Product Description

Studio: Hbo Home Video Release Date: 08/05/2008 Run time: 750 minutes Rating: G

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3940 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-08-05
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Original recording remastered, Restored, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 4
• Running time: 900 minutes

Amazon.com
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 spy 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, < I>The Man from U.N.C.L.E., and I Spy 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 spy, 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 spy 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 grandfather 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

Customer Reviews

The Old Funniest Show EVER on TV Trick!
Why has Get Smart not yet been released on DVD? It simply boggles my mind because this is about the funniest show I have ever watched. I grew up with Get Smart and its good natured spy humor.

If you are like me, you think of Siegfried and not Doc Bricker when you think of Bernie Kopel. the only character that comes to mind when you think of Dick Gautier is Hymie the Robot. the great Edward Platt will always be The Chief and Barbara Feldon's character 99 will always be the ever faithful comic foil and love interest to Maxwell Smart, Secret Agent 86 of CONTROL.

All of Get Smart's legion of fans want to see the return of Leadside, and the Tequila Mockingbird, and the Craw NOT the Craw!, and Agent 13, and Stocker, and Harry Hoo The Famous Hawaiian Detective, and the Groovy Guru, and Destructo, and Mary Jack Armstrong the Strongest Woman Alive, and the lovable King of Coronia, and TBO The Big One, and well the list can and does go and on!

Please, please give us EVERY season of Get Smart on DVD! I am begging you PLEASE! PLEASE!! PLEASE!!!

EDIT 12/5/06

well i just received my complete series from Time Life and it is wonderful! Barbara Feldon narrates an intro before each episode and the quality is astounding! they did a wonderful job with this boxed set! i heartily recommend anyone who loves Get Smart to buy it! and Time Life oftens issues coupon codes so sign up on their site and purchase with the coupon code like i did to save thirty bucks! ENJOY!

When TV Comedies Were Actually Funny
Not too long ago I wrote a review of the book, The Get Smart Handbook written by Joey Green. In the review, I basically made a plea to the universe to bring this show out on DVD. Well, would you believe on November 15, 2006, I will get my wish?

Time-Life is offering The Complete Get Smart Collection. A 25 disc collection featuring every episode digitally remastered. I guess it is selling for approximately $200. It could be $2,000 and I would still buy this classic show.

I have friends' that tell me I am stuck in a time warp because I watch very little television that is actually new. For some reason or another the writing of the older shows far surpass the writing of today's television shows. I watched a rerun of Friends' the other night and I was literally dizzy after watching that show. There were like four stories going on in one show? Have we become that much of an ADD society where we can't just have one show with one plot for thirty minutes? It seems as though everything today is so "extreme" and so in your face. I actually get offended at some of the things I have watched and I'm not easily offended.

But this show, Get Smart, conceived by certified "Wack Jobs" Mel Brooks and Buck Henry is in a class all by itself. This show is brilliant in every way. The writing, the acting, the production value. It did get a little cheesy when Maxwell Smart and agent 99 got married, but even those episodes were funnier than the stuff that's out there now.

The only thing that I really feel saddened about is that this release is coming after Don Adam's death. For a very long time, Don Adams was my hero. While other kids on the playground pretended to be the Six Million Dollar Man or Batman, I was Secret Agent 86. I used to purposely forget my homework so I could do the "Would you believe?" shtick with my teacher.

Mmmmm..it was always funnier on the show than in real life.

Well, I know one of my Christmas presents this year because I am going to buy this collection for myself.

Peace & Blessings, everyone, and may television return to the dally of the belly laugh...

"The old spy in the spoof trick!"
Smart. Maxwell Smart. The dumbest spy in the world, who fights on behalf of the forces of goodness and niceness, and succeeded in making democracy vs. communism a lot more entertaining. With the comic trio of Don Adams, Barbara Feldon and Edward Platt, this hilarious spy spoof is still funny today.

Don Adams is Agent 86, Maxwell Smart, a not-so-bright spy with an endless arsenal of strange devices and odd sayings. The bumbling spy at a top-secret government agency called Control, which is responsible for keeping the free world free. Backing him up is his beautiful partner/love interest Agent 99 (Barbara Feldon) and his long-suffering Chief (Eward Platt) who puts up with Smart's constant mistakes.

Together with 99 and the Chief (and his faithful dog Fang), Max battles the forces of badness and rottenness -- namely, the anti-Control called KAOS. Among the enemies the Control agents face: the dwarfish "Mr. Big," the fashion forces of evil, a likable killer robot, a Chinese mastermind called the Claw, and explosive paintings. And that's only the start...

"Missed it by that much!" Maxwell Smart's catchphrases and goofy confidence made him the perfect antidote to the suave James Bond. Unlike Bond and similar movie spies, Max succeeds out of luck and bumbling more often than not, but he still succeeds.

The comic timing is a little awkward at the very beginning, but rapidly gets its footing. What's really funny is the endless spoofery -- Max is given all sorts of weird gadgets, including the legendary "shoe-phone," and he faces off against all sorts of cartoonish villains.

The political clime of the mid 1960s is all over the series, especially in the form of KAOS. But fortunately they don't get preachy -- KAOS is merely a big evil organization, no more. Some references are dated, and this definitely debuted before the era of political correctness (there's a bizarre episode about American Indians threatening the US government, and the Claw is funny if un-PC).

Don Adams MAKES this series, with his quirky facial expressions, nasal voice and odd body language. Hard to tell how he could keep a straight face throughout many of the lines he says. Barbara Feldon is the least quirky of the cast, but does a good job as the brains behind Max, while Edward Platt is just wonderful as the long-suffering Chief, who always looks slightly frayed.

Though some of the 60s-era references are a bit dated, "Get Smart" is still gutsplittingly funny. You'll roll around on the floor, laughing yourself sick... and... loving it.