Stars can have a mega-hit movie or a short-run television show, either way it don’t matter unless they are featured in a MAD parody. So, after ten years without being satirized in MAD, and no chance for one in the the foreseeable future with MAD down to reprints, what’s a producer to do? Well, you buy one.
In mid-January, I was contacted via LinkedIn by the executive producer of the CBS series “Blue Bloods.” He was disappointed (although he used a different word) that his long-running show had never been parodied in MAD Magazine. So he decided to commission one himself, to give as a present to his cast and crew when the tenth season wrapped in April, and he wanted real MAD veterans to produce it.
by Sam Viviano, Des Devlin, and John Ficarro; © Kevin Wade?
I conscripted my old MAD colleagues Desmond Devlin and John Ficarra to write and edit the script, while I, in addition to illustrating the cover and the six-page story, would act as designer, art director and project manager.
As I was saying…
In mid-January, Blue Bloods showrunner Kevin Wade commissioned a MAD-style parody of his show, to be distributed to the cast and crew wrap party in April. The entire package had to be completed and delivered by the third week of March. Not a lot of time for a project like this, but we MAD vets are pros.
Viviano details the how of it all coming together in a series of late October 2020 posts on Sam’s Facebook page, along with presenting the entire six page parody and the cover in both rough and finished forms. (I remain curious about the mysterious unknown page of the eight page booklet.)
note:
At least a couple of the Blue Blood actors have been previously honored(?) by MAD:
