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Category:    Home > Reviews > Comedy > Spy > TV > Get Smart – The Complete 1994 – 1995 Series (Sony DVD)

Get Smart – The Complete 1994 – 1995 Series (Sony DVD)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C+     Extras: D     Episodes: C+

 

 

After two feature-length revivals yielded no results, The Cold War seemed like the end of Spy films, TV shows and all their spoofs.  However, thanks to hit film revivals of James Bond (GoldenEye) and Mission: Impossible (with Tom Cruise) among others, Spy films were big box office again and for the first time since its debut then 30 years ago, Get Smart was back as a TV series.  Don Adams was back as Maxwell Smart and even Barbara Feldon was back as Agent 99, still happily married to each other decades later and still working for the CONTROL.  Now, however, they had a son who was joining them on missions.  Unfortunately for the show, he was played by Andy Dick.

 

Zack Smart (Dick) was taking orders from father Max, who was now the new Chief.  99 was a congresswoman, still helping out with the missions, but we never hear any other name for her, so who knows what name she won her seat under.  Elaine Hendrix joined them as Agent 66 and KAOS was back as an evil corporation.  The seven episodes, including a few appearances by Bernie Kopell as Siegfried and a cameo in one episode by Robert Goulet, include:

 

1)     Get Smart

2)     Casino Evil

3)     Goodbye Ms. Chip

4)     Shooting Up The Charts

5)     Passenger 99

6)     Wurst Enemies

7)     Liver Let Die

 

 

The series added new humor that almost worked, but was too distant from the original to ever make that work, while there is more of Feldon and Adams than expected, but this needed a little more work overall and fans could site dozens of TV ads Adams did that felt more like the show.  We’ll skip the obvious jokes about the impossibilities of Adams and Feldon giving birth to anyone like Dick, but Dick’s presence makes this a curio along with the release of the new 2008 motion picture inspiring this release to begin with.

 

After Police Squad/Naked Gun, this still seemed behind the times, but it is now bittersweet and ironic as the last of the pre-9/11 works of the franchise.  As a matter of fact, outside of The Paper Chase, I cannot remember any TV show havin as many comebacks as Get Smart.  Despite the shortcomings of this version, it is worth a look, but only after you’ve seen the original 1960s show.  I can’t wait to compare it to the new film either.

 

 

The 1.33 X 1 image was shot on film and has a consistent look, but unfortunately, it was finished on analog NTSC video resulting in aliasing errors all over each episode.  It is a shame this could not be fixed, but it is watchable otherwise.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is good for its age, has no surrounds and the show had enough money in it for good sound recording.  The new version of the theme song is fair at best, but the laugh track is more awkward.  Except for two dumb webisodes, severely cut down versions of episodes of T.J. Hooker and NewsRadio, there are unfortunately no extras.

 

For more on the classic original series, read about its entire run in HBO Home Video/Time-Life’s huge DVD box set release at this link:

 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6400/Get+Smart+–+The+Complete+Series

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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