INSIDE GET SMART

we have fantasized Bond and kuzo having a child who would that be Maxwell Smart TV Land takes you inside the world of Espionage catchphrases and classified gadgets with inside TV Land get smart everybody was arguing about what was funny there was anxiety in the air you feel it new interviews rare footage get a new perspective on getsmart with inside TV Land coming up next only on TV Land hey oh hi hi out there in television land it hit the airwaves when spies were hot who are you Bond James Bond and the war was cold get smart gave the role of a lifetime to A 42-year-old comedian named Don Adams you see I happen to have a very distinctive and unique voice I said who wrote it they said Mel Brooks and Buck Henry I said I'll do it we fantasized Bond and cl o having a child and who would that be Maxwell Smart Max was my James Bond how about Jeep get smart boasted sany gadgets very ingenious and trademark SS sorry about that Chief just STI by that much a sexy sidekick named 99 had agent 86's number you'll be in extreme danger every minute and loving it are you ready yes well poor 99 he didn't notice she was a girl at all comic chaos was caused by a cast of Unforgettable characters they meet again mixwell M for Don Adams it was the best of times and the worst of times you you will never know the pressure of turning out a successful comedic series I do think that it stepped on a lot of feelings he had all of the burden of setting the pace of the show and keeping it there Don Adams and get smart set the pace in TV comedy for Five Seasons seven emys and Beyond Austin Powers owes some allegiance to uh get smart these airplane movies and these Naked Gun movies were really sort of get smart 20 years later it was the weirdest thing I've ever seen almost now the story of a comic Cloak and Dagger classic and the man who bonded with Maxwell Smart inside TV Land present Get [Music] Smart [Music] you know China Russia and France should Outlaw all nuclear weapons we should insist upon it what if they won't Max then we may have to blast them it's the only way to keep peace in the world in the early 1960s the United States was waging a shadowy battle against the forces of Communism while trying to avoid World War III reaction at last from Moscow we were in the middle of the Cold War there was always the omnipresent threat of nuclear attack there was consciously or unconsciously an awareness of there being a Global Network of spying both by the Russians and by the Americans the 1960s was a time of spy phenomenon uh in films and spy spoofs 07 it spells Bond the James Bond movies killed at the box office and Spy shows infiltrated television including the Man from Uncle I spy and Mission impossible as usual this tape will self-destruct in exactly 5 seconds and then there was get smart maybe six the sort of 60s secret agent feel with the sort of borch belt uh humor was a nice nice volatile combination close the door right Maxwell Smart is a bumbling kind of dreamer who honestly believes that all the silly crazy things that he's doing are helping to solve the worries of the world and bring chaos to an end I just happened to be Maxwell Smart I was a character I became the character but the character that became a TV comedy icon wasn't born during the Cold War Don Adams had spent his first 42 years gradually bringing him to life Donald James yarmy was born in 1923 the second of three children to an Irish Catholic mother and a Hungarian Jewish father I grew up in the movies I never went to school I was closer to my trune officer than I was to my parents he always knew where to find me in the balcony in 42nd Street as young Don grew up in New York City he amused himself and his friends by doing impressions of movie stars like Carri Grant Humphrey Bogart and William Powell two persons planned the murder of Archer Cole two what but their paths crossed then on December 7th 194 1 Don's Boyhood was cut short by the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor there were eight battleships in the harbor all were damaged by the bomb and torpedo attack 18-year-old Don joined the Marines and was shipped out to the Pacific this is guad Canal Don fought the Japanese in the brutal battle for the island of guad canal nobody who's been through combat will remain young because they lose their innocence because people are out they're trying to kill each other after 6 months of bloody fighting the Marines were victorious but Don was struck down by malaria they thought I was going to die they put a death watch on me Don spent two years in hospitals recovering from his illness when the war ended in 1945 Don was discharged and began doing impressions and standup comedy in Miami night clubs I had a rather bad time in the last war I was nearly drafted I hated every time I had to go out on stage I used to throw up because I had to go out there and there were people were all drunk so I thank God I was in the Marine Corp and I was at gu Canal so I was able to deal with it in 1947 Don yarmy married Dell Adams she was a singer at a nightclub in Miami around the corner from a nightclub that I was playing we went out together we got married and we had four children Don and his