Maxwell Smart first fumbled his way into our hearts and homes when two of comedy's finest, Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, put pen to paper and created Get Smart, one of the most beloved TV series of the 1960s, ushering in a completely new genre: the secret agent satire. We would have no Naked Gun, no Austin Powers, had Get Smart not paved the way.
But for those who weren't even born when Max uttered his first "missed it by that much," or for those who avoid Nick-at-Night reruns like the plague, or for those who simply can't get enough of the iconic shoe phone, today marks the release of the new Get Smart film, courtesy of Warner Brothers.
Now, before you cringe and say to yourself, "The old rehash-a-TV-show-into-a-film trick! That's the seventh time I've fallen for it this month, know that this film does more than just revisit the comedic styling of a bygone era, it actually improves upon it -- breathing edgier, Steve Carell life into old "excuse me, I think your shoe is ringing" jokes.
Get Smart doesn't pick up where the series left off, but instead takes place before it began. It's an origin story about how and why Max first became a secret agent, a story that Carell and director Peter Segal describe as a "comedic Bourne Supremacy."
At last month's panel discussion with the cast in Los Angeles, Carell shared an origin story of his own about a regrettable early acting gig he had before hooking up with Jon Stewart as a correspondent for The Daily Show in 1999.
"I was on a failed TV series called 'Over the Top'. I played an outrageous Greek chef in a hotel. One of the reviews referred to me as Heinrich Himmler of comedy. And said that Tim Curry was Hitler and every Hitler needs his henchman."
Laughing, Carell continued, "You know who pointed this review out to me was Stephen Colbert, much to his delight."
After the panel SuicideGirls sat down with Get Smart scribes Matt Ember and Tom J. Astle to talk about Get Smart, today's climate of fear, and why we don't have enough spies.
Erin Broadley: Producer Chuck Roven said that it was important to take inspiration from the show from the 60s but not be a slave to it. How did you guys contemporize it?
Tom J. Astle: Well, because so many years have passed, there are a lot of people who dont know the show. Your prime movie audience, many of them probably didnt know the series. But at the same time, for the people who do know the show, its beloved to them, generally speaking, and to us. Were old guys who grew up as little kids watching it and so we thought we should do an origin story that tells how Maxwell Smart becomes Maxwell Smart the agent. It helps you bring them into the world of CONTROL and their archenemies KAOS and the characters and all of that.
Matt Ember: For people who have seen it, thats what was never part of the series. The series just started with Max as an agent. They never showed how Max became an agent. When we first came in to pitch our idea of how to do it as a movie, one of the only things we heard was that Steve does not want to play bumbling or stupid.
TA: Because if you look at the old series, although there was an element of that in the show, a lot of the time Maxwell Smart still accomplishes his goal.
ME: Hes still a good agent. He got his man.
TA: Steve described the character as having steely misguided resolve. But hes got confidence.
ME: Its intelligent and confident and everything built off that idea. If that guy is going to end up an agent but not start out as one then what did he start out as? Thats where we came up with that hes an analyst, someone whos really good at something.
EB: And being a good analyst, like knowing what the bad guys favorite meal is, actually helps him accomplish and solve these problems as an agent.
TA: Yeah. In the old show they often spoofed the politics of the time the show was set during the Cold War.
ME: A climate of fear.
TA: And we are in another climate like that now.
EB: Really? [Laughs]
TA: I dont know if youve noticed [Laughs]
ME: It really is a climate of fear so its another good time period to make fun of that stuff.
TA: Its like a pressure valve you can let off a little bit in comedy sometimes.
ME: Im not afraid but I am concerned. Listen, youre talking to a guy who gets strip searched at every airport. I had one, one-way ticket, once. We were working on a movie so we didnt know when we were coming back so they booked me a one-way ticket.
TA: Those people always get flagged.
ME: Now Im on the list. Every time I go through security.
TA: Well be walking through security and Ill be talking to Matt, just chatting about whatever, and then Ill realize hes not next to me anymore and Ill turn around there hes standing with his belt undone with his arms out.
