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Get Smart



         


Get Smart was an American TV comedy series that ran from 1965 until 1970. It satirized the secret agent genre, which was quite popular in the late 1960s. It ran on the NBC television network from 1965 to 1969 and on CBS from 1969 to 1970. Two film versions were produced, the theatrically released The Nude Bomb (aka, The Return of Maxwell Smart, aka Maxwell Smart and the Nude Bomb) in 1980 and the made-for-TV Get Smart, Again! in 1989. In 1995 the Fox Network launched an unsuccessful new series version.

The series, written and created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry won seven Emmy Awards and was nominated for another 14 Emmys and two Golden Globe Awards.

The series starred Don Adams as bumbling secret agent Maxwell Smart, Agent 86. Barbara Feldon's character had no name; even after Smart married her, he (and everyone else) would always address her as "99." (In one episode she said that her name was "Susan Hilton" but she later revealed that it was an alias ). Smart and 99 worked for CONTROL, a secret U.S. Government spy agency. The nemesis of CONTROL was KAOS, headed by a mysterious eastern-European spymaster named Siegfried (Bernie Kopell). Other characters included the Chief of CONTROL, whose first name was once revealed as Thaddeus but who was always addressed as Chief (Ed Platt); Hymie the Robot, a powerful android who tends to take orders too literally, Agent 13, who was always disguised as a planter, mailbox, or other object; and Agent Larrabee (Robert Karvelas), the Chief's assistant.

Many catch phrases and schticks have endured:

Smart would communicate with CONTROL using a dial telephone concealed in his shoe (a "shoe phone").

Smart would always insist on following the rules and, when in the Chief's office, would insist on speaking under the Cone of Silence. One of the show's funniest gags, the Cone of Silence was two transparent plastic hemispheres which were electrically lowered on top of Smart and the Chief, and which invariably malfunctioned.

The AMT Corporation, a major producer of model car kits, produced a replica of the Sunbeam Tiger roadster Smart drives in the opening credits. Complete with a cache 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 another Carroll Shelby creation, a Shelby GT-500 convertible with a variation of the shoe phone, namely a giant rotary telephone dial covering the steering wheel.

Although not officially related to Get Smart, Don Adams returned to his role as a bumbling secret agent in the animated series Inspector Gadget. He also portrayed Maxwell Smart in a series of popular Canadian TV commercials in the late 1990s.

Smart and Agent 99 married near the end of the series (her real name was still never revealed), and she gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl. The short-lived 1995 Fox revival starred Andy Dick as Zach Smart, Max and 99's bumbling son, presumably one of the twins. Despite appearances by Don Adams and Barbara Feldon, the show failed to recapture the spirit of the original.

Reports of plans for a new big-screen version of Get Smart surface from time to time. Several actors including Jim Carrey have been mentioned as potential Maxwell Smarts.

Regular Cast

Recurring Cast

Guest Appearances

Also cameo appearances by: Johnny Carson, Joey Bishop, Buddy Hackett, Bill Dana, Wally Cox, Danny Thomas, Steve Allen, Ernest Borgnine, Milton Berle, Bob Hope, Robert Culp, Phyllis Diller, Martin Landau, Richard Deacon

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