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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ZERRO, THE GAY BLADE
MAD #231, June 1981
w: Stan Hart
a: Mort Drucker
Zorro has existed since early last century from pulps to Saturday matinees to early television. He was a swashbuckler in Mexico famous for marking his victims with a Z with his sword. A movie was made with George Hamilton in which he had to choose between either passing the torch to his son or his brother, who he also played. George Hamilton had previously been in the Dracula spoof Love at First Bite.
The following was from MAD's Academy Awards Show
ED ZORROW CALLS ON MORRO
This Magazine Is Crazy #6, September 1958
a: Tony Couch?
Zorro was an early segment on TV's Disneyland. This comic parodies Person to Person, an interview show hosted by newscaster Edward R. Murrow.
All TV shows and movies mentioned in this post have also been parodied and are featured here.
THE BLUNDER YEARS
MAD #291, December 1989
w: Stan Hart
a: Sam Viviano
Inspired by Stand by Me and Jean Shepherd specials about growing up in the past, this was a similar series about a guy looking back at his sixties childhood. It starred Kevin Arnold (Fred Savage). He wasn't seen in the narration, his voice as an adult was Daniel Stern. His brother was Wayne (Jason Hervey), sister Karen (Olivia d'Abo), and parents Jack (Dan Lauria) and Norma (Alley Mills). His best friend was Paul (Josh Saviano) and girlfriend Winnie (Danica McKeller).
The TV in the background has photos from sixties events but also pictures from MAD parodies by Mort Drucker and Angelo Torres.
THE BLUNDER YEARS
Cracked #239, October 1988
w: Joe Catalano
a: Walter Brogan
In the late eighties there was a whole spate of movies where children and adults switched bodies. One was Vice-Versa with Fred Savage and Judge Reinhold.
WITLESS
MAD #257, September 1985
w: Stan Hart
a: Angelo Torres
Rachel (Kelly McGillis) and her son Samuel (Lukas Haas) are two Amish who must leave their community to visit a relative in Baltimore. While at a train stopover in Philadelphia, Samuel witnesses a murder in the bathroom. They are detained by officer John Book (Harrison Ford) who needs Samuel to identify the killer, and sees a picture of Lieutenant McFee (Danny Glover) at the station and recognizes him as the killer.
McFee is a narcotics cop involved in drug dealing and shoots Book in a parking garage. He drives Rachel and Samuel back to their farm, and since he didn't get medical help after being shot, passes out on the way back home and wakes up at the farm. He has to stat there because he'll be found at the hospital and therefore put Samuel in danger.
As John Book is being nursed back to health, he starts to fit in with the Amish. They don't quite like how he's been flirting with Rachel but shows he's one of them when he joins them in raising a barn. He gives more info to Sgt. Carter (Brent Jennings) who's later killed by Chief Schaffer (Joseph Sommer) who warns Book he's going to find him. Book goes to town regularly to use the payphone and is picked on by townies. Unlike other Amish, he surprises them by fighting back.
Schaffer, McFee, and another cop, Ferguson (Angus MacInnes) find the community where Book has been hiding and come after him. McFee is shot and Ferguson drowns in a corn silo. Schaffer is about to kill book when Samuel rings a bell summoning all the Amish in the area, who surround him and force him to give up. John Book is cleared of danger and wrongdoing and returns to his city ways.
WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? (1988)
dir: Robert Zemeckis
WHO DE-FAMED ROBBER RABBIT?
MAD #284, January 1989
w: Dick DeBartolo
a: Angelo Torres
Film noir that was a big hit for its many cameo appearances by characters from cartoons from the 30s-50s from different studios. It took place in 1947, with detective Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins) reluctantly taking the case of animation studio head R. K. Maroon (Alan Tilvern) who suspects the reason for his star performer Roger Rabbit (Charles Fleischer)'s poor performance is that his wife Jessica (Kathleen Turner) is having an affair with Marvin Acme (Stubby Kaye). Eddie photographs the evidence, submits it to Roger, the next day Marvin is murdered. Roger has been set up and goes to Eddie to clear his name and this leads a plot by Judge Doom (Christopher Lloyd) of Toontown, the town where all the cartoon characters live, to destroy the area to make room for a freeway. Eddie, who previously hated 'toons', learns to appreciate them.
The MAD parody is about what was supposed to have happened after the story ended.
