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Kilroy

It may be just a comb made of plastic...but something that was thrown out that window was the last great symbol of my youth. Have you seen my comb?

-Five Iron Frenzy -Blue Comb '78

The week Don Adams passed it seemed every great symbol of my youth had been thrown out a window somewhere. Days after Don's death my cat died --double whammy. The early half of the 1990s were all about my cat and Get Smart. That's all there was. Now my toys have been taken away and I am not to go back to those halcyon days of curling up with my kitty while watching one of Maxwell Smart's adventures.

Don always made me laugh and still does whether he's Maxwell Smart, Byron Glick or Lenny Crooke. I think I fell in love the moment he, as Max, remarked to 99, “Why you’re a girl!” after she takes off her hat and shakes out her hair. I took great pleasure in staying up to 2 a.m. just to watch GS during it's run on Nick at Nite. I felt like a teenage deviant –though probably the only one with a severe crush on Don Adams.

While Don's success at making the world laugh during his tenure on Get Smart left him typecast, many of us are glad Maxwell Smart was around.

The show proved to be an inspiration to its fans. Not only were girls empowered by 99, but some "Smartians, inspired by Max's  ever present quest of the Powers of Niceness defeating the Powers of Evilness and Rottenness have entered law enforcement or (would you believe) intelligence. Others influenced by Don have taken the creative route by going into comedy writing and the television and film industry. 

Somewhere down the pike, Get Smart inspired me to write. After Nick yanked it in 1995 I got disgusted that there wasn’t anything on TV I liked. I decided write up my own entertainment that had a bit of GS influence. Much of that hasn’t gotten outside of a few notebooks. However, practice made tolerable and I got a job writing. Sometimes it even pays the bills.

IMHO the best thing that came out of Don… and he probably didn’t know he did it… was that he’s one of
the reasons a lot of people from all walks of life have become friends.

-A.
HC of DG since 2003