family settled in New York and in 54 he auditioned for a talent contest on Arthur Godfrey's television show why is the very end of the line so when I went to audition I changed my name to Adams right there I won the Godfrey show and I became Don Adams your honor ladies and gentlemen of the jury Don's act in those days had a lot of impressions and he did one impression of William Powell as the Thin Man any one of seven people might have done it the defendant Mr Irving Glick murdered her husband yes but that's not the important thing that character when you said the words they just pierced right through and that was a comedy writer's dream Don began working with comedian Bill Dana in 54 Bill Dana said to me you know that voice is funny I said I hate that voice Bill Dana said no no no it's funny use it now I ask you are those the legs of a homicidal mediac by 1957 Don was a success on stage let's give him a nice big welcome here he is Don Adam I remember him as a standup comic at the Playboy and a lot of other clubs Yan everybody can do Don offstage Don's devil mayare lifestyle which featured gambling and a hectic workload wrecked his 13-year marriage men went out and work they were the bread winners the women stayed home with the kids I did what I could 34-year-old Don wasn't alone for long he met a 20-year-old dancer named Dorothy Bracken at Summer Stock in Upstate New York we fell in love there and he was wonderful working with him you know because he was fun to work with on stage and it was a blast Don and Dorothy were married in 1960 he was doing the ulvan show he was doing P Como show and his stardom just grew every year in 19 19 63 Don's pal Bill Dana landed his own TV sitcom and cast Don on the series don't you worry you're as good as detective as that James Bond is any day Mr GLI James Bond these storybook detectives are ridiculous and then uh I got a lucky break because I was in the right place at the right time when get smart came along in the spring of 64 the success of the James Bond spy movies had inspired a 32-year-old TV producer named Daniel melck I got the idea of doing a sendup of the genre as the genre got to be more popular um and I had the idea of for can get smart Melnick pitched his spy spoof to ABC James Bond was very big I thought it'd be fun to have a kind of a goof up spy ABC put up $7,500 to develop a script Melnick hired Mel Brooks who' cut his comedy teeth writing for Sid Caesar and team Brooks with former Steve Allen Show Buck Henry Danny milick said the two big hits out there in the movie business are James Bond and inspector cluzo we fantasized Bond and cluzo having a child and who would that be it would be Max the man they wanted to play secret agent Maxwell Smart was Emmy winning comic actor Tom Poston I thought it was really fun captured some of that silliness of the uh spy anti-spy stories that were big on TV at the time but ABC didn't like the script when I contemplated the script versus The Producers I wasn't enthralled with the idea so we passed on I then reached out and uh asked an old friend of mine Leonard Stern to come in and and be the producer Leonard Stern a former headwriter for both the honey mooners and the Steve Allen Show came on as executive producer that was in a late uh October November the pilot season was over to save get smart Stern met with NBC's head of programming Grant tinker and Grant said I read it last night and I read it again this morning and I love it and I said we have to find the money to do one more pilot and at the time we had Don Adams under contract in late 64 Don became available when the Bill Dana show was cancelled no they said U we we have a pilot that we you might be interested in I said who wrote it they said Mel Brooks and Buck Henry I said I'll do it I'd like to say we always thought of Don but we didn't it was like Serendipity you see I've got imagination Ingenuity and intelligence I wouldn't have done it anything like that I saw him as tall handsome charismatic irresistible to women it's the thing I usually play I looked at the script and I said boy this is really a wild script but I didn't know whether it was going to be a success or not the 41y old Adams was a betting man so he took the role and the biggest gamble of his life they said do you want to take a big salary or do you want to take a piece of the show I said what do you call a big salary they said $112,500 A week I said what do you call a small salary they said $4,000 a week something in his nature said I have to go for the gamble here if it's a hit and I take a piece of the show I'm going to have an annuity for the rest of my life and so it's the best business decision I ever made in my [Music] life coming up 86 meets 99 who is Agent 99 I want a word with all you tigers and later the real life spies come snooping around government intelligence agencies asked us from where we were getting our ideas when we go back in side get smart on inside TV Land you're [Music] watching 86 I've got a new assignment for you right Chief it's a kidnapping case oh good who do you want me to kidnap in early 1965 41-year-old comedian Don Adams landed the lead role in a secret agent parody called get smart Agent 99 will'll meet