Go Down Nostalgia Lane the Smart Way...
There's a bit of an awkward moment. The almost mediocre man from nerdsville stands around the corner, playing into the scene with a bit of a clumsiness. His dark hair matches his suit. He sticks out almost like a sore thumb here. Then he leans over for his shoe which he takes off, starts to speak into it like it's a telephone.
This guy isn't James Bond.
But he's someone close to it. And he's trying to get smart.
Get Smart.
This is the brainchild of Mel Brooks ane Buck Henry way back in the 1960s when the spy movie was the craze, reaching at a popular height during this time. This was around the time when President John F. Kennedy, the striking image of Camelot, admitted that the book "From Russia with Love" was one of his favorite books.
The spy stuff got a jumpstart. And it was getting all over the place. You couldn't get away from it and there's a chance of overexposure from the spy movies, games and whatever else that flooded the popular culture. There was no shortage of it during the sixties.
But creators of Get Smart wanted to make a detour from it all. They played it up for laughs. They used gags to make this one of the most entertaining shows of its time. They knew they couldn't have the budget to make a full scaled television show. So comedy became the routine here. And it worked. The whole thing was a satire.
Even better, the show made for a great way to pass the time during the summer months when I was younger, waiting between the school years, and finding some solace in easy laughs and visual gags. And the series like Get Smart knew how to make its audience laugh.
How smart was it? The show won seven emmys and two Golden Globe awards. Not bad for a little show making fun of spy stuff.
Now, after a long way, the series finally reached its immortal place on the DVD. Why the long wait? Some copyright issues? Perhaps it did take some time to find the mastercopies of the episodes and polish them off for better presentation? What matters is that we get to see the silly spy spoof revived again with interest. And not a moment soon with the next Bond flick coming around in November.
Don Adams plays Maxwell Smart who is half spectuclar and the other half a dork. But he's a likeable dork. And his funny delivery is what keeps the viewers coming back for the five years the show was on. Along with the rare TV movie that was made "The Nude Bomb" which featured the entire main cast butt-naked in the final scene.
Adams was also know for doing the cartoon voices for the Inspector Gadget series and also Tennessee Tuxedo. His comic timing is always impeccable. Adams lived for comedy. It's a shame that he passed away some time ago without hearing his comment on the final revival of the Get Smart series for the digital treatment.
Along with him is the lovely agent 99 played by the wondeful Barbara Feldon. She is usually pretty smart girl and always very attractive in each of the episodes. Her comic delievery are always very good as she must hold her own against the very funny Adams.
The first pilot episode is the only black and white they made. And it is jam packed with great stuff that introduces many of the gadgets used by Smart during the latter part of the series. The few action scenes are great towards the end with Smart and Agent 99 fighting the agents from the incorrectly spelled Kaos international organization.
If you look closely, you can see that it is Michael Dunn playing the bad guy in this episode... and the same guy who went on to produce one of television's greatest villains Dr. Loveless from the Wild, Wild West series.
There are a lot of guests starts to be spotted throughout the first season including Johnny Carson in the Orient Express episode. There are always some consistent writing and the comedy is better than average. You don't get many shows where a guy can talk into his shoe or have a few funny skits involving the code of silence.
This is one way of going down on nostalgia lane. The smart way. And you might find yourself recalling many of the episodes of years ago and they come back to you as it's just yesterday.
Why waste your time going to the movie remake of the TV series that doesn't have any of the charm of the original actors? Spend a little time with the old shows. You'll thank me for it later on. And the old series is much, much funnier.
This guy isn't James Bond.
But he's someone close to it. And he's trying to get smart.
Get Smart.
This is the brainchild of Mel Brooks ane Buck Henry way back in the 1960s when the spy movie was the craze, reaching at a popular height during this time. This was around the time when President John F. Kennedy, the striking image of Camelot, admitted that the book "From Russia with Love" was one of his favorite books.
The spy stuff got a jumpstart. And it was getting all over the place. You couldn't get away from it and there's a chance of overexposure from the spy movies, games and whatever else that flooded the popular culture. There was no shortage of it during the sixties.
But creators of Get Smart wanted to make a detour from it all. They played it up for laughs. They used gags to make this one of the most entertaining shows of its time. They knew they couldn't have the budget to make a full scaled television show. So comedy became the routine here. And it worked. The whole thing was a satire.
Even better, the show made for a great way to pass the time during the summer months when I was younger, waiting between the school years, and finding some solace in easy laughs and visual gags. And the series like Get Smart knew how to make its audience laugh.
How smart was it? The show won seven emmys and two Golden Globe awards. Not bad for a little show making fun of spy stuff.
Now, after a long way, the series finally reached its immortal place on the DVD. Why the long wait? Some copyright issues? Perhaps it did take some time to find the mastercopies of the episodes and polish them off for better presentation? What matters is that we get to see the silly spy spoof revived again with interest. And not a moment soon with the next Bond flick coming around in November.
Don Adams plays Maxwell Smart who is half spectuclar and the other half a dork. But he's a likeable dork. And his funny delivery is what keeps the viewers coming back for the five years the show was on. Along with the rare TV movie that was made "The Nude Bomb" which featured the entire main cast butt-naked in the final scene.
Adams was also know for doing the cartoon voices for the Inspector Gadget series and also Tennessee Tuxedo. His comic timing is always impeccable. Adams lived for comedy. It's a shame that he passed away some time ago without hearing his comment on the final revival of the Get Smart series for the digital treatment.
Along with him is the lovely agent 99 played by the wondeful Barbara Feldon. She is usually pretty smart girl and always very attractive in each of the episodes. Her comic delievery are always very good as she must hold her own against the very funny Adams.
The first pilot episode is the only black and white they made. And it is jam packed with great stuff that introduces many of the gadgets used by Smart during the latter part of the series. The few action scenes are great towards the end with Smart and Agent 99 fighting the agents from the incorrectly spelled Kaos international organization.
If you look closely, you can see that it is Michael Dunn playing the bad guy in this episode... and the same guy who went on to produce one of television's greatest villains Dr. Loveless from the Wild, Wild West series.
There are a lot of guests starts to be spotted throughout the first season including Johnny Carson in the Orient Express episode. There are always some consistent writing and the comedy is better than average. You don't get many shows where a guy can talk into his shoe or have a few funny skits involving the code of silence.
This is one way of going down on nostalgia lane. The smart way. And you might find yourself recalling many of the episodes of years ago and they come back to you as it's just yesterday.
Why waste your time going to the movie remake of the TV series that doesn't have any of the charm of the original actors? Spend a little time with the old shows. You'll thank me for it later on. And the old series is much, much funnier.
posted by K.M. Paters at 6:30 PM
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