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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Before Sixty Minutes, Mike Wallace did a bunch of his own interview shows with the alternating titles Night Beat and The Mike Wallace Imterviews, sponsored by Philip Morris cigarettes and known for its tough in-depth reporting.
MIKE MALICE INTERVIEWS MOTHER GOOSE
MAD #38, March 1958
w: Dave Berg
a: Mort Drucker
The joke here is, of course, that Wallace's hard-hitting interviews are always with the most prominent figures of the day, and this is with the most innocuous person you could think of, but as evidenced after this, many nursery rhymes were in fact the equivalent of issues like communism and poverty two hundred years earlier.
from Go West, Old Format in MAD #41, September 1958, by Albert Meglin and George Woodbridge.
Jayne Mansfield was a sex symbol of the fifties and sixties who many say was a parody of a sex symbol. Elsa Maxwell was a gossip columnist who looked nothing like her. She collaborated often with her husband, bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay.
A character from Harvey Kurtzman's Hey Look! makes an appearance in the lower left, and readers probably didn't know that even then.
Natalie Wood was mostly a child star at that point, Mae Busch did silents and was long dead, and Etta Kett was a comic strip character, and I don't know what they would have in common. Marjorie Main was a character actress around that time. Most known as Ma Kettle.
NITE-HEAT
Sick #2, October 1960
w: Dee Caruso & Bill Levine
a: unknown
Got still even more Kojak parodies. I'm starting a new folder because I wouldn't have enough room for tags. I still won't have enough room here either. But I'll try.
TV detective show about Det. Theodopolus Kojak (Telly Savalas). One of the other detectives was Stavros (George Savalas).
Cover to the German edition of Cracked.
Cover to the Brazilian edition, also parodying the TV shows Coquetel de Amor and Espelho Mágico.
From Cracked #128, October 1975, art by Sururi Gumen.
From Cracked #138, December 1976, art by John Severin. His partner was Bobby Crocker (Kevin Dobson).
KOJERK
Sick #103, April 1975
w: Len Herman
a: Jerry Grandenetti
Sucking lollipops was one of his his trademarks.
His boss was Frank McNeil (Dan Frazier)
The caricatures of Boris Karloff, Jackie Gleason, Danny Thomas, Carol Channing, and Allen Funt look like they were swiped from Al Hirschfeld.
Monty Hall was host of the game show Let's Make a Deal.
A POKE IN YOUR PRIVATE EYE
International Insanity #1, July 1976
w: Fred Wolfe (Paul Laikin)
a: Terry Austin, Russ Heath, Neal Adams, Carl Potts, Jack Abel, Al Milgrom
This is really a parody of the entire detective genre, similar to the piece from the Longstreet parody last month.Because it has so many detectives and the article has so many inkers, not everything can be tagged.
International Insanity was an adult humor magazine that kept changing its name. First it was Harpoon until it got a cease and desist from National Lampoon for having a similar name, then became Apple Pie, and eventually settled on this. They usually used Marvel/superhero artists for their parodies.
The detectives here, from eponymous shows unless noted otherwise, are Mike Stone from The Steets of San Francisco (Karl Malden), Frank Cannon (Robert Conrad), Baretta (Robert Blake), Pepper Anderson of Police Woman (Angie Dickinson), Columbo (Peter Falk), McCloud (Dennis Weaver), and Jim Rockford of The Rockford Files (James Garner). I probably know who the guy with glasses and the woman with the white streaks are too and they'll come to me after this is already posted and someone will tell me and I'll feel like an idiot.
Karl Malden also did commercials for American Express. Baretta had a pet cockatoo.
The curator kind of looks like Donald Sutherland but fifteen to twenty years after this was drawn.
Also one of the detective that wasn't used in the splash is Barnaby Jones (Eddie Albert).
“Who loves ya, baby?” was Telly Savalas' catchphrase.
SHIT LIST
National Screw #3, 1977
When Hustler made a big splash, Screw, previously a regional tabloid, went toe-to-toe with them briefly, publishing a slick magazine edition, using the same formula they felt they had been using for years. Screw's formula was more 80% sex, 10% satire, and 10% a soapbox for publisher Al Goldstein to air his grievances.
