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.
Updated daily. There's posts besides this one archived in the sidebar on the right, you clods!
if you're at a laptop or desktop, right-click and open link on pages and they'll be clearer and legible in a new window.
The last of the updates... for now. The shows are all highlighted linking to previous postsfrom before in case you need to know the characters' real names or the actors who played them, or are lost in some other way.
I finally found this Bananas article I mentioned last week.
WKLOD IN CINCINNATI
Bananas #44, circa 1981
w: Megan Stine & H. William Stine
a: Samuel B. Whitehead
Funny how in 1981 eight characters was considered “too many”.
I think I see John Chancellor, Chevy Chase, Wolfman Jack, Leonard Nimoy as Spock, John Denver, Dan Aykroyd as Beldar Conehead, and Howard Cosell.
STRAIT-JACKET (1964)
dir: William Castle
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO JOAN CRAWFORD?
Sick #29, June 1964
w: Dee Caruso and Bill Levine
a: Gray Morrow
Sorry a reference to Joan Crawford is the closest thing I have this Pride Month.
The title of this is a play on the film Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?. The movie was about a formerly institutionalized woman accused of ax murders.
Back when movie theaters were actual theaters and not just the friend of friend of a rich guy's screening room you once saw, stars would publicize the movie at a screening rather than TV appearances and press conferences.
THE EXORSICK
Sick #103, April 1975
w & a: Dom Rinaldo
I'm guessing this was an unsolicited contribution in their slush pile and they needed a few pages to fill, since I never saw the name before or since and the panels are all cut and reformatted to fit the page,
WACKY T.V. WEDDINGS
Trash #3. April 1978
a: Vic Martin
No seventies humor magazine would be complete without spoofs of these shows.
THE HOBBIT (1977)
dirs: Arthur Rankin Jr. & Jules Bass
Before the movies there was this made-for-TV special.
MAD #161, September 1973
w: Dick DeBartolo
a: Mort Drucker
In articles about MAD, they like to talk about how this was the only cover without Alfred E. Neuman. A bit of revisionism going on, since there were quite a few. They said it was the best-selling issue in their history, which was true, though that's more due to it being a high point for magazines in general. And it had the return of the original Kurtzman logo for just one issue.
The disaster movie was the dominant genre for big-budget movies until Star Wars came along.
Captain Harrison (Leslie Nielsen) runs the Poseidon and warns Linorcos (Fred Sadoff), owner of the ship's cargo, that the weather can't handle full speed for the ship, but is ordered to do so anyway.
They establish who the main characters are, Rogo (Ernest Borgnine) and his wife (Stella Stevens) are planning to head to dinner that night but she's afraid to go because she's afraid of running into one of her former clients from when she was a prostitute (the fact that she doesn't ruins the chance for a storyline right there). Belle and Manny Rosen (Shelley Winters, Jack Albertson) are resting on deck and run into lonely bachelor Martin (Red Buttons). Reverend Frank Scott (Gene Hackman) has just given a sermon.
Susan Shelby (Pamela Sue Martin) and her brother Robin (Eric Shea) are en route to meet their parents. Robin knows everything about ships. They all have dinner on New Years Eve when disaster starts to strike.
A wave turns the ship upside-down right after the New Years celebration. Rev. Scott takes the initiative in rescuing everyone. He believes that by going to the top (formerly the bottom), they can be saved. Robin knows that the propellor shaft has a hull only an inch thick, the thinnest part of the boat, which is above water and their greatest chance of getting out. A waiter named Acres (Roddy McDowall) is aleady at the top and everyone else climbs a christmas tree to get there.
Rogo's wife needs to take off her dress to navigate their escape but is wearing nothing underneath so puts on his shirt. Nonnie (Carol Lynley), a singer we saw previously, is another one of the survivors. Mrs. Rosen doesn't think she can get through because of her weight.
The first panel has Olympic swimmer Mark Spitz.
The way to the engine room is now flooded so they have to hold a rope and travel underwater to get there. Susan won't go without her brother because he is missing since he had to go to the bathroom (which he didn't need to do since the ocean is basically one big toilet. And how did he use a toilet when they're all upside-down and would be broken?). The rope needs to be connected first and Mrs. Rosen offers to do that since she was a championship swimmer once. Rev. Scott, the leader of the group, won't allow her but gets trapped underwater trying to do it himself. Nonnie can't swim but Martin tells her to hold on to him.
Now they all have to walk across a walk to get to the hull. Mrs. Rogo doesn't make it and falls into the fire below. (not shown: Mr. Rogo won't go on without her and blames everyone. They all tell him giving up is not what a cop, his former occupation, would do.) Rev. Scott, in turning off the steam valve, falls below too. A rescue squad overhears the remaining survivors and brings them all to safety.
