Get Smart

*Get Smart*
Get Smart
	File:GetSmart CBS.JPG Title card for the fifth season of Get Smart, and its only season on CBS, in 1969.
Created by	Mel Brooks; Buck Henry
Starring	Don Adams; Barbara Feldon; Edward Platt
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	138, +7 revival
Production
Running time	approximately 25 minutes
Original release
Network	NBC (1965-1969); CBS (1969-1970); FOX (1995)
Release	September 18, 1965 –; September 11, 1970 (revival ran January 15, 1995-February, 1995)

Get Smart was an American comedy television series that satirized the secret agent genre, which was quite popular in the mid-1960s. It ran on the NBC television network from September 18, 1965 to September 1969, on CBS from September 26, 1969 to September 11, 1970, airing a total of 138 episodes.

The series, created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, won seven Emmy Awards and was nominated for an additional fourteen Emmys and two Golden Globe Awards.

Two movie versions were produced years after the end of the NBC/CBS run of the TV series: the theatrically released The Nude Bomb (also known as The Return of Maxwell Smart or Maxwell Smart and the Nude Bomb) in 1980 and the made-for-TV Get Smart, Again! in 1989 on ABC. The relative success of Get Smart, Again! eventually prompted the development of a short lived 1995 weekly series on FOX, also titled Get Smart, with Don Adams and Barbara Feldon reprising their characters, as their bumbling son, Zach (Andy Dick), becomes CONTROL's star agent.

With the revival series on Fox, Get Smart became the first television franchise to air new episodes on each of the current four major American television networks, NBC,CBS, ABC and FOX, although several TV shows in the 1940s and 50s aired on NBC, CBS, ABC and DuMont. The different versions of Get Smart did not all feature the original lead cast intact.

The show is often re-run around the world in syndication.

Premise

File:Don Adams.jpg

Don Adams as Agent Maxwell Smart the title role of Get Smart!

File:BarbaraFeldon.JPG

Barbara Feldon portrayed Agent 99 of CONTROL

The series starred Don Adams as bumbling secret agent Maxwell Smart, Agent 86. Barbara Feldon's character (Agent 99) is never named; even after Smart married her, he (and everyone else) continued to always address her as "99". Smart and 99 worked for CONTROL, a secret U.S. Government spy agency based in Washington, D.C. (123 Main Street). Together, the pair investigated and opposed various threats to the world while Smart's bumbling caused complications. However, at each story's climax, Smart never failed to save the day, typically thanks to his own dumb luck and 99's competence. Looking on was the long-suffering Chief (played by Edward Platt), who was always addressed as "Chief". Unlike Agent 99, Chief was revealed to have a name -- Thaddeus -- on a few occasions.

The nemesis of CONTROL was KAOS, and KAOS's Vice President of Public Relations and Terror, Siegfried (Bernie Kopell), showed up often as Maxwell Smart's opponent, or would-be assassin. Though on opposite sides, Max and Siegfried clicked personally, and spoke fondly of one another — even when trying to kill each other.

Other characters included Hymie the Robot (Dick Gautier), a powerful android who tended to take orders too literally; Agent 13 (Dave Ketchum), who was forever being stationed inside weird places such as mailboxes, washing machines, lockers, and other objects; Agent 44 (Victor French), who regularly suffered the same fate as Agent 13; Agent Larrabee (Robert Karvelas), the Chief's slow-witted assistant; and Shtarker (King Moody), Siegfried's chief henchman.

Gadgets

Perhaps the most recognisable 'gag' from the show was Smart's shoe phone, which has become somewhat of a comic icon: Smart would communicate with CONTROL using a rotary-dialed telephone concealed in his shoe, similar to a modern cell phone. While such a device was decades ahead of its time in real life, the need to take off his shoe to use it and the loud bell among other design flaws led to various humorously awkward situations.

