Just rented this from blockbuster where they mail you the DVD and you get a bigger selection on line. Couldn't find it in the store. I thought it was pretty funny. I hadn't seen it since it was on cable. Must have been at least 15 years ago. Funny how even Mad Magazine tried to run away from the movie because of the PC factor. I thought it was right down their alley having read all the Mad magazines when I was a kid. http://squidy.150m.com/madtv.html The film was called Up The Academy or, as it was later named, MAD Magazine Presents: Up The Academy or, as it was even later named after a costly lawsuit, Up The Academy again, and was directed by Robert Downey, "well-known for his work on Putney Swope and Greaser's Palace" according to the video box, but slightly more well-known for being the man to father Robert Downey Jr, who has a small uncredited walk-on in Up The Academy. MAD Magazine had minimal input into this production, other than lending its name to the title and placing the odd advert in MAD Magazine urging people to see it. As with MAD TV sixteen years later, none of the Usual Gang of Idiots were invited to contribute to the script, and the only concession to the magazine was the brief appearance of a boy in an Alfred E. Neuman mask at the beginning and end of the movie, with a large speech bubble containing his catchphrase: "What, Me Worry?". But Alfred E. Neuman would worry about their reputation when the movie was released. The film owed more to Animal House and Rock And Roll High School than The Lighter Side... and Spy Vs. Spy, and focussed on a group of no-good teens (including a young Ralph Macchio, pre-Karate Kid, as "Chooch") who are sent to Weinberg Military Academy, to be taught by Major Vaughn Liceman with his unappealing catchphrase of "Say it again!". So humiliated was Ron Leibman (the actor who portrayed Liceman) that he asked, and succeeded, to have his name taken off the picture. Other cast members with this crossed off their CVs include Mork And Mindy's Tom Poston as the school paedophile (turning up in students' rooms carrying a sack and stating "I was just on my way to the laundry, why don't you slip out of your little undershorts?"), Antonio "Huggy Bear" Fargus as the soccer coach ("And for this I gave up being white!"), and Ringo Starr's wife and ex-Bond girl Barbara Bach as a weapons-handling, low-cut-top-wearing, cannabis-smoking, ludicrously sexy teacher. The film features a farting commandant, numerous drug references, characters who wet the bed, abortion jokes, the running catchphrase of "it makes you stand out like a turd in a punchbowl" (which comes to a conclusion with a shot of an actual turd in a punchbowl), and finally ends with a lacklustre soccer game between teachers and pupils, the prize being blackmail-friendly polaroids of the captains of each team in various sexual positions. William Gaines hated the film's change from the light-hearted Airplane!-style comedy script he read to the bad taste, gross-out movie it became. So much, in fact, that he sued Warners to have all references to his magazine removed from the film's video release. He won, to an extent, having to pay Warner Brothers thirty thousand dollars for the cost of re-editing the prints for video release. However, only some of the videos have all the references to Alfred E. Neuman (who also gets a "Special Thanks" credit) removed whilst others only remove all MAD references from the video's box, which is a very different thing altogether (Gaines later was given back some of his money from Warner Brothers for this anomaly). However, the video lost out, having to sacrifice a brilliant poster design by MAD veteran Jack Rickard. Before Gaines' complaint... ...and after. If it can be said that Up The Academy has a redeeming feature, it's the excellent seventies soundtrack full of American punk, with songs from Blondie, Cheap Trick, Blow-Up, Iggy And The Stooges, The Dwight Twilley Band, Eddie And The Hot Rods, Ian Hunter, Lou Reed, Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers, The Boomtown Rats, David Johansen, Cheeks, Sammy Hagar, Nick Lowe, The Babys, Pat Benatar, and The Kinks. That is, if it can be said that Up The Academy has a redeeming feature. Proving that they still had a sense of humour, MAD Magazine came back at Warners in style when it did its own memorable two-page spoof on the movie in the style of their regular movie parodies ("MAD Magazine Resents: Throw Up The Academy", #218, one month after they published a full-page colour advert encouraging people to see the movie!). It was up to usual MAD standard: instead of the teens being punished by going to military school, they are punished by appearing in the film Up The Academy! It references Ron Leibman's attempts to take his name off the picture ("My agent said that appearing in this bomberoo would establish a name for myself in the motion picture biz." "And did it?" "Yeah! 'Schmuck!'"), and ends in magnificent fashion with memos from all involved in the spoof to editor Al Feldstein: FROM THE DESK OF STAN HART: Dear Al, I quit! I can't in all conscience foist a satire of this turkey on an unsuspecting public! I've got to live with myself! FROM THE BOARD OF ANGELO TORRES: Dear Al, I agree with what's his name! Besides, it's tough to draw while you're retching! FROM THE DESK OF AL FELDSTEIN: Dear Bill, Must we do this picture? Why can't we just bury our garbage, and do a satire of a more deserving film? FROM THE UNDERGROUND BUNKER OF BILL GAINES: Dear Al, All right, already! I'm sorry! I was wrong! I hate myself! Have you any idea what HELL it is to be stupid and fat at the same time? In the middle of this two-page spread was a large statue of Alfred E. Neuman, crying, gun to his head, turkey on his hat, and with a plaque reading "What - Me Sorry!". It was to be the last time MAD would lend their name to another filmed project until the aforementioned MAD TV fifteen years later.
....and all the spelling is correct, and there are periods. Which means Dan is cut and pastin' again. Barry
It may also appear elsewhere on the web, but I googled some of "his" text and found this: http://www.godsrudewireless.co.uk/oldsite/200406/grw09.pdf
