Sunday, August 19, 2001
Would you believe Get Smart is back?
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
If your answer is "no," how about wall-to-wall reruns?
I believe in predestination, fate and branding. Therefore, having been simultaneously exposed to waves of "Get Smart" Visa advertisements on the Internet and round -the-clock reruns of the venerable series on the TVLand Channel, it seems incumbent upon me to revisit the fondly remembered old war horse.
For the Gen X babies, Get Smart was a 1965-70 spy spoof TV series invented by Mel Brooks, assisted by the TV script man Buck Henry, himself a considerable humorist (Gary Moore’s and Steve Allen’s writer). It was so ordained by Don Melnick, Leonard Stern and Davis Susskind of Talent Associates, to cash in on the James Bond and related spy crazes of the times. Henry was to ride herd on Brooks, an undisciplined genius full of inventions and ideas, and to corral the good ones. Brooks gladly complied, since he needed the pay to finance The Producers. The result was a fun series.
Smart, the clumsy spy with the telephone in his shoe, was played by Don Adams, a standup comedian reared on the principles of vaudeville, and a major contributor of routines. The beautiful pouty Barbara Feldon, stage name Agent 99, a model and $64,000 Question contestant who used her winnings to help her husband open an art gallery, was a major factor in the success of the series. It gave birth to some catch phrases, part of our language of the ‘60s. Thus, denial. Smart: "Don’t tell me X is a Russian agent!" A: "X is a Russian agent!" S: "I asked you not to tell me!." When cornered by enemy KAOS agents (the series’equivalent of Bond’s SMERSH) Smart blusters: "At this moment we have the entire area surrounded by government troops." K: "I find that hard to believe." S: "Would you believe two agents with a dog?" K: "No." S: "How about a boy with a BB gun?" Smart’s excuse for his incredible blunders, "Sorry about that, Chief," was heard daily, and.became standard shorthand for making light of one’s mistakes. The Chief, the late opera singer Edward Platt, was no mental giant, unlike Fleming’s M, and the organization, Control, was staffed by dunderheads. Smart would hide his ignorance by pretense: "Ah, the old poison pill in the Pinot Grigio trick!" then in an aside "99, what’s Pinot Grigio?"
The Get Smart series lasted for five years on NBC and CBS (1964-70), during which Smart and 99 got married and had a stage baby.. There was an attempt to revive it, but it was assigned to the "death time spot," against 60 Minutes on Sunday nights, and it did not last.
Apart from the stated objective on cashing in on the success of James Bond, Get Smart appears to have had a deeper motivation, reflecting the social criticism of the Vietnam War period. Exposing government blunders was part of the mores of the times, although some fear of McCarthyite type reactions from the legislators and advertisers, potentially deadly to a popular TV comedy series, held back outright criticism.
The 132 or so episodes of Get Smart would attempt to mock popular favorites, books, plays and TV series. The titles of the parodies reflected the sources. The Secret of Sam Vittorio pointed to a popular Italian WWII book. To Sire With Love played off the Alec Guinness movie, as did Greer Window, a Hitchcockian riot, with James Caan guest-starring. Major actors had cameo roles. The Dodgers’ Maury Wills and comedienne Phyllis Diller were popular. When Don Rickles was invited, he and Don Adams ad-libbed extra scenes to the extent that the producers decided to stretch the Little Black Book to two episodes. Tale of Two Tails, Diamonds Are the Spy’s Best Friends, League of Bald-Headed Men, Closely Watched Plans, Valerie of the Dolls, The Treasure of C.Errol Madre, How Green Was My Wallet, I Am Curiously Yellow - these names give a flavor of the parodies’ sources. The Groovy Guru was about a KAOS rock-and-roll wizard, whose melodies captivated Agent 99.The series garnered many Emmys.
Authorship of the episodes varied, the gifted actors, producers and others took a crack at it, besides the regular writers, notably Stan Burns, Mike Marmer, Arnie Sultan, C. F. D’Amoreaux, .Gerald Gardner and Dee Caruso. Don Bilson and Gary Nelson were the early directors. Don Adams wrote for the episodes, as did producers Leonard Stern and Burt Nordella..
Don Adams’ red car, a 1965 Sunbeam Tiger, and the theme music, a catchy tune by Irving Szathmary, the telephone booth that concealed an elevator to the Control basement offices, the Cone Of Silence, where the Control people would meet to avoid eavesdroppers, they all have cult value even today, with a bunch of Internet web sites devoted to the series. The major one, wouldyoubelieve.com, produced by Carl Burkmeyer, known as Chief of Control, rates every episode. The reruns are on the cable TVLand Channel, at 5, 5:30 and 11:30 PM., the 24-hour wall-to-wall marathon is over. Sorry about that, Chief.
If your answer is "no," how about wall-to-wall reruns?
I believe in predestination, fate and branding. Therefore, having been simultaneously exposed to waves of "Get Smart" Visa advertisements on the Internet and round -the-clock reruns of the venerable series on the TVLand Channel, it seems incumbent upon me to revisit the fondly remembered old war horse.
For the Gen X babies, Get Smart was a 1965-70 spy spoof TV series invented by Mel Brooks, assisted by the TV script man Buck Henry, himself a considerable humorist (Gary Moore’s and Steve Allen’s writer). It was so ordained by Don Melnick, Leonard Stern and Davis Susskind of Talent Associates, to cash in on the James Bond and related spy crazes of the times. Henry was to ride herd on Brooks, an undisciplined genius full of inventions and ideas, and to corral the good ones. Brooks gladly complied, since he needed the pay to finance The Producers. The result was a fun series.
Smart, the clumsy spy with the telephone in his shoe, was played by Don Adams, a standup comedian reared on the principles of vaudeville, and a major contributor of routines. The beautiful pouty Barbara Feldon, stage name Agent 99, a model and $64,000 Question contestant who used her winnings to help her husband open an art gallery, was a major factor in the success of the series. It gave birth to some catch phrases, part of our language of the ‘60s. Thus, denial. Smart: "Don’t tell me X is a Russian agent!" A: "X is a Russian agent!" S: "I asked you not to tell me!." When cornered by enemy KAOS agents (the series’equivalent of Bond’s SMERSH) Smart blusters: "At this moment we have the entire area surrounded by government troops." K: "I find that hard to believe." S: "Would you believe two agents with a dog?" K: "No." S: "How about a boy with a BB gun?" Smart’s excuse for his incredible blunders, "Sorry about that, Chief," was heard daily, and.became standard shorthand for making light of one’s mistakes. The Chief, the late opera singer Edward Platt, was no mental giant, unlike Fleming’s M, and the organization, Control, was staffed by dunderheads. Smart would hide his ignorance by pretense: "Ah, the old poison pill in the Pinot Grigio trick!" then in an aside "99, what’s Pinot Grigio?"
The Get Smart series lasted for five years on NBC and CBS (1964-70), during which Smart and 99 got married and had a stage baby.. There was an attempt to revive it, but it was assigned to the "death time spot," against 60 Minutes on Sunday nights, and it did not last.
Apart from the stated objective on cashing in on the success of James Bond, Get Smart appears to have had a deeper motivation, reflecting the social criticism of the Vietnam War period. Exposing government blunders was part of the mores of the times, although some fear of McCarthyite type reactions from the legislators and advertisers, potentially deadly to a popular TV comedy series, held back outright criticism.
The 132 or so episodes of Get Smart would attempt to mock popular favorites, books, plays and TV series. The titles of the parodies reflected the sources. The Secret of Sam Vittorio pointed to a popular Italian WWII book. To Sire With Love played off the Alec Guinness movie, as did Greer Window, a Hitchcockian riot, with James Caan guest-starring. Major actors had cameo roles. The Dodgers’ Maury Wills and comedienne Phyllis Diller were popular. When Don Rickles was invited, he and Don Adams ad-libbed extra scenes to the extent that the producers decided to stretch the Little Black Book to two episodes. Tale of Two Tails, Diamonds Are the Spy’s Best Friends, League of Bald-Headed Men, Closely Watched Plans, Valerie of the Dolls, The Treasure of C.Errol Madre, How Green Was My Wallet, I Am Curiously Yellow - these names give a flavor of the parodies’ sources. The Groovy Guru was about a KAOS rock-and-roll wizard, whose melodies captivated Agent 99.The series garnered many Emmys.
Authorship of the episodes varied, the gifted actors, producers and others took a crack at it, besides the regular writers, notably Stan Burns, Mike Marmer, Arnie Sultan, C. F. D’Amoreaux, .Gerald Gardner and Dee Caruso. Don Bilson and Gary Nelson were the early directors. Don Adams wrote for the episodes, as did producers Leonard Stern and Burt Nordella..
Don Adams’ red car, a 1965 Sunbeam Tiger, and the theme music, a catchy tune by Irving Szathmary, the telephone booth that concealed an elevator to the Control basement offices, the Cone Of Silence, where the Control people would meet to avoid eavesdroppers, they all have cult value even today, with a bunch of Internet web sites devoted to the series. The major one, wouldyoubelieve.com, produced by Carl Burkmeyer, known as Chief of Control, rates every episode. The reruns are on the cable TVLand Channel, at 5, 5:30 and 11:30 PM., the 24-hour wall-to-wall marathon is over. Sorry about that, Chief.
# posted by Wally Dobelis @ 3:11 AM 
