Leonard Stern - Executive Producer (86 episodes, 1965-1968)
David Davis - Associate Producer (52 episodes, 1968-1970)
Arne Sultan - Executive Producer (52 episodes, 1968-1970)
Burt Nodella - Producer (47 episodes, 1967-1969)
Arnie Rosen - Producer (31 episodes, 1966-1967)
Jay Sandrich - Producer (29 episodes, 1965-1966)
Harry R. Sherman - Associate Producer (26 episodes, 1967-1968)
Chris Hayward - Producer (26 episodes, 1969-1970)
Jess Oppenheimer - Producer (5 episodes, 1967)
DIRECTED BY
Gary Nelson (23 episodes, 1966-1969)
Bruce Bilson (22 episodes, 1965-1968)
Don Adams (13 episodes, 1967-1970)
James Komack (11 episodes, 1967-1968)
Earl Bellamy (7 episodes, 1967)
Jay Sandrich (6 episodes, 1968-1969)
Alan Rafkin (6 episodes, 1969-1970)
Frank McDonald (5 episodes, 1965-1966)
William Wiard (5 episodes, 1966-1967)
Norman Abbott (4 episodes, 1967)
Charles R. Rondeau (4 episodes, 1969-1970)
Paul Bogart (3 episodes, 1965)
Murray Golden (3 episodes, 1966)
Reza Badiyi (3 episodes, 1968-1969)
Richard Donner (2 episodes, 1965)
Don Richardson (2 episodes, 1965)
David Alexander (2 episodes, 1966)
Sidney Miller (2 episodes, 1967)
Harry Falk (2 episodes, 1968-1969)
Jerry Hopper (2 episodes, 1968)
Richard Benedict (2 episodes, 1969)
Anton Leader (2 episodes, 1970)
NO. OF SEASONS
5
NO. OF EPISODES
138
ORIGINAL RUN
September 18, 1965 – September 11, 1970
FOLLOWED BY
The Nude Bomb | Get Smart, Again! | Get Smart (1995) | Get Smart (2008)
OPENING/ENDING THEME
Irving Szathmary – composer
GUEST APPEARANCES
Shelley Berman | Tom Bosley | Carol Burnett | James Caan | Johnny Carson | Broderick Crawford | Jamie Farr | Farley Granger | John Hoyt | Gordon Jump | Ted Knight | Leonard Nimoy | Regis Philbin | Tom Poston | Vincent Price | Don Rickles | Alex Rocco | Cesar Romero | Vic Tayback
1969 Won Emmy Outstanding Comedy Series Burt Nodella (producer) (NBC)
1969 Won Emmy Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Comedy Series Don Adams (NBC)
1969 Nominated Emmy Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Comedy Series Barbara Feldon (NBC)
1968 Won Emmy Outstanding Comedy Series Burt Nodella (producer) (NBC)
1968 Won Emmy Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Comedy Series Don Adams (NBC)
1968 Won Emmy Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Bruce Bilson (NBC) for: episode "Maxwell Smart, Private Eye"
1968 Nominated Emmy Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Comedy Series Barbara Feldon (NBC)
1967 Won Emmy Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Comedy Series Don Adams (NBC)
1967 Won Emmy Outstanding Writing Achievement in Comedy Buck Henry & Leonard Stern (writers) (NBC) for: episode "Ship of Spies", parts I and II
1967 Nominated Emmy Outstanding Comedy Series Arnie Rosen (producer) (NBC)
1966 Nominated Emmy Outstanding Comedy Series Leonard Stern (executive producer) (NBC)
1966 Nominated Emmy Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Comedy Series Don Adams (NBC)
1966 Nominated Emmy Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Paul Bogart (NBC) for: episode "Diplomat's Daughter"
1966 Nominated Emmy Outstanding Writing Achievement in Comedy Mel Brooks & Buck Henry (writers) (NBC) for: episode "Mr. Big"
The bumbling Maxwell Smart helps keep the world safe for democracy with the help of his fellow C.O.N.T.R.O.L. agent, the beautiful Agent 99, and "The Chief."
In 1965, the world of international espionage was hugely popular, with the James Bond movie franchise in full swing and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and The Avengers major television hits. At the same time, the archetype of the dashing, handsome secret agent who took himself oh so seriously (both as an expertly trained operative and as a suave lady-killer) was a perfect target for parody, as would be proved yet again in the later Matt Helm and Derek Flint films.
