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Get Smart

created by CaptainSpam

(thing) by Gritchka (2.3 y) (print)   ?   4 C!s I like it! Tue Apr 24 2001 at 0:10:58

A comedy spy show that ran from 1965 to 1970. It starred Don Adams as Maxwell Smart, secret agent 86 of Control, and Barbara Feldon as 99 (real name never revealed - it was not Susan, that was just part of one of the plots). As the series went on they married and had twins, but those were the about-to-cancel episodes that never get repeated. The Chief, real name Thaddeus (that's all he was allowed to reveal) was played by Ed Platt.

The main agent of KAOS, evil counterpart of Control, was Max's "old friend and arch-enemy Siegfried" (Bernie Kopell). He had a hapless underling Shtarker (King Moody), who when he did something a bit nebbish was sharply admonished with "Shtarker! Zis is KAOS! Ve do not... (whatever)... here!".

Among Max's catchphrases were "Would you believe", having been caught out in a whopper and reducing its effect for credibility; "missed it by that much" on someone's tragic near failure to achieve something; and "Ah, the old (some obscure thing) trick. Third time I've fallen for it this week."; and "Sorry about that, Chief" as Max dusts the Chief down after some clumsy accident. Then when the Chief told him what terrible danger he'd be in, Max would look him up and down and say, "And loving it!".

A Q-like inventor created, among other things, plastic lips. He is presumably also responsible for Max's shoe phone, and the notorious cone of silence, which Max insists on using to discuss secrets with the Chief.

The agents with the least desirable jobs were 13 and 44, who were usually seen hanging upside down in a clock or squished into some very small space indeed. Max's dog is Fang.

The show was created by Mel Brooks (and Buck Henry), so where are the Jewish jokes? Okay, there's this robot called Hymie who takes things very literally and has existential crises: originally an evil KAOS robot.

Villains: oh, who can forget The Craw? ("The Craw?" -- "Not Craw -- Craw!") Then there are the Indians who make terrorist threats against the US Government. "But India is a neutralist nation!" (Chief shakes his head and makes faint war-whoop noises with his hand on his mouth.) The Indians on their reservation unveil a gigantic, ICBM-sized arrow, allowing Max to stare at it in amazement and say, "That's the second-biggest arrow I've ever seen!".


printable version
chaos

cone of silence Maxwell Smart Star Trek Toilets shoe phone
Agent 99 Barbara Feldon The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Posting your life on Everything2 is a dumb idea if people know who you are in real life
Don Adams Kaos Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp The U.S. Post Office: Benign little organization, or the linchpin of the greatest conspiracy ever?
K.A.O.S. Hymie control Mel Brooks
Lance Link Inspector Gadget Agent 86 Buck Henry
Canadian Bacon 99 Dragnet Widow-maker
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