Get Smart: The Complete Series

If you're getting this because you have fond memories of Maxwell Smart, bumbling agent and you want to share his zaniness with your children, don't! This is NOT a family-friendly series. The first time you see the agent paired with Maxwell's Smart's klutzy son, she is clothed in pants and a metal bra/camisole with prominent nipple guns. There are sexual innuendos galore. If that's your thing, by all means, buy it. But it was not what I was expecting.

And Maxwell Smart and 99 play second-fiddle to their son and his partner, so there's not much Don Adams zing there either.

We'd just seen the movie, and my wife brought me this in a bookstore assuming it was the original series. I knew it wasn't, but the front of the DVD claims "The Complete Series" with the title "Get Smart" with *no* indication that it is the remake other than the fine print "the Smarts are Back in Control". This is somewhere between dishonest and deceptive, and is certainly sleazy. Buyer beware: the real complete series is ~$200 for a boxed set of multiple seasons. Shame on Sony marketing.

I was initially very disappointed that the show on this DVD was not actually the original Get Smart. I still gave it a shot though. It may be that I was already looking at the show negatively based on my initial reaction, but the show is really not very good. It is hard to give specifics, the show is really just bland. Owing to the fact that there were only six episodes made.

On the slightly positive side Don Adams is still very funny. It is also nice to see Barbara Feldon as Agent 99 again. In my opinion the buck stops with a little bit of nostalgia.

I came across this DVD when searching for the original Get Smart TV show, and figured I couldn't go wrong picking this up for just $10.99. It was great to see Don Adams and Barbara Feldon get back into the roles of Agent 86 and 99, but that was probably the best thing about this dvd.

Maybe my memory is clouded regarding one of my favorite old TV shows, but I don't remember the old version of the shows effects being this bad. For a show produced in 1995, I expected a lot more from this new series, but was very disappointed. Many of the 'effects' were simply shown by displaying a can or tool of some kind, then cutting away for a moment and back to the 'results'. Off the top of my head, the only thing that comes to mind was the scene where the agent pulls out a can of 'instant key' and sprays shaving cream into a doorknob. Flash away and back, and find a solid white ball of plaster surrounding his hand. I'm not sure why that sticks in my mind, becuase there were definitely worse 'effects' scenes than that one.

Overall, I'm glad to have found this series that I never knew existed, but I can definitely understand why it was cancelled after only 7 episodes. Fans of the original series will enjoy it, but don't expect too much.

Fox had a brilliant idea in bringing back this classic series. I was so excited that Get Smart was being brought back years later in an updated version. First, start with the surviving cast (Don Adams, Barbara Feldon -still gorgeous, David Ketchum, and even a guest shot by Bernie Kopell as the evil Sigfreid.) They also added the stunning (and funny) Elaine Hendrix as another CONTROL agent.
Their one fatal mistake was adding Andy "the unfunniest , most annoying man on Earth and appropriately named" Dick as 86 and 99's son Zack. In the original series Max and 99 had twins. So it could have been worse, with the aforementioned Mr. Dick playing a dual role. But had they cast someone more likeable, the series would have went on much longer. I even remember reading an interview with Andy Dick where he trashed the show when it first came out because he also had a role on Newsradio and wanted out of his contract.
So in what could have been a great reboot of the series, CONTROL was not vanquished by KAOS, but bad casting. And niceness did not triumph over evil on this sequel. Sorry about that Chief!
It still amazes me to this day why Andy Dick has a career. I've tried to watch him with other wonderful casts on Newsradio and Less Than Perfect, but have a very low tolerance level to his brand of humor. Well, to each his own, but he's ruined many a fine show for me. Let's hope his 15 minutes are up.