Saturday evening (Aug. 4) and Sunday morning (Aug. 5), TV Land is rerunning Inside TV Land: Get Smart, a fine documentary on the making of a sitcom that was very funny, at least for its first few seasons. The TV Land presentation interviews most of the surviving cast members and creators and gets into the story of how the thing came to be. Mel Brooks is conspicuous by his absence but the rest are there, including Don Adams (who played the bumbling Maxwell Smart, Agent 86) and Barbara Feldon (who played his comely sidekick and — later — spouse, Agent 99). And while I highly recommend catching the show, I have to wonder about a few omissions from the history that is reported…
- The first "cone of silence" scene was one of the funniest moments ever in television comedy. Unless I missed it, the special doesn't explain how that scene was shot a week or two before the rest of the pilot and, basically, sold the series. (By the way, if you ever catch a rerun of that scene,, note that the voice on the intercom is that of Howie Morris, who directed that and the whole pilot.)
- Speaking of Howie: Mention is made of how Ed Platt, who was so wonderful as The Chief, was not an experienced comedic actor. They might have mentioned that Platt was recommended for the part by Mr. Morris who, a little more than a year earlier, had directed Platt in an episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show. (It was the episode where the Petries accidentally play poker with marked cards.)
- And mentioning Howie reminds us of Sid Caesar, whose sidekick he was for years on television. Inside TV Land mentions that Get Smart was the show that pretty much knocked Lawrence Welk off the air. But they might have mentioned that Welk was the one who knocked Sid Caesar off the air, thereby catapulting Howie (and future Get Smart co-creator Mel Brooks) into unemployment. So there's some kind of nice karma/revenge thing working there.
- Lastly, Buck Henry was the other co-creator of Get Smart. In past interviews, he has not been reticent to suggest that Mr. Brooks contributed very little and was undeserving of co-credit. Does he not say that here because he has changed his mind, buried his anger or because TV Land cut it out?
Despite these curious omissions, you might want to give a tune-in to Inside TV Land. Better still, catch some real, vintage episodes of Get Smart. Starting early Saturday morn (Aug. 4) and continuing through the day, TV Land is running the first few seasons, starting — unfortunately — with the second episode. It commences at either 3:00 AM or 6:00 AM, depending on where you're watching it…but, hey, that's why God invented the VCR, right?