[QUOTE=DrMemory]
OK, you’ve had a few days to watch your DVD’s. Are the extras any good?
[/QUOTE]
I finished Disc 1 last night. The only ‘extras’ are Mel Brooks’s and Buck Henry’s separate commentaries for the pilot episode. I’d say the commentaries were ‘just okay’. Brooks seemed distracted as he watched the show and kept giggling at the gags. I thought Henry did a better job, and I liked his commentary more. Basically, they both talked about how the pilot came about, the casting, and the writing. Nothing there by which a Get Smart fan would be surprised. (I’m a fan, but not a Fan!) I thought it was interesting that Don Adams liked doing his own stunts. One time (Henry didn’t name the episode) he was doing a fight scene and his jaw was broken or dislocated when the other actor hit him. The following show was done with another actor portraying Smart, wearing a head bandage. Adams provided the voice later. It was interesting to find out that an ABC executive objected to the pilot episode. He thought that having a cowardly dog (‘Fang’) was unAmerican, that having a scene take place on a garbage boat would be offensive to people watching during the dinner hour, and that it was unAmerican for Brooks and Henry to portray a government intelligence agency as being inept. Thus, ABC missed out on a hit show.
There are no extras on Disc 2. Disc 3 has an audio commentary by Barbara Feldon for the first episode, Kisses For KAOS. Disc 4 has no extras. Disc 5 is the Bonus Disc for the first season. It contains:
[ul][li]Buck Henry Interview[/li][li]Featurette – The Secret History Of Get Smart[/li][li]TV Appearances and Spots: The Bill Dana Show (1964), The Andy Williams Show (1965), Top Brass Hiar Care Commercial (1964), NBC Fall Season Preview (1965), and Get Smart Show Promos #1 and #2[/li][li]Bloopers[/li][li]Get Smart Reunion Seminar, 2005[/li][li]Interactive Bonus Feature: ‘The Chief’s Office’[/ul][/li]
I haven’t opened the other four slipcases yet, so I don’t know what’s on them. Tonight is ‘Survivor Night’ so I probably won’t watch too much Get Smart. I may put Disc 5 in, rather than watch episodes.
I found the audio and video quality of the episodes to be good. They look and sound new. Except that the B&W pilot episode looks a bit grainy. It’s not the kind of grain one normally sees in film, which sort of ‘moves around’. Instead the grain looks static. It reminded me of looking through the ground glass of a film camera’s viewfinder, only not so pronounced. It’s not distracting, but it’s something I noticed.
The first episode, Diplomat’s Daughter, introduces The Craw. ‘No! Not “Craw”! “CRAW!”’ In The Day Smart Turned Chicken we hear the first example of ‘Missed it by that much.’
I’m as pleased as I can be with the boxed set so far. That they chose to put the features on their own disc (at least for the first season – as I said, I haven’t looked at the other seasons) is just a formatting choice. It would be nice to have them spread out so as to provide a break within the season, but many people prefer to have the features all in one place. In summary, this DVD set is a ‘must-have’ for the Get Smart fan.