But What About the Reruns?

 

Welcome to the reruns page of the Get Smart section of my site. On this short page, you will be greeted with information as to what exactly happened to the 138 episodes of Get Smart after the show left the air in 1970. As we all know, Get Smart ran on NBC from 1965-1969, and CBS from 1969-1970. Upon CBS' cancellation of the show, there was no offer from ABC (the only other network at the time) to pick up the show. So Get Smart ceased production, and the cast and crew went on to bigger and better things? Would you believe bigger things? How about cheesy Disney movies?


Anyway, there had been 138 episodes of the show produced, and that is more than enough to enter the syndication market with. So, Get Smart entered into syndication in the fall of 1970. That meant that reruns of the show were seen on local stations across the nation, and could be shown at anytime. Sometimes the show was even aired multiple times a day. Of course, the show was edited, so that more commercials could be shown. This has been a common syndication practice for years, dating back to I Love Lucy. Cuts are made to shows so that local stations can show more commercials and, therefore, make more money. Television is a profit-driven business, and that's just the way it is. I can't change it. Up until the more widespread usage of video in the early 1980s, shows that were originally filmed had their cuts made by splicing the film, and that often could lead to some sloppy edits. Also, edits were often made without much consideration as to how they would affect the plot. Get Smart's treatment would be no different, and the show was seen on various local stations for the next 15 years.


Then, in 1985, superstation WTBS-TV17, from Atlanta, picked up the reruns of Get Smart. Given that WTBS was seen nationally (you young'uns might know it as TBS), Get Smart once again had a set nationwide airing time. Of course, that "set time" often varied. Over the next few years at TBS, Get Smart was seen in a variety of timeslots, ranging from morning to afternoon to the evening to the overnight period. At one point in the late 1980s, our poor Max was seen at 4 AM! Get Smart finally left TBS' lineup in late 1989.


But all was not lost. A little more than a year after leaving TBS, cable network Nick at Nite picked up Get Smart and gave it the best treatment the show received since its NBC heyday in the 1960s. Over a seven-day stretch in 1991, Nick at Nite aired all 138 episodes of the show. The marathon was called "Maximum Smart," and it scored some blockbuster ratings. Nick at Nite celebrated the marathon by holding a publicity stunt in New York City in which 99 women appeared, dressed as Agent 99. Don Adams was also on hand at the event. After the marathon, Get Smart was showcased pretty nicely in Nick's lineup. Of course, the show was still edited, but this time new edits were made, different from the edits that had been seen in syndication and on TBS. About three minutes of footage was snipped from each episode. As Nick at Nite continued to add new shows to their lineup, Get Smart was gradually pushed later and later in the lineup, until eventually it was airing at 1 AM, not much better than it was getting on TBS. In late 1994, Get Smart left Nick at Nite. The show's contract had expired with the cable network, and Nick didn't feel like renewing it. The decision to drop the show always struck me as odd, as Nick at Nite did so only a week before the new Get Smart premiered on Fox. Had the revival proven to be a hit, then the reruns of the original certainly would have gotten a nice boost in the ratings. Of course, the Fox Get Smart was anything but a hit. With the exception of two episodes that aired in the summers of 1995 and 2000, respectively, it would be six long years before Get Smart returned to American television.


And then it happened! In late 2000 came the announcement that TV Land, the sister network of Nick at Nite, would be adding Get Smart to its classic TV lineup in early 2001. The month was originally thought to be January, but that was later pushed back to March. Finally, on March 31st, Get Smart bowed on TV Land with a 47-hour marathon (yes, 47; it would have been 48, but we lost an hour due to Daylight Savings Time; some may have complained about that, but it seemed perfectly fitting to me, as Max seems like the kind of guy who would schedule a 48-hour marathon on a weekend that had only 47 hours). After the Marathon ended early April 2nd, the show joined TV Land's regular schedule. And it's gotten quite the nice treatment. As of this writing, two back-to-back episodes of Get Smart are seen from 5-6 PM Monday through Thursday. Those two episodes are then repeated at 10:30 PM and 2 AM, respectively. On Friday, due to "Ultimate Fan Hour" at 5, Get Smart is only seen at 10:30 and 2 (all times are Eastern Standard Time, by the way). And it's not shown at all on the weekends, thanks to "Fandemonium Weekends." But, still, I'm not complaining. After six years, Maxwell Smart has returned in all his glory!


Well, most of it, anyway. See, as was the case with Nick at Nite, three minutes are snipped from each episode. However, these are different edits than the ones seen on Nick. They are all new, and it's the general consensus that while these new edits snip some funny gags that were in the Nick at Nite edits, they also restore some scenes that are of importance to the story. In hindsight, Nick at Nite's edits seem more haphazard than TV Land's are. Also, what these new edits mean is that if you have all of the episodes from the Nick at Nite run on tape (which I do not), you could combine them with the TV Land episodes and possibly construct a complete Get Smart episode, something which hasn't been widely seen since the show left the air over three decades ago. And that's all I have to say about that.


Finally, TV Land has just finished shooting "Inside TV Land: Get Smart," an original documentary special profiling the show. It features all-new interviews with various surviving members of the cast and crew. Broadcasting and Cable magazine recently announced the special will make its debut August 1st. Needless to say, any Smartian out there has to be pleased with TV Land. I know I am!


LAST UPDATED: April 26, when I created this whole page. Be sure to check back, as I will be updating this when/if TV Land changes the locale of Get Smart on the schedule.


"Computer, take me back to the main Get Smart page."