Warner's Gets Legal Pass On 'Get Smart'

Let me knock down yet another rumor. Intellectual property pit bull Marc Toberoff tells me he doesn't represent the Don Adams estate and isn't suing Warner Bros over Get Smart. Toberoff did take on Warner Brothers when the studio attempted to deny Buck Henry (and Mel Brooks, repped by Alan U. Schwartz) financial participation as creators of the series, but that was settled. On the other hand, it is true that Toberoff is the bane of Warner Bros' existence fresh off a victory on behalf of Superman creator Jerry Seigel and other lawsuits involving the studio's product like The Dukes of Hazzard, The Wild Wild West, and Smallville. (See my previous: Ruling Against Warner On Superman: How Legally Greedy Can Big Media Get?) As for Get Smart, the biggest obstacle facing it isn't legal but comedic.

« Bert Fields Arrives At Pellicano Trial (...But He Doesn't Testify)   New Liners Worse Off Than We Thought? »

4 Comments »

  1. This whole “screw the creator” attitude the key reasons why Hollywood production costs make Zimbabwe’s inflation rate look sensible. Do you think people would be demanding so much up-front money if they didn’t expect to be screwed over in the royalties and residuals department.

    A little common sense would stop that, and it would also save money on litigation and probably put that Toberoff guy out of business.

    Comment by Furious D — April 15, 2008 @ 11:18 am

  2. It still sounds like Adams’ estate is suing, but this isn’t the attorney handling it.

    The previews for the new GET SMART movie aren’t very funny. It makes you appreciate how great the original show was. The studio would have been “smarter” to hire Mel Brooks and Bucky Henry, as opposed to trying to deny them their due.

    Comment by Joe Green — April 15, 2008 @ 11:38 am

  3. What casting couch work did Steve Carrel do to be put in big budget comedies? Get Smart was a fun spoof of James Bond but Carrel has too big an ego to make fun of himself. What’s more, he has 0 international appeal. Kudos to his agent.

    Comment by John — April 15, 2008 @ 1:41 pm

  4. John–

    You sure know a lot about Steve. By the way, his name is spelled “”Carell.”

    Comment by huh? — April 15, 2008 @ 6:25 pm

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Leave a comment

XHTML ( You can use these tags): <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong> .