It was great; A legendary sitcom, and one not widely known here in the United Kingdom. Recently I finally finished watching the last episode of the fifth and final season of 'Get Smart', and realised that it was good for five years. Five whole seasons! You wouldn't think that a simple show spoofing spy movies and television could accomplish that remarkable deed, but judicious changes of emphasis and well-timed transitions in the writing room can work wonders, especially when your show is captained by one lead actor named Mr Don Adams.
The nerve centre of 'Get Smart' was not the creative team that devised the show, which included legends Buck Henry and Mel Brooks. No, the nerve centre was that lead actor, a consummate comedic performer who somehow made it easy to play a credible buffoon who was also a top spy. My knowledge of Don Adams is minimal, but the Maxwell Smart persona was so durable, so funny, and so flexible that he went on to voice Inspector Gadget, who also exactly the same character but with bionic enhancements galore. Yet, he was almost totally unknown here. It's hard to understand. Alongside Don Adams, there was the incredibly elegant Barbara Feldon as the perfectly capable Agent 99, and Edward Platt as The Chief of CONTROL, both cast to pinpoint perfection. The importance of Agent 99 as the capable female agent can not be underappreciated, even if she does play the love-stricken and doe-eyed second fiddle to Max for most of the time. It was a pivotal piece of progress, up there with Uhura's presence on the Enterprise.
'Get Smart' started off as a gag-laden spoof of spy stories, with every conceivable variation played out over the first two seasons, and then it seemed to consciously change as producer turnover hit. No longer a generalised spoof, it went on to parody movies of all genres specifically, within its own context, and succeeded. Then, in its final period it began to draw from literature too, and continued to succeed creatively even as the ratings continued to dwindle. In the 1960s, it was remarkable for series to run more than a couple of seasons without being meddled to death by network suits, and 'Get Smart' ran for five, albeit switching channels for the last year. Yes, it did lose steam and transition into a calmer show than it was at the beginning, but practically every comedy does.
Interesting things about 'Get Smart' include the incredible photography, especially in the later seasons, often stretching the boundaries of what you would expect on a comedy. Crane shots, low shots, car chases, ridiculous stunts, all could be found within the confines of the top secret counter-espionage agency CONTROL. Also fascinating is the emergence of the recurring villains Siegfried and Starker, adding a reliable extra dose of comedy and continuity in the ranks of the evil alliance KAOS, and even more catchphrases into the mix. Yes, catchphrases...
Catchphrases, especially as delivered by Don Adams as Max, are a lynchpin of this series. There are quite literally too many to list, but my own favourites are the wonderful "That's the second largest/smallest -- I've ever seen!" (and variants) and "The old -- trick! That's the second time I've fallen for that this --!" They may not convert to text well, but in the hands of Adams they were gold every time. Of course, there were also phones concealed in practically every conceivable device, including the super-durable shoe phones that prevailed throughout the run. Everyone should have an adjustable robe phone, by the way, I wonder why they never made them? Don Adams also directed numerous episodes impeccably in the later seasons, even while starring heavily, leaving a small note of awe in me for his abilities.
A final interesting thing about 'Get Smart' is that it managed to negotiate the muddied waters of network meddling gracefully, not letting the mandates for Max and 99 getting together, marrying and then finally becoming parents ruin the show. In fact, all those things were dealt with extremely economically and avoiding most of the obvious and well-worn pitfalls. It helped that Feldon had some of the best comic timing ever seen in a classically beautiful woman, maybe only challenged by Pam Dawber in 'Mork and Mindy', which latter show we'll get to eventually and had far worse network meddling problems than 'Get Smart' ever did. Oh, Barbara Feldon, if only we hadn't been born continents, decades, and entire cultures apart... (Ditto for Carolyn Jones, Pam Dawber, and Noel Neill.) Feldon truly was a one-off, and much like Don Adams vanished away from the series. Edward Platt, too, was fantastically gifted, and an expert at ridiculously difficult tongue twistery sentences as well as the harrassed put upon frown. No-one could be as convincing and competent as Platt, while still allowing the possibility of having hired Max somehow in the past.
This could go on for longer but for now will stop, pending new reference material. It's best to not tempt fate and get caught up in too many more tangents, for as we all know:
'This is KAOS, we don't tangent here!"
O.
PS It was a great show. Great!
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