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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MAD #168, July 1974
w: Larry Siegel
a: Mort Drucker
Katie Morosky (Barbara Streisand) is a political crusader working at a radio station in the 1940s. After a broadcast she goes out for drinks with her co-workers and runs into Hubbell Gardiner (Robert Redford), a passed out sailor on leave, who she once know in college.
For a few years Streisand was married to Elliott Gould, in the lower left panel.
The movie flashes back to their college days, when Katie spoke on behalf of the Communist party talking about the dangers of Hitler overseas to a mocking crowd.
Katie is working at a restaurant Hubbell, his friend J.J. (Bradford Dillman) and their girlfriends (I'm not being sexist by not naming them. They weren't named in the movie either) and make fun of her with their WASPishness and opposing political views. Despite this, Katie and Hubbell still hit it off at a college dance. In the forties, Katie brings home a sleeping Hubbell.
Katie's friend was played by James Woods, not well known enough to get the Drucker treatment yet.
During the backdrop World War II in New York City, the film shows how Katie and Hubbell's relationship consummates and blossoms. Hubbell is a sailor in the war but is really an aspiring novelist, which keeps them together despite political differences. She makes friends with his friends, which include old college mates.
Katie and Hubbell have arguments, then make up, and eventually move to Malibu where Hubbell becomes a screenwriter. It's during the Red Scare, all of Hollywood is under investigation, and Hubbell tells Katie to keep her political thoughts quiet for the sake of his career.
In the movie, they make a passing joke about how Katie would dress as Karl Marx at the costume party, which MAD must have missed.
The two finally realize politics is tearing their marriage apart and they get divorced. Fast forward to the sixties when the two meet again in New York City with he a TV writer and she still a political activist.
THE HECK WE WERE
Crazy #5, July 1974
w: Steve Gerber
a: Robert Graysmith
THE STARLOOSE
Crazy #5, July 1974
w: Steve Gerber
a: Robert Graysmith
Series taking place aboard the Eartship Ark in 2790 with farmers named Devon (Keir Dullea), Rachel (Gay Rowan), and Garth (Robin Ward). It was created by Harlan Ellison under the name Cordwainer Bird.
Here, just like all science-fiction shows and movies, it gets compared to Star Trek.
THE PUTRID FAMILY
MAD #150, April 1972
w: Arnie Kogen
a: Angelo Torres
Sitcom about a single mother, Shirley Partridge (Shirley Jones), and her five children Keith (David Cassidy), Laurie (Susan Dey), Danny (Danny Bonaduce), Chris (Brian Forster), and Tracy (Suzanne Crough), all of whom had a band and traveled by bus she drove around.
David Cassidy, the actor who played Keith was a teen idol independently of the program (As was his brother later. They were the real-life sons of Shirley Jones), so both he and the show needed each other to succeed. The actor who played the youngest son was replaced after the first season.
“I Think I Love You” (below) was their big hit.
Shirley Jones had been a star in many Broadway shows before this. Movie actors often ended up on TV when they're considered too washed-up for the movies, though she was not yet forty when she was “greylisted”. Dave Madden was Reuben Kincaid, the band's manager.
Butch Jenkins was a child actor in the 40s.
THE POT-RICH FAMILY
Cracked #107, March 1973
a: John Severin
Hubert Humphrey was the 1968 Democratic candidate for President.
Bernie Cornfield was the Donald Trump of his time before the politics.
Clifford Irving wrote a biography of Howard Hughes that was later revealed to be a hoax.
From The Effect of the Energy Crisis on the Entertainment World in Cracked #119, September 1974, art by John Severin
From The Final Episodes of Soured Sitcoms in #232, November 1987, by Frank Caruso.
Susan Dey later played a lawyer on L.A. Law. A reference is made to pop star Boy George.
Cover to German edition of Cracked.
THE PART-RICH FAMILY
Spoof #3, January 1973
w: Steve Gerber & Bruce Carlin
a: Henry Scarpelli
I don't think they knew both incarnations of the Beatles were the same people. Or that Tom Jones' fans were the same age or older than the average Marvel staffer. Or is that the Beatles? They had the same hair as the Osmonds but they hadn't been a boy band for quite some time.
The Osmonds, the Jackson 5, and Bobby Sherman were other teen idols then. References are made to other bubblegum pop songs from the late 60s and early 70s.
THE NELSON FAMILY (THE ADVENTURES OF OZZIE AND HARRIET)
1952-1966 ABC
THE NILSON FAMILY
MAD #100, January 1966
w: Stan Hart
a: Mort Drucker
This sitcom at 14 seasons had been the longest-running at the time. This parodies the show during the last season. It involves the real-life stories of actual husband and wife Ozzie and Harriet Nelson, though it wasn't a reality show.
Ozzie's son Ricky was a teen idol in real life, and was married to Kristin Harmon.
David, the other real-life son, also grew up on the show and became a lawyer.
E. G. Marshall was a lawyer on a short-lived TV drama called The Defenders.
Wally (Skip Young) was not a real person, He was Ricky's college mate.
OZZIE'S GIRLS
ABC, 1973
OOZIE'S GIRLS
Crazy #5, July 1974
w: Steve Gerber
a: Robert Graysmith
The show was rebooted a few years later, with the premise being that the children had moved out of the house and Ozzie was now renting to two college girls (Susan Sennett, Brenda Sykes) who basically carried the show.
BILLY JOCK
#168, July 1974
w: Stan Hart
a: Angelo Torres
This begins with Jean (Delores Taylor) narrating the story of Billy Jack (Tom Laughlin), half-American Indian who shows up out of nowhere and is a pacifist unless pushed.
The Senior Posner (Bert Freed) is about to shoot horses for dog meat and pressuring his son Bernard (David Roya) to aid him, until Billy Jack chases them off in defense of the land.
Barbara (Julie Webb), the sheriff's daughter, comes homes and tells him she's pregnant, and he beats her. Billy Jack finds her and gives her shelter in Jean's alternative school.
They don't mention this, but comedy group The Committee played some of the students.
They go into town and the locals don't want them there.
Billy Jack shows up and sees how the locals are picking on the students and fights them. Then he goes outside and has to fight the law.
Meanwhile, at the school Barbara has a crush on Marvin (Stan Rice) and doesn't understand why he rejects her advances.
When Billy Jack is performs an Indian ritual in the desert, Barnyard has his way with one of the students. Billy Jack shows up and instead of fighting him forces him to drive his car into the lake.
When Jean goes skinny-dipping in the lake Bernard shows up and rapes her at gunpoint, to impress his father. After he and his gang kill Marvin, one of the Native American students, Billy Jack becomes enraged. He goes to the home of Bernard while he's in bed with an underage girl and beats him up. (I didn't write the movie.)
(David Carradine was star of the TV series Kung Fu).
Billy Jack has a shootout with the authorities and won't come out until his demands for Indian rights are met.
SILLY JACK
Cracked #116, May 1974
a: John Severin
(Arthur Murray had a chain of dancing schools and for a while a TV show, which I posted a parody of late last year).
(George Wallace, one-time governor of Alabama and failed Presidential candidate, was a staunch segregationist).
BILLY JERK
Crazy #5, July 1974
w: Steve Gerber
a: Robert Graysmith
This was one one-page piece as part of an article parodying several movies. It parodied the courtroom scene that was barely covered in MAD.
“One Tin Soldier” became a popular song. This animated video was made by Fine Arts Films, the company that did the opening titles for Grease
Billy Jack was a spinoff of a biker film The Born Losers. There were three sequels, The Trial of Billy Jack, Billy Jack Goes to Washington, and The Return of Billy Jack.