ME: Ive had my pants off in more airports than most people.
TA: [Laughs] Theres a scene where the chief is talking to Max, saying, Men with hunches, thats where the work gets done. Its not satellites; its men on the ground and women on the ground, agents.
ME: Thats actually a real thing going on right now in the intelligence community. In the past 20 years we have spent fortunes on satellites and spy equipment, but we havent put enough money into the hiring and training of field agents. People who can talk to other people.
TA: People that speak other languages!
ME: Field agents is a euphemism. It means spies! We dont have enough spies.
TA: If you want to be able the thwart bad things that a bad guy wants to do, you have to know who the human being is youre dealing with. You cant just look at them from space.
ME: Even if theyre dangerous to us, if you dont think like that then youre going to lose.
EB: Well, comedy is the great equalizer. Comedy is a good vehicle to bring up those issues.
ME: And the original series did that.
TA: So we felt like we were following the spirit of what they did. People may not remember that that was in there but it was in there.
EB: How much did you guys consult with Mel Brooks for this film?
ME: Pete [Segal] did most of the consulting with Mel, specifically. He ran ideas by him and got a few joke ideas from him that we did put in the movie so we didnt, unfortunately, get to talk to Mel because we certainly would have loved to.
EB: The nature of comedy has changed so much, too. The trends in comedy are totally different than they were in the 60s.
TA: The show Get Smart launched that parody genre, really, and gave it direction. The Naked Gun movies their heritage is Get Smart. So for us to just do that again would be actually repetitive.
EB: One thing Peter Segal said is that you take your plot seriously, even in a comedy. Thats important.
TA: Yes, and your characters. The reason movies become beloved is because of the characters in them. It has action too and thats important and great but if you care about the people and what their emotions are
ME: If its just action you forget about it the second you leave the theater. Unless its a movie like Crank, which is just phenomenal.
EB: Were there any personal shout-outs you worked into the script. Any inside jokes?
TA: Actually, for a while we gave some of the ancillary bad guys names that were based on Eastern European NBA players for our own amusement.
ME: Were both big NBA fans. The bad guy, Ladislas Krstic, is a shout out to Nenad Krstić who is a center for the New Jersey Nets.
TA: The scene where Max shoots the tranquilizer dart blow gun but actually sucks it in, the little line about how the poison dart [Laughs]
ME: Where that poison comes from
TA: Its from a poisonous lizard from the Amazon called Los Zapatos de la Muerte. Which means The Shoes of Death. [Laughs]
ME: We totally made that up, theres no animal like that.
EB: Steve is so funny when he breaks into an accent and pretends he knows how to pronounce things to sound worldly.
TA: Hes hilarious. As Steve would say in reality, he speaks no other languages [laughs] so hes very funny about that. Matt has said before that the secret to writing comedies is to hire funny actors.
EB: Thats usually good.
ME: I discovered that after 20 years of writing comedy. [Laughs]
TA: Some people hear the music and some people dont. And we have a cast full of people who hear the music. Comedy is rhythm.
ME: Its rhythm. Its inflection.
TA: Knowing when to there needs to be a silence or a pause before something.
ME: Negative space is good. Its physical pain when people who are not funny do comedy. Especially if its words youve sweated over for months or years, its just painful. But this was not like that.
TA: We were on the set everyday and it was just a joy. We werent banned or thrown off the set or anything like that.
ME: Apparently that happens.
EB: Peter said you painstakingly researched a lot for this film.
ME: Right. I think his words were annoyingly detailed
TA: [Laughs]
ME: You know, from the gadgets to the political climate and the reality of the way people inside government talk, all that stuff we did do a lot of research. And because of that, I think I am now on quite a lot of government watch lists.
TA: If you went through his web browser history, hed be in Guantanamo so fast.
ME: Im writing a comedy I swear!
Get Smart opens today in theaters. For more information go here.
