On September 18, 1965, the celebrated, funny, Emmy Award winning and still famous TV series GET SMART premiered on NBC. Created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, produced by Leonard B. Stern, Arne Sultan, Jay Sandrich, Jess Oppenheimer, Burt Nodella, Chris Hayward and starring Don Adams as Maxwell Smart, Agent 86 of CONTROL, Barbara Feldon as Agent 99 and Edward Platt as the Chief, ran for 5 seasons and 138 episodes until 1970.
The premise of course was simple: a spoof of James Bond films and the entire spy thriller genre, featuring a bumbling secret agent working for an ultra-secret organization known as CONTROL. The series would feature memorable characters sharing the TV screen with Maxwell Smart such as Agent 99, a beautiful female spy who's smarter than Smart; The Chief, head of CONTROL who keeps sending agent 86 on important and delicate missions in spite of Smart's customary bungling; Hymie the Robot, an almost human robotic agent; Larrabee, an agent who is even dumber than Max; Ludwig Von Siegfried, a recurring archvillain who is the vice president in charge of public relations and terror at KAOS, the comedy counterpart of 007's SPECTRE; Stryker, his henchman, among several other equally remarkable characters.
Barbara Feldon (Agent 99) and Don Adams (Agent 86)
The (perennially out-of-order) Cone of Silence
Edward Platt as the Chief, head of CONTROL
Bernie Kopell as KAOS chief operative Ludwig Von Siegfried
The great theme song written by Irving Szathmary:
Dick Gautier as Hymie The Robot
Robert Karvelas as Larrabee
Many catchphrases from the show became part of American pop culture like:
"Sorry about that, Chief!"
Maxwell Smart: You see the moment I suspected there was something wrong with this old scow, I immediately telephoned headquarters and I happen to know that at this very minute seven coast guard cutters are converging on this boat. Would you believe it? Seven.
Mr. Big: I find that pretty hard to believe.
Maxwell Smart: Would you believe six?
Mr. Big: I don't think so.
Maxwell Smart: How about two cops in a rowboat?
Beautiful Barbara Feldon in the premiere episode of GET SMART
The TV Show also spanned a series of comic books and paperbacks.
There is an almost infinite list of great bits of dialogue, funny gags, ridiculous gadgets, hilarious characters and bits of business to write about but the best way to remember GET SMART is by watching and rewatching the show which I never get tired of doing!
