Reviewed by Stuart O'Connor
Stars Don Adams, Barbara Feldon, Andy Dick, Elaine Hendrix, Heather Morgan
Written by Lawrence Gay & Gary Apple, based on characters created by Mel Brooks & Buck Henry
UK certification PG | UK RRP £15.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 158 minutes| Directed by Nick Marck
The executives at Fox must have been taking some pretty weird drugs back in the early 1990s. That's the only reason I can think of for any of them to have considered this to actually be a viable TV series. On the plus side, it only lasted 7 episodes before they took it off life support. But on the downside, these are the same people who axed Arrested Development, Futurama, Family Guy, Angel and Firefly — so what the hell do they know about quality television?
This version of Get Smart tried to recreate the very funny and very clever Mel Brooks spy spoof sitcom that began in 1965 and ran until 1970 (the first series of which is finally being released on DVD in the UK in August — watch for our review). "Tries" is a generous word, because it seems to me that the writers didn't really try at all. It seems they just thought if they threw in Don Adams and Barbara Feldon — the bumbling Maxwell Smart and smart, sexy Agent 99 from the original 60s series — and recycled some of the original plots and gags, then they would be onto a winner. And it might have worked but for one big problem: the very unfunny Andy Dick. Yes, Dick by name and dick by nature.
You might know Andy from NewsRadio, which was made after this and was reasonably decent despite Dick's presence. But in Get Smart he plays Zach, son of Max and 99. The premise is actually pretty sound. Max is now the Chief of CONTROL, the covert US governement agency set up to fight KAOS, a Cold War Russian/East German organisation dedicated to evil; and 99 (who, strangely, everyone still calls 99) is a US Congresswoman. KAOS is now an evil corporation, hellbent on the financial domination of the world. Zach is a bumbling CONTROL agent (get it?) partnered with the beautiful, smart, sexy and very competent Agent 66 (get it?). Zach and 66 (played by the lovely Elaine Hendrix) get into all sorts of scrapes and adventures and 66 usually has to get him out of trouble. Adams and Feldon are woefully underused, and the show's makers have relied a little too much on the old let's-just-recycle-the-gags-from-the-original-series trick.
The DVD release gets 1 star simply for the episode Wurst Enemy, which sees the return of Max's arch enemy, former KAOS spy Seigfried — again portrayed by the wonderfully goofy and very funny Bernie Kopell. This epsiode (which features a lovely gag about Kopell's best-known acting gig, as a doctor on a cruise ship) shows just what this revival could have been, if only the writers hadn't used their "talents" for evil instead of for niceness. Oh, and the awful laugh track doesn't help matters, either. A cynic would think this series is only getting a DVD release because of the forthcoming Get Smart movie. Don't waste your money; save it instead for the release of the original 60s series. You'll be glad you did.
EXTRAS Would you believe ... none at all? Zero? Well, how about zilch?