Popped the reunion movie Get Smart Again! at the end of the DVD with the remainder of the episodes last night. As much as I loved Smart this one is kept strictly out of sentimentality, and it amazes me to see reviews that say "this was as funny as the series." One reason some folks may think so is that Leonard Stern and the other scriptwriters basically lifted routines verbatim from different episodes and plugged them in here. Don Adams and Barbara Feldon still work well together, but if the series was at 45 r.p.m., the movie moves at 33 1/3. The series used to snap off the gags bing-bing-bing, which made even the lame ones seem funny; the movie punctuates them with a molasses pace. Even the once rapidly-paced fight scenes are choreographed in slow-motion. The new gadgets are ho-hum, although I must admit I thought Dr. Denton's "Hall of Hush" was kinda funny with its touch of surrealism. (Dr. Denton is played by nebbishy Danny Goldman who popped up in all sorts of places, including as the hippie son in the Larry Hagman/Donna Mills series The Good Life).

But if you're looking for classic Get Smart, this ain't it.

Also copied off, as I said I would, the two Elayne Boosler specials. These were made back in the mid-1980s and have not aged at all; James and I were still laughing ourselves silly. To finish the tape, I find I have HBO: Live from London somewhere, but I confess I haven't watched it since I taped it and don't even remember it. The IMDb tells me Rowan Atkinson and Dawn French are in it. Okay... (Also Howie Mandel, who I loved in St. Elsewhere but never could quite get into his comedy routine.)

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 9:10:00 AM

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