But for those who weren't even born when Max uttered his first "missed it by that much," or for those who avoid Nick-at-Night reruns like the plague, or for those who simply can't get enough of the iconic shoe phone, today marks the release of the new Get Smart film, courtesy of Warner Brothers.
Now, before you cringe and say to yourself, "The old rehash-a-TV-show-into-a-film trick! That's the seventh time I've fallen for it this month, know that this film does more than just revisit the comedic styling of a bygone era, it actually improves upon it -- breathing edgier, Steve Carell life into old "excuse me, I think your shoe is ringing" jokes.
Get Smart doesn't pick up where the series left off, but instead takes place before it began. It's an origin story about how and why Max first became a secret agent, a story that Carell and director Peter Segal describe as a "comedic Bourne Supremacy."
At last month's panel discussion with the cast in Los Angeles, Carell shared an origin story of his own about a regrettable early acting gig he had before hooking up with Jon Stewart as a correspondent for The Daily Show in 1999.
"I was on a failed TV series called 'Over the Top'. I played an outrageous Greek chef in a hotel. One of the reviews referred to me as Heinrich Himmler of comedy. And said that Tim Curry was Hitler and every Hitler needs his henchman."
Laughing, Carell continued, "You know who pointed this review out to me was Stephen Colbert, much to his delight."
After the panel SuicideGirls sat down with Get Smart scribes Matt Ember and Tom J. Astle to talk about Get Smart, today's climate of fear, and why we don't have enough spies.
Erin Broadley: Producer Chuck Roven said that it was important to take inspiration from the show from the 60s but not be a slave to it. How did you guys contemporize it?
Tom J. Astle: Well, because so many years have passed, there are a lot of people who dont know the show. Your prime movie audience, many of them probably didnt know the series. But at the same time, for the people who do know the show, its beloved to them, generally speaking, and to us. Were old guys who grew up as little kids watching it and so we thought we should do an origin story that tells how Maxwell Smart becomes Maxwell Smart the agent. It helps you bring them into the world of CONTROL and their archenemies KAOS and the characters and all of that.
Matt Ember: For people who have seen it, thats what was never part of the series. The series just started with Max as an agent. They never showed how Max became an agent. When we first came in to pitch our idea of how to do it as a movie, one of the only things we heard was that Steve does not want to play bumbling or stupid.
TA: Because if you look at the old series, although there was an element of that in the show, a lot of the time Maxwell Smart still accomplishes his goal.
ME: Hes still a good agent. He got his man.
TA: Steve described the character as having steely misguided resolve. But hes got confidence.
ME: Its intelligent and confident and everything built off that idea. If that guy is going to end up an agent but not start out as one then what did he start out as? Thats where we came up with that hes an analyst, someone whos really good at something.
EB: And being a good analyst, like knowing what the bad guys favorite meal is, actually helps him accomplish and solve these problems as an agent.
TA: Yeah. In the old show they often spoofed the politics of the time the show was set during the Cold War.
ME: A climate of fear.
TA: And we are in another climate like that now.
EB: Really? [Laughs]
TA: I dont know if youve noticed [Laughs]
ME: It really is a climate of fear so its another good time period to make fun of that stuff.
TA: Its like a pressure valve you can let off a little bit in comedy sometimes.
ME: Im not afraid but I am concerned. Listen, youre talking to a guy who gets strip searched at every airport. I had one, one-way ticket, once. We were working on a movie so we didnt know when we were coming back so they booked me a one-way ticket.
TA: Those people always get flagged.
ME: Now Im on the list. Every time I go through security.
TA: Well be walking through security and Ill be talking to Matt, just chatting about whatever, and then Ill realize hes not next to me anymore and Ill turn around there hes standing with his belt undone with his arms out.
ME: Ive had my pants off in more airports than most people.
TA: [Laughs] Theres a scene where the chief is talking to Max, saying, Men with hunches, thats where the work gets done. Its not satellites; its men on the ground and women on the ground, agents.
ME: Thats actually a real thing going on right now in the intelligence community. In the past 20 years we have spent fortunes on satellites and spy equipment, but we havent put enough money into the hiring and training of field agents. People who can talk to other people.
