Get Smart

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For other uses, see Get Smart (disambiguation).
Get Smart
Title card from the original NBC run
Created byMel Brooks
Buck Henry
StarringDon Adams
Barbara Feldon
Edward Platt
Country of origin United States
No. of seasons5
No. of episodes138, +7 revival
Production
Running timeca. 25 minutes
Original release
NetworkNBC (1965-1969)
CBS (1969-1970)
ABC (1989)
FOX (1995)
ReleaseSeptember 18, 1965 –
September 11, 1970
(revival January 15, 1995 - February 1995)

Get Smart is an American comedy television series that satirized the secret agent genre. Created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, the show starred Don Adams as Maxwell Smart, Agent 86 of CONTROL, a secret U.S. government spy agency.

Get Smart aired on the NBC television network from September 18, 1965 to April 12, 1969, after which it moved to CBS for its final season, running from September 26, 1969 to September 11, 1970. A total of 138 episodes were broadcast. The show was quite popular in the mid-1960s, and continues to enjoy a cult following as it is often rerun around the world in syndication.

The series won seven Emmy Awards and was nominated for an additional fourteen, as well as two Golden Globe Awards.

Premise

The series centered on bungling secret agent Maxwell Smart (Don Adams), also known as Agent 86. His partner is Agent 99 (Barbara Feldon), whose real name is never revealed.[1] Smart and 99 work for CONTROL, a secret U.S. government spy agency based in Washington, D.C. (at 123 Main Street). The pair investigate and thwart various threats to the world, though Smart's incompetence invariably causes complications. However, Smart never fails to save the day, typically thanks to his own dumb luck and 99's skill. Looking on is the long-suffering head of CONTROL, who is always addressed simply as "Chief" played by Edward Platt.

The nemesis of CONTROL is KAOS (pronounced chaos), an equally inept spy agency from an unnamed though apparently Eastern bloc nation. Despite being capitalized, CONTROL and KAOS are not acronyms and do not stand for anything.[2]

Characters

Maxwell Smart - Maxwell Smart, Agent 86 is the central character in the series. Despite being a top secret government agent, he is actually, awkward, clumsy, and not very bright. He does, however display considerable prowess in hand to hand combat. His cover is a greeting card salesman but he seldom manages to maintain secrecy about his real work.

Agent 99 - Agent 99 is a tall and attractive female agent whose appearance becomes useful in many undercover operations. Generally Agent 99 is more competent than Maxwell Smart, but Max saves her life in several episodes. Together they provide a perfect team both to battle KAOS and provide comical situations on-screen. Smart and 99 were married in Season 4 and 99 has twins in Season 5.

The Chief - The Chief of CONTROL is intelligent, serious and sensible. He is supportive to Agents 86 and 99, however he is frequently frustrated with Max due to his frequent failures and foul-ups. Unlike Agent 99, Chief is revealed to have a first name--Thaddeus--on a few occasions.

Siegfried - Ludwig Von Siegfried is a recurring villain and the Vice President of KAOS. He is Maxwell Smart's "opposite number" and nemesis at KAOS, although the two characters share similar traits and often speak fondly of one another, even in the midst of attempting to assassinate each other.

Other characters included Hymie the Robot (Dick Gautier), a powerful android (built originally by KAOS but reprogrammed to work for CONTROL) who tends to take orders too literally; Agent 13 (Dave Ketchum), who is always being stationed inside weird, unlikely places, such as mailboxes, washing machines, lockers, and other objects; Agent 44 (Victor French), who regularly suffers the same fate as Agent 13; the Chief's slow-witted assistant Agent Larabee (Robert Karvelas); Siegfried's chief henchman Shtarker (King Moody); and Fang (Agent K-13), a poorly-trained CONTROL dog.

