The impact that Airplane, Naked Gun, and even more cult-oriented films like Top Secret! Have had on American comedy are undeniable. All of those heavily involved David Zucker, who also directed and co-wrote H. U. D. Those traces still seep through H. U. D., but the spine of the show owes more of a debt to the beloved and equally influential '60s sitcom Get Smart, what with the burgeoning love story between a bumbling, arrogant agent (Steve Carell, who would go on to take on the film version at the end of the decade) and his smarter, devoted, beautiful partner (Meredith Salenger). Salenger, who has had a very steady career, was past her '80s heyday, while Carell, after a brief burst of national exposure on the Dana Carvey Show and a longer stint on The Daily Show, was still slowly finding his way to TV and movie stardom.
While Salenger is a worthy successor to the wonderful Barbara Feldon, and the supporting cast is also in fine form (ever-reliable John McMartin as Carell's boss, always-underrated James Patrick Stuart as his ex-partner, and Robert Stack returning from years of Unsolved Mysteries intros as an informant, comic timing blessedly intact), Carell never quite fits the role. There's something about Carell's intensity and the air of seriousness he brings to his comedy which meshes very badly with a part so effortlessly inhabited by Don Adams (and the variation which gave Leslie Nielsen international stardom). When the character says or does anything stupid or offensive, you are less able to detach, because Carell's presence just doesn't let you breathe.
The other problem is that, due to said wide influence, by 2000, you will have already seen most of the jokes in this pilot many times, so even the genuinely funny moments will not affect you unless you are a real novice of this genre.
Not a terrible way to pass about 20 minutes, but otherwise, I'd say just watch Get Smart.