Communication contraptions on the show were not limited to footwear: one episode had the Chief using the hour and minute hands of a clock (detached from the clock face) to communicate. Max once used a 'Bunsen burner phone' with the flame as the microphone: he had to put "Code P" into effect, and the device repeatedly disconnected when Max's plosive "P"s blew the burner's flame out. Another example was the 'gun phone' which resulted in the line 'I'll call you back, I think I'm gonna have to fire my phone'. Also, the CONTROL hotline was discovered to be a log in Max's fireplace.

The shoe phone, along with the radio-in-a-pen from The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and real world code-breaking devices and other items, were on display at the Reagan Library's "Spies: Secrets from the CIA, KGB and Hollywood" exhibit from February 17 to July 14 2002. The term "shoe phone" has returned to currency as a slang expression for a handheld cellular telephone.

Another of the show's recurring gags was the Cone of Silence. Smart would pedantically insist on following CONTROL's security protocols; when in the Chief's office he would insist on speaking under the Cone of Silence — two transparent plastic hemispheres which were electrically lowered on top of Smart and the Chief — which invariably malfunctioned, requiring the characters to shout loudly in order to be understood by each other. In one episode, the device worked so badly that an outside observer, who could hear everything spoken inside, had to relay messages to the people inside because they couldn't hear each other. Other times, the Cone of Silence would malfunction while being lowered and fail to stop at the proper desk level; the device would then repeatedly crush down onto Agent 86 and the Chief, resulting in loud anguished screams. The Cone actually worked as intended once. However, at the end of the conversation the Cone malfunctioned leaving the Chief trapped within, with silent screams of frustration as Agent 86 walked away. The 1989 reunion movie revealed that Max and 99 had purchased a surplus Cone and placed it over their bed — it still didn't work.

The AMT Corporation, a major producer of model car kits, produced a replica of the 1965 Sunbeam Tiger roadster Smart drove in the opening credits. Complete with a hoard of hidden weapons, it is the only kit of the Tiger produced to date and is highly coveted by collectors. The start of the 1968 season put Smart in a Volkswagen Karmann Ghia for the opening credits, which never appeared in the show itself. He also began driving a 1969 Opel GT, with a variation of the shoe phone, namely a giant rotary telephone dial covering the steering wheel.

Other Get Smart productions

Smart and Agent 99 married in the fourth season, and she gave birth to twins in the fifth season, a boy and a girl. The short-lived 1995 Fox revival starred Andy Dick as one of the twins, Zachary Smart, who was every bit the bumbler as his father. Despite appearances by Adams (Max is now chief of CONTROL) and Feldon (99 is now a congresswoman), the show failed to recapture the spirit of the original. The last episode of the 1995 series shows that just as Siegfried is leaving a room, Maxwell Smart accidentally activates an atomic bomb just before the end of the show. (The teaser for the episode shows an atomic bomb going off.) This ending is similar to a device used by the Get Smart-inspired series Sledge Hammer! at the end of its first season.

Two movie versions were produced years after the end of the NBC/CBS run of the TV series. First was the theatrically released The Nude Bomb (also known as The Return of Maxwell Smart or Maxwell Smart and the Nude Bomb) in 1980. Mel Brooks complained about having no say in the making of the movie. Of the original lead cast, only Adams was featured. Edward Platt (who had played the Chief) had died a few years before, and Barbara Feldon was at that time not interested in reviving the character of 99. With Feldon's unwillingness to participate it was decided that rather than attempt to recast the role, 99 should not be featured at all. Feldon did return in the made-for-TV Get Smart, Again! in 1989.

Adams again played a bumbling secret agent in the animated series Inspector Gadget and its prequel series Gadget Boy and Heather, which were not related to Get Smart. He also portrayed Maxwell Smart in a series of TV commercials in New Zealand for the Toyota Starlet in the late 1980s and in another series of popular Canadian ones in the late 1990s for a dial-around long distance carrier.

