It's hard to imagine my life without Get Smart in my childhood. But more importantly, Agent 99, The Chief, Seigfried, and who could forget Hymie? (The is a local band here in Brisbane, Australia, called the Hymie's. )

Agent 99 is my favourite, her hair, her pure 60s/Super70s fashion. She looks a bit like my mom used to. And she was always the brains that Max sorely needed. And the Chief, the constanlty dissapointed father. Seigfried is right up there with my favourite villans: Monty Burns (Simpsons) and Dr Evil (Austin Powrs). Like Seigfried, these villans are determined and vulnerable, strong and stupidly funny.

The originality of this show, I guess, is that spy's are meant to be intelligent. And perhaps there was a call, at the time, to make light of serious operations (due to wars). But, unless you actually are a spy, and do all the dirty work that spys do, your not interested in the glamour that James Bond portrays. Re: that series, Lam Femme Nikita, excellent spy show: still shows the dirty work that operatives must somehow accomplish, whilst still looking gorgeous, clean, and smelling like roses.

Get smart had the Mod style down pat. Neat suits and party gear: "We're going off to a Beatnik bar. . " , and they jump on their scooter.

In a world of sabotage, microchips, and espionage, we need spys. There are cool, and Get Smart along with his cool colleagues (including Hymie the robot) and his lovable arch enemy, Siegfried,

Get Smart is up there with but a few who could call themselves just as cool.

--Cate

Mel Brooks came up with the ultimate TV spoof of James Bnod 007- Maxwell Smart (Don Adams), the klutzy, klever and un-corruptable CONTROL Agent 86. Smart was CONTROL's top agent, despite his constant mess ups he always managed to solve the crime and have the girl, Agent 99 (Barbara Feldon) gazing at him with goo-goo eyes. The eventually even married and had twins! CONTROL was accessed via telephone booth and was well under the ground. Max's cover "greeting card salesman" led to some great responses, such as when he meets 99's mother & tells her he&'s a greeting card salesman- she responds- thats what her father said AND HE WAS A SPY!. The Chief (Ed Plat) is under constant attack by Max&' flubs leading to the famous lines "Sorry about that chief!" and "misse dit by that much" Max is also famous for demanding the use of the defective Cone of Silence or using his "shoe phone" to get to the Chief. . . . But, the Chief always resorts to Max` prowness when things need solving. Max&' foil is KAOS' top agent Sigfried (Bernie Kopell - Love Boat's `Doc') & side kick Schtarker. . . they are bumblers in their own rite. . . . Agent 13 was the undercover agent, squeezing into lockers, garbage cans & anywhere Max might need to get information from him. The series ran on NBC, then CBS, the opening is classic and famous with Max pulling up to CONTROL in differnt cars as the years pass, Sunbeam, Kharman Ghia and Opel Manta. . . . . Many of the shows were spoofs of famous movies (Stalag 13, Treasure of Sierra Madre, Rear Window and many, many more!) and TV shows- I Spy, The Fugitive was one of the best. Guest stars were aplenty and ranged from Johnny Carson & Don Rickles to other TV & movie stars of the dsy. This show could be the guideline for future producers/creators looking at how you set up a spoof but yet keep it believable. Unfortuately, in the 1990's it tried to come back but did not work, greatly as a result of the Get Smart movie- The Nude Bomb - which was a bomb, and could not recover from the death of Ed Platt (The Chief), who had a marvelous presence. And dont forget CONTROL Agent Larraby, who's antics made Max look like the real Bond!

--JonnyQuest`04