Saturday, June 2, 2018

A Classic Reborn: Get Smart (1995)

Would you believe someone thought it'd be a good idea to revive Get Smart as a mid-season replacement?

Well, it happened.

Fox acquired the rights to the franchise, a few years after a TV-movie had aired on ABC (the original series aired on NBC from 1965-9, then CBS from 1969-70). Unfortunately, Fox put the show on the wrong night.

Get Smart spent seven weeks on Sunday nights on Fox (January-February 1995), not enough time to actually reacquaint audiences with the franchise. Don Adams & Barbara Feldon were back, as was series regular Dave Ketchum as Agent 13. Now, however, Maxwell Smart (Adams) was the Chief of CONTROL (Edward Platt had passed away in the intervening years), and 99 (Feldon) was now a Congresswoman. Son Zach (Andy Dick) was following in their footsteps, but his twin sister had been seemingly retconned out of existence. Zach was just like his father. Not exactly a brain surgeon, but smart enough to crack a case (pun intended).

So was the choice of nights the whole problem? No, not really. Dick, apparently, was not sure this would work, and had shot another pilot, which turned out to be a little more successful. NewsRadio bowed three weeks after Get Smart was decommissioned for good.

Here's a sample intro:



Yes, Siegfried (Bernie Kopell) returned as well, but we haven't seen clips of him in this series.

Rating: B.

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