you at the airport good uh How Will I Know 99 chief for the role of Agent 99 The Producers want a bombshell with brains I want a word with all you Tigers Barbara felon was just what they were looking for I like you the 30-some New York model sensual Revlon commercial stirred men's passions from coast to coast it was so tongue and cheek and Feldon wasn't simply sexy she'd earned respect as an actress in the TV drama east side wests side with George C Scott and Barbara was terrific I mean she knew exactly how to stand up to George's power we now had a convinced Dawn that Barbara was ideal for him I was obviously taller and Don was very aware of it and so was I barbar's 5'9 in her stocking feet and I'm 58 and a half I was the only actress in Hollywood with calluses on my ankles because I would twist my foot over P push my hip out put my head down like that so that I could be shorter than Dawn sometimes I wonder what it's all for all the destruction killing murdering well as 498 would say it's a living the third key character to be cast was Max's boss the chief of control the producers didn't find their man until the day before shooting when they called in veteran character actor Ed Platt then why'd you wait till the day before did your number 87 oh oh well then where was I before you know why was why did you wait till 87 got well they wouldn't believe that you could play comedy my question was could he handle comedy and he said I I think so and then he broke into Old Man River now I get weary I'm sick of trying I'm I was convinced if somebody has the courage to sing uh at uh uh five DB louder than one talks I felt he was [Music] right with the cast set some of the brightest lights in TV comedy gathered to shoot the getsmart pilot in early 1965 the only episode filmed in black and white so you're Mr Big so you're nexwell smart face to face but the process wasn't always full of laughs there were too many cooks it was Mel Brooks and Buck Henry and leonnard Stern and all and Hoy Morris from the S Caesar show was directing and everybody was arguing about what was funny and what wasn't funny there was comedic friction between Mel and and Don for example there was anxiety in the air you feel it it's like vibrations nobody knew whether we were just floundering around in the dark or whether we were on to something interesting I said Don come and talk to me after rehearsal I said are you aware that if this thing becomes a hit that the character that you're developing will be stuck to you like glue for the rest of your life he said I don't care about that I said you don't you don't care that you're going to get totally typed as Get Smart the forces of evil have once again been foiled in their attempt to extinguish the torch of Liberty what oh sorry wrong [Music] number NBC picked up the series and at 8:30 on Saturday night September 18th 1965 TV viewers tuned in to get [Music] smart get smart went up against ABC Saturday evening stalwart Lawrence Welk and the trials of O'Brien on CBS and top both shows in the neelen ratings uh sorry about that Chief in a very short while General Crawford and a hundred of his crack power Troopers will come crashing into this Landing would you believe jayed G Hoover and 10 of his gmen how about tarzen and a couple of his Apes it appealed on many levels sophisticates and Advocates of phys iCal comedy could sit side by side and enjoy the show for totally different reasons the second you set foot in Germany you'll be living in constant extreme danger D what's he saying now 99 and loving it you know how much I want you one key reason audiences enjoyed the show was a relationship between agents 86 and 99 so why don't you relax I guess he loved her but he treated her as you know as like a guy you know his partner all of her efforts to be feminine and to charm him fell on Barren ground oh Max before you go I just want remember complete silence Max how seldom you get two people that work so brilliantly in play off of each other without trying to steal from each other I can't think of get smart without thinking of dawn he was wonderful to work with because of his tremendous energy and all you did was hold tight and go with it viewers went with it too and by the end of its first season get smart was the number 12 show on television and would you believe the pilot script that ABC rejected was nominated for an Emmy Award of course that's it it was a chemistry between Ed FL as a chief and Barbara as 99 and myself as 86 and it worked thank you coming up a dastardly villain takes Center Stage R don't shush here Sig freed came out of my own wanting to release uh the anger within me and later the star takes an episode off the only time that Maxwell Smart wasn't the star of his own show when we go back inside get smart on inside TV Land [Music] 3 2 1 Z as getsmart blasted off for its second season in the fall of 1966 the show's popularity had reached New Heights 77 Houston Capcom how do you read when a urine bag burst aboard NASA's Gemini Space Capsule the year before Ground Control offered a smart apology to astronauts Frank Borman and Jim Lovel flight surge 's message is sorry about that Chief meanwhile gets Smart's Space Age gadgets had captured