The Mad Magazine TV Special (1974) - Comic to Movie #11

"The preceded collection of trash cannot in any way, shape, or form be interpreted as constructive programming."

Directors 
Gordon Bellamy, Chris K. Ishii, and Jimmy T. Murakami

Voice Cast

Allen Swift  

Pat Bright

Gene Klaven

Hetty Galen

Herb Duncan

I'm surprised that in the nearly 70 years Mad Magazine has been published, none of the "usual gang of idiots" over there has caught that the words "Mad Magazine" and "special" sound funny when used in the same sentence considering Mad is "The Number One Ecch Magazine."

This includes the number of Mad Magazine special issues which publishers started printing in 1970. These "specials" were reprints of past editions with some new material thrown in. (New material to somehow justify their alleged "cheap" cover prices for recycled gags, but that's just my thoughts on it. "Special," my @$$! But I digress. And I also digest. I just degassed, too, but only a little. Hey! I'll also devest, but nobody wants to see that.) 

Anyways, The Mad Magazine TV Special was an early attempt to bring the "What? Me Worry!" magazine to television as the ABC network commissioned an animated pilot based off the magazine's usual running material. 

The pilot was later branded as a "TV Special." After all this, the program never made it to air. It was deemed too crude and adult by ABC. Of course, that just isn't true. 

Mad writer Dick DeBartolo said no one wanted to sponsor the show since it made fun of products advertised elsewhere on TV, such as automobiles. 

Thanks to the power of the internet, the Mad Magazine TV Special is available on YouTube. 

Mad Magazine has since had television success after the non-airing of this TV Special, namely with the sketch comedy series MadTV that ran on the Fox Network from 1995 to 2009. There was also a TV series on Cartoon Network simply titled Mad, which I didn't know about. It ran from 2010 to 2013. 

I'll add that this review is my second pertaining to Mad. The publishers produced a movie in 1980 called Up the Academy which I wrote about earlier in my "Comic to Movie" reviews. I numbered it at zero.

The special opens with a spoof of American auto manufacturers in a satirical news segment, animated in Jack Davis style artwork. The news feature follows a Walter Cronkite-looking host "Howard K. Bluntly" interviewing Lee Iacocca-esque auto executive, "Mr. Lemon." 

Lemon isn't shy about his cars being neither durable nor dependable because, as he tells Bluntly, "What difference does that make? Even if we made good fast dependable cars, you'd never know when there's no room for them to move anywhere" - a jab at congested traffic issues of the time. 

Some Don Martin animated shorts are tossed in the show, along with an Al Jaffee "Mad X-Ray-vings" segment showing what consumers don't see behind the scenes among general commerce. It's a strip taken straight for the magazine. The special also includes Mad's Academy Awards for Parents, a Spy vs. Spy cartoon, and a movie spoof of The Godfather called "The Oddfather" as seen in Mad issue #155 from December 1972. 

The dialogue in this movie spoof perfectly reflects the humor of Larry Siegal who wrote the jokes in the magazine, and the caricature style of artist Mort Drucker. 
Still, in the long run, I think this "special" could have been a little more notable, or perhaps fondly remembered (if it aired, of course) had it presented a film satire not already published in its magazine two years before. Something original would have been fun, especially for fans. 
I'm biased, though. Being a lover and still a reader of Mad Magazine, especially their movie and television satires, I had fun watching this TV special. 

All of its humor and animation, packed in 25-minutes, matches the magazine's.
The program ends with an animated demolition ball crashing into a billboard of the magazine's mascot, Alfred E. Neuman, as an announcer declares "the preceded collection of trash cannot in any way, shape, or form be interpreted as constructive programming."  Too bad that didn't become a popular TV catchphrase like "same Bat time, same Bat channel" or "There is nothing wrong with your television! Don't attempt to adjust the picture."  

A spoof of the movie The Godfather called "The Oddfather"
from The Mad Magazine TV Special

I have the impression that a show such as this, based on this one episode, had potential to be successful with a little retooling and content audiences could catch only on the show, complimenting the fun of reading the magazine.
This special was made at the apex of Mad Magazine's popularity. It's a treat to Mad readers for sure. Despite the network's claims of the special being too adult and crude, I didn't see anything that came across as such.
Now, it's purely a nostalgic trip, especially for any Mad fans still out there... all six or seven of them including myself. 

Mad's influential humor has inserted itself in so many facets of today's comedy platforms to some degree or another. 

This special is the magazine in TV form, still keeping the tone and atmosphere of printed Mad. You could pause the show at any moment, and it would look like something straight from the pages of the magazine. 

Watching it gives me a sense that had ABC aired it, the show very likely could have been something remembered, talked about, and maybe even emulated to this day, especially with segments using cynical humor to poke fun at products such as the car industry. If the magazine was foundational, the show possibly could have been, too. 

As Mad ended its newsstand distribution in 2018, being available only through comic stores that choose to carry it or through subscriptions, the magazine has taken quite a turn.  

Current issues are mostly republished content with some new content, but not much. 

Mad published issue #550 as their "landmark final issue" in April 2018. The following June issue was published as Mad #1, and the following issues were numbered consecutively from there with issue #19 being the current issue out. 

It stands to reason that Mad is fizzling out as a publication. Even the writers and artists that held the magazine up for decades have recently left Mad. 

Long time contributor Mort Drucker, whose caricatures and comics graced the pages for five decades, passed away in 2020. 

Artist Al Jaffee, who created Mad's famous "Fold-in" retired in 2020 at the ripe old age of 99. Mad cartoonist Jack Davis passed away in 2016. And Sergio Aragones, the "world's fastest cartoonist" who drew the recurring segment "A Mad Look At..." retired also in 2020. He started in 1963.

The magazine depended so much on this "usual gang of idiots." Evidently, they don't go on forever. Mad is already shifting greatly towards its truly final magazine - whenever that'll be. I fearfully suspect sooner than later. 

That's not to say fresh blood and talent couldn't make the magazine great, creative, funny, and appealing to new generations. I mean the magazine needs to continue looking at new platforms to publish itself on and adapt to current trends. Maybe it could even cancel "cancel culture," but there I go *degassing again. 

Perhaps a series similar to this unaired "special" could be beneficial for Mad if anyone out there deems it worth saving.

A satirical website similar to cracked.com may keep Mad's heart beating for a while. 

We live in a time when nostalgia has a huge hand in current pop culture. Whatever the future holds for Mad Magazine, I hope to see it continue lingering around for a while. As issue #218 states on the cover, "you could do worse...and you always have!"