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52 of 55 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The old spy in the spoof trick!, August 27, 2008
Smart. Maxwell Smart. The dumbest spy in the world, who fights on behalf of the forces of goodness and niceness, and succeeded in making democracy vs. communism a lot more entertaining. With the comic trio of Don Adams, Barbara Feldon and Edward Platt, this hilarious spy spoof is still funny today.
Don Adams is Agent 86, Maxwell Smart, a not-so-bright spy with an endless arsenal of strange devices and odd sayings. The bumbling spy at a top-secret government agency called Control, which is responsible for keeping the free world free. Backing him up is his beautiful partner/love interest Agent 99 (Barbara Feldon) and his long-suffering Chief (Eward Platt) who puts up with Smart's constant mistakes.
Together with 99 (whom he marries late in the series), and the Chief (and his faithful dog Fang), Max battles the forces of badness and rottenness -- namely, the anti-Control called KAOS, whose role it is to spread, ahem, chaos and mayhem across the globe when they're not trying to take out Control. They battle against their archnemesis Siegfried and a bunch of other KAOS agents, with explosive paintings, lovable robots, explosive pianos, giant magnets, assorted evil geniuses, femme fatales, evil hippies, doppelgangers (repeatedly!), aging paint, and much more. And despite his klutziness and bizarre problems, Max always somehow saves the day.
"Missed it by that much!" Maxwell Smart's catchphrases and goofy confidence made him the perfect antidote to the suave James Bond. Unlike Bond and similar movie spies, Max succeeds out of luck and bumbling more often than skill... but somehow, he still succeeds.
The comic timing is a little awkward at the very beginning, but rapidly gets its footing as soon as the formula for the series is established. Every episode is packed with humor, ranging from several running jokes ("I ASKED you not to tell me that!") to hilarious little word gags ("Larabee, confiscate that plant!" "I can't do that, Chief. I'm not a priest"). And of course, lots of pratfalls, slamming doors and wacky fights, as well as Max's calm acceptance of the bizarre (holding a meeting of agents hiding in furniture) and the perpetually unlucky Agent 13 hiding in various disgusting, cramped and unpleasant locations.
What's really funny is the endless spoofery of the whole spy genre -- Max is given all sorts of weird gadgets, including the legendary "shoe-phone" (a shoe with a phone in it, as you might have guessed) and he faces off against all sorts of cartoonish villains, ranging from Germanic dictators to socialites to evil maids. And it has dozens and dozens of movie spoofs -- "The Great Escape," "The Most Dangerous Game," "Maltese Falcon," "King Kong," and even the Bond movie "Goldfinger."
The political clime of the mid 1960s is all over the series, especially in the form of KAOS -- they're very totalitarian, very pre-Cold War. But fortunately they don't get preachy -- KAOS is merely a big evil organization whose purpose it is to cause problems for our heroes to solve, even if it involves kidnapping all the Control agents as Max kidnaps all of theirs. Some references are dated, and this definitely debuted before the era of political correctness (there's a bizarre episode about American Indians threatening the US government, and the Claw is funny if un-PC).
As for the lead actor... Don Adams MAKES this series, with his quirky facial expressions, nasal voice and odd body language. His Max overestimates his own skill and believes himself to be a sexy, karate-chopping Bondian treasure, though he survives mostly by luck ("Missed it by that much!") and occasionally 99's more formidable brains. And there's also something endearingly childlike about Max's passion and enthusiasm, despite the fact that he's clearly very grown-up.
Barbara Feldon is the least quirky of the cast, serving as the "straight woman" for Max, as well as the brains for his adventures -- and while her role diminishes a little after they get married and have kids, she's still the stable axis of the series. And she manages to produce a lot of comedy just by playing off Max ("I can't see through the keyhole! There's something blocking it." "The KEY!"). The late Edward Platt is just wonderful as the long-suffering, stressed-out Chief, who always looks slightly frayed, and Bernie Kopell is hysterical as the stiff-backed, volatile Siegfried, who is constantly infuriated by his informal sidekick Shtarker.
It should be noted that all these episodes have been exquisitely remastered down to crisp, bright clarity, with all that sixties colour. And they've reinserted little bits that were cut for commercials in the old reruns. It actually improves the flow.
It's been decades since "Get Smart" was first aired, but it is still gutsplittingly funny. You'll roll around on the floor, laughing yourself sick... and... loving it. Would you believe... giggling and enjoying yourself? How about a snicker and a two-minute diversion?
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