When We Went MAD!
When We Went MAD! offers a fun look back at the creation and rise of MAD Magazine, its struggles over the years, the contentious relationship between MAD's first editor Harvey Kurtzman and publisher William Gaines, the creation of Alfred E. Neuman, the band of idiots who came and went over the years helping the magazine find and develop its satiric voice, and its eventually decline and end of the magazine publishing new content.
Providing interviews from many of the people who worked at MAD over the years, and anecdotes from some of the magazine's biggest supporters (such as Judd Apatow, Quentin Tarantino, Bryan Cranston, David Zucker, and "Weird Al" Yankovic, among others), and including archival footage, Alan Bernstein's documentary loving looks back at the publication and its legacy.
Bernstein hits his marks here highlighting the magazine's legal disputes and parental campaigns against the magazine which only made it more attractive to its young audience, the relationships that went on behind-the-scenes, and the various elements that went into an issue of MAD including the recurrig segments like Spy vs. Spy, the Fold-ins, and the movie and TV parodies.
As the documentary so eloquently shows, a world without MAD (whatever your personal opinion on the magazine) is a more dreary place. Inspiring generations of actors, filmmakers, and comedians, while also satirizing the world of popular culture (sometimes fondly and sometimes with a bit more of a bite) for the masses, the magazine sparked creative thinking in its young readers. In a time where such skills seem to be in dwindling supply, we could all do with going a little mad sometimes.
- Title: When We Went MAD!
- IMDb: link
