Over a half century ago the television show Get Smart! Debuted on networks as a collaboration between Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner.  Which would be the gold standard for this sort of spoof in 1965.  Frankly, as both men have made their way into the 2020’s as of this analysis and writing, it could still be a [pretty decent standard.  But in 1965 they were in their prime; Reiner with the Dick Van Dyke Show, and Brooks as a television writer too, a few years before The Producers would set up a brilliant run of spoof-based comedy to follow.  Get Smart ran for five seasons, the show was done by 1970, but maintained a legacy that impacted television and movies in the 70’s and 80’s and still does.  The spoof genre of what Mel Brooks did was evident in Airplane! and other works...Police Squad, anything with Leslie Nielson (including Brooks own later movie, “Dracula, Dead and Loving It”).

Concurrent with all of this was the marketing that goes along with a hit television show or movie.  In addition to toys and other items, comic books and tie in novels also existed; often sold to the teen and preteen audiences via the scholastic book club fliers that were completed in the classroom and for paperback prices running in the fifty cent range, you could keep the kids reading while also engaged with their favorite show.  The tie-in novel became its own industry; The Brady Bunch, The Monkees, the Partridge Family, would all have books that were the forerunners to today’s “fan fiction” - only these were licensed by the show owners, but the writing level could best be described as ‘disposable.’  But in pre-syndication days you could say the same about the shows themselves.  This was a pop culture tie-in, the money was made when the book was sold and the quality within did not really move the needle.  Next year there’d be a new book, purchased on the value of the cover, not of the contents.  So, the tie-in did not have a great reputation and not much of an impact on book sales or popular opinion.  They were rarely reviewed and if they were, it was likely negative.  

I am not going to pivot to this point and tell you that William Johnston was the flower that grew in the weeds, and that tie-in books found its Bob Dylan in the works of Johnston.  I don’t believe, based on the modest research that I have done, that Johnston would feel this way, either.  He was a guy doing a job, and did it with a quantity output that made him a go-to in the field.  But I will say that there is a spark of quality in these works, which is why upon re-reading the couple books I had, I decided to take up the endeavor; read all nine of them and draw a conclusion from the works.  You can find reviews here and there of Johnston’s works, but nothing comprehensive about this series.  And this began with my own spark, and a little autobiographical side story:

In my middle school in the late 70’s we had an annual book fair.  Each homeroom got a trinket of awards based on how many books they were able to bring in via volunteers for the book fair.  So, we went out into the neighborhood, knocked on doors and collected old books.  In hindsight it was a decent system which I would appreciate today, and if anyone was collecting old books I could load them down with a half dozen boxes to cart away in their red wagons.  At the book fair I would look for things that appealed to me: I didn’t care for the classics at the time, as much as the Treasure Islands of the world had value, it was not for me.  And I adjusted to the fact that cartoon books, and even comic books, were not holding my interest either.  I liked sports books, and would gobble up baseball related fiction and non-fiction, what other 11 year old was walking around suburban Philadelphia in 1978 reading a biography on Mel Ott?  So, one year I’m at the book fair which had books on display on endless cafeteria tables and also in boxes under the table. And I found a Get Smart book.  And was amazed that it existed in the first place, but I knew the show from reruns and jumped right in and bought it, likely for a dime or so.  The next year I made it a mission to find more of them and recall finding a book or two when I was spelunking through boxes under the tables.  I felt as though the effort was worth it!  And I ended up with 3 books this way:   Sorry, Chief..., Get Smart, Once Again!, and And Loving It!. I read them, enjoyed them, and even my little junior high worldview I had expected them to be poor reproductions of the show.  But I was happily pleased by the stories, I remember that I was amused and enjoyed them. I vaguely was aware that I did not have the complete collection, but there was no eBay at the time, and no way to search for completing any of the collection.  As I went to college and moved on, the three books would find a spot on my bookcases; alongside “Baseball Stars of 1978” and “Nobody’s Perfect Charlie Brown” just mementos of youth, never really opened again, but positive recollections.

But then kids came along and reading to them, and I checked that shelf of my childhood books and a couple of the Get Smart books pushed their way to the top of the pile and they were quick breezy reads to my oldest son, maybe about 10 years ago.  Well, no maybe's about it, based on a note in my book, my oldest read Sorry Chief...  to me in September of 2008.

Another fast-forward to Corona 2020, and I was looking for something light, easy and not-too-dire, and began the process of going through them.  Now that we have the internet and eBay I became fascinated at the quantity of the series and soon had all 9 books in my possession.  They were all read between March and July of 2020.  

As mentioned, I was surprised that there were books here that I may have read three or four times in forty plus years but I remembered nothing about them.  So, after reading the first one I figured that the issue with me is that my memory doesn't record the stuff I read until I work up a sense of recall for it.  I wrote up a detailed synopsis/review.  And then repeated the process through all nine books.  That's what you see now.

Do I recommend you read them? Sure they're fun.  They are imaginative and the quality does vary but never takes a seriously bad dip.  But mostly, find something that made you happy and embrace it.  Revisit it.  And use the rest of your day to make new moments.