DVD Release Date: June 3, 2008 (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)
Color / 1995
MSRP: $19.95
Number of Discs: 1
Number of Episodes: 7
Running Time: Aprrox. 158 minutes
Languages, Subtitles, Closed Captioning: English, Spanish, Portuguese; French, Spanish, Portguese; Closed Captioning
Special Features: Minisodes: NewsRadio - "Super Karate Monkey Death Car"; T.J. Hooker - "Partners in Death"
Introduction:
Three-time Emmy Award-winner Don Adams and Emmy nominated Barbara Feldon reprise their roles as Maxwell Smart and Agent 99, but this time they have a little help from their son and newly-minted spy, Zach (Andy Dick), and his
brilliant, sexy partner Agent 66 (Elaine Hendrix). Max is now the Chief of CONTROL and 99 is
now a Congresswoman in charge of CONTROL's budget. Together, they must struggle to keep
archrival KAOS from gaining world domination.
Show History / Episodes Included / Notable Guest Stars:
The Get Smart revival series premiered on FOX on January 8, 1995. It aired on Sunday nights
at 7:30-8:00PM. After debuting with a 7.8 rating and 17 share, the ratings fell steeply afterwards.
A total of 7 episodes were produced and aired.
Returning from the original series were Don Adams as Chief Maxwell Smart and
Barabara Feldon as Congresswoman 99 Smart. New cast members included Andy Dick
as Zach Smart, Elaine Hendrix as Agent 66 and Heather Morgan as Trudy.
The 7 episodes are listed below. "Wurst Enemies" is the best and most memorable in the series.
1. Get Smart - Max assigns Zach to his first big case. Zach and Agent 66 go undercover at
a fashion show and learn KAOS agent Larz, a fashion designer, is stealing a new indestructible
fabric called Du-Tracalon.
2. Casino Evil - Zach and Agent 66 head for Las Vegas to shut down a KAOS-owned casino.
3. Goodbye Ms. Chip - KAOS kidnaps Agent 66 and implants a chip in her brain, programming her
to assassinate African President Mazabuka.
4. Shooting Up the Charts - Agent 66 poses as an aspiring singer to foil KAOS's plan to build
a powerful new weapon.
5. Passenger 99 - Agent 99's deal with a valuable diplomatic asset is threatened by a KAOS assassin.
6. Wurst Enemies - Zach's new girlfriend, Jessica, turns out to be Siegfried's daughter. Luring Zach
into a trap at a lighthouse, Siegfried orders Max to come to the lighthouse where Siegfried
unveils his newest plot to launch a nuclear missile.
7. Liver Let Die - Zach and Agent 66 are sent to break up KAOS's sinister human organ theft ring.
Notable guest stars included Terry Kiser as Carlos and Robert Goulet as himself
in "Casino Evil." Bernie Kopell appeared as Siegfried in "Wurst Enemies." Lu Leonard
played Scrum in "Liver Let Die." David Ketchum appeared as Agent 13 in at least one of the episodes.
Although uncredited, I believe David L. Lander provided some of the voiceovers in the "Pilot."
Packaging:
The set comes in your standard Amaray movie-style case. Don Adams and Barbara Feldon are pictured
on the cover. The Get Smart logo is in red and there is a circular photo of Andy Dick holding a shoe
phone, just like Don Adams. On the back of the case, there are five rectagular photos
of the cast. One is a publicity cast photo. The rest look to be shots from the episodes.
A synopsisis of the set, a listing of the special features and the DVD specs are listed. Don Adams
is featured on the spine of the case.
Inside the case, there is an insert that has a listing of the episode titles and short summaries.
On the other side, some other recent Sony TV DVD releases are promoted. There is also a booklet
included that promotes all of Sony's TV DVD releases. The single-sided disc features the Get Smart
logo in black with a red border. There is gray background with some bullet holes and a silhouetted
man.
Menu Design and Navigation:
When you first insert the disc, there are some gunshot sounds that make holes in the background
of the main menu. The short instrumental theme is played and looped. The same photo of
Adams and Feldon is featured on the main menu. The Get Smart logo is in the upper right portion
of the screen. Below the logo, there are options for Play All Episodes, Episode Selections,
Audio, Subitltes, Minisodes and Previews. There is a red crossfire icon next to your option
that turns yellow upon your selection. Selecting Episodes will take you to a sub-menu where there
is a photo of Andy Dick, Elaine Hendrix and Don Adams. There are four photos from the episodes on
the first screen and three on the second screen. A red border is around the episode that you highlight.