THE PERSPIRIN' ADVENTURE
Cracked #111, September 1973
a: John Severin
Ben and Willard were rats from the movie Willard that came out that year, they missed the opportunity to make a joke about how Ernest Borgnine was in that as well.
Mrs. Rosen dies after coming back up for air and saving Rev. Scott.
THE UPSEIDOWN ADVENTURE
Crazy #1, December 1973
w: Len Wein
a: Ross Andru & Vic Martin
Gene Hackman's previous role was Popeye Doyle in The French Connection.
Every one of these parodies made a joke about a cruise liner that sank in real life. I guess I would too.
MA GHERKINS-- SHE'S ALWAYS IN A PICKLE
Cracked #98, January 1972
a: Vic Martin
Ma Perkins was “America's mother of the air” similar to Mary Worth in the comics, a daily radio soap opera starring Virginia Payne.The term “soap opera” got its name from this because it was originally sponsor by Oxydol, a soap company.
Also parodied here is radio character Just Plain Bill. In the graffiti are characters Stella Dallas and Fibber McGee of Fibber McGee and Molly. I can't make quite out the graffiti in the last panel but it might say Elsie Beebe (LCBB), nickname for Life Can Be Beautiful.
There was a radio soap called Mary Noble, Backstage Wife probably better known for the Bob and Ray parody Mary Backstage, Noble Wife. Also referenced is Vic and Sade. Featured are comic strip characters Snuffy Smith, Luhweeze, and Jughaid from Snuffy Smith, Hairless Joe and Lonesome Polecat from Li'l Abner (who co-incidentally also did Oxydol ads), Little Orphan Annie, Henry, Fritz Katzenjammer, Happy Hooligan, and A. Mutt.
BATMAN
ABC 1966-1968 BATMAN (1989)
dir: Tim Burton
Every generation has their own version of Batman, there were the movie serials in the 40s up to the dark remakes now. These are more pages from 1989 that both parody and cash in on the then-upcoming 1989 Batman movie based on what they knew from the 1966 TV show. You can find the other versions MAD and Cracked had of that movie and the earlier TV show here.
Cover of Taiwan edition of MAD.
Swedish edition
Norwegian edition
In the eighties and nineties Cracked often dedicated an issue to articles about a movie before devoting the next issue to the actual parody. In 1989, most of an issue was devoted to the upcoming movie they hadn't yet seen and knowledge of the comics character made a part of the national vocabulary from the 60s TV program.
BATTY-WEAPONS THAT DIDN'T QUITE MAKE IT TO THE UTILITY BELT
Cracked #248, October 1989
w: George Gladir
a: John Severin
WHAT'S HOT AND WHAT'S NOT
a: Gary Fields
BADTMAN
a: Pat Boyette
Bob Kane was the person who created, or rather, took credit for and signed the strip.
THE SOUNDS OF BATTYMAN
a: Don Martin
A CRACKED LOOK AT BATMAN
w: Roger Brown
a: Mike Ricigliano
WHAT IF BRUISE PAYNE DIDN'T BECOME BATMAN?
w: George Gladir
a: Ron Wagner
THEM BATTYMAN SEQUELS WE'RE SURE TO SEE
w: George Gladir
a: John Severin
puns on Rutger Hauer, Bette Midler, Farrah Fawcett, Burt Reynolds, and Claude Raines
George Burns, Treat Williams, Rhonda Fleming, George C. Scott
Telly Savalas, Carol Channing, Tab Hunter, Rob Reiner
Terence Stamp, Nick Nolte, Frank Converse, Judd Nelson, Benny Hill
CRACKED INTERVIEW WITH RABID THE WONDER BOY
w: Rich Kriegel (Lou Silverstone)
a: John Severin
In Batman Forever, it was acknowledged that Robin was part of a family circus troop called the Flying Graysons.
FORM & FUNCTION LOOKS AT THE NEW GEAR
a: Rurik Tyler
SHUT-UPS
a: Don Orehek
Inside back cover
Back cover (artist unknown, border by Bill Wray)
Back to MAD
VILLAINS AWAITING BATMAN'S RETURN TO TV
MAD #298, October 1990
w: Charlie Kadau & Joe Raiola
a: Rick Tulka
Jackie Mason had a sitcom co-starring Lynn Redgrave called Chicken Soup.
Bob Guccione used more than one Miss America winner for his Penthouse magazine. Joe Piscopo had left the cast of Saturday Night Live by then but was doing his characters and impressions for Lite Beer commercials.
CRACKED INTERVIEWS THE JERKER
Cracked #250, December 1989
w: Rich Kriegel (Lou Silverstone)
a: Walter Brogan
“Heeeere's Johnny”, while initially Johnny Carson's tagline, may be better known as a line by Jack Nicholson from The Shining.
Eddie Murphy hadn't been a cast member of Saturday Night Live for years at that point. Robin Willians, Steve Martin, and Jay Leno never were.
