The DVD Releases

The Old Produce the Best DVD Set of the Year Trick

There were several versions of the show released on DVD. Let me try and clear things up and explain where they stand now.

Time-Life released Get Smart: The Complete Collection for sale in the U.S. in November, 2006. It's an amazing collection that won numerous awards, including Best In Show at the TV-DVD Awards. Get Smart: The Complete Collection features all 138 episodes uncut and beautifully re-mastered.  The box set has over 9 hours of extras, beautifully restored masters, and came in a cool phone booth box. Unfortunately, Time-Life no longer sells DVDs, so you have to find the box set on your own, although Amazon does have people selling it. Individual sets of all five seasons, complete with extras, also are no longer available for purchase new. I do see people selling used copies on Amazon and other online retailers. Complete details on every extra can be found below.

Now, here's where it starts to get tricky!

Time-Life worked out a deal with HBO to share the rights and DVD production and for both of them to release Get Smart on DVD. Time-Life would have a year's exclusive to sell its set online and via phone order. After that year was up, HBO was allowed to sell the DVD set via normal retail outlets. In a rare move, Time-Life began by selling just the complete box set, which was a huge relief to completists like myself. The box set was a tremendous success, far exceeding anyone's projections. That led the HBO retail release to be delayed for over a year. HBO began releasing a retail version of the season sets in 2008, but the retail season sets are a stripped down version of the Time-Life sets and have very few extras. The HBO release is still available via Amazon. There are no bonus discs with this version. I've made a little chart below to show the differences between the two sets, even though it's probably too late to find the collector's set.

Season Set Details:

Some more notes on the DVDs:

• The restoration and mastering of the episodes is absolutely phenomenal. It's the sharpest and cleanest release of a show I've ever seen. The restoration company did an amazing job with the show. Leonard Stern said that "finally Get Smart can be seen the way it was meant to be seen." For details on the restoration, check out my restoration page.
• They are closed captioned and the only language featured is English. I did see a review on Amazon that claimed that they weren't closed captioned but my version, which is the original release, has captions. I can't imagine that they would remove the captions from future releases.
• This was a Region 1 release.

Information for buyers outside of the U.S. and Canada:

• You're screwed.
• I know that a version was released in Brazil with audio and subtitles in English, Portuguese, and Spanish. The company that was selling them is no longer around.
• A Region 2 release was sold in the UK and Europe, but the company selling them is also no longer around.
• A Germany company, Kinowelt Home Entertainment/DVD, released a Season One set with no bonus materials and not using the restored masters. I have no idea if it's still floating around out there, as it was only available in Germany.

There are a ton of great extras on the release as well. I think the producers did a marvelous job locating extras and selecting things for inclusion and were very conscious of the desires of the fans. Please note that the top three extras requested by the fans are all on the DVDs, a remarkable achievement and one that shows how carefully the DVD producer (Paul Brownstein) worked to ensure a top-notch release. Here's a look at the release.

• Audio Commentaries

  Mel Brooks - Mr. Big
  Buck Henry - Mr. Big
  Barbara Feldon - Kisses for KAOS
  Leonard Stern - A Man Called Smart
  Bernie Kopell - How to Succeed in the Spy Business Without Really Trying
  Barbara Feldon & Buck Henry - 99 Loses CONTROL, With Love and Twitches
  Don Rickles - The Little Black Book, Part 2
  James Caan - To Sire, With Love
  Bill Dana - Ice Station Siegfried

• Interviews

Buck Henry
Barbara Feldon
Leonard Stern
Bruce Bilson
Bernie Kopell

• Featurettes

The Secret History of Get Smart
Barbara Feldon: Real Model to Role Model
Spooks, Spies, Gadgets and Gizmos
Code Words and Catchphrases
The Fans of Get Smart

• Other TV Shows

The Bill Dana Show episode that shows Don Adams doing an early version of the Maxwell Smart character as Detective Byron Glick. It also contains one of the earliest “would you believe” jokes. 
Don Adams on The Andy Williams Show (3 appearances).
Barbara's Top Brass Hair Care Commercial
1965 NBC Season Preview hosted by Maxwell Smart
Two 1965 Get Smart Promos
Get Smart's Emmy Award Wins
Don on Milton Berle's Wild, Wild World of Comedy
Syndication promo

•  Other Footage

Bloopers!!!
A 60-minute excerpt from the legendary Museum of Television & Radio's Get Smart seminar in 2003. 
Don's 75th birthday party and roast at the Playboy Mansion
Don and Barbara as grand marshalls of the Rose Bowl Parade
Segments from Don's Memorial Service"
Don Adams Finds Out He's a Father
Sue's Ultimate Get Smart Clip Reel
1967 Pepsodent commercial featuring Don as Agent 86 and Dave Ketchum as Agent 13
3 White Castle Commercials from 1990 starring Don Adams
3 Chief Auto Parts Commercials with Don parodying Get Smart and using his famous catchphrases!
1991 Choice Hotels commercial starring Don
1999 Buck-A-Call commercial with Don as a retired secret agent

• Non-video Features

Season Two Liner Notes from Dave Ketchum
Season Three Liner Notes from Alan Spencer
The Chief's office layout
Plans for Max's Sunbeam Tiger
Max's Apartment Blueprint
99's Purse Contents
CONTROL Aptitude Test

Wow, what an outstanding batch of extras! Yes, it is extremely unfortunately that Don passed away before this production began. However, the producers took great care to ensure that Don's career and work were extremely well-represented and I think they did a fabulous job. The DVD was executive produced by Paul Brownstein and produced by the late Sue Kesler and they deserve an amazing amount of credit for putting together a fabulous DVD set, as does Time-Life. I will admit to a conflict of interest, as I also worked on the DVD release, but I believe the awards it won speaks to its quality. Paul, Sue, Jeff at Time Life, and myself worked very hard to ensure that the extras most wanted by fans were included.

Copyright 1995-2009 Carl Birkmeyer