Pilot episode

Filmed and presented in black and white, the first episode has Max leaving a show and across the road walking down some outside stairs and then the title sequence begins with Max going through several steel doors and finally into a phone booth; after picking up the phone, dialing, then hanging up, an ultra-fast elevator drops Smart off camera, presumably depositing him at CONTROL's underground headquarters. In following episodes, he would go through the doors of a building to enter CONTROL HQ. He has not been to CONTROL HQ (which is situated in Washington DC and was set up in 1957) for a while and meets the Chief again. The Cone of Silence (a worthless invention where nothing can be heard outside as well as inside) is shown. Sent on a mission to stop KAOS, which is back in business after a long break, Max meets 99 for the first time; Fang (Agent K-13) the dog also makes an appearance. In this episode, Max removes the whole sole of his shoe to use it as a telephone to call the Chief instead of later episodes just swivelling the heel.

Gadgets

Perhaps the most recognizable '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 (see Sneaker Phone), its numerous design flaws--such as the loud bell ("Excuse me, I think your shoe is ringing!"), the need to take off his shoe to use it and that it required a dime to place a call--led to various humorously awkward situations. This was possibly a parody of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. wherein the agents's communicators made a loud sound but only they ever seemed to hear it.

Communication contraptions on the show were not limited to footwear: The second episode had Max using a watch; in one episode, Max has phones concealed in his necktie, his belt, and his handkerchief; and another 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 once discovered to be a log in Max's fireplace; and a hotline to the Chief's office from the CONTROL lab was a set of beakers designed to look like they contained fluid when in reality, they did not. The running gag was that new phones repeatedly popped up in new hidden places throughout the run of the show (including one concealed in a jacket).

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.

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 to even have a chance of being understood by each other, and even then, most of the time that failed. 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 could not even hear each other. At 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 Get Smart, Again! revealed that Max and 99 had purchased a surplus Cone and placed it over their bed--it was just as reliable as any other Cone Of Silence, which is to say, not at all.

Catch phrases

As the character Maxwell Smart, Don Adams created many catch phrases that were popular then, some of which are still used today, including "Sorry about that, [Chief]", "Missed it by that much" (showing fingers close together), "Would you believe...?" followed by ever more improbable situations ("would you believe that this building is surrounded by 50 CONTROL agents?" (Inevitable response: "I find that very hard to believe, Mr. Smart.") Would you believe 40 CONTROL agents? How about one angry boy scout?"), "Good thinking 99" and "I asked you not to tell me that!" (after imploring someone, "Don't tell me..."). Whenever an outrageously oversized object appears (e.g. a 30ft arrow, or a silencer the size of a bucket) provokes the statement that "...that's the SECOND biggest {fill in the blank} I've ever seen". Also, after being told he would be in danger of every minute of his assignment, he would always take on a profound face and say "...and loving it."

The proposed movie

The 1966 Batman movie, made during that TV show's original run, was hugely successful and prompted other television shows to propose similar films in order to cash in on the phenomenon. The only one completed was Munster Go Home (1966), which was a huge box office flop, causing the cancellation of other projects, including "Get Smart" movie. The script for that movie was turned into the three-part episode "A Man Called Smart", which originally aired 4/8, 4/15 & 4/22 1967.

Follow-ups

Three movie versions were produced years after the end of the NBC/CBS run of the TV series:

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, with Maxwell Smart now being the Chief of CONTROL, as their bungling son, Zach (Andy Dick), becomes CONTROL's star agent. 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. There weren't high hopes for the series as Andy Dick had already moved on to NewsRadio which premiered weeks later in 1995.

With the revival series on FOX, Get Smart became the first television franchise to air new episodes on each of the aforementioned current four major American television networks, although several TV shows in the 1940s and 1950s aired on NBC, CBS, ABC and DuMont. The different versions of Get Smart did not all feature the original lead cast intact.

Get Smart Cars

AMT, a major producer of model car kits, later bought out by Ertl, 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; the car never appeared in the show itself. He also began driving a 1969 Opel GT, with a new phone: the giant rotary telephone dial covered the steering wheel, revisiting a gag first seen in a first-season episode. Max is also seen driving a green with tan interior, 1968 Ford Shelby convertible in at least one episode.

Spies at work

CONTROL and KAOS did not seem to be above everyday bureaucracy and business quirks. KAOS is a Delaware corporation for tax purposes. CONTROL's union is the Guild of Surviving Control Agents, and Max is their negotiator; when a captured KAOS agent tells him about their survivors's benefits, the Chief is within earshot, and Max promptly uses the information for his labor talks.