THE JACK FAAR SHOW
Cracked #3, July 1958
a: Russ Heath
Incarnation of The Tonight Show in between Steve Allen and Johnny Carson. One of the first late-night casual format talk shows but also had a list of regulars such as Jonathan Winters, Elsa Maxwell, Genevieve, Charley Weaver/Cliff Arquette, and Dody Goodman. IM4U was a novelty 45 he had singing letters and numbers that were words.
Arthur Godfrey was another occasional guest.
Edward Murrow was known for smoking.
Hugh Downs was his announcer. Jose Melies was a regular guest. I don't know why some names are punned but not others.
JACK PARR MAKES UP WITH THE PRESS
Cracked #18, February 1961
w: Paul Laikin
a: John Severin
Paar temporarily walked off his show because a sketch of his was censored (see above) and it was a big deal in the news. Guests here are Walter Winchell, Dorothy Kilgallen, and Lee Mortimer, gossip columnists he was known for feuding with (see below).
His censored sketch involved the fact that he said “W.C.” (water closet. Yes, standard and practices were that tame.), hence the other euphemisms for “bathroom” on signs in the background.
WHO WILL REPLACE JACK PAAR?
Cracked #27, November 1962
w: Paul Laikin
a: John Severin
GOLDWATER ON PAAR
Sick #24, November 1963
a: Jack Davis
From MAD's TV “Alfie” Awards in MAD #56, July 1960, by Larry Siegel and Mort Drucker
From Adult TV Cartoons in MAD #63, June 1961, by Al Jaffee and Wallace Wood
From If Celebrities Ran for Political Office in MAD #90, October 1964, by Arnie Kogen and Jack Rickard
HINDU
Panic #4, August/September 1954
w: Al Feldstein
a: Wallace Wood
This was a 3-D Western. It begins with Angie Lowe(Geraldine Page) and her son Johnny (Lee Aker) on their ranch waiting for her husband to come back home. Hondo Lane (John Wayne) and his dog Sam come up. He explains he's from the cavalry and fell off his horse fighting Indians. He is part Apache himself.
References are made to another Western called Shane that has a similar setting and ends with the father leaving home with the hopes that he'll come back.
Hondo claims that because he has Apache blood, he has a strong sense of smell and can therefore smell Angie. He lets Johnny to pet his dog knowing the dog will bite him, but he knows this will teach him a lesson in becoming a man. The sequence teaching Johnny to swim happens like this, but isn't until later in the movie.
They leave out how during Hondo's stay, Angie discovers he's a famous gunman and initially doesn't trust him, but comes to learn he's a gentleman.
After Hondo leaves, the Apaches invade the property and Johnny tries to save his mother but is too small for the gun and falls down recoiling. The head of the tribe admires his bravery and makes him an honorary Apache.
The Indian on the nickel was replaced with Thomas Jefferson around this time.
Much later, Hondo has returned to the cavalry on a new horse, which was Angie's. A stranger (Leo Gordon) claims the horse is his and gets in a fight with Hondo and gets beaten (not shot like here) and killed. Hondo realizes the man he just killed was Angie's missing husband, and returns to her ranch.
He runs into Gene Autry as the Lone Ranger (?) and is informed by Bob Hope (Son of Paleface reference?) he's in the wrong movie.
Hondo's sidekick Buffalo (Ward Bond) finds a photo of Johnny on the dead man, confirming it was Angie's husband. On his way back, he is attacked by Indians. The film had an intermission even though it was only an hour and a half. Maybe people couldn't handle wearing 3-D glasses that long.
Hondo returns and Angie says he is in fact her husband so the Apaches will spare him. This is where he teaches Johnny to swim. He also teaches Johnny to fish.
Getting the news there's no need for a cavalry outpost there, Hondo and the Lowes go to his ranch to start a new family. "Somebody's gotta work..." was how they ended every story in that particular issue of Panic.
HAMBO
Crazy #7, July 1954
w: Stan Lee
a: Carl Hubbell
