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Get Smart: The Complete Series
by Brian Tallerico
STUDIO: HBO
RELEASE DATE: November 4, 2008
STARRING: Don Adams, Barbara Feldon, and Edward Platt
CREATED BY: Mel Brooks & Buck Henry
FEATURES: Interviews with Buck Henry and Barbara Feldon
Commentaries with Mel Brooks and others
Never-before-seen bloopers and out-takes
Rare TV footage
 It's the time of year when studios release complete series sets to try and entice the Christmas shopper with a serious TV on DVD fan in the family. HBO has an onslaught of them this year, including Deadwood, The Sopranos, The Wire, and a show that never aired on the network but that they own the rights to, the classic Get Smart. Audiences are probably renting the recently released movie version starring Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway, but the film doesn't even shine the shoe-phones of the original, one of the best comedies in the history of television. Get Smart was and is so consistently clever that it's held up in the forty-plus years since it was on the air. If you know someone who's fallen for the big-screen remake, introduce them to the original with the beautiful Get Smart: The Complete Series, a great holiday gift that includes all 138 episodes and over 8 hours of bonus features. It's a must-have for every single TV fan.
How essential is Get Smart: The Complete Series? Well, it's actually been available before through phone orders to Time Life Home Video and last year it was named in the TV Guide Top Ten best DVDs of the year and even WON the DVD Critics Award for Best TV Series. This summer, HBO released season one of that set but eliminated the special features and fans of Get Smart prepared themselves for a disappointing series of releases. Fear not. Not only have the special features been returned to seasone one but all of the previously available extras in the Time Life set are now included in this 25-disc beauty from HBO. When they released season one without the award-winning special features like never-before-seen bloopers, interviews, and commentaries in August, we at The Deadbolt cried foul and called it "one of the unexplained tragedies of TV on DVD." It's only been three months but that tragedy has been rectified (if not quite explained...why did they bother with the S1 bare-bones release?)
Get Smart: The Complete Series contains comedy genius that is still fresh forty-three years after its debut and all of the episodes have been beautifully restored and remastered in gorgeous full-frame presentations. Don Adams and Barbara Feldon star in Get Smart, a show created by two of the funniest writers in the history of the written word, Mel Brooks and Buck Henry and one that would prove to be massively influential on the next forty years of TV. If you're wondering why the movie took so long to get in production, just watch the pilot, "Mr. Big". People were scared. How do you top this?
The episodes themselves would be reason enough for us to write about Get Smart: The Complete Series but it's the special features that have really earned the majority of the acclaim. You will believe. Broken down, season by season...
Season One
Highlights from the Get Smart Reunion seminar, held at the Museum of Television & Radio in 2003
Exclusive featurette: The Secret History of Get Smart
In-Depth interview with series co-creator Buck Henry
Audio commentary on selected episodes from Barbara Feldon, Mel Brooks, and Buck Henry
Plus vintage clips of early television appearances by Don Adams and Barbara Feldon...series promos...and more
 Season Two
Exclusive featurette: Barbara Feldon: Real Model to Role Model
Audio commentary on selected episodes from Bernie Kopell and executive producer Leonard Stern
Historic footage from Don Adams' 75th birthday celebration at the Playboy Mansion
All-new highlights from the 2003 Get Smart Reunion seminar - held at the Museum of Television & Radio
Footage from the 1967 Emmy Awards broadcast...and more!
Season Three
Exclusive featurette: Spooks, Spies, Gadget and Gizmos
Rarely Seen bloopers
All-new segments from the 2003 Get Smart Reunion Seminar
Audio introductions to all 26 episodes by series co-star Barbara Feldon
Audio commentary on selected espidoes from Barbara Feldon and Don Rickles
Footage from the 1968 Emmy Awards broadcast...and more!
Season Four
Exclusive featurette: Code Words and Catch Phrases
Audio commentary from guest star James Caan
In-depth interview with Bernie Kopell and Executive Producer Leonard Stern
Footage frmo the 1969 Emmy Awards broadcast...and more.
Plus an interactive bonus feature: Layout of Max's apartment, including keyed locations of all his gadgets
Season Five
Exclusive featurette: The Fans of Get Smart
Audio commentary with Bill Dana
Rarely seen bloopers
Barbara Feldon's touching final tribute to Don Adams
Plus an interactive bonus feature: Take the Spy Aptitude Test
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