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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Showing posts with label SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE. Show all posts
MAD #208, July 1979
w: Larry Siegel
a: Mort Drucker
On the planet Krypton, Jor-El (Marlon Brando) has sentenced Zod (Terence Stamp), Ursa (Sarah Douglas), and Non (Jack O'Halloran) to the Phantom Zone, in a plot point that has nothing to do with anything until the sequel, maybe because both were filmed at the same time and they thought that might be in this. He also warns everyone that Krypton will be destroyed by their sun and they ignore him.
Marlon Brando only appears at the beginning for fifteen minutes and gets top billing, and was paid three million dollars, more than any actor was ever paid up to that point.
Before Krypton is destroyed, Jor-El and Lara (Susannah York) send their only son to Earth. He lands in Smallville where he's discovered by Jonathan (Glenn Ford) and Martha Kent (Phyllis Thaxter)
The Ford pick-up has a license plate that says “Glenn”. You get it?
The baby lifts the truck and saves Jonathan from being crushed from it while changing it. They decide to keep him and call him Clark. He hides his superhuman strength from the others in his school. One day after his father has died, Clark discovers a green crystal from the ship he landed in, leading him to the arctic where he sees an image of his father telling him he is there to do good.
The “invest in plastics” line may be a quote from The Graduate, or maybe just a joke about something a relative might say.
Clark (Christopher Reeve) moves to Metropolis (which is an exact duplicate of New York City with a World Trade Center and Statue of Liberty) and gets a job at the Daily Planet, a newspaper run by Perry White (Jackie Cooper) and forms a friendship with Lois Lane (Margot Kidder). As they are leaving his first day of work, they are mugged and he tries to conceal his identity even after he's shot and bullets bounce off him. Lois is later on an assignment that night and flies off in a helicopter that gets caught in a wire and throws her out onto the edge of a skyscraper.
Clark now turns into Superman and saves Lois, then stops a number of crimes and performs good deeds. Lois has a mystery date with someone who turns out to be Superman, who she interviews and he then takes her on a tour of Manhattan Metropolis.
Meanwhile, Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman), at his home underneath Grand Central Station, has plotted a scheme with his girlfriend Eve Teschmacher (Valerie Perrine) and assistant Otis (Ned Beatty). He has bought up all the vacant land in California east of the San Andreas fault and has reprogrammed a test missile so that it will cause earthquakes in Western California and make his land the new coastline, and therefore prime real estate. There is another missile which has been reprogrammed to destroy New Jersey. Lex Luthor has lured Superman into his lair, and Lex has found the last remaining piece of Kryptonite which will weaken and kill him. Eve has a change of heart since her mother is in New Jersey, and saves Superman.
Superman flies west where he stops the missile from destroying the California coastline and averts disasters that cause major damages there.
All is saved except for Lois, who was on assignment and swallowed up by the fault line and killed. Superman is upset that he couldn't have stopped it. The voice of Jor-El reminds him that he can't use his powers to alter history, but the voice of his adopted father tells him to use his powers to do the right thing. He flies backwards around the earth to go back in time, saving Lois and stopping the missiles from being misdirected in the first place.
Screenwriter Mario Puzo, director Richard Donner, and producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind are caricatured in the last panel
Don Martin's take was in that issue as well, and he did the back cover.
This was MAD's first comic book parody, which apparently caused confusion among audiences who didn't realize it was supposed to be a parody.
DC sued Fawcett for trademark infringement over Captain Marvel and won, essentially putting them out of business. Captain Marvel wasn't really that similar, it was just Superman's biggest competition. DC might not have won today since the court of public opinion wasn't always a thing then.
SCENES THAT NEVER MADE IT INTO THE SUPERMAN MOVIE
Bananas #29, c. 1979
w & a: Murad Gumen
There actually was more than one comic where Baby Superman was too strong to be spanked.
