Get Smart: Known For Gadgets & Catchphrases

This was originally published April 24, 2012, and it was very slightly updated in January 2015 and again on December 6, 2017.

"Get Smart" was a television comedy of the 1960s created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, that spoofed the spy mentality of the Cold War era, as well as the spy movies and shows based upon that mentality; in particular, the "James Bond" series and "Mission Impossible." Its central character was one "Maxwell Smart," a secret agent with the code number "86," known for his shoe phone. Smart was a bungling agent who could mess up just about anything, but who, in the end, always brought matters to a successful conclusion. Max was played in an unforgettable way by actor Don Adams. Smart's partner in most cases was "Agent 99," a female secret agent, played by actress Barbara Feldon. Throughout much of the first couple of seasons of the show, "99" developed a love for Max, who almost always failed to take notice of that fact. These two characters were supported by a wide range of other secret agents, including two, during the course of the series, who were always stationed in some sort of odd, cramped location, like a locker, a mailbox, a sidewalk trash receptacle, or an ice machine. One old agent had been hiding so long in a wall behind a dartboard, he still had a message to warn General Custer about an Indian attack. The whole bunch belonged to a super secret government spy agency called "CONTROL," headed by "the Chief," played by veteran actor Edward Platt.

CONTROL's usual adversary was the evil outfit called "KAOS," which included a variety of notorious misfits who were communists, underworld figures, Nazis or other fascists. In one episode a KAOS boss talked about celebrating Mussolini's birth day. Some prominent KAOS agents included "Leadside," a character patterned after the then popular NBC show "Ironside,"* but with "Leadside" being a fiendish villain in a wheelchair; "Mr. Big," a dwarf leader of KAOS; the "Claw," an oriental KAOS man with a magnetic claw for one of his hands, who pronounced his name "Craw.;"** "Dr. Zharko," a mad scientist hiding on a remote island, who was able to bring dead KAOS agents back to life; and "Siegfried," played by Bernie Kopell, the most prominent of all, a former unrepentant Nazi in Hitler's service, who was CONTROL's most frequent nemesis. One of Siegfried's best lines had to do with him at times becoming disgusted with KAOS and saying something like, "20 years of working for KAOS. 20 years of stealing, lying, cheating, robbing, killing and murdering, and what did I get out of it? Nothing, just a lot of fun."       

The show started in the mid 1960s on NBC and some of Max's catchy phrases quickly caught on with the American public: "Sorry about that Chief;" when Max did something accidentally to the Chief; "Missed it by that much," with Max displaying fingers spread about an inch apart; "Would you believe," said by Max as he scaled back an overdone bluff;*** and "I asked you not to tell me that."****

"Get Smart" was also known for its secret gadgets developed for CONTROL to combat the evil of KAOS. Max's shoe phone was quite a sensation in the 1960s, and there was also an invisible bulletproof wall that could be lowered from the ceiling of Max's apartment, as well as a net that dropped from the ceiling. There were many others. The show moved from NBC to CBS for its fifth and last season. "Get Smart" might well be my favorite show of all time, but since I don't have to choose, I won't.

* "Ironside" was about police detective Robert T. Ironside, played by Raymond Burr, who had been partially paralyzed by a sniper-fired bullet to his spine. He was in a wheelchair and traveled around San Francisco in a specially equipped vehicle.

** When he introduced himself as "the Craw," the person would then repeat the incorrect pronunciation, but he couldn't correct them, saying, "Not Craw, Craw." It played on the fact that some Asian people who did not grow up speaking English having difficulty pronouncing English "L" and "R." Hey, political correctness had not taken hold back then, and besides, please don't let such little things stick in your claw ... no wait, that IS craw.  

*** When in a perilous situation, Max might say something to his adversaries like, "You'd better give up, would you believe there are 500 Marines surrounding this place?" When the person would say he didn't believe him, Max would say, "Well, would you believe 100 Marines?" This would bring similar skepticism from the guy, which would then have Max say something like, "Would you believe a troop of Boy Scouts?" 

**** This was an oft repeated phrase by Max, used like this: Max might say, "Don't tell me there's a guy with a gun standing behind me." Agent 99 would say, "There's a guy with a gun behind you," then bringing Max to say, "I asked you not to tell me that."  

Picture is from the 2008 HBO Video release of "Get Smart: The Complete Series"

WORD HISTORY:
Smart-This word goes back to Indo European "smerd," the meaning of which is a bit sketchy, but something on the order of "harm, causing injury or pain (including "bite, rub, sting, grind)." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "smertanan," which meant "to hurt." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "smeortan," also meaning "to hurt," and we still say to this day, if we bump our toe or hit our finger with a hammer, "That smarts!" The Old English form later became "smerten," before the modern form. In the meantime, from the verb came the late Old English adjective "smeart," which meant "sharp, intense." Within a couple of hundred years, the notion of "sharpness and intensity" had moved the meaning to "clever, quick," and from that came the general idea of "bright, intelligent." English is the only Germanic language to use this meaning. So, English has two words "smart," although both are from the exact same Germanic source, and indeed, the more common form meaning "intelligent" was derived from the other, which means "hurt." The other Germanic languages have: German (verb) "schmerzen" (to hurt) and (noun) "Schmerz" (pain, ache); Low German Saxon (noun) "Smart" (pain) and (verb) "smarten" (to hurt); Dutch has (verb) "smarten" (to hurt) and (noun) "smart" (distress, trouble); Norwegian has (verb) "smerte" (to hurt) and (adjective) "smart" (clever); Danish (noun) smerte (pain), Swedish has (noun) "smärta" (pain). Apparently Icelandic and Frisian no longer use forms of the word, although Frisian once used "smert" (pain). Note: It "seems" the forms in Danish, Norwegian and Swedish are borrowings from Low German.