Get Smart

By JonnyQuest`04

Before there was Austin Powers, there was Get Smart - the ultimate TV spoof of James Bond 007. In the fall of 1965, at the height of the cold war and on the heels of the highly successful introduction of James Bond on the big screen in 1964, Get Smart first appeared on NBC, (CBS picked the show up in 1969 and ran it until 1971).

Get Smart was the creation of Buck Henry and comedy legend Mel Brooks. Set in Washington, D. C. , Get Smart featured the escapades of an inept, underpaid, overzealous spy: Maxwell Smart, Agent 86 (played by Don Adams), his boss (The Chief) played by Edward Platt, and his secret-agent partner and later wife (Agent 99) played by Barbara Feldon and a host of other agents both good and evil.

In order to give the agents of CONTROL (Smart and 99), a series of worthy opponents, KAOS was created, featuring villains with names like Mr. Big, The Claw, and Siegfried. Smart was CONTROL's top agent, despite his constant mess ups he always managed to solve the crime and have the girl, Agent 99 gazing at him with goo-goo eyes. The eventually even married and had twins! CONTROL was accessed via telephone booth and was well under the ground.

The Chief was under constant attack by Max's flubs leading to the famous lines "Sorry about that chief!" and "missed it by that much." Max is also famous for demanding the use of the defective Cone of Silence or using his "shoe phone" to get to the Chief.  . But, the Chief always resorts to Max` prowess when things need solving.

Max's foil is KAOS's top agent Siegfried (Bernie Kopell - The Love Boat's 'Doc'). Siegfried & side kick Schtarker are bumblers in their own right. Agent 13 was the undercover agent, squeezing into lockers, garbage cans & anywhere Max might need to get information from him.

Many of the episodes were spoofs of famous movies (Stalag 13, Treasure of Sierra Madre, Rear Window and many, many more!) and TV shows (I Spy, The Fugitive and others).

Guest stars were aplenty and ranged from Johnny Carson & Don Rickles to other TV & movie stars of the day. This show could be the guideline for future producers/creators looking at how you set up a spoof but yet keep it believable.

In 1995, Rupert Murdoch's FOX network attempted to bring the series back with some changes; Max as the Chief, 99 as a Congresswoman, and the Smart twins were now inexplicably only one child. Unfortunately, the sequel did not take off and was cancelled, but the original series lives in syndication, featured periodically on the TV Land cable network.

There was also a movie called Get Smart: The Nude Bomb which, of course, bombed.

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I'm always amazed that this show doesn't seem to get played on any of the oldies channels (At least not in my area). Catch phrases from the show have worked their way in to my subconscious. Upon seeing a giant inflated doughnut or something on top of a coffee shop I will inevitably shout "That's the second biggest doughnut I've ever seen!". My kids think I'm nuts. They think I should be hauled away to the loony bin where they say I will face danger and the threat of death at every turn, to which I of course say "and...Loving it!" --Anonymous

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