Nearly 25 years ago I started a Get Smart website, The Unclassified Get Smart Site. Its initial home was over on the now defunct Geocities. I eventually moved the site under a domain name, www.ilovegetsmart.com
Beyond being an online Get Smart shrine, it became a library of sorts for various news articles on the show, which I had collected over the years. Other fans have also contributed to that part of the site with their own collection of GS articles.
In addition, I also added a section on all the goofy nit-picky things we would debate on the GS list serve and during our old Friday night chat sessions.
I started this blog in 2015 on a WordPress page attached to ilovegetsmart.com. Unfortunately, due to events beyond my control, that page had a catastrophic failure during a hosting change over. All of my previous blog entries were lost. This has left me scrambling to find where I might have had those original entries stored. Ope! I guess I shouldn't have put Larabee in charge of filing.
One of the original focuses of the blog was to address individual episodes -something I had not gotten to the point of doing on my website.
Other notions for this blog include a few words about some of the Get Smart collectibles out there.
This blog is going to be focused on the original series. The section on my website regarding the 2008 movie is about all the time I’m going to spend on that.
One thing of note: I'm in the process of salvaging those old entries, so they'll be brought over here first. Depending on what condition they're in, they'll be dusted off and either updated or re-written.
In other matters: Bear with me. I tend to get swamped with work, life and everything. It seems some people out there prefer I spend my time only thinking and writing about bureaucracy. *sigh* They don't know me.
And just one more thing: When I do post entries on the episodes, they'll be in the order that they appear on the DVDs. The episodes on the DVDs are in order by their original air date. The show wasn’t always aired that way in syndication. For example, Diplomat’s Daughter was the second episode to air, but for those that grew up watching GS on Nick at Night or TVLand, the second episode is Our Man in Toyland. Syndication of the series had another issue – some episodes were not shown as often as others. This matter was addressed over in The Smartian Controversies, but it largely boils down to contract. Syndicated episodes have various scenes cut out of them – which is a whole other thing depending on which network you watched your reruns on. Nick at Nite aired GS in the early '90s and pulled it in early 1995. TVLand began airing GS in 2001. Each channel had different edits of the show and at the time caused a bit of fan confusion.
And I suppose you’re wondering where you can ‘get’ Smart? See what I did there ;-) The DVDs are easily available via the internet and are available in two versions – the Time-Life box set and the HBO release. The Time-Life version has all kinds and varieties of extras. Choose wisely.
As well, Get Smart can be streamed on sites like Amazon Prime, but you have to pay for each individual episode or buy the whole season.
The show also airs on Decades at 1:30 a.m. ET. The channel can be picked up over the air via antenna – if you're lucky. If you think that’s a little too late, I will point out that there was a six-year period where GS wasn’t been shown at all in the U.S., so I’ll take what I can get.
Would you believe I have fond memories of staying up ‘til the crack of 2 a.m. to watch it on Nick at Nite?
*Would you believe after this was posted Decades rebranded and changed format? The channel is now called Catchy Comedy. Get Smart is no longer in the line up. Boooo! Now I don't feel so bad about my antenna not being able to pick it up.
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| This Sunbeam and cardboard Max were once owned by late Get Smart fan Sue Kesler. She let myself (pictured) and other fans sit in her ultimate GS collectible during the Get Smart in the Park portion of the Get Smart Gathering in Beverly Hills in 2003. Sue is greatly missed. |