A new big-screen version of Get Smart is in production, starring Steve Carell as Maxwell Smart [1] and Anne Hathaway as Agent 99 [2], Alan Arkin as Thaddeus, and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as new character Agent 23. Shooting is scheduled to begin in March of 2007, and the film probably won't hit theaters until 2008.

Time-Life now offers the complete series of Get Smart in DVD season sets or one 25-disc box set through their Web site[3]. The discs were originally scheduled for release on November 13, 2006[4], but were delayed by a week because of a problem with one of the three parts that make up of the set's packaging. [5]

Books and comics

A series of original novels based upon the series were published in the late 1960s. In addition, Dell Comics published a comic book for 8 issues during 1966 and 1967, drawn in part by Steve Ditko.

DVD releases

The complete Get Smart series is currently available in the United States, Canada and New Zealand as a boxed set from Time Life Video. Currently the set is only available through Time Life, and the company has said that the DVDs will not be available in stores for Region 2 until Fall 2007.^[1]

Time Life has also released the first and second seasons of the show in Australia as individual discs, as well as a season set. Like the Region 1 release, this edition is only available through the manufacturer. ^[2]

DVD Name	Cover Art	Region 1 Dec. 2006	Region 2 Fall 2007	Region 4 TBA
Seasons 1-5 DVD Collection	Seasons 1-5 DVD Collection	January 7, 2007	TBA	TBA

References in popular culture

In an episode of Married... with Children, Al Bundy relates to neighbor Steve Rhoades how one of the ways he endures having sex with wife Peggy is by "propping a TV up on the pillow, so I can watch Get Smart!"
The Ramones' song "Danny Says" references the show in the lyric "Watchin' Get Smart on TV," describing one of the ways the band passes time between publicity appointments.
In one Get Smart episode, 99's real name seems to be revealed as Susan Hilton. But later in the same episode, she says that isn't her real name. Much later, the name Susan Hilton is used on the Fox Television series The New Adventures of Beans Baxter.
In a 2002 The Simpsons episode, the couch gag spoofs the traditional Get Smart entrance, with Homer walking through a similar series of doors, dialing in a telephone booth, and then dropping onto the couch.
A 2006 Bush's Baked Beans commercial spoofs the Get Smart opening, with Jay and Cousin Drew walking through various chambers to get to the secret recipe. (The joke is that Duke, the scheming golden retriever, has already installed doggie doors.)
In the book Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the visitors' entrance to the Ministry of Magic involves walking into a seemingly-normal phone booth that functions as an elevator when the number 62442 (MAGIC) is dialed.
On Screeching Weasel's 1994 album "How To Make Enemies & Irritate People," the second song is called "99," dedicated to 99, and contains a humorous reference in the chorus "Every time I think of you, 99, I start to follow clues, 99, can't call you from my shoe, 99," as well as "Don't tell me you're a double agent," and "When you left me things were Kaotic and I think i almost lost Control."
On the Hoodoo Gurus album "Stoneage Romeos" is a song called "In The Echo Chamber" which is a reference to the episode with the Groovy Guru and his chamber which contained a powerful amplifier. From the same episode, The Painters and Dockers and made a cover version of "Kill Kill Kill" which was performed by The Sacred Cows in the show.
On an episode of Family Guy, Peter walks through a series of chambers complete with hand and retina scans just to access his pornography.
In an episode of Mad About You, Barbara Feldon guest stars as an actress who starred in a fictional TV series called Spy Girl in the 60's. The fictional Spy Girl character closely resembles her character, 99. [6]
The main character in the Spy Fox series of games from Humongous Entertainment used Get Smart schtick, such as the 'would you believe...' responses, the silly gadgets, co-agents hiding in unusual receptacles, and a strong Maxell Smart accent.

