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Get Smart

Philippa Hawker, Reviewer
July 2, 2008

It's a pleasant surprise to see how well this '60s show stands up.

Genre
Comedy
Run Time
758 minutes
Rated
PG
Country
United States
Director
Buck Henry, Mel Brooks
Rating
stars-4

Until recently, TV's Get Smart has not been readily available, and it has been sold only as a boxed set of the entire series. As the new movie version hits the big screen, the first three seasons are in wide release this month, and it's a pleasant surprise to see how well this '60s show stands up. Co-creators Buck Henry and Mel Brooks establish the tone right from the start as confidently bumbling secret agent Maxwell Smart (Don Adams) sets about saving the world from evil. Agent 99 appears in the pilot (the only episode shot in black and white), as do the shoe phone, the cone of silence and the "would you believe" routine. The laugh track is annoying, some of the gags now seem less than PC, but the actors play it magnificently straight. The archival bonus materials on the DVD are fun, but Feldon's brief prologue to every episode is a bewilderingly unnecessary extra. A small highlight for Mac fans: Episode 11, Too Many Chiefs, has a scene that spookily anticipates the future of computing.

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