Get Smart

About Get Smart

Mel Brooks and Leonard Stern created this hilarious comedy one of few succesful sitcoms not centred around a family. "Get Smart" was a sophomoric but highly successful spoof of the secret agent genre that had been spawned by James Bond movies in the 1960s and was probably best typified by Max's pet expression "Would you believe?" - used whenever an agent of KAOS or someone on his own side didn't seem to accept one of his fabrications and he was trying to come up with a more acceptable alternative. That catchphrase became very popular with young people in the late 1960s.

The show featured Don Adams as Maxwell Smart Agent 86 for CONTROL a Washington-based agency. An inept secret agent Smart could barely operate the telephone implanted in his shoe; nevertheless he and his cohorts usually succeeded in thwarting the operations of KAOS an organisation dedicated to evil. Barbara Feldon a former winner on The $64 000 Question co-starred as Smart's partner Agent 99 (she used the name Susan Hilton in one episode) an intelligent and resourceful agent. In Autumn 1968 she and Smart became engaged and were married on 16 November; the Smarts had twins during the 1969 season. Character actor Edward Platt played their boss known simply as The Chief. Also featured from time to time were Robert Karvelas as Agent Larraby; Dick Gautier as Hymie a robot; and Dave Ketchum as Agent 13. Co-creator Leonard Stern also served as executive producer.

Don Adams again played Smart in a 1980 film The Nude Bomb. Adams later supplied the voice of a similarly inept cartoon character "Get Smart Again" with Adams Feldon Karvelas Gautier and Ketchum. A new version of the series premiered in 1995 - starring Adams and Feldon - but was scrapped after seven episodes.