Mad #200 (Albert Feldstein) - Close Encounters Issue - July 1978

Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind was the second significant science fiction movie of the decade after Star Wars.  The director tried to show a realistic account of the first contact with friendly aliens.  Mad honored this landmark movie with Jack Rickard's cover showing alien Alf, and the feature parody by Stan Hart and Mort Drucker.  The drawings were great as always but I think that Hart's story was rather ordinary.  Dick DeBartolo's parody of The Donny & Marie Show was much better.  Although I never watched that pop music show, DeBartolo has convinced me that I was not missing much.  I love the guest list (Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Carter, Johnny Carson, Pope Paul & Queen Elizabeth II).

Unlike the 100th issue, there was nothing special about the 200th issue.  Mad editors withheld their self-congratulating until issue number 400. [JAM 8/12/2010]

Look for Richard Nixon in "Clod Encounters ..." and "You Can Never Escape From Stress."

Departments:
Boffo UFO - Clod Encounters of the Absurd Kind
From Fad to Verse - The Rime of the Modern Skateboarder
That Old Familiar Strain - You Can Never Escape From Stress
Berg's-Eye View - The Lighter Side of Fads
Awful Assembly - Graduation Class Pictures ... As Staged by Some Famous Picture-Makers
Tried And Trudeau - When the "Old Line" Comics Follow the New Wave "Doonesbury" Trend
The Dirty End of Schtick - Mad's "College Concert Comic of the Year"
Joke And Dagger - Spy vs. Spy
You Bet Your Life - The Mad Book of Odds
Hidden Meanies - How To Read Between the Lines
Zings to Come - A Mad Look at the Moment Before the Disaster
Sweetness Counts - Dummy And Mareek
Socket To 'Em - Before the Contest

Fold-In - Africa