Get Smart

I was a big fan of the original series. I was in third grade when it first came on and 7th when it ended. Our family watched it every Sunday night.

The problem with the remake, which was a new show trying to get the startup Fox TV Network going, was the main characters were not that exciting, one being the child of Maxell Smart. Frankly, Andy Dick who played smart's son, just did not have the charisma to carry the show. He's more like this annoying, contrived little twit you feel like smacking upside the head rather than laughing at.

What would have been the problem with Maxwell Smart and Agent 99 (Susan) as the main characters instead of just cameos at the beginning and end of each show, in 99's case just the first show? Better to watch funny older people than annoying young people. Maybe they would have made more than six episodes.

As other commentors have pointed out, the best episode of this revised series was the one that pitted long time enemies Max and Siegfried against each other. They were perfect rivals in the original series, and Adams and Kopell did not disappoint here. I could never get into Andy Dick as Max and 99's son; besides, he had made some disparaging comments about the show while it was still on which didn't strike me as being very smart. I liked the idea of Max being the head of CONTROL, and his secretary was very funny. Too bad the show focused on his son. I liked Agent 66, but she didn't have much to play off of dealing with the Andy Dick character.

It's too bad this series was cancelled so quickly, because by the last episode or so, it really became Get Smart. This last episode featured Bernie Kopell reprising his role as KAOS agent Siegfried; Siegfried and his daughter are holding Max and 99's son, Zach, hostage. Zach and Siegfried's daughter both bemoan their weird childhoods as the children of spies; Zach says his parents lied and said they worked for a greeting card company. Siegfried's daughter replies, "He told us he was the doctor on a cruise ship!" (In case anyone doesn't know, Kopell played the ship's doctor for years on The Love Boat.) Whenever Don Adams and Barbara Feldon were on screen, though, the newer characters were blown away. In another episode, Max and 99 are at an embassy party and go out for a romantic stroll on the terrace. Too bad we didn't stay with them, and were stuck with the younger (less funny, less appealing) characters at the party. It's like the producers and writers were feeling their way, and were almost there.

Thirty years ago, bumbling agent Maxwell Smart (Don Adams) and his lovely sidekick, Agent 99 (Barbara Feldon) helped the United States Spy Agency, Control, defeat the bad guys at Chaos. Now, in the present day (1995), Max is the top dog at Control while 99 is a Senator, getting funds to keep the spies in operation, among other things! Also, there are two young gumshoes at Control. One is Max and 99's son, Zach (Andy Dick), who has just been promoted to full agent. He is as clumsy as his dad but makes things work out. The other new spy is beautiful agent 66 (Elaine Hendrix), who is a modern-day Mata Hari, using her looks and smarts to defeat the enemy. In the first episode, Chaos is after a dress made out of fabric that will not burn, even with a blowtorch underneath. 66 is supposed to model the dress at a show and, therefore, prevent its theft but the lights go out on the runway. Has chaos got the dress after all? We will see. Another episode concerns a plan to catch a crooked casino owner with Chaos ties. Max actually gets called to help with this one and narrowly escapes death, hilariously. Can Zach and Max keep on foiling the enemy with their antics? Yes! What heaven to find there was this sequel series! I didn't realize it was ever on the air until I bought this disc. Although Dick and Hendrix are the main stars, Adams is in it quite often, happily. The three of them do a terrific job. Feldon's time is very limited but wow, does she look great! Costumes, effects, sets, gadgets, scripts, and direction are all quite fine. One new element that keeps occurring is a cast member called Agent Zero, who shows up as a different person each time, in the name of "disguise". Sometimes he's an old lady, sometimes a construction worker, etc. Now, that's comedy. One time he appears as Robert Goulet, to warn Max, who is seated at a cabaret, that folks are trying to kill him! Mac the Knife becomes Max, Take Care, but, Max, of course, is upset that he doesn't know the correct words to the song. It all works out, natch. If you loved the old series but are unhappy that you've seen all of the episodes multiple times, try to find this newer series on disc. Smart you will be to do so.

With Pierce Brosnan rejuvenating the James Bond franchise, the time was ripe to bring back the greatest spy parody ever, _Get Smart_. And personally, I think the series would have worked if the lead character had been a suave but wimpy wannabe like Brosnan's Steele character was in the first couple of seasons on that show. This would have been a great contrast to the character of Maxwell Smart, who had the ability, just not the brains.

Instead, what we got was Andy Dick playing a character who had neither the brains nor the ability. His character was simply childish and annoying, leaving it completely in the hands of the writers to make the show funny. Sometimes they delivered; far more often they did not. I'm glad the show was put out of its misery quickly, and I'm equally glad we got to see Max and Siegfried square off one last time before that happened.