America's imagination oh this is smart Maxwell Smart AG in 86 it was wonderful I mean I still talking to my shoe I asked um Mel Brooks where did that come from there was a phone ringing and and they couldn't figure where it was coming from and Mel Brooks just started tumbling and picking up things going hello hello hello and then took off his shoe and went hello maybe that was the invention of the uh the shoe phone Mel Brooks played a pivotal role in creating the show but he left early in the first season to focus on making his movie The Producers his presence was always there and I could always call him and pick his brains about something but basically once we were on the air it was uh Leonard and bck Leonard Stern had an enormous role to play in the success of get [Music] smart and a lot of the look of it was Leonard's ideas he invented the opening and closing with the the doors which you know is a really great invention Mel Brook's co-creator Buck Henry came up with the cone of silence I think I must have read somewhere that there was a device to shut out noise what the case I assigned 99 to has to do with the G formula what I just remember thinking I got a good idea and I wanted to see it telephone call Chief what Max got off on it he loved the coma silence was like the orgasmatron for him it can only be discussed under the cone of silence right well why don't we use it Chief because it isn't working properly it still isn't working it has never worked properly it came down on wires and it teetered and tottered and and so on it was all over the place and it was supposed to fit over both of them you know and it did in time the cone of silence gave way to other gadgets your boots are now outfitted with nuclear powered 45 caliber bullets ready to go agent 86's array of gadgetry caught the attention of those who really were waging the Cold War we were visited by government intelligence agencies and they asked us from where we were getting our ideas where's the cone of silence Max we leased it to the CIA there are some similarities between the real world of Espionage and the makeb believe world of Espionage allow me princess many of the things that we had dreamed up were actually in various stages of development in my lipstick is a transistor remote control in many ways it actually did uh parallel uh Real World what we call tradecraft applications every time we'd have a list of ideas we'd send them to them just in case one of them might be something they could develop this is the chief but while getsmart imitated life at the CIA the chief will control of control the minute he walked into her his office he would immediately get a migraine headache his hand would go right up to the bridge of his nose and squeeze it it was just wonderful wonderful pieces of Comedy you bungle assignment after assignment I resent that Chief do you deny it no but I resent it Ed plat was was a serious actor he was a dramatic actor and suddenly he was just surrounded by these zanies and I mean he took it all with with a great big grain of salt this pill when swallowed will bring painless death in about 20 seconds are there any questions how do I get them to take it the chief struggled to lead control in its ongoing battle against an international organization of evil called chaos and its vice president of public relations and Terror Conrad sigre chaos yes chaos I asked you not to tell me that sigfried was angry sigfried was contemptuous nothing that was presented to him by staka or anyone was quite good enough how do I know he's still alive I will let you talk to him of course the famous scene was when he calls Don and says uh were holding your Chief hostage Max don't bargain with chaos I'm Expendable my life what happened your Chief was just silenced by a pistol B couldn't you have just shushed them they don't shush here that kind of kicked off the whole sigf freed character more than anything else Sig freed came out of my own wanting to release uh the anger within me which was substantial as as I found out through years of going to the cuckoo doctor hence up the old gun in the rabbit trick and I fell for it Max matched wits with Bernie Capel sigfreed but as haime the robot Lonesome dick Garder provided the show with a sense of family who Are You Lonesome for for my friends at the office what friends Shirley the intercom Sid the coffee machine Trudy the noiseless typewriter Rex the elevator there wasn't a lot of warmth or relationships in the show between Don and haime there there was some warmth we used to make make each other laugh a lot because it was so ridiculous to be have a robot as your friend I always thought you like me Max I do like your H you're my best friend I'm crazy about you he felt sorry for me and uh and I liked him because he treated me like a person you're cute you say it but you don't really mean it I do mean it don't yell a lot of people identify me with the show and think man you were there every week you're a regular but I really wasn't I only did six shows over a 5year period and when I was there I really enjoyed it here I am 86 here I am 86 so the old double agent with the two faces in the Twin Locker trick in the role of agent 13 David Ketchum