That's The Second Biggest TV DVD Box Set I've Seen This Month

Been enjoying Time-Life's GET SMART: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION DVD set over the last week or so. I started out with the extras, which receive their own disc in each season. Kudos to Time-Life for going all out in documenting this great sitcom's history in the form of newly created featurettes, interviews and commentaries, as well as vintage filmed bits and videos.

Of the new productions, one of the most interesting is Mel Brooks' commentary on the pilot episode that he wrote with the series' co-creator Buck Henry (Henry also receives a commentary track). While it isn't anything earth-shattering, it's one of the few times I've ever heard Brooks discuss his connection with GET SMART, so it's historically important. Among the show's cast and crew who receive extended interviews (up to a half-hour or more): star Barbara Feldon, guest actor Bernie Kopell, director Bruce Bilson (who won an Emmy for an episode), executive producer Leonard Stern and Buck Henry.

The set is also jammed with old NBC promos, star Don Adams' appearances on THE BILL DANA SHOW (very funny) and THE ANDY WILLIAMS SHOW, some post-GET SMART commercials in which Adams sends up his Maxwell Smart character, blooper reels and more. I was very surprised to see the candid inclusion of Adams' 75th birthday roast held at the Playboy Mansion (in which "Yarmy's Army" buddies like James Caan, Don Rickles and Gary Owens josh the bald star) and a videotape of Adams' memorial service, presided over by the star's former son-in-law, actor Jim Beaver (SUPERNATURAL), and featuring more storytelling by Rickles, Caan and many others, including actor Gordon Clapp, the NYPD BLUE Emmy nominee who starred with Adams in the '80s sitcom CHECK IT OUT, which aired in the U.S. on the USA cable channel.