TA: People that speak other languages!
ME: Field agents is a euphemism. It means spies! We dont have enough spies.
TA: If you want to be able the thwart bad things that a bad guy wants to do, you have to know who the human being is youre dealing with. You cant just look at them from space.
ME: Even if theyre dangerous to us, if you dont think like that then youre going to lose.
EB: Well, comedy is the great equalizer. Comedy is a good vehicle to bring up those issues.
ME: And the original series did that.
TA: So we felt like we were following the spirit of what they did. People may not remember that that was in there but it was in there.
EB: How much did you guys consult with Mel Brooks for this film?
ME: Pete [Segal] did most of the consulting with Mel, specifically. He ran ideas by him and got a few joke ideas from him that we did put in the movie so we didnt, unfortunately, get to talk to Mel because we certainly would have loved to.
EB: The nature of comedy has changed so much, too. The trends in comedy are totally different than they were in the 60s.
TA: The show Get Smart launched that parody genre, really, and gave it direction. The Naked Gun movies their heritage is Get Smart. So for us to just do that again would be actually repetitive.
EB: One thing Peter Segal said is that you take your plot seriously, even in a comedy. Thats important.
TA: Yes, and your characters. The reason movies become beloved is because of the characters in them. It has action too and thats important and great but if you care about the people and what their emotions are
ME: If its just action you forget about it the second you leave the theater. Unless its a movie like Crank, which is just phenomenal.
EB: Were there any personal shout-outs you worked into the script. Any inside jokes?
TA: Actually, for a while we gave some of the ancillary bad guys names that were based on Eastern European NBA players for our own amusement.
ME: Were both big NBA fans. The bad guy, Ladislas Krstic, is a shout out to Nenad Krstić who is a center for the New Jersey Nets.
TA: The scene where Max shoots the tranquilizer dart blow gun but actually sucks it in, the little line about how the poison dart [Laughs]
ME: Where that poison comes from
TA: Its from a poisonous lizard from the Amazon called Los Zapatos de la Muerte. Which means The Shoes of Death. [Laughs]
ME: We totally made that up, theres no animal like that.
EB: Steve is so funny when he breaks into an accent and pretends he knows how to pronounce things to sound worldly.
TA: Hes hilarious. As Steve would say in reality, he speaks no other languages [laughs] so hes very funny about that. Matt has said before that the secret to writing comedies is to hire funny actors.
EB: Thats usually good.
ME: I discovered that after 20 years of writing comedy. [Laughs]
TA: Some people hear the music and some people dont. And we have a cast full of people who hear the music. Comedy is rhythm.
ME: Its rhythm. Its inflection.
TA: Knowing when to there needs to be a silence or a pause before something.
ME: Negative space is good. Its physical pain when people who are not funny do comedy. Especially if its words youve sweated over for months or years, its just painful. But this was not like that.
TA: We were on the set everyday and it was just a joy. We werent banned or thrown off the set or anything like that.
ME: Apparently that happens.
EB: Peter said you painstakingly researched a lot for this film.
ME: Right. I think his words were annoyingly detailed
TA: [Laughs]
ME: You know, from the gadgets to the political climate and the reality of the way people inside government talk, all that stuff we did do a lot of research. And because of that, I think I am now on quite a lot of government watch lists.
TA: If you went through his web browser history, hed be in Guantanamo so fast.
ME: Im writing a comedy I swear!
Get Smart opens today in theaters. For more information go here.
VIEW 4 of 4 COMMENTS
ravioli:
i saw the sneak peek and it was much funnier than i thought it was going to be! i was and still am in shock of this fact rather than pleasantly surprised. either way it's a good feeling.
erin_broadley:
yeah, i agree. i was surprised by how much i enjoyed it. Alan Arkin is great... he and James Caan (as the president) have one of the most hilarious exchanges of dialog ever. also, Terence Stamp was a delight. i mean, come on, it's General Zod!