Get Smart

"Get Smart" is one those 1960's sitcoms that was all about really crazy predicaments and blowing peoples' minds (think "Bewitched", "Gilligan's Island" and "I Dream of Jeannie"). It follows Maxwell Smart (Don Adams), an inept spy with the organization CONTROL who always has to foil the plans of the dastardly rival organization KAOS. With him are Agent 99 (Barbara Feldon) and The Chief (Edward Platt). Even if you know nothing about espionage or such things, the whole show is still a laugh riot. Whether it's the Cone of Silence (which always proves to be a Cone of Destruction) or Max's shoe-telephone, things always go completely wacky, forcing Max to say "Sorry about that, Chief." It's too bad that currently, no channel is rerunning "Get Smart", but hopefully, it will soon come out on DVD. You'll love it!

I can safely say that in my eyes, there are only four true supers pies: James Bond, Derek Flynt, Harry Palmer and Maxwell Smart. This show is absolutely magnificent...and hilarious.

'Get Smart' holds a special place in the hearts of Australian kids growing up in the 1970s. Throughout that decade it was on almost continuous repeat, and at least two generations of couch potatoes almost had the whole series memorized by the time they graduated high school. But you know what? Watch it today and it's STILL the funniest TV show EVER!

Nobody but Don Adams could have played Maxwell Smart. He IS Maxwell Smart! Adams comic timing and expressions are superb. It's a pity he hasn't gotten the recognition he deserves. Surrounded by the first rate Barbara Feldon ('99') and Edward Platt ('The Chief'), supported by a fabulous group of comic actors (particularly Bernie Kopell as Siegfried), and some talented guest stars (most unforgettable - Larry Storch as 'The Groovy Guru'!), and with consistently funny scripts, this show set a standard in comedy that is as good as, if not better than, much more "respected" shows like 'M.A.S.H.', 'Taxi' and 'Cheers'.

Forget the reunions, movies and attempts to revive 'Get Smart'. Just stick with the original and best "grooovy baby" Super Spy! There's nothing as hilarious as this show at its best! One of the greatest TV shows of all time.

Get Smart stands as the single most brilliant television comedy EVER. Before Hot Shots!, before Frank Drebin, before Airplane!, before Kentucky Fried Movie, before Young Frankenstein, and before Blazing Saddles, there was Get Smart, the creation of Mel Brooks and Buck Henry. This show, which would go on to inspire Police Squad!, arguably the second most brilliant television comedy ever, presented in Maxwell Smart the most completely asanine leading man thus far in television history, and as a result provided for more stupid jokes than ever before. Perhaps the first moment in television where comedy did not require a laugh track (though it did USE one, it would have flown fine without one), this show would inspire nearly every film by Mel Brooks and Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker. Can we really imagine Hedley Lamaar from Blazing Saddles without Maxwell Smart having preceded him? Can we really imagine Frank Drebin without Maxwell Smart having preceded him? The answer to these questions MUST be "no." Get Smart was a rare moment in television comedy history, and it has given us a truly rich comedic tradition ever since. Thank you, Buck, Don, and Barbara!

To review GET SMART is like giving a speech on "What I think of my Mother-In-Law! There will NEVER be another Max - even "Max" himself couldn't do it in 1995. GET SMART is a 60's time-capsule, a reminder of a life style that has so long disappeared it hurts to remember!

No matter how many times you see it - its still funny..it will ALWAYS be funny - it even transcends humor. It is something so comfortable and embraceable you can temporarily forget every day to day hassle that may be niggling at you. For those with even longer memories, Maxwell Smart had his embryonic exposure as the store detective "Glick" in the Bill Dana show...almost exactly the same character. No matter, the combination of Don Adams, Barbara Feldon and the long suffering (and late) Ed Platt were arguably the most charismatic acting trilogy ever screened. Dear old Bernie Kopell as Siegfried, Max's nemesis in CHAOS and David Ketchum as the insanely hidden Agent 13 combined to raise GET SMART to heights will never again be assailed. Probably the only show ever came close to being as fondly remembered is the Adam West/Burt Ward BATMAN series of the same period.

Think about it! How many people in the Western World of most any age have never heard of Max's shoe-phone, the cone of silence? or the phrase "Would you believe?" THAT is a measure of the penetration of GET SMART in current society. Along with THE FLINSTONES, our lives have all been enriched by this most enduring of legends!

Don Adams made himself a mark in TV history as Maxwell Smart, the toughest, and unbelievably the dumbest secret agent in the small screen. Along with his partner and girlfriend Agent 99 (Barbara Feldon), Max takes on evil KAOS agents and preserves national security, and still not have a damn clue on what's going on! GET SMART lives on thanks to Adams and his fiddle-brained alter ego.