Results tagged “Get Smart” from The Sports Desk

It's no use trying to impose your own nostalgia on other people. For instance: There will never be another Nolan Ryan. But if the kids like John Lackey, you can't stop 'em.

I thought of this over the weekend after going not to a game but to a movie: "Get Smart," which I felt I had to see, despite the bad reviews, because I loved the TV show.

Comparing everything about the Steve Carell version to the Don Adams TV original, I was disappointed. The moviemakers wrecked the overarching jokes, beginning with making this Maxwell Smart a not-too-bumbling secret agent. They managed to make the old catchphrases unfunny -- though the "Would you believe ...?" bit produced a good laugh.

As for the rest of the people in the sold-out theater, they got a kick out of it. They laughed throughout, if not at the same things the TV audience used to. Most clapped at the end.

Most of them were too young to have watched every "Get Smart" episode 20 times as I have. I'd have told them they don't know what they're missing. But they were having too good with what they were seeing.