Saturday Night Live did their parody of the movie when Margot Kidder hosted. Who knew back then that the Ant-Man movie would be more popular than the Superman remake.
Even though Pizzazz was published by DC's main competition, they still had to cover it.
STAR TRACKS
Cracked #127, September 1975
a: John Severin
Welcome to part two of twelve days we look at parody versions of the Star Trek franchise. We start with The Original Series that the spinoffs and movies evolved from. Yesterday were parodies from MAD, Sick, and Muppetmagazines. Today here are the Cracked ones. There are even more series than the ones parodied in the two weeks ahead and there continue to be more as we speak.
The premise of the show is explained in the opening. It's basically the first week of first year nerdspeak at this point, though I may explain aspects as if nobody's ever heard of the show before. It took place three hundred years into the future aboard the Starship Enterprise, exploring and discovering new worlds. Part of the main crew mas Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner), executive officer Spock (Leonard Nimoy), and Doctor “Bones” McCoy (DeForest Kelley), Lt. Commander Scotty (James Doohan), Lt. Sulu (George Takei). Klingons and Tribbles were frequent aliens that appeared on the show.
Nurse Chapel (Majel Barrett) and Lt. Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) are missing from this parody.
The last panel has Soupy Sales, Jonathan Winters, Bill Cosby, Don Rickles, Fess Parker, Jim Nabors, Joey Bishop, Jackie Gleason, Red Skelton, Dan Rowan, Robbie the Robot, and Phil Silvers.
From If the Fonz Guest Starred on Other Shows in #137, November 1976.
From If Michael Jackson Had Starred In... in #207, October 1984, art by John Severin.
Hurry-Ups in #228, July 1987, art by Rick Altergott.
From Cracked Collectors' Edition #103, July 1995
This was done in anticipation of the new series in #232, November 1987
The second panel features Daniel J. Travanti, Veronica Hamel, James B. Sikking, and Bruce Weitz of Hill Street Blues. The third is a refernce to Lost in Space.
The German humor magazine Kaputt reprinted the Cracked material and had a cover.
There have been several sketches on Saturday Night Live, most notably when William Shatner was at a convention telling fans to get a life. Here was there first.
SATURDAYS
National Lampoon #147, June 1982
w: Al Jean, Ted Mann, Michael Reiss
Done during the time when there were two late-night comedy shows on the air, Saturday Night Live, which still exists today, and Fridays, a short-lived imitation out of the West Coast. I don't count SCTV in the same category. It was not performed in front of a live audience, everything they did existed in one single reality, and some seasons didn't have laughtracks.
National Lampoon was always dissing it for being just another TV comedy show, but they were really jealous that their writers and cast members from their records and radio shows were being poached.
MAD had a few references to the show. This is from The Lighter Side of The Idiot Box in #215, June 1980 by who else—Dave Berg.
From MAD's Plan to Make the Congressional TV Show More Entertaining in #216, July 1980, by Lou Silverstone and Jack Davis. One of the correspondents on SNL was Roseanne Roseannadanna (Gilda Radner).
Marvel Team-Up was their showcase title, teaming Spider-Man with new or secondary Marvel characters. This particular issue, that didn't team him up with Marvel characters, is never used in reprint collections for licensing reasons.
LIVE FROM NEW YORK, IT'S SATURDAY NIGHT
Marvel Team-Up #74, October 1978
w: Chris Claremont
a: Bob Hall & Marie Severin
John Belushi's Samurai was one of the recurring characters.
The general public would never have heard of most of the Marvel characters then, though many were used in a superhero sketch (see below).
George Carlin hosted the first Saturday Night Live and Chevy Chase was one of the original cast members. College used to be where most comedians did their act because students were more socially conscious, but now the social conscience of students is the reason they won't.
Here's a cover Jack Davis did for TV Guide.
SCTV did their parody Thursday Night Live. If you look at the other sketches, you can see why I feel the two shows are different.
