Get Smart

Get Smart is a sitcom which ran from 1965 until 1970, a spy spoof centered on Maxwell Smart, a bumbling but confident agent of CONTROL. The series made heavy use of running gags (such as Max's shoe phone) and catch phrases. These included "Would you believe...?," and Max saying "Don't tell me that..." After another character confirms, he petulantly states "I asked you not to tell me that!"

The series was briefly revived in 1995 and a feature film adaptation was released in 2008.

References

• During the spy spoof in the October 1, 1965 broadcast of The Jimmy Dean Show, Rowlf is contacted on his two-way bone phone (combining Max's shoe phone with Dick Tracy's two-way wrist radio). The episode aired a few weeks after Get Smart premiered and already became a fad.

• In the brainstorming process to choose a title for Sesame Street, one of the suggestions from the public relations firm Carl Byoir and Associates (which included Robert A. Hatch, CTW's press agent at the time) was Get Smart, Jr!., with a "clearances necessary, of course" note. Also on the list was "Get Smarter" (which Edward L. Palmer circled and amended to "Be Smart.")^[1]

• In the 11th season premiere of Sesame Street, Maria is in Puerto Rico with Olivia and keeps spying her other friends (who arrived secretly as a surprise), but they swap out with someone else. After sighting a familiar bird, Maria tells Olivia "Now take a look and don't tell me he's not there." "He's not there." "I told you not to tell me that."

Connections

• Don Adams played Maxwell Smart on the series, in The Nude Bomb (1980), the TV movie Get Smart Again! (1989), and the 1995 series and directed episodes of the original series
• Steve Allen played the prime minister's aide in "The Mild Ones" (1967)
• Alan Arkin played the Chief in the 2008 movie
• Reza Badiyi directed three episodes (1968-1969) and the title sequence for the final season (1969-1970)
• Gary Belkin wrote "Our Man in Leotards" (1965)
• Milton Berle played a motel clerk in "Don't Look Back" (1968)
• Bruce Bilson directed 22 episodes (1965-1968)
• Mel Brooks co-created the series
• Carol Burnett played Ozark Annie in “One of Our Olives Is Missing” (1967)
• Steve Carell played Maxwell Smart in the 2008 movie
• Johnny Carson played the conductor in "Aboard the Orient Express" (1965) and the herald in "The King Lives?" (1968)
• Del Close played Minelli in "Aboard the Orient Express" (1965)
• Terry Crews played Agent 91 in the 2008 movie
• Paul Dooley played Pepper Hanlon in "The Greatest Spy on Earth" (1966)
• Jack Gilford played Simon the Likable in the two-part "And Baby Makes Four" (1969)
• Harold Gould played Hans Hunter in "Island of the Darned" (1966) and Nicholas Dimente in Get Smart Again! (1989, TV)
• Buddy Hackett played Wilbur in “Maxwell Smart, Private Eye” (1967)
• H. B. Haggerty played Groppo in "When Good Fellows Get Together"
• Anne Hathaway played Agent 99 in the 2008 movie
• Bob Hope played a waiter in "99 Loses Control" (1968)
• Kelly Karbacz played June in the 2008 movie and the direct-to-video movie Get Smart's Bruce and Lloyd Out of Control
• William Keene played Newfield in "Dear Diary" (1966)
• David Ketchum played Agent 13 (1966-1967) and wrote the episode "Classification: Dead" (1967)
• Ted Knight played KAOS Agent #1 in "Stakeout on Blue Mist Mountain" (1966) and Hans Frome in "Pussycats Galore" (1967)
• Martin Landau played himself (as Max's plastic surgery face) in "Pheasant Under Glass" (1970)
• Marc London played Agent 24 in "The Mummy" (1967), Agent 74 in "How to Succeed in the Spy Business Without Really Trying" (1967), and Ashkenazi in "A Man Called Smart" (part 1, 1967)
• Howard Morris directed the pilot "Mr. Big" (1965), voiced Hodgekins in the episode, and voiced an airport PA announcer in "The Man from YENTA" (1967)
• Leonard Nimoy played Stryker in "The Dead Spy Scrawls" (1966)
• Pat Paulsen played Ace Weems in "The Mess of Adrian Listenger" (1970)
• Regis Philbin played a baker in "The Hot Line" (1968)
• Paul B. Price played Perkins in "Cutbacks at Control" (1967)
• Vincent Price played Dr. Jarvis Pym in "Is This Trip Necessary?" (1969)
• Alan Rafkin directed six episodes (1969-1970)
• Jerome Raphel played Winters in "Diamonds Are a Spy's Best Friend" (1968)
• Don Rickles played Sid Krimm in "The Little Black Book" (parts 1-2, 1968)
• Alex Rocco played a gaucho in "Supersonic Boom" (1967)
• William Schallert played Admiral Hargrade (four episodes, 1967-1968) and Earl Kibbee in “Witness for the Execution” (1970)
• Avery Schreiber played Oleg in "The Worst Best Man" (1968)
• John Stephenson played Parkerson in "Our Man in Leotards" (1965)
• Patrick Warburton played Hymie in the 2008 movie and the direct-to-video movie Get Smart's Bruce and Lloyd Out of Control
• Fred Willard played Lundy in "A Tale of Two Tails" (1968)

Sources