FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Interview with Get Smart Producer
Leonard Stern
About the classic Get Smart TV series
And the Complete Series DVD Set
On the Internet Radio Show
TV Time Machine
www.tvtimemachine.com
November 3, 2008 - Legendary TV producer Leonard Stern talks about the classic TV series
Get Smart and his participation in HBO Home Video's upcoming (November 4th) DVD release of
Get Smart - The Complete Series Gift Set, in an interview on the Internet radio show
TV Time Machine (http://www.tvtimemachine.com), hosted by TV historian Jim Benson.
From 1965-1970, Leonard Stern served as executive producer and frequent writer and director on
Get Smart, starring Don Adams as Maxwell Smart Secret Agent 86 and Barbara Feldon as Agent 99. Mr. Stern talks extensively about his participation in this remarkable DVD set, his views on supplementary material, and the value of classic TV Shows on DVD.
"Classic TV shows on DVD reinforces the memory if you've seen the series in the past," says Stern. "And if you haven't, it's a marvelous exploration backwards. The validity of
Get Smart is in the fact that it endures, that it was legitimately funny. It was Jackie Gleason, when I was doing
The Honeymooners, who said when anybody asked him why his show was successful, he simply answered: 'It's funny'."
Get Smart was intended to spoof the early James Bond films of the 1960's, and both have maintained incredible popularity over the past five decades. This year alone has seen the release of the
Get Smart movie starring Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway, the new James Bond film
Quantum of Solace (starring Daniel Craig) and the DVD release of
Get Smart - The Complete Series Gift Set.
On
TV Time Machine, Leonard Stern talks about working with
Get Smart co-stars Don Adams and Barbara Feldon, as well as Ed Platt (who played the Chief of CONTROL) and Bernie Kopell, who played the evil KAOS agent Siegfried. Mr. Stern also relates rare, behind-the-scenes anecdotes about the making of the series, and the origins of the popular catch phrases the show spawned during its five-year run including: "Would You Believe," "Sorry About That, Chief," and "Missed It by That Much."
In addition to his work as producer, writer and director on
Get Smart, Leonard Stern's remarkable career includes writing for the
Abbott and Costello and
Ma and Pa Kettle movies, and the classic TV shows
The Honeymooners, Sergeant Bilko and
The Steve Allen Show. Mr. Stern has also created, produced and directed such TV shows as
I'm Dickens, He's Fenster (starring John Astin and Marty Ingels),
He & She (co-starring Richard Benjamin and Paula Prentiss) and
McMillan & Wife (starring Rock Hudson and Susan St. James). He is also co-creator of the immensely popular series of children's game books,
Mad Libs.
TV Time Machine is a unique Internet radio show that explores classic TV and its influence over the past five decades. Beyond nostalgia,
TV Time Machine spotlights TV's impact on our culture and society, and explores how present-day television and its movers and shakers have been - and are still - influenced by the stories, programs, and characters of television's past.
TV Time Machine host Jim Benson has interviewed a multitude of legendary TV celebrities, authors and experts of all stripes on his radio program, covering shows ranging from
Mr. Ed to
Meet the Press and topics such as Technology on TV and TV's Turning Points. A TV historian for over twenty-five years, Mr. Benson has contributed to dozens of TV productions- including a recent appearance on
Penn & Teller's Bullshit!, and is a Historical Consultant on Universal Studios' DVD release of Rod Serling's
Night Gallery: Season Two. He is also the co-author, with Scott Skelton, of the book
Rod Serling's Night Gallery: An After-Hours Tour, published by Syracuse University Press.