In one episode, where Max infiltrates a KAOS-run garden shop, Max refuses to arrest the manager until after 5 p.m., so he can collect a full day's pay from the shop. The Chief threatens to fire him, but Max is not afraid; according to CONTROL's seniority policy, "If I get fired from CONTROL, Larrabee moves up!" The Chief gives in and lets Max stay on the job, rather than risk having the (even more) inept Larrabee take Max's place.

In another episode, Siegfried and Max casually discuss the various flavors of cyanide pills they have been issued. It was Raspberry that month at CONTROL, and Max offered Siegfried a taste. In that same episode Max and Siegfried have a show and tell of various weapons they have--Max boasts of having a deadly non-regulation pistol--from a Chicago Mail Order House. (The prop in use is actually an 1896 Mauser C96 pistol.)

Cover names were common, but sent up as being used unwisely--in an art gallery, a phone call is announced for an alias, and Max identifies himself as the person in question. Second, third and fourth calls come in, each with its own alias--the last of which was his own name (Maxwell Smart), which he initially does not answer--and Max tells the skeptical gallery owner that those are his names as well, making it obvious to any spy that he is taking calls from fellow agents and informants. Max then proceeds to make himself even more visible by tangling the handset cords of the four phones together.

CONTROL also has a policy of burning pertinent documents after cases are closed; the reasons why were detailed in their rules and regulations book, but nobody can read them, since they burned the only copy.

In the interest of company morale, both CONTROL and KAOS have their own bowling teams.

Other Get Smart productions

Don Adams played Maxwell Smart in a 1989 TV commercial for KMart. He was seen talking on his trademark shoe phone, telling the chief about the great selection of electronics available at KMart. An exact replica of himself approaches him, and Max says, "Don't tell me you're a double agent."

Adams also starred in a series of local commercials for New York City electronics chain Savemart as Maxwell Smart. The slogan was "Get Smart. Get SaveMart Smart".[1] In addition, Adams starred in a series of commercials for White Castle in 1992, homaging his Get Smart character with his catch phrase, "Would you believe...?" [2]

Adams again played a bungling secret agent in the animated series Inspector Gadget (which later became a feature film starring Matthew Broderick in the title role) and its prequel series Gadget Boy and Heather, neither of which was related to Get Smart. He portrayed Maxwell Smart in a series of TV commercials for Toyota New Zealand for the 1990 model Toyota Starlet in the late 1980s. While it is usual for the actor to go to New Zealand, Adams's apparent intense dislike of long-distance flying meant that the New Zealand specification car had to be shipped to the US for filming. He also appeared in another series of popular Canadian ones in the late 1990s for a dial-around long distance carrier.

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.

2008 Get Smart Movie

Main article: Get Smart (film)

A new big-screen version of Get Smart is in production, starring Steve Carell as Maxwell Smart (Agent 86), Anne Hathaway as Agent 99, Alan Arkin as Thaddeus (The Chief), Terence Stamp as Conrad Siegfried, Masi Oka as Bruce and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as new character Agent 23. Shooting began in March 2007 and the film is scheduled to be released June 20, 2008. A made-for-DVD sequel focusing on minor characters will be released 10 days later.[3]

Rights issues and DVD releases

The entire series (except the final season) was produced for NBC by Talent Associates. When it moved to CBS, it became an in-house production of the latter network, with Talent Associates as silent partner. The series was later sold to NBC Films for syndication. Distribution has changed hands in the intervening decades, from National Telefilm Associates to Republic Pictures, to Paramount Domestic Television, and finally, to the current distributor, CBS Television Distribution (ironically, its parent company, CBS, produced the final season). All of this is due to corporate changes involving their respective owners, and especially the 2006 split of Viacom (owners of Paramount Pictures) into two separate companies. Note, however, that CBS owns only the television syndication rights, and not home video, due to the assets of Talent Associates now at the hands of HBO (currently part of the Time Warner empire, and thus any future feature film incarnation of Get Smart, namely the upcoming 2008 version, will be made by HBO sister studio Warner Bros.). The series copyright, however, is now held by HBO.