might pop up anywhere 13 are you there a trash can was like normal mailbox that's easy when they put you in a washing machine this is hard 13 hi there 8866 say you're going to be in the sofa and then you'd keep reading it says with a girl and you keep reading says holding a martini you that's going to be a good day tomorrow how you going to figure that out get Smart's colorful supporting characters helped make the show a hit but the character of Maxwell Smart transformed Don Adams's life I became Maxwell Smart and nobody ever saw me as anything else but Maxwell Smart I thought he was the most handsome some guy that ever lived I had no idea that the rest of the country perceived him as this bumbling you know kuty silly person you're successful and you're famous and you're making a lot of money and your life changes your life is definitely not your own anymore when I wasn't working on getsmart I was working in Vegas or Tahoe or Reno or whatever doing standup I had very little time with my family cuz I was constantly working actors are narcissistic they have to be sort of myopic in in their life and what they're doing and so that doesn't make for a great parenting I don't think uh I would name him the father of the year and yet he wasn't there when he was there he was too tired maybe people like Don weren't born to have sedate personal lives when he when I got to him he already had 3 or 400 children and five or six wives I think if they didn't have that work to do imagine what a nightmare they'd be at home Don's hard work paid off when at the end of the second season wi is Don Adams he won his first Emmy Award you have those dreams about having your name announced and walking up and thanking the whole world it was fun I'm so glad I won this I had a bad day at the track Saturday before the start of the third season the man who had written or Rewritten nearly every script for 2 years called it quits I think I was ground down after 2 years of doing it I was just tired of sitting in that office every day Buck Henry left the show to pen the script for the Dustin Hoffman classic The Graduate it was a sad day for all of us but in its third season getsmart was still popular enough to attract some of Hollywood's biggest stars we started to get calls from people who knew Don or knew one of of us saying we'd like to be on the show and that included James KH uh Bob Hope Johnny cson here you here I put my hand in between fireman's carry Don's friend comedian Don Rickles made three guest appearances what I want to know is in a fireman's Harry how he can get both hands under cheeks he had me in stitches and I had him in stitches every show he was on we went over budget we're standing here you're doing 40 minutes it's costing me $8 million $7 million in Hollywood the winner is Don Adams and get smart at the end of the third season Don Adams won his second Emmy for Maxwell Smart and the show was named best comedy series I would like to thank my wife Dorothy who has been the inspiration for anything that I might have done that is worthwhile thank you but an incident at the ceremony demonstrated that Don's Fame had become a double-edged a sword figuratively and on that night literally they gave me the Emmy and I came back to the table set it down and sat down and those two Wings caught him right there and actually drew blood I mean it was scary and Rico said Emi is hanging from your neck dummy coming up Max and 99 tie the knot but not everyone celebrates what conceivable sex life could Max in 99 really have and later farewell to the chief Ed was the chief and the chief the Chief died with Ed what we go back inside get smart on inside TV land next after that sorry about that old it you two in the beginning of gets Smart's fourth season in the fall of 1968 the love affair that agent 99 had had always dreamed about spark to life well it's it's not easy to say to say I love you Max yes well why didn't you let me say it for you I love you Max the show's ratings had fallen the year before and network Executives felt romance might woo viewers back Max and 99 got engaged in The Season's opening episode that was definitely uh in order to lift the sagging ratings at that time a wedding always gets some publicity and it got a TV Guide cover and so forth and do you Maxwell take this woman as your lawful wetted wife 86 and 99 were wet during the fall sweeps I do I do even as a as a boy I was so excited to see the see them finally get married as gratifying as the wedding was for viewers some insiders felt it was the beginning of the end of Get Smart well I thought when Barbara and I got married that it changed the show I would have fought it like a tiger what conceivable sex life could Max in 99 really have there is something in marriage that tends to change the nature of relationships I just think it changes the chemistry and the potential conflict and a part of what the characters and the plot are really all about that same season Don Adams began directing more episodes Don loved the challenge but the added workload weighed on him and he Crossed Swords more frequently with the rest of the getsmart team why don't you stand and fight I'm not a judge of how I was to work with it's