Trivia

In a TV Land special on the series the producers said during the first year of the series they received many inquiries from the CIA. It seems that some of the corny or silly "spy equipment" actually existed. The CIA asked, "Where did [the producers] get this info on this device?" etc., and the producers told them honestly they made it up. After the first year, the producers decided that after filming an episode, they would send a copy to CIA Headquarters with a letter saying, "There might be something here that you probably could use."
Barbara Feldon was two inches taller than Don Adams, but the show sought to depict Maxwell Smart as taller than 99. Although wide shots often showed that Feldon was taller, when possible, Feldon would often crouch or wear flats or Adams would stand on a small platform.
In an episode in which Maxwell Smart is in court and calls the Chief to the stand, asked to give his full name, the Chief replies "That is classified information". The judge then asks if he can give only his first name; he replies "Thaddeus". ("The Day Smart Turned Chicken")
According to one episode, the Chief's "number" was Q. He was an agent before they started using numbers.
Though Zachary Smart's name was revealed in the FOX revival, his sister's name remains as yet unrevealed.
In a 1980 all-celebrity episode of Family Feud, Don Adams and Bernie Kopell once again found themselves on opposite sides, playing on behalf of charities. This time, Kopell's side won.
In episodes where 99's mother appeared, her character was listed in the credits as "99's mother."
In the cartoon series Inspector Gadget, the lead character (voiced by Don Adams) once said "Oh, would you believe...?", one of the catchphrases of his Get Smart character.
In an episode of The Gilmore Girls a group of Logan's friends said, in reference to Rory after her and Logan had been arrested for stealing a yacht, "Looks like Logan's found his 99".
With the passing of Don Adams on September 26, 2005, Barbara Feldon is the only surviving main cast member of Get Smart.

Inconsistencies

Jim Boles appeared twice as KAOS Scientist Dr. Rattan. The error is that he "dies" twice. The first time he is shot and killed by his own creation Hymie the Robot. The second time he is killed by his own creation Grobo.

Kaos Mr. Big

The black-and-white pilot is the only time the KAOS Boss, also known as "Mr. Big," is seen, played by Michael Dunn (although others played the head of KAOS in other episodes).

Regular cast

Don Adams (as Maxwell Smart, CONTROL Agent 86)
Barbara Feldon (as CONTROL Agent 99)
Edward Platt (as Thaddeus, the Chief of CONTROL; The cover name he uses is John Doe or Harold Clark)

Recurring cast

CONTROL agents

Richard Gautier (as Hymie, the CONTROL robot)
Victor French (as CONTROL Agent 44)
Al Molinaro (as second CONTROL Agent 44)
David Ketchum (as CONTROL Agent 13)
Stacy Keach, Sr (as Carlson)
Robert Karvelas (as Larrabee)
William Schallert (as Admiral Harold Harmon Hargrade)
Frank De Vol (as Carleton)
Milton Selzer (as Parker)
Bryan O'Byrne (as Hodgkins)
Angelique Pettyjohn (as Charlie Watkins)

KAOS agents

Michael Dunn (as Mr. Big; Pilot episode only}
Bernie Kopell (as Siegfried)
King Moody (as Shtarker)
Leonard Strong (as The Claw; Because the Claw had difficulty pronouncing L's, Max always called him "The Craw")
John Doucette (as Colonel von Klaus)
Lee Kolima (as Bobo)
Jim Boles (as Dr. Ratton)
Ted de Corsia (as Spinoza Natz)
Milton Selzer (again as Parker — he was a double agent!)
Paul Richards (as Ironhand)

Others

Joey Forman (as Detective Harry Hoo)
Jane Dulo (as Agent 99's mother)
Robert Cornthwaite (as Professor Windish)
Gordon Jump (as Hobson)
Ellen Weston (as Dr. Steele)
Ella Edwards (as Miss Haskins)

References

^ Time Life.com | Get Smart: The Complete Collection - December 15, 2006
^ | Get Smart seasons 1 and 2 - Feb. 1, 2007

External links

[timelife01-1] Time Life.com | Get Smart: The Complete Collection - December 15, 2006

[timelife02-2] | Get Smart seasons 1 and 2 - Feb. 1, 2007

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