The complete Get Smart series is currently available in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand as a boxed set from Time Life Video. The discs were originally scheduled for release on November 13, 2006[3], but were delayed by a week because of a problem with one of the three parts that make up the set's packaging. [4] 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. According to TV Shows on DVD, Time Life has a one year exclusive on selling the complete series in the U.S. That would put the series in retail stores around January 2008.[4][5]

Time Life has also released all Seasons in Australia and New Zealand as either individual discs with 4 to 5 episodes per disc or as season sets. Like the Region 1 release, this edition is only available through the Time Life website.[6]

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

Miscellaneous

  • Brooks and Henry originally wanted Tom Poston to play Maxwell Smart, but NBC executives insisted on Adams because he was already under contract to the network. Many of Smart's gags and one-liners were added by Adams himself from a secret-agent comedy routine he'd performed in the past; the voice he used in character was a parody imitation of William Powell's voice.
  • 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 Long shots often showed that Feldon was taller, when possible, Feldon would often slouch, wear flats or in her stocking-feet; and/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 installment in question is titled "The Day Smart Turned Chicken.")
  • According to one episode, the Chief's "number" was Q. He was an agent before they started using numbers.
  • The number 86 for Smart was presumably chosen because it was bartenders' slang for not serving an inebriated customer, having been derived from clerks' slang for "We're all out of the item ordered." One explanation of the origin of that usage is that 86 was rhyming slang for "nix". [7]
  • In theatrical and movie-making slang, to "86" something -- a prop or a light, for instance -- is to remove or "strike" it.
  • One episode had Smart going up against a villain named Dr. Yes, a parody of Dr. No. Dr. Yes even had a similar scheme to Dr. No, using radio waves to send US rockets out of control.
  • 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.
  • When Don Adams died on September 26, 2005, Barbara Feldon, Dick Gautier and Bernie Kopell became the only surviving main cast members of Get Smart.
  • Some of the secondary cast has been used several times as backup cast. For example, Larabee can be seen in the episode where Smart is wanted for murder and holding up a bank, as a member of the jury.
  • Don Adams is the only actor to appear in every episode of the series. Barbara Feldon appeared in the second highest amount of episodes, appearing in 131 of the 138 episodes. (Although, in "Ice Station Siegfried", Don Adams was sick during shooting and was only shown in one scene.)
  • In 1973, Dean Katz, a student at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington and a long-time fan of Get Smart, founded the independent community radio station KAOS 89.3 FM, named after the evil syndicate that served as the principal villain in the series. The radio station still operates under the KAOS call letters today.
  • This series marked the debut of game show panelist turned actress Barbara Feldon.
  • In one episode, 99's mother mentions that 99's father, like Maxwell Smart, held his cover as a greeting card salesman, but 99's mother knew that her husband was a spy.

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.
  • In the movie The Nude Bomb (also known as The Return of Maxwell Smart or Maxwell Smart and the Nude Bomb) CONTROL was instead named PITS (Provisional Intelligence Tactical Service).

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).

Characters

Recurring characters

CONTROL agents

KAOS agents

Others

See also

Wikiquote has quotations related to Get Smart.

References

  1. ^ WouldYouBelieve.com Frequently Asked Questions - August 13, 2007
  2. ^ "Frequently Asked Questions". WouldYouBelieve.com. Retrieved 2008-04-23.
  3. ^ "Get Smart: DVD Sequel to Star Heroes' Oka". TV Series Finale. 23 April 2007. Retrieved 2008-04-23.
  4. ^ Time Life.com | Get Smart: The Complete Collection - December 15, 2006
  5. ^ tvshowsondvd.com | TV Shows on DVD: Get Smart DVD news - November 8, 2007
  6. ^ "Get Smart seasons 1 and 2". timelife. 1 February 2007. Retrieved 2008-04-23.
  7. ^ http://www.plateaupress.com.au/wfw/eightysix.htm

External links


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