10 Notable Names With At Least One Recurring TV Voice Role
3. Don Adams
For some, typecasting can actually lead to two iconic roles in a career.
After five seasons and 138 episodes as Maxwell Smart, aka Agent 86, on Get Smart, Don Adams struggled to escape the characterization of a highly-trained, albeit bumbling, secret agent with a portable phone built into the sole of his shoe. Much like Adam West in later years, though, Adams would lean into the typecast, becoming a bumbling detective as Inspector Gadget.
Having voice acting experience under his belt prior to Get Smart as scheming penguin Tennessee Tuxedo from 1963-66, Adams traded in his secret agent credentials and his shoe phone from 1983-86 for an inspector's badge and more built-in contraptions than a Swiss Army knife. An apt exchange, as Get Smart's co-creator himself described Maxwell Smart as "James Bond meets Inspector Clouseau".
The cat-and-mouse game between the sinister Dr. Claw and the comically inept Gadget, aided by hyper-intelligent niece Penny and canine confidant Brain, clearly resonated with viewers. The three-season run spawned a comic book, four TV off-shoots, five films and nine different platform video games. Adams would go on to voice every appearance of Gadget between the original run and 1999, when the role would pass to Maurice LaMarche. In a testament to the character's staying power, a sequel series under the same name was picked up for four more seasons as recently as 2015-2018.
True to his word, it seems like the good inspector is always on duty. Go Gadget, go indeed.