Smart Start

Life would’ve been a serious bummer had Maxwell Smart, a.k.a. Agent 86, not appeared on TV screens in 1965. As the project that put Mel Brooks and Buck Henry on the map, Get Smart (season one comes out tomorrow on DVD) paved the way for some of the silliest comedies of the last 30 years: Airplane, The Naked Gun, Scary Movie... Without it, Henry might not have sold his epochal screenplay for The Graduate, and Brooks might not have given us such classics as Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles.

The original James Bond spoof, Get Smart showcased the dashing-yet-doltish Don Adams as the perfect send-up of Sean Connery, and, not least, also introduced the Cone of Silence. The 1965-70 series was governed by two principles: dumb jokes, and lots of them. On these beautifully transferred DVDs, the buffoonery is intact, only the now-retro spy gadgetry has a homespun charm that the recent, teched-up version starring Steve Carell was missing.

Oh, to live in a time when our biggest threats were bumbling villains who wore monocles and spoke in funny accents. And when cutting-edge technology was seeing a man talk into his shoe or view TV on a watch.

Get Smart: Season 1 is available on DVD tomorrow from HBO Video.

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