The Mad Magazine TV Special

Cartoon Network's hit "Mad" was the fourth attempt to transfer "Mad Magazine" to television. Last time around it was "Mad TV" which was, unfortunately, a pale imitation of its short-lived predecessor "Saturday Night Special" and the long-running "Saturday Night Live." And that was exactly the problem with "Mad TV" -- aside from the occasional animated "Spy Vs Spy" short, there wasn't a good connection with the comics; it was simply a sketch comedy show.

In 1973, ABC commissioned a pilot for a "Mad" series. Titled "The Mad Magazine TV Special," this pilot was everything that "Mad TV" wasn't: it was completely animated, it fairly accurately captured the essence of the comics, and it was often funny (the hospital sketch in particular is a hoot). Not to imply that it was truly great (and "The Oddfather" sketch drags on far too long), but it certainly had a lot of potential for greatness. Unfortunately the honchos at ABC didn't feel the same way -- they deemed the show too risqué for television.

Writer Dick DeBartolo once noted, "Nobody wanted to sponsor a show that made fun of products that were advertised on TV, like car manufacturers" (the target of the opening skit). According to most sources the pilot never aired, but according to Wikipedia (we all know how accurate that can be) and the remembrances of others it ultimately aired in syndication (I once heard someone state "memory's an inexact science," and that's stuck with me) . I've done studious research and, although it was announced in '73 that it would air on ABC in during the '73/'74 season, I can't find any concrete proof that it ever aired on any network, in syndication or not (I couldn't find it in any newspaper listings and it's not cited in Vincent Terrace's "Encyclopedia of Television Series, Pilots and Specials," which is shockingly thorough, even with syndicated specials).

In 1987, Hanna-Barbera took another crack at bringing an animated "Mad" to TV. Cartoonist Scott Shaw mentioned the HB special was much worse than the '74 special, which probably explains why it's never seen the light of day. But, the internet being what it is, that's not to say that it'll never surface... like "The Mad Magazine TV Special" has!