Get Smart Episode: Our Man in Toyland

This was one of the early episodes of the "Get Smart" television comedy series, which spoofed the spy mentality of the Cold War era. The episode first aired in October of 1965 and featured guest star John Hoyt, a familiar face to television viewers and movie goers in those times, although most people likely didn't know his name. John Hoyt played many a villainous role, and I have to believe it was his likeness that gave rise to the cartoon caricature of "Fearless Leader" on the "Rocky & Bullwinkle Show," which was televised in the early 1960s, first on the ABC network, then on the NBC network. Another familiar face of this episode is that of Helen Kleeb, who made many an appearance in movies, and many more appearances on television for decades. Helen Kleeb lived to be 96 years old, and she made television appearances well into the 1990s. To put this episode's ending into perspective, World War Two, the Korean War and the Vietnam War (then ongoing and escalating significantly) had created a substantial market for military-themed toys, like guns, grenades, bazookas, bayonets and bombs; and yes, I did say "toys." My mother had worked for a (then) major toy manufacturing company a few years before this episode aired, although I can't recall if she ever saw this episode, and "Get Smart" was not really her kind of comedy.      

Main Cast:

Don Adams: Maxwell Smart, CONTROL Agent 86, "Max"
Barbara Feldon: CONTROL Agent 99, "99"
Edward Platt: Chief of CONTROL, "Chief"
John Hoyt: Conrad Bunny/store manager/KAOS agent
Helen Kleeb: Frieda/store clerk, KAOS agent

The Chief of CONTROL assigns Maxwell Smart, along with canine agent Fang, also known as "K13," to find out how KAOS is getting secret government information out of the U.S. to hostile interests through merchandise at a local department store. The Chief already has placed Agent 99 and some other agents in the store and they will report any suspicious activity to Max, who will pretend to be a customer. Max goes to the store and is followed by a KAOS agent. The other CONTROL agents keep track of the KAOS man and report his movements to Max, who meets the Chief in the department store restaurant, where the KAOS agent is arrested. In the meantime, Max had gone to Agent 99, who was working in the perfume department of the store. She tells him she thinks KAOS knows who she is. The store manager, Mr. Conrad Bunny, approaches and Agent 99 tells Max he might be interested in a new perfume called, "Jasmine," which is a code to say she's in trouble. Max says he'll return later.

After the arrest of the KAOS agent in the restaurant, mentioned above, Max goes back to the perfume counter to get Agent 99 to safety, but another woman is there. She tells Max that he is mistaken about another woman having been working there earlier, because she's been the only person there all day. Max plants a microphone on the perfume counter and he hears the woman talking with Conrad Bunny who says that Agent 99 has gotten away from them, but that they have successfully disarmed her. He says that the store will close shortly and then they can search the entire store for 99. The clerk tells Mr. Bunny about Max having been to the counter and asking for the woman who wanted to demonstrate "Jasmine" perfume for him. Bunny remembers the earlier customer and figures the man (Max) is working with Agent 99. He says they must find both of these people and kill them. Max goes to get help from the three CONTROL agents stationed at points throughout the store, but two are missing, and he finds the third agent dead.

With closing time nearing for the store, Max and Fang go looking for 99 and they find her hiding in a small office. She tells Max she's discovered how KAOS is sending the secret information. She brings out a doll, called "Polly Dolly," that is equipped with a small tape cartridge to give it the ability to "talk." Mr. Bunny replaces the doll tape cartridge with one he has recorded with the secret information on it. He then marks the doll in a certain way so that it can be identified as one with secret info on it for KAOS agents overseas. The dolls easily clear customs officials, because no one is looking to play the tape cartridge. So Max and 99 get Fang to take the doll out of the store through the ventilation system to the Chief, which he does. The Chief calls for all available agents so they can raid the department store.

Klutzy Max hits the keys on an organ in the music department of the store, so Mr. Bunny knows where they are. To lessen the light, Max empties his gun shooting out the lights in the room, but when Mr. Bunny and two KAOS agents come in, Max tries to bluff his way with the empty gun. The bluff fails, but 99 picks up a toy water pistol which Max uses on Conrad Bunny, knocking his monocle to the floor, where he steps on it. Max and 99 flee into the toy department where they begin using the military toys to ward off Mr. Bunny and his KAOS agents. The toy weapons cause Bunny and company to seek shelter behind a counter, so Max finds the ultimate toy weapon called "Destructo," a remote operated flying bomb, which demolishes the counter where the KAOS agents are hiding. Max tells Agent 99, "We had at our disposal every fiendish and destructive plaything ever devised for the pleasure of little children. All those poor devils had were real guns and bullets." hahahahahaha!!!! The Chief arrives with several CONTROL agents and as they take Mr. Bunny away, he grabs a gun Max is holding. He tells how he'll at least kill one of them and he fires the gun. It turns out the gun was a dart gun and Max is standing with a dart in the middle of his forehead.
       
Picture is from the 2008 HBO Video release of "Get Smart: The Complete Series" (Season 1)

WORD HISTORY:   

Chaos-This word is distantly related to "yawn," a word from the Germanic roots of English, and to "chasm," a word English borrowed from Latin, which got it from Greek. It goes back to Indo European "ghih/gheh," which had the notion, "to be wide open." This gave transliterated Greek "khaos," meaning, "large empty space." This was borrowed by Latin as "chaos" and English borrowed the word circa 1400. The use of the word in a religious sense for, "the void in the universe before creation," developed in the 1500s and this developed into the more general "turmoil, confusion, disorder," in the 1600s, the meaning which has carried into modern times.