Premiering one week after I, Spy and the season before Mission: Impossible, Get Smart was the first sitcom to satirize the form. Created by comic geniuses Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, the show was originally supposed to star Tom Poston and air on ABC, but when it was rejected by that network, NBC gladly picked it up, on the condition that the bumbling Agent 86 be played by rising comedy star Don Adams.
Cleverly written and very well produced, the show was responsible for generating more catchphrases than any sitcom until Seinfeld, including the ubiquitous "Sorry about that, Chief," "Ahhhhhh...the old [fill in the blank] trick," "Would you believe...?", and "Missed it by that much." (Of course all of these were nearly impossible to say without mimicking the unmistakable nasal voice of Don Adams.) The role of Max was physically demanding, involving stunts and fight scenes in addition to all the comic business; Adams was one of the hardest working actors on television, to the point where, by the fifth season, he was unable to film an episode due to exhaustion. He was ably supported by the dee-lish Barbara Feldon as Agent 99, his partner in crime-fighting (and Max's wife in the last seasons), and the fantastically droll Edward Platt as "The Chief." The show was an immediate smash.
With some of the best comedy minds behind it, the dialogue often jabbed brilliantly at the paranoid, super-secret, and self-important world of the CIA and FBI. The term "intelligence community" became an oxymoron on Get Smart!, for the show didn't do much to encourage faith in undercover operations on either side of the political spectrum. They were all boneheads and screw-ups, including Siegfried (Bernie Kopell), the vice president of public relations and terror at C.O.N.T.R.O.L.'s nemesis K.A.O.S.; the robot Hymie (Dick Gautier); the perpetually unlucky Agent 13 (Dave Ketchum), always stationed in the worst possible place, from a steamer tray to a bus-station locker; and, the most hapless of them all, Agent Larrabee, played by Adams's real-life cousin Robert Karvelas. In addition to the spy genre, Get Smart brilliantly spoofed the bureaucracy and increasingly idiotic red-tape world of corporate America, with Max and Siegfried often stopping their gun battles to compare benefit packages at their respective agencies, or the flavors of the cyanide pills they've been given.
The thing that made the show more than just a goof was that, however ridiculous the proceedings and however super-sized Adams's performance became, Barbara Feldon and Edward Platt grounded the show: Feldon with her catlike purr and enigmatic smile and Platt playing the whole thing absolutely straight. Their performances, replete with sober forbearance and slow burns, provided a subtle undercurrent of irony that perfectly offset nuttiness that included such contraptions as the Cone of Silence and Max's brilliantly awkward shoe phone. Then there wree the downright certifiable plotlines, like the one in which Carol Burnett guest-starred as country singer Ozark Annie, who swallows a green olive with a KAOS transmitter inside (that episode was written by Jess Oppenheimer, the comic mind behind much of the success of I Love Lucy), Edward Platt seemed, at times, like an unwilling or unwitting participant in a bad LSD trip.
The subject of espionage is still ripe for parody and the show has never completely faded away; thanks to cable, DVDs, a TV-movie reunion, and a movie starring Steve Carell. The less said the better about the short-lived 1995 Fox series that reunited Adams and Feldon and featured the mystifyingly unfunny Andy Dick.
INTERESTING FACTS
Agent 99's real name is never revealed. At one point she is referred to as Susan Hilton, but she later asserts that it was merely an alias.
Barbara Feldon, a former model, was two inches taller than Don Adams. She spent the entire five seasons wearing flats and slouching. Occasionally, Adams would stnad on something so as to appear taller.
Don Adams based his inimitable Maxwell Smart voice on actor William Powell's calling. "Asta! Asta!" in The Thin Man film series.
KAOS is a (fictional) "international organization of evil" formed in Bucharest, Romania, in 1904; like "CONTROL," "KAOS" is not an acronym.
FAMOUS QUOTES
Maxwell Smart: Would you believe…
Maxwell Smart: Pardon me while I get my shoe phone.
Maxwell Smart: Sorry about that, Chief.
Agent 99: Good thinking, Max.
REVIEWS
Parents need to know that this award-winning classic spy parody is mild enough for tweens, but younger kids may not be drawn to (or even get) some of its humor. It also contains lots of gun activity, fantasy violence, and some mild sexual innuendo that will probably go over their heads. As was typical for the time, cigarette, pipe, and cigar smoking is also frequently visible; occasionally the cast is shown drinking alcohol (wine, champagne, hard liquor). It also contains some stereotypes and jokes that are not considered politically correct by today’s standards, but reflect some of the political and social climate of the time. Reviewed by: Melissa Camacho of Common Sense Media.
