The LA Times recently posted a pretty amusing interview with Mel Brooks regarding GET SMART, the upcoming feature adaptation of Brooks’ original spy spoof series of the same name. Here’s a little taste:
Q: It seems like the premise is strong enough to have multiple interpretations of Maxwell Smart.
A: It’s the earnest stupidity of organizations like the CIA. I would say honest and earnest stupidity. They want to do a good job. But they don’t hire enough [multicultural people]. They hire too many WASPs and they get too much white-bread thinking.
Q: And this was true back in 1965 as well as today.
A: Exactly! Buck Henry and I thought if we could just get some hip thinking, maybe a borscht belt comic. They didn’t want a back story for Agent 86, but I provided one. I said he works the Buffalo Lodge. And he’s a drummer in the band. And he also does the line, “Good evening ladies and gentlemen, I met a girl who was so skinny, the waiter said ‘Check your umbrella.’ ” They never used that back story. In my mind, I had a more protean, rich background guy. Rather than the Harvard-educated guy. Someone with street smarts.
And that’s the problem today with organizations like the CIA and the FBI.
Get the rest of the interview over HERE. GET SMART opens June 20th.
The comment section exists to allow readers to discuss the article constructively and respectfully, focused on the topic at hand.
What’s Not Allowed