THE UNCLASSIFIED GET SMART SITE

GET SMART

-The rest of the story

Ah...... So you'd like to get Smart, huh? Now, to fellow Smartians the TV show Get Smart needs no introduction, but for the novice, however, an adequate explanation needs to be given.

Get Smart is an American sitcom that ran from 1965 to 1970 during the turbulent Vietnam and Cold War era. This hilarious show was created by Mel Brooks (Blazing Saddles) and Buck Henry (Heaven Can Wait) to spoof the popular James Bond movies of that period. It starred the ever so funny and multi-talented former stand-up comedian Don Adams as bumbling, stumbling, spy, Maxwell Smart, Agent 86. Max was assisted by a female agent known only as Agent 99. Later in the run of the series Max and 99 (who was played by the sultry and velvet-voiced Barbara Feldon) tied the knot and had children soon after.

86 and 99 worked for the good forces of the top secret spy organization known as Control. Unfortunately, they always had to clean up a spot of trouble that was created by their enemies at Kaos -also known as The International Organization of Evil. Fortunately, 86 and 99 were aided by their long suffering boss, The Chief (played by former opera singer Edward Platt), Agent 13 (Dave Ketchum) who could be found anywhere from inside a mailbox to inside a sofa, and Control's own version of R2D2, Hymie the robot (Dick Gautier).

After winning it's final cluster of Emmys in 1969, Get Smart was canceled by NBC. CBS, seeing a golden opportunity in television programming, snatched the show and put it in their line up. It was in this season that Max and 99 had twins. This was also the last season for the original Get Smart series. (Hmmm seems that everything good broke up in 1970 -just take a peek at my Beatles page if you don't believe me) Get Smart was revamped, however, with a 1980 feature film called The Nude Bomb (it was also a box office bomb) and a TV reunion movie called Get Smart Again. In January of 1995, FOX aired a revised and short lived version of Get Smart.

Presently it is rumored that a new Get Smart movie, which was once upon a time based on a script called Spyville, is being considered. Originally it looked as if Jim Carrey would take the lead as Max. Excuse me while I say this, but... EWWWWEEEE!!!!! Carrey was fine busting up his contact lenses in the Ace Ventura movies but the thought of him as Max makes me want to vomit. Carrey, however, declined the role of Max and directing sites were set on Rob Reiner and eventually John Whitesell. Now, though, there is no one sitting in this project's director's seat, but the word is Steve Carell may get to be Max. Check out my Movie Comments for more movie dirt.
Get Smart has had a lasting influence on comedy and on TV up to the present. Sadly, the show is largely ignored and over looked. GS produced a load of clever catch-phrases (e.g. sorry about that; would you believe?; and missed it by that much) that are still being used in sitcoms today.

I think that the show has some sort of a magnetic quality to it. The black and white pilot episode, "Mr. Big," was the first episode I saw and from that point I was completely hooked. It was not too hard to become addicted to the show either. After all, Get Smart was truly funny (those that didn't find it funny -and I can name a few- didn't get the jokes). Plus, Max drove a cool car -several to be precise but I preferred the Ghia. Agent 99 was a non-blonde (yeah! a fellow brunette plays a leading lady! Woohoo!) and she had perfect hair. Of course, the sole reason for watching was Don Adams and, yes, I still have a crush on him.