Crazy in Dallas

Previously: 

Mad About Dallas  - -  Mad About Walker

Everyone remembers Mad Magazine and their ruthless skewering of popular culture.  Many people may even remember Cracked Magazine, the shameless rip-off of Mad.  Fewer people may remember  the other scores of parody magazines that were looking to get caught up in the wave of Mad Magazine excitement (and maybe pick up some sales along the way). 

 One of them, Crazy Magazine, was published by Marvel Comics and hung in there for a decade by making fun of the day's most popular movies and TV.  And nothing in 1981 was more popular than Dallas...which eventually saw itself in the Crazy cross hairs. 

If you remember my blog entry from awhile back about the Mad Magazine Dallas parody, you'll notice some similarities, even down to the art style and panel layout:

So you get the standard introductions of characters (and caricatures), with the theme for this "story" being that J.R. is out to get everybody and everybody is out to get J.R.  So what we get are several pages of J.R. being mean to people and those people trying to kill him.  If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

 The caricatures are all pretty good with the exception of Cliff Barnes.  I don't know if it's the weird angles or if Ken Kercheval is just difficult to draw in general but I don't think the artist nailed it on this one.

 J.R. continues his reign of terror against the Ewing clan, even going so far as to blackmail Jock for control of Ewing Oil.  And clearly Bobby isn't dealing well with the stress.  At this point how could J.R. top himself?  Is there no evil deed he wouldn't consider?

I guess we all knew J.R. is capable of quite a bit of mischief but destroying the world seems a little extreme.  I mean, I couldn't say for 100% that he wasn't capable of it...but I'm pretty sure.  Anyhoo, this little yarn ends with J.R. escaping the doomed earth in a rocket ship.  Once again, he comes out on top. 

It's probably not the best parody you've ever seen but "Crazy Magazine" never really reached the heights that "Mad Magazine" did.  Still it's always nice to see a little piece of memorabilia from the Dallas TV juggernaut.

Mad About Dallas

Previously:

Dallas Trading Cards - -  Family Tradition

We've covered the TV phenomenon Dallas several times before and will continue to do so.  With a world wide reach, a long network run, multiple series, TV movies and tons of merchandise, there's no limit to the amount of acclaim and celebration generated by the franchise.

But in the 70's and 80's there was one honor that stood out above the rest.  Dallas became a genuine legend when it was not only parodied, but made the cover of MAD Magazine:

 
At the time, very few movies, TV shows and celebrities would find themselves safe from being skewered by the popular lampoon magazine.  The Dallas parody was written by Lou Silverstone with art by Mort Drucker, both of them Mad Magazine legends.  As usual, it begins with the main cast introducing themselves:

The "plot," such as it is, involves J.R. (or "J.D." rather) trying to pull off a land swindle while being stymied by his wife and mother.  All the while, he's being chastised by hie family, pondering the paternity of his son, "interviewing" new secretaries and firing his six shooter in the air as display of his dominance.

During the course of plotting his scheme "J.D." is constantly being told what a slimy schemer he is by just about everyone he sees.   After getting "Sullen" (Sue Ellen) committed, he then proceeds to send "Jerk" (Jock) and "Miss Nelly" (Miss Ellie) on a fake vacation ("Fakation"?)  so that he'll be free to develop that land that's he's trying to buy (or whatever).

A few gags later, "J.D." ends up on top, as usual.  With his schemes successful and his enemies thwarted, there's nothing left to do but aim higher.  Looks like some politicians of the day want to court him for a presidential run:

As a post script to this story, I'll add that the idea of J.R. Ewing running for president was considered a few other times.  It was a great promotional stunt for the show if you're lucky, maybe you'll run across a campaign button or one of these old matchbook covers: