Suave, debonair, and incompetent, Maxwell Smart was television’s answer to James Bond and Inspector Clouseau.
Get Smart was, and still is, one of my favourite programs. Memorized reruns saw me through homework every night of junior high. A few years ago, DH bought me the complete set on DVD. Imagine, 5 seasons of outrageous perfection, all to myself. And the box was a model of the telephone booth Max disappeared in during the opening credits.
Fun!
If you’re going to have a hero, you must have a villain.
Bernie Kopell, who reappeared on another youth favourite, The Love Boat, played Max’s nemesis, Siegfried. In an interview I watched years ago, Kopell’s agent called him about the part, then asked, ‘You can speak in a German accent, cant’ you?’
Kopell, who’d never considered a German accent, let alone attempted one, answered as Siegfried.
What were your favourite shows in your teen years? This is Kaos. We don’t shush here… but we do take comments.
Okay, I’m late to pick up my son from his friends because one click leads to another with Get Smart. So I’m about to face certain scolds and head shakings when I explain – and loving it!
Ha! I’ve used that line with co-workers–great way to know who has a cool sense of humour and who doesn’t… or who is simply a whole lot younger!
Loved Get Smart! 99 rocked the strong women category. Another terrific blast from the past, Sherry!
I’m putting the Get Smart DVD set on my Christmas list. I want the phone box too!
99 rocks! I especially loved all the gadgets disguised in her compact and lipstick.
My teen years were filled with The Cosby Show, Family Ties, The Bionic Woman, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island and reruns of Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, I Love Lucy and the Brady Bunch. Oh, the hours I wasted in front of the t.v.!
Tami, I watched all of those shows, too. The plane, the plane!
My teen years? Anyone remember Laugh in?.
I opted for the full set of I Love Lucy reruns and take my VitaMeataVegaMin* daily. It’s so tasty, too!
I remember the shows Tami mentioned. Niggling small detail: I wasn’t in my teens when I saw them. It’s sad to recall I was young and single when I watched The Love Boat and Fantasy Island on Saturday nights. Alone.
Heavy sigh.
*Ingredients may not be in the proper order, but — hey — Lucy couldn’t remember them either by the time the segment ended.
Put the heavy sigh in storage, Gloria, I remember Laugh In. And Lucy. The grape stomp, the chocolate assembly line. Hilarious! I remember those Saturday nights. I’d sail on The Love Boat, straight to Fantasy Island.
Just told my DH: “Sherry blogged about her favorite show when she was young.”
“Get Smart,” he said.
I never heard heard about Get Smart before meeting my DH. When we were dating, he would break into imitations of Smart, would speak to his shoe.
Guess he won me over with weirdness, lol!
That would have won my heart. (The weirdness and the Max Smart impersonation.)
Alison, looks like you have my back this weekend!
Carole, has Get Smart redeemed me after wearing a Bruins shirt to your house?
My teens were filled with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Highlander: The Series and Beverly Hills 90210.
I met Buffy in my twenties. Not pinning it down anymore than that, Patricia! LOL
You’re never too old for a new classic. I love Buffy. I became a diehard fan right after seeing the musical episode.
Has anyone seen the new(ish) Get Smart movie? Steve Carrell and Anne Hathaway do Don Adams and Barbara Feldman proud. I love Alan Arkin as The Chief – but then I just love Alan Arkin.
Nothing will replace the original, but the new movie has won over my kids so that I might convince them that the original series would make a good Christmas gift for their dear mama.
Well, Alison, if the kids don’t chip in and spend their allowance on the Get Smart DVD collection this yuletide, you can always come back to this post. You seem happy here. LOL!
So, Sherry, are you getting the impression I’m a bit of a Get Smart fan?
Fan??? Alison, you’ve taken over my post, LOL! But, it was a friendly invasion! WOOT! Hilarious!
That’ll teach you to come up with such a cool topic.
Yikes … my “Kaos” is moving … in five days no less. That is a cult classic and will always be among the shows more than one generation talks about for decades. Did you see the movie? I’l like to know how you think it shaped up
BTW … Alan’s son, Adam, another talented Arkin was a gas on Northern Exposure 
Loved the movie, Florence. I suspect Alison enjoyed it, too! I never watched Northern Exposure. Perhaps I was put off by the snow… enough of the white stuff in my own backyard.
Good luck with the move. Don’t bother with the stress, you’ll have enough to contend with on moving day. Just take stress off your list of things to do and focus on what really needs to be done–the stuff that will actually count as productive.
I watched Tami’s complete lineup, but I must admit to never watching Get Smart. I know, I know. One hundred lashes for my lack of proper television viewing…
I’m thinking…
Okay. Only one remedy, Brinda. Get your keister on over here and I’ll introduce you, pilot to epilogue. And… loving it.
Pilot? Epilogue? I gotta get me that set! Is the pilot the one with Mr Big? I saw that for the first time last night. (I thought I’d seen them all!) All the key gags were there from “Sorry about that Chief” to “And loving it.”
I loved Get Smart and agent 99. And the Love Boat. Those were the day! Mary Tyler Moore and Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie. They just don’t make them like that anymore.
Stay tuned, Sharon.
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