It turns yellow upon your selection. Barbara Feldon and Elaine Hendrix are featured on the Audio
menu. Don Adams and Andy Nick are on the Subtitles menu.
Chapter stops are available within the episodes, but there are no separate scene selection menus.
Video and Audio Quality:
On the back of the packaging, it says the episodes were remastered in high definition. I don't
have any original episodes on tape, so I have nothing to compare. They do look pretty good for a nearly
15-year-old series, although parts of them look a little grainy. The episodes are presented in their original broadcast
order and in 1.33:1 full screen. The series was shot on film and with a single camera. I didn't
see any dirt or debris, so I guess they were cleaned up pretty good. Most of the scenes
were shot indoors on sets. All of the episodes appear to be unedited. They have running times
of around 22 1/2 minutes. There's nothing on the packaging to indicate that any of the music was replaced.
Robert Goulet sang in the second episode and Elaine Hendrix performed a few songs in the fourth episode.
For the closing logo enthusiasts, there is one for HBO Independent Productions (HIP) followed
by one for Sony Pictures Television. All of the episodes have a 1994 copyright date.
The audio is your basic Dolby Digital Mono track. I didn't notice any major problems with the audio,
and the volume is at a good level. I liked how they updated the theme, but it still was recognizable
as Get Smart. This show was shot without a studio audience, so they added the canned laughter track
later. Besides English, there are tracks in Spanish and Portuguese. Subtitles are available
in French, Spanish and Portuguese. Closed captioning is available on all of the episodes, but the minisodes
may not be subtitled.
Here are the episodes, including the running times:
Disc 1
---------
1. Get Smart (22:37)
2. Casino Evil (22:36)
3. Goodbye Ms. Chip (22:36)
4. Shooting Up the Charts (22:36)
5. Passenger 99 (22:33)
6. Wurst Enemies (22:36)
7. Liver Let Die (22:31)
Special Features:
No real special features are included. It would have been nice to see some vintage interviews from
when the show was airing or new interviews with the surviving cast members (RIP Don Adams). From what I've
read online, Andy Dick didn't have a lot of positive things to say about about the show at the time it was airing, so
maybe it was a good idea he didn't comment on the DVD.
The listed special features are two minisodes. There is one for NewsRadio for "Super Karate Monkey Death Car" (5:10)
and one for T.J. Hooker for "Partners in Death" (5:48). The NewsRadio minisode is short that there are
no scenes with Andy Dick even.
Previews/Trailers are available for Vantage Point (2:33), Casino Royale (2006) (2:35), My Mom's
New Boyfriend (2:12) and TV Action Favorites (1:50).
Final Comments:
Would you believe the 1995 Get Smart revival series is now available on DVD? I'm not too familiar with
the original series and had never seen this show. It was nice to see Don Adams and Barabara Feldon again,
but their parts weren't that big. The two lead characters, played Andy Dick and Elaine Hendrix,
got most of the screentime. Andy Dick was pretty funny with his physical comedy, but he has never
been the lead character type. Elaine Hendrix was
very lovely and performed a few songs in the fourth episode. I think they lacked the chemistry of
Adams and Feldon on the original series. They felt more like brother and sister.
This wasn't a terrible series, but there weren't a lot of memorable moments. The highlight of the series
had to be the sixth episode where Bernie Kopell returned as Siegfried. Kopell and Adams had some very
funny exchanges and Kopell even has a jab at The Love Boat. With bigger roles and more lines for Adams and Feldon,
an additional character or two and another lead actor besides Andy Dick, I don't think this series would have missed by so much.
All we really get on the set are the 7 episodes. There are no real special features. This set is priced
affordably, so if you are a die-hard fan of the original you might want to pick up this release. Although
Adams and Feldon weren't the lead cast members, there were some funny moments and a lot of gags and gadgets
reminiscent of the original series. I doubt this series would have been available without the new Get Smart movie being released. That comes to theaters on June 20 and stars Steve Careell and Anne Hathaway.
If you want the original 1965-1970 series, check out Time Life's award-winning release of the
complete series. Of course, that set is bit pricier than this one from Sony. Nothing
can top the magic of the original, though.
