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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Movie that basically invented the 50s motorcycle rebel archetype. The Fonz is a heavily watered down version.
This parody spends two of its eight pages focusing on how the film opens with an open road before you see Johnny Strabler (Marlon Brando) coming in with his gang through Carbonville, CA.
Johnny and the Black Rebels Motorcycle Club (B.R.M.C.) cause trouble in Carbonville, and fights with a rival gang led by Chino (Lee Marvin) over a trophy he won. They were just passing through but feel the need to stay in town when one of them is injured in an accident. Harry Bleeker, chief of police, reluctantly puts up with them, but Johnny hates all authority.
Johnny is keen on the local diner's waitress Kathy (Mary Murphy) and offers her his motorcycle trophy but she politely rebuffs his advances. When the men all make moves on her as she's leaving work, Johnny rescues her.
Chino's actually in jail at this moment, but since his arrest was left out of the parody, they must have put him here so they'd be able to have a caricature of Lee Marvin somewhere.
They leave a lot out of the parody. In addition to Chino being jailed, the gangs break into local businesses, there's a vigilante mob that accidentally kills one of the bikers, and Kathy thinks Johnny's like the rest of them when he roughs her up, but she realizes he's geniuinely attracted to her. In many of the early MAD comic parodies, it was more about the rhythm of how the artist and writer did a story than the scene-by-scene farces they were later known for.
WAR IS HELL (1954)
MAD #14, August 1954
w: Harvey Kurtzman
a: Wallace Wood
from Movie...Ads!, about how the advertisement makes a movie look more exciting than it really it is, back before people relied on hype months in advance from talk and entertainment shows.
Yesterday, this blog looked at the movie, which was about how Elliott Ness assembled a group that brought down Al Capone. The series was also based on Ness' memoirs, but veered off into fiction as it was about how Ness (Robert Stack) stayed on with the Department of the Treasury and fought Frank Nitti (Bruce Gordon), who took over Capone's empire, and other gangsters, real and made up.
THE TOUCHABLES
Yak Yak #2, March-May 1962
a: Jack Davis
Jack Davis had his own humor comic for a couple issues through Dell's tryout series Four Color Comics, and probably didn't write the material himself.
The Lawless Years was a police show set in the twenties that existed prior to this.
THE UNTOUCHYBULLS
Cracked #16, October 1960
w: Paul Laikin
a: John Severin
The show was narrated by journalist Walter Winchell.
Jerry DeFuccio was an editor at MAD for a long time but was always good friends with John Severin and contributors to competing magazines, and when he was eventually let go by MAD became editor at Cracked for a while. And The Untouchables was one of many movies and TV shows that got complaints from Italian-Americans for stereotyping them.
From Channel Fem-9 in Cracked #38, August 1964, art by John Severin
MAD never did a full parody of the program but used it in several articles.
From When Culture Comes to Top-Rated TV Shows in #69, March 1962, by Larry Siegel and Mort Drucker
From TV's Effect on Children by Stan Hart and Wallace Wood in #79, July 1963.
From Combined TV Shows by Paul Laikin and Mort Drucker, in #47, June 1959. This is a combination of this with The Millonaire.
From Adult TV Cartoons by Al Jaffee and Wallace Wood in #63, June 1961.
THE RETOUCHABLES
Sick #1, August 1960
artist unknown
THE UNTOUCHABLES
Sick #11, February 1962
a: Angelo Torres
Here's one from the first magazine issue, before Al Feldstein took over as editor and they developed a formula, and their movie parodies evolved into in strip form again. Before that, when Kurtzman was editor, they were reviews or spreads (click on 'Harvey Kurtzman' in sidebar), or in this case a parody of an ad, since their goal was more to look like a magazine than look like a comic.
Underwater! was about a search for buried trasure and, as the poster parody implies, a way to show Jane Russell in a swimsuit.
Retelling of The Odyssey focusing on the fantasy-adventure aspects, with Kirk Douglas in the title role.
The movie starred Silvana Mangano playing both Penelope and Circe, Rosanna Podesta as Nausicaa, and Umberto Silvestri as Polyphemus the Cyclops.
While Ulysses is out on his adventures, Penelope has potential suitors. She holds them off by telling them she first wants to finish her tapestry, but she unweaves it every night to stall. Telemachus (Franco Interlenghi), the son of Ulysses and Penelope, is sick of the suitors' behavior and decides to search for his father.
TO TELL THE TRUTH
CBS 1956-1968
SYND (1968-1976, 1980-1981)
NBC (1990-1991)
This game show had several hosts over the years. Its first was Bud Collyer. The show's concept was that three challengers would come on, each claiming to be the main character, and a group of panelists would ask questions to the challengers and through those questions find out which of the challengers was the real character.
From The Minute After That TV Show Is Over from MAD #85, March 1964, by Stan Hart and Mort Drucker.
From Adult TV Cartoons in MAD #63, June 1961, by Al Jaffee and Wally Wood.
From Combined TV Shows in #47, June 1959, by Paul Laikin and Mort Drucker, which combined it with The Line-Up.
From Russian TV Shows by Paul Laikin and John Severin in Cracked #19, April 1961
WHY TELL THE TRUTH
Humbug #6, January 1958
w: Harvey Kurtzman
a: Bill Elder
The first contestant is mobster Frank Costello and the third contestant is Charles Atlas.
The panelists are Polly Bergen, Ralph Bellamy, Dorothy Killgallen, and Hy Gardner. Dorothy Killgallen was also a panelist on What's My Line?, which often used the question “Is it bigger than a breadbox?”, which is why she is holding one. She was also on a show called Breakfast with Dick and Dorothy which took place at her home and occasionally featured her children. Hy Gardner looked similar to Sen. John McClellan, which is why John Kennedy is also in one panel.
Panelists on What's My Line had blindfolds.
MAD writer Dick DeBartolo was also a writer for To Tell the Truth which is also probably why MAD publisher William Gaines was once a panelist.
Science-fiction film of giant ants discovered in New Mexico as a result of bomb tests, and the government's attempt to destroy them and to keep them from reproducing.
A little girl in a catatonic state is found roaming the desert by Sgt. Ben Peterson (James Whitmore) and brought to the police station.
The girl is revived by Dr. Harold Medford (Edmung Gwenn) who comes out of her trance and just panics screaming “Them!”
Bob Graham (James Arness) is the FBI agent sent to investigate
”Who's got the ding dong?” is a reference to the Eartha Kitt song Somebody Bad Stole De Wedding Bell.
Pat Medford (Joan Weldon) is the daughter of Dr. Medford and an entymological expert.
Dr. Medford shows soldiers a film about ants to soldiers so they'll know what they're up against.
The background of the second panel has senator Joseph McCarthy and Roy Cohn.
