Get Smart

For other uses, see Get Smart (disambiguation).

Get Smart
Title card from the original NBC run
Created by	Mel Brooks Buck Henry
Starring	Don Adams Barbara Feldon Edward Platt
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	5
No. of episodes	138, +7 revival
Production
Running time	ca. 25 minutes
Original release
Network	NBC (1965-1969) CBS (1969-1970) ABC (1989) FOX (1995)
Release	September 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. In the words of Brooks, Get Smart is "an insane combination of James Bond and Mel Brooks comedy."

The show 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 have 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 and has been adapted to the big screen three times: first, with part of the original cast in 1980's The Nude Bomb, then in a 1989 ABC TV Movie Get Smart, Again! and in a new film adaptation starring Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, and Alan Arkin in 2008.

Plot

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. 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.

Characters

Maxwell Smart or Agent 86 is the central character in the series. Despite being a top secret government agent, he is actually quite 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. Due to multiple assassination attempts, he told his landlord he was in insurance.

Agent 99 - 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 are married in Season 4 and have twins in Season 5. Agent 99's real name is never revealed. In the episode "99 Loses CONTROL," she says that her name is Susan Hilton, but at the end of the episode she tells Max that in fact "Susan" isn't her real name.

The Chief - The chief of CONTROL is intelligent, serious and sensible. He began his career at CONTROL as Agent Q. 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. His cover identity is Harold Clark, Max's boss at the greeting card company. Another time, when KAOS tricked the Chief into being recalled to active duty in the US Navy (as a common seaman and Smart as his C.O.!), his official name is John Doe.

Siegfried - Conrad 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.

Catch phrases

The original show, Get Smart, was famous for its catch phrases that were popular then, some of which are still used today, including:

Maxwell Smart

• "Sorry about that, [Chief]."

• "Missed it by that much." (showing fingers close together)

• "The old {fill in an obscure reference} trick!" Sometimes followed by, "That's the {fill in a number} time I've fallen for it this month!"

• "Would you believe...?" followed by ever more improbable situations. ie, "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 an angry boy scout? Girl scout?" This joke has many variations.

• "Good thinking, (99)."

• "I asked you not to tell me that!" (after imploring someone, "Don't tell me...")

• "That's the SECOND biggest {fill in the blank} I've ever seen!" (Whenever an outrageously oversized object appears (e.g. a 30ft arrow, or a silencer the size of a bucket)

• "...and loving it." (always said with squinted eyes and a suave look, in response to being told he would be in great danger every minute of a particular assignment)

• "If only {fill in the blank} had used their power for goodness and niceness instead of evil."

• "Of course! The {fill in the blank}. It's got to be the {fill in the blank}. What else could it be but the {fill in the blank}. Just one question. What is the {fill in the blank}?"

• "He (or she) asked me to get my knee off his (or her) chest." (Smart frequently found himself needing to kneel down and lean over to hear someone's dying words, and inevitably he would report that request, as he moved his knee to the ground.)

• "Alright, {insult}." (Then, after three punches from Smart don't faze the bad guy) "Listen, I hope I wasn't out of line with that crack about {same insult as before}."

The Chief and 99

...did not have their own catchphrases per se, but it was not uncommon for the Chief or 99 to utter an...

• "...and loving it."

or a

• "Sorry about that, Max."

Siegfried

• "This is KAOS, we don't {insert some action taken by one of his henchman} here!"

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' 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.

Adaptations in other media

Three 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, which was a box-office failure.
• the made-for-TV Get Smart, Again! in 1989 on ABC
• the 2008 film Get Smart, from Warner Brothers

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.

The theatrical release of Get Smart hits theaters on June 20, 2008.

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". 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...?"

Adams again played a bungling secret agent in the animated series Inspector Gadget. This later became a feature film starring Matthew Broderick in the title role (in which Adams had a cameo) and its prequel series Gadget Boy and Heather. Neither of these was directly related to Get Smart.

In the late 1980s, Adams also portrayed Maxwell Smart in a series of TV commercials for Toyota New Zealand, for the 1990 model Toyota Starlet. 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 commercials in the late 1990s for a dial-around long distance carrier.

Books and comics

A series of original novels based upon the series were written by William Johnston and published by Tempo Books 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. Issue #1 of this series, in Near Mint condition, has a value of $165.00, according to the 2008 Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide.

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.

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 the "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.

Production notes

Gadgets

Perhaps the most recognizable 'gag' from the show was Smart's shoe phone, which has become somewhat of a comic icon. (The idea was devised by Mel Brooks.) 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. (Buck Henry "invented" this device.) 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. In one episode, the Chief and Smart were shouting at each other so loud under the Cone of Silence, that Larabee (the Chief's Assistant) could hear them from the other room, and had to come in to tell them what each other was saying. 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.

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 horde 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.

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 (coincidentally, 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, but were delayed by a week because of a problem with one of the three parts that make up the set's packaging. 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.

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 currently only available through the Time Life website. However, Time Life's exclusive rights will end in Australia in June 2008 and the Series 1 box set will be released in Australian retail stores for the very first time on July 2, 2008, with Seasons 2 and 3 box sets following on July 23, 2008.

External links

• Get Smart (original series) at IMDb
• The Nude Bomb (1980) at IMDb
• Get Smart, Again! (1989) at IMDb
• Get Smart (1995 series) at IMDb
• Premiere
• Museum of Broadcast Communications
• Would You Believe?
• Get Smart Trailer (Trailer of the cinema adaptation)
• He Kept 86 in Control An interview with the story editor for the final season
• The Get Smart Wiki
• Movies Coming Soon: Get Smart, June 13, 2008