Gaydar only existed among gay men in the fifties, so he was a heart-throb to most of the world.
LIBERITCHY
Eh! #7, November-December 1954
artist and writer unknown
Fans of Bugs Bunny remember him imitating Liberace by looking into the camera and saying “If only my brother George was here!”