Rashon you can ask 12 people who worked with me and everyone will give you a different story Don had to be very much more preoccupied with the show than I was you go in and rewrite and I'm sure the writers went berserk but he just couldn't help himself there could be little meetings script meetings where they maybe you have a few moments of Don you're driving me crazy but then they would agree that yeah your idea is good he cared a lot about the show he really did he nurtured it you know and uh really wanted it to be good didn't just doing my job well you don't have to do it so well can I help it if I love my work probably Dawn had the least fun on the set because in a sense he was a perfectionist if you define Perfection is never enjoying the moment always feeling there's something more you can do I do think that it stepped on a lot of feelings I used to get a phone call every now and then Dorothy do something but despite Don's best efforts gets Smart's ratings continued to slide and it slid out of TV's top 30 during its fourth season we were cancelled uh suddenly unexpectedly by NBC and again guess they had projections that said the show will not work next year the bomb is handcuffed to him NBC said sorry about that to get smart after 4 years and 112 episodes but would you believe Get Smart Rose from the trash heat I called Dan Melnick in New York and he sold the show the very next day to CBS I plotted and convinced the head of CBS that this would be this solution to a number of his problems in Hollywood the winner is Don Adams ironically get smart won its second Emmy for best comedy series and Don picked up his third Award for best actor after NBC had dumped the show I would like to thank NBC for giving me the chance to win this for the third time and I would like to thank CBS for picking me up next year to get another crack at it thank you very much 99 are you awake yes Max in an effort to build a new audience for the show's Fifth Season they're beautiful Max and 99 gave birth to twins which we very quickly got rid of uh they were more in the way than anything else when Max in 99 became married and had kids it became much more of a normal sitcom in a lot of ways get Smart's creative battery was running low when that's the last time you charged your dry cells last week well go charge your batteries I mean I think we all knew that it was our last season and I think the the juices had if not dried up they were harder to get them flowing each time Don didn't even appear in one final season episode except briefly in the show's open and close they had taken a script that we had done the year before and they took it from South America and put it up in Alaska and I said it's the same rpt only this time with snow instead of palm trees don't want to do it I'm not going to do it again just because you got snow now and not desert doesn't make it a new show I said I have to go in for a checkup I checked in for a week for a checkup cuz I was I was exhausted they called me at the last minute so I I filled in Max is on an assignment in Florida so this is Agent quickly at the CIA nice to meet you I didn't realize that it would become part of the get smart folklore is the only time that that Maxwell Smart wasn't the star of his own show in 1970 at the end of its first season on CBS and Fifth Season overall get smart was cancelled this time there would be no reprieve control is going out of business we don't have enough Capital to continue operating we went off when we should we didn't stick around past our welcome as we often in this business do I thought that's fine you know it's over it's had it I was finished with it you know it was it was enough I was ready to go on to do something else goodbye sweetheart coming up life after Maxwell Smart I wanted to do serious drama they all laughed they laughed when I sat down to act when we go back inside get smart on inside TV Land inside TV Land get smart is encrypted with were 500 top secret messages would you believe 150 hand signals and 82 interpretive dances how about 15 interviews and one blatant promotional message telling you to watch get smart so that's what it was for more behind the scenes keep watching inside TV Land and for TV satisfaction every week Night Watch get smart at 10:30 right here on tvland just STI by that much up next after [Music] that come on what are you two doing well we don't have one of the three of us Chief one what a photograph smile any after getsmart went off the air in 1970 Don Adams starred in several short-lived television shows a comedy called the partners didn't survive the 1971-72 season his next series 19 74s Don Adams screen test ran just 12 episodes it was difficult if not impossible for him to make the transition into another character because he he nailed that one with such an indelible characterization that you can't just switch out of it and be something else I am uh identified so strongly with that character that nobody thinks of me as anything else but you know Max ual smart who talks like that you see I happen to have a very distinctive and unique voice the get smart character that isn't really done uh the voice isn't done and the personality isn't done it's a blessing