MAD Magazine

Mad (magazine)

Mad is an American humor magazine founded by editor Harvey Kurtzman and publisher William Gaines in 1952. Launched as a comic book before it became a magazine, it was widely imitated and influential, impacting not only satirical media but the entire cultural landscape of the 20th century.The last...

 Presents Up the Academy is an American teen

Teen film

Teen films is a film genre targeted at teenagers and young adults in which the plot is based upon the special interests of teenagers, such as coming of age, first love, rebellion, conflict with parents, teen angst, and alienation...

 comedy film

Comedy film

Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...

 released in 1980, with a plot about the outrageous antics of a group of misfits at a military school.

Production

The movie was an attempt to cash in on the phenomenal and unexpected success of National Lampoon's Animal House

National Lampoon's Animal House

National Lampoon's Animal House is a 1978 American comedy film directed by John Landis. The film was a direct spin-off of National Lampoon magazine...

, which was also a movie made by a comedy magazine about a group of misfits at college. In 1983, Mad publisher Bill Gaines explained the genesis of his magazine's involvement in the film to the Comics Journal:

"What happened is that we had a contract with Warner Brothers to put out a Mad movie. It's like four years old now. They came up with a script that we didn't like, and then they came up with a script using our scriptwriters that they didn't like, but meanwhile they threw this script onto our desk... Although there were many things in it that I thought were offensive and should be removed, generally I liked the script. And I thought, 'Well, in addition to a Mad movie, there's nothing wrong with having something like Lampoon did with Animal House. Animal House was "Lampoon Presents" and really had nothing to do with the magazine, it was just using their name, and it was a good movie, and it was very successful, and it made Lampoon a lot of money. I guess. So we were going to do the same thing. "Mad Magazine Completely Disassociates Itself from Up the Academy". But that was too long for them, they can't think in that many words. They put the damn thing out without all the deletions they had promised to make, which means they're liars. I'm talking about one of my sister companies [laughter]... And there we were connected with it, and there wasn't much we could do about it. I paid Warner Brothers 30 grand to take Mads name off for television. So for $30,000 we got out of being associated with it on Home Box Office. It won't say "Mad Magazine Presents" and Alfred E. Neuman

Alfred E. Neuman

Alfred E. Neuman is the fictional mascot and cover boy of Mad magazine. The face had drifted through American pictography for decades before being claimed and named by Mad editor Harvey Kurtzman...

 won't be in it. And it was well worth $30,000. [laughter]"

It was directed by Robert Downey

Robert Downey Sr.

Robert John Downey, Sr. is an American actor, writer, and film director, and the father of actor Robert Downey, Jr...

, and starred Wendell Brown

Wendell Brown

Wendell Brown is an American computer scientist and entrepreneur best known for his innovations in telecommunications. Brown has founded several well-known companies, including Teleo, LiveOps, and eVoice.-Education:...

, Tommy Citera, Harry Teinowitz, Hutch Parker (younger brother of Parker Stevenson

Parker Stevenson

Parker Stevenson is an American television and film actor.-Career:His first notable screen appearance was a starring role in the 1972 movie A Separate Peace...

 and now known as movie executive J. Hutchison), Tom Poston

Tom Poston

Thomas Gordon "Tom" Poston was an American television and film actor. He starred on television in a career that began in 1950...

, Barbara Bach

Barbara Bach

Barbara Bach is an American actress and model known as the Bond girl from the James Bond movie The Spy Who Loved Me . She is married to former Beatle Ringo Starr.-Early life:...

, Stacey Nelkin

Stacey Nelkin

Stacey Nelkin is an American film and television actress. She is well known for her role in the 1982 horror film Halloween III: Season of the Witch as Ellie Grimbridge. Her best-known TV role is on the soap opera Generations as Christy Russell in 1990...

, Ralph Macchio

Ralph Macchio

Ralph George Macchio is an American actor, best known for his roles as Daniel LaRusso in the Karate Kid series, Bill Gambini in My Cousin Vinny, and Johnny Cade in The Outsiders. He is also known to American television audiences for his season five recurring role as Jeremy Andretti on the...

 (his screen debut) and King Coleman

King Coleman

Carlton "King" Coleman was an American rhythm and blues singer and musician, known for providing the vocals for the 1959 hit single, " Mashed Potatoes", recorded with James Brown's band...

. The movie was filmed entirely in Salina, Kansas

Salina, Kansas

Salina is a city in and the county seat of Saline County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 47,707. Located in one of the world's largest wheat-producing areas, Salina is a regional trade center for north-central Kansas...

, mostly on the campus of St. John's Military School

St. John's Military School

St. John's Military School, located in Salina, Kansas, is a private boarding military school for male students from grades 6 to 12. It aims to develop students' academic and leadership skills in a "military environment" overseen by a President, Academic Dean and Commandant of Cadets. It has the...

.

Response

The film was neither a commercial nor critical success when it was originally released, and was disowned by both the staff of MAD magazine and actor Ron Leibman

Ron Leibman

-Career:Leibman was a member of the Compass Players in the late 1950s. He has appeared in many films such as Phar Lap; Where's Poppa?; The Hot Rock; Slaughterhouse-Five; The Super Cops; Up the Academy; Norma Rae; Romantic Comedy; Zorro, The Gay Blade; Garden State; and Rhinestone...

 (who, despite his sizeable role, had his name completely removed from the credits and promotional material). Besides paying Warner Bros.

Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...

 $30,000 to remove all references to MAD from the film when it was released on home video, MAD's publisher William Gaines

William Gaines

William Maxwell Gaines , better known as Bill Gaines, was an American publisher and co-editor of EC Comics. Following a shift in EC's direction in 1950, Gaines presided over what became an artistically influential and historically important line of mature-audience comics...

 issued personal handwritten apologies to every person that wrote the magazine to complain. However, the film developed a small cult following

Cult following

A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a specific area of pop culture. A film, book, band, or video game, among other things, will be said to have a cult following when it has a small but very passionate fan base...

. Following Time Warner

Time Warner

Time Warner is one of the world's largest media companies, headquartered in the Time Warner Center in New York City. Formerly two separate companies, Warner Communications, Inc...

's purchase of MAD (and after Gaines' death in 1992), all references to the magazine were reinstated on cable television. In 2006, the original version of the film was issued on DVD.

Production issues

• Make up effects wizard Rick Baker
  Richard A. Baker
  Richard A. "Rick" Baker is an American special makeup effects artist known for his realistic creature effects.- Personal life :...
  
   designed the Alfred E. Neuman
  Alfred E. Neuman
  Alfred E. Neuman is the fictional mascot and cover boy of Mad magazine. The face had drifted through American pictography for decades before being claimed and named by Mad editor Harvey Kurtzman...
  
  masks for the film.