Max la menace

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.

"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.

I have always been a fan of Get Smart not only because it was a parody of the secret agent genre of film and television series, but because it was a perfect time capsule for the era of the 1960's. Just check out the episodes featuring characters such as The Groovy Guru or Jarvis "The Mad Pharmacist" Pym. The sixties were a wild era and no show captured that spirit as much as this film.

Also, let's not forget the ensemble cast that displayed such a great chemistry with each other. Don Adams, Barbara Feldon, Edward Platt, Dick Gautier, King Moody, Robert Karvelas and, of course, Bernie Kopell all made this show a great viewing experience.

Its writers/creators included Mel Brooks and Buck Henry.

'Nuff said.

But, since IMDb won't let me get away with saying just that, I'll just have to write more.

How can you go wrong with something by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry? It's obvious that the actors are thoroughly enjoying themselves in this show, and this enthusiasm was infectious. I was a very little girl in 1965, and I used to sit up with my father to watch TV after dinner and the nightly installment of whatever book he was reading to us. We sat together and watched Get Smart, Hogan's Heroes, McHale's Navy, among others, all of which are now considered classics. Why? Because, while the shows themselves were very topical (Get Smart was about the Cold War - as is Bullwinkle -- and Hogan and McHale fought in WWII which had ended barely 20 years earlier), the humor itself did not rely on specific current events. They were just out-and-out funny.

They still are.

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!