and a curse and uh I'm sure it's been tough for him over the years and and uh but it's there are those of us that are very thankful I came to play Wisconsin skinny typ cast as Maxwell Smart Don directed and starred in commercials P pole by Aurora it's a lot of fun I think it has to be very very difficult to be someone who attains that kind of stardom and agulation and emies and people running after you and I think when you start to slide off the crest a little bit it's it's got to really take its toll never a role model as a husband Don saw the problems in his acting career has already troubled marriage I think you really have to be seriously grounded to get through it and uh we're one of those couples who didn't make it Don and Dorothy divorced in 1975 there were some tough years after that you know very painful years because I saw my parents both in a lot of pain when I got divorced it's kind of Siberia for me everybody liked my wife better than they liked me and I don't blame them she's a terrific lady in 19 74 tragedy rocked the getsmart family when the man who played the chief Ed Platt died unexpectedly of a heart attack at the age of 58 I think he ended his life way too soon because of smoking I was devastated I loved Ed I didn't even know he was sick and then all of a sudden out of nowhere good man Ed was the chief and the chief the Chief died with [Music] Ed 3 years later in 1977 Don married Judy Luciano starting a new family forced Don back into the role of Maxwell Smart my wife was pregnant and I did it for the money and I hated the script based on Get Smart the film The nude bomb was released in 1980 this Chalet is being completely surrounded by 500 Alpine crack troops I find out hard to believe would you believe 150 tyrolean ski Troopers the only movie I've ever seen at a drivein was the nude bomb the only one and hating it get smart was resurrected once more for a 1989 TV movie called get smart again get smart again was closest we came to revisiting the original concept it was mostly a nostalgic thing uh work working with Don again and uh having the usual cast of characters it was fun it was good to see everybody again 6 years later Fox updated getsmart once more and they never asked forget me they never asked Leonard Stern for his advice the fox series was cancelled after just seven episodes and I I hatte it at all I hated all the remakes after Get Smart I did all the variety shows that were around at the time Carol Bernett Dean Martin and so forth in the years since getsmart Barbara Feldon has continued to perform today she still lives in New York City where she does voiceover work I never was driven to do another series I I um I've found other things that I've enjoyed doing I hope that we made Barbara's life better but I do think we wrecked her career because I think she was on her way to becoming a really important actress in other areas in 1993 Feldon appeared on Mt about you in the role of actress Dian Caldwell known for her famous television character Spy Girl You Know Diane's done a lot of wonderful work since Spy Girl Shakespeare in the Park new drama Workshop in no that's all right people want to know about Spy Girl they don't want to know about me no matter what you do people always remember you as Spy Girl but the real life spy girl has only the Fondest Memories of Get Smart it's caught in time like like a little flower is caught in Amberg glass and we can celebrate that it existed do a little bit of Kyrie Grant S no no I don't I don't do Impressions anymore oh okay Don Adams and Bill Dana have remained good friends over the last half century you'll never get away with this I can't even do Carrie gred again no you're doing good it sounded good to me uh did it yeah well today Don likes to spend time with with friends and family and still enjoys the racetrack he uh goes to the Turf Club at Hollywood Park and he plays the horses and he loves it Don picked a winner doing the voice of the Inspector Gadget cartoon character I've been doing inspect a gadget for I don't know 15 20 years I don't know how long but for millions of fans Don Adams will always be aging 86 Maxwell Smart all right into the closet just as I thought there's room for both of you it was different than anything else in its era uh and it was genuinely funny there have been a large handful of really special unique um imaginative shows that can't be duplicated and I think that maybe that's get Smart's Niche I never was as happy as I was on get smart and I never worked as hard but when you're doing something that you really like and you really enjoy and you really believe in you don't mind the work and we have to shoot and kill and destroy we represent everything that's whome and good in the world now now that you're smarter about get smart stay tuned to see two great episodes from the series now you'll be able to enjoy them from a whole new perspective it's 1 hour of get smart next on TV [Music] Land [Music] h

Channel: mike sodl

Views: 2,042,852

Keywords: Get, Smart, Don Adams, Barbara Feldon, Ed Platt, Get Smart (TV Program), Comedy (Film Genre), 86, 99

Id: ngazWNQkzqA

Length: 47min 8sec (2828 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 17 2015