Product Description
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Comedy legends Mel Brooks and Buck Henry created this classic,
Emmy(R) Award-winning series that brilliantly spoofs the Cold
War-era genre that was all the rage in the 1960s thanks to
James Bond. Don Adams stars as Maxwell Smart--a.k.a. Agent 86--a
hilariously inept and maladroit operative working for CONTROL, a
top secret counterintelligence agency. Armed with an array of
catchphrases ("Would you believe...?," "I asked you not to tell
me that," "And loving it!," "Missed it by that much!”), along
with his trusty shoe-phone and other ridiculous gadgets, Smart
was able to foil the nefarious, though equally incompetent,
espionage organization KAOS, aided immeasurably by his much
smarter partner, sultry Agent 99, deliciously played by Barbara
Feldon. Edward Platt co-stars as 'Chief,' the head of CONTROL,
and the series features notable guest appearances from Carol
Burnett, Johnny Carson, Don Rickles and many others.
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Review
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The feature film may have missed it by that much, but Get Smart,
the TV series, still hits the target with deadly funny accuracy.
The right show at the right time, Get Smart brilliantly spoofed
the genre that was all the rage in 1965, with James Bond on
the big screen, and such series as Danger Man, The Avengers, The
Saint, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., and I more or less playing it
straight on the small screen. Get Smart, on the other hand, had a
license to kill…with laughter. Mel Brooks and Buck Henry created
one of TV's all-time greatest characters, Maxwell Smart, Agent 86
of CONTROL, the super-secret agency vigilantly on alert against
the forces of KAOS. Smart (Don Adams in his iconic, Emmy-winning
role), an American Clouseau, was not stupid. Though all evidence
to the contrary, he was, in his own mind, a suave and
sophisticated , albeit one who would inadvertently lean
against a freshly painted wall while shadowing an enemy agent.
Get Smart hilariously deglamorized the business of espionage.
Agents punch a time clock and dispute vacation time. Cool
gadgets, such as the infamous Cone of Silence, are prone to
malfunction. One running joke throughout the first season finds
Agent 44 (Victor French) perched in a variety of unlikely and
uncomfortable hiding places, among them a grandher clock.
Although the series would only get smarter and funnier in
subsequent seasons (Bernie Kopell's KAOS mastermind Siegfried
would be introduced in season two), the first season contains
several essential episodes, including the Emmy-winning
two-parter, "Ship of Spies," "Aboard the Orient Express,"
featuring a cameo by Johnny Carson as an unflappable conductor,
"Diplomat's Daughter" with the arch --and decidedly non-PC--
villain, the Craw, and "Back to the Drawing Board," featuring
Dick Gautier as Hymie the robot. From "Sorry about that" to
"Would you believe," no show before Get Smart introduced so many
catchphrases into the national language, while Smart and his
partner, Agent 99 (the ravishing Barbara Feldon), were perhaps
TV's first "will they or won't they" couple. Brooks and Henry
contribute separate commentaries for the black and white pilot
episode, while Feldon provides commentary for another, and purrs
introductions to each episode (beware plot spoilers). With Get
Smart, you will be witness to some of TV's funniest moments,
sharpest writing, and expertly-executed physical comedy. And…
loving it. --Donald Liebenson