The character sitting on the curb is Baby Herman, Roger Rabbit's co-star, who acts like a baby on film, but is a talking adult who smokes when off the set. George H.W. Bush and Michael Dukakis were the main Presidential candidates of 1988.
'Patty cake' was what Jessica and Marvin were caught doing and literally that, not any actual sexual act. “I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way” was Jessica's tagline in the movie.
Benny, also voiced by Charles Fleischer, was Roger's taxi in the movie's big chase scene. Alfred Hitchcock is always shorthand for “movie director” when it's not Erich Von Stroheim. Mommie Dearest was a book written by Joan Crawford's daughter about how cruel she apparently was.
Howard the Duck, one of the first movies based on a Marvel character before the Marvel Universe was conceived for Hollywood, was considered one of the biggest flops of the 80s. I never saw it. Maybe in retrospect it wasn't as bad as people say it was.
WHEN ROGER RABBIT TECHNOLOGY TAKES OVER ALL OF HOLLYWOOD'S FILMS
MAD #285, March 1989
w: Stan Hart
a: Bob Clarke
As we all know, animation and live action has been done several times since the 80s, then there's CGI and deepfakes, and soon A.I. Will replace all of us.
THE GREAT TOON SURPLUS SALE
MAD #292, March 1990
w: Larry Siegel
a: Angelo Torres
The lower left has Fox and the Crow which had few cartoons in the series and was already discontinued 40 years before this. There was a long-running comic book adaptation of it but even that was over long before most readers of this would have been born.
The weasel with the steamroller was one of Judge Doom's minions in the movie. Magilla Gorilla, next to Mickey and Donald, might be known by some.
German cover.
WHO FWAMED ROGER WABBIT?
Cracked #241, December 1988
w: Rick Kriegel (Lou Silverstone)
a: Walter Brogan
Elmer Fudd narrates the parody. Steven Spielberg wasn't the director. He may not even have been on the set. He was executive producer which could mean a lot of things.
Eddie spent a lot of time at a bar. The waitress was Joanna Cassidy.
Judge Doom had a solution called Dip, which was essentially ink remover, that he planned to execute Roger with.
Eddie hates Toons because one killed his brother. As he's about to be killed, Judge Doom reveals that he was that Toon, which is all Eddie needs to snap out of his hatred, turn the tables, and regain his sense of humor.
Disney release a few Roger Rabbit cartoons with their full-length movies in their attempt to bring cartoons back to theaters.
CRACKED INTERVIEWS ROGER WABBIT
Cracked #245, July 1989
w: Vic Bianco (Lou Silverstone)
a: John Severin
Cher, Morton Downey Jr., and Mel Blanc are the big Lakers fans.
THE WHITE, SHADOWED
MAD #216, July 1980
w: Lou Silverstone
a: Angelo Torres
Ken Reeves (Ken Howard) is a former professional basketball player who once worked for the Chicago Bulls but now works as a coach at Carver High School in Los Angeles.
In these days of politicians swearing left and right, it's hard to believe it was once a big scandal when Jimmy Carter once said “I'll whip his ass” about Ted Kennedy.
Some of the players were Jackson (Erik Kilpatrick), Goldstein (Ken Michelman), Gomez (Ira Augustain), and Coolidge (Byron Stewart). The vice-principal was Sybil Buchanan (Joan Pringle) and the principal was Jim Willis (Ed Bernard).
”Lookit me, I'm dee-ancin'... I'm dee-ancin” was the way any comical Brooklyn character once mocked who they saw as a high-brow adult.
Some other players were “Salami” Pettrino (Timothy Van Patten), Hayward (Thomas Carter), and Thorpe (Kevin Hooks).
The last panel is a parody of Bobby Knight.
The obligatory stars' reaction to their parody.
From The MAD TV Coroners' Report in #227, December 1981
THE NOT-SO-BRIGHT SHADOW
Cracked #170, May 1980
a: John Severin
In the later seasons, there was a player named Vitaglia (John Menghatti)
This was the era of Cracked where, if they weren't able to do a Diff'rent Strokes parody or an If Gary Coleman did [X] kind of article, they would find a way to fit him in somehow.
THE WHITE SHALLOW
Crazy #66, September 1980
w: Murad Gumen
a: Murad Gumen & Alan Kupperberg
