18 September 1965 15 May 1970. 5 seasons. 138 episodes Get Smart was very much a product of its time, in an age when the world was awash with spies, intrigue and espionage. The Cold War was still hitting its stride and cinemagoers couldn't get enough of James Bond and The Pink Panther. In the first episode a phone rings in a packed auditorium in the middle of a performance, a scene familiar enough to a modern audience but totally foreign in 1965. That the phone is in the sole of a secret agent's shoe is all the more bizarre, yet nobody questioned it because Maxwell Smart - aka Agent 86 - is a secret agent and secret agents obviously have phones in their shoes. Under the stern, sensible and sometimes exasperated direction of The Chief, Agents 86 and 99 work for CONTROL, a secret US government counter-intelligence organisation fending off evil rival operation KAOS. Thanks to 86's blundering incompetence, his resolution of potentially deadly situations is generally accidental and virtually everything to do with both CONTROL and KAOS is camp slapstick. Get Smart's ample supporting cast mainly portrayed other CONTROL agents, who typically rendezvous with 86 and 99 from inside mail boxes, lockers, refrigerators or anywhere else a human being shouldn't be. The nature of CONTROL missions supports the reality of absurdities in which Get Smart exists, where opposing CONTROL and KAOS agents interrupt a fight to the death to exchange pleasantries and where the robot character Hymie has such realistic human features that he can't be told apart from a real man. The cone of silence is pretty absurd too, if only because in reality it would've had virtually no effect. Get Smart was so entrenched in pop culture that it inspired two movies, a 90s TV revival and a 2005 cinema remake. It was sent up to near perfection in the 1980s by the animated series Inspector Gadget, with Adams voicing the titular character. In the late-90s the Austin Powers films, though chiefly parodying the James Bond franchise, included elements reminiscent of Get Smart, itself also a parody of Bond.
I'm just a guy who loves words. I discover vast tracts of uncharted enjoyment by chucking words together and coming up with stuff that talks about the things I enjoy and love most. I'm also a massive listaholic, so I'm probably talking about a list, looking at a list or banging away at another What Culture list as you read this. My tone's pretty relaxed and conversational, with a liberal sprinkling of sparkling wit, wilting sarcasm and occasional faux-condescension - with tongue almost always firmly planted in cheek.
