50 Fun Facts About Get Smart

Which two comedy writers created Get Smart?

Brooks called it 'an insane combination of James Bond and Mel Brooks comedy' and largely left after the first season.

Who played Maxwell Smart?

He also directed 13 episodes and later voiced Inspector Gadget in much the same voice.

What is Maxwell Smart's code number?

Brooks chose it after the bar slang for throwing someone out.

Who played Agent 99?

She had won the grand prize on The $64,000 Question in 1957 answering questions on Shakespeare.

What is the name of the secret US agency Smart and 99 work for?

It's based in Washington, D.C., and fights KAOS, 'the international organization of evil'.

What is the name of the enemy organisation?

Its vice president in charge of public relations and terror is the recurring villain Siegfried.

Which of these is NOT one of the show's famous catchphrases?

'Book 'em, Danno' belongs to Hawaii Five-O; the 'Would you believe' routine came from Adams's earlier hotel-detective role on The Bill Dana Show.

On which network did Get Smart premiere in September 1965?

It moved to CBS for its fifth and final season in 1969.

Which network first turned the show down as 'un-American', demanding a lovable dog and Max's mother?

Brooks fumed that 'Max has no mother. He never had one.' The dog, Fang, made it in anyway.

How many episodes of Get Smart were made over its five seasons?

It ended on May 15, 1970, having cracked the Nielsen top 30 in its first two seasons only.

Who played the Chief?

His first name was revealed to be Thaddeus, and his field code name had been 'Q'.

What is the Chief's first name?

He sometimes uses the cover name 'Harold Clark' with outsiders, which the agents know isn't real.

Where does Max keep his most famous concealed telephone?

He has to take it off to answer it; the heel also housed smoke bombs, explosive pellets and a suicide pill Max thinks is for the enemy.

Where does Agent 99 hide one of her concealed phones?

She pretends to bite her nails nervously while actually talking; her makeup compact hides another one.

What is the joke behind the Cone of Silence?

The scene was shot before the rest of the pilot and used to sell the show to NBC.

Which car does Max drive most often in the series?

Adams kept the car for ten years after the show; in the pilot he'd driven a Ferrari 250 GT.

Why does Max drive a VW Karmann Ghia in the opening credits of seasons three and four?

It never appeared in the body of the show; when Buick sponsored season five, the car became a gold Opel GT.

Who played the recurring KAOS villain Siegfried?

He'd later be Doc on The Love Boat, and he cameos in the 2008 film driving the old Opel GT.

What is the name of Siegfried's henchman, whose name he pronounces 'Shtarker'?

The name is German and Yiddish for a strong man, with a hint of dim-wittedness in the Yiddish.

Hymie the Robot was originally built by whom?

Max turned him on his first mission; Hymie's flaw is taking instructions far too literally.

Which of Max's colleagues is always stationed inside absurdly small hiding places like cigarette machines?

David Ketchum played him; Agent 44 did the same job in season one and returned in season five.

Larabee, the Chief's dim assistant, was played by Robert Karvelas, who was Don Adams's what?

Adams's real brother Dick Yarmy, father and daughter all appeared on the show too.

Agent 99's real name is never revealed. What happens when the minister says it at her wedding to Max?

Earlier she'd used 'Susan Hilton' and denied being 'Ernestine', but neither was real.

How many consecutive Emmys did Don Adams win for playing Maxwell Smart?

The series itself won seven Emmys in all and was nominated for 14 more.

Don Adams's real surname was what?

He was born Donald James Yarmy in Manhattan in 1923 and served in the Marines in the war.

Adams borrowed Max's voice and "Would you believe...?" routine from which earlier role as an inept hotel detective?

He'd later recycle the same voice for the animated Inspector Gadget.

Which animated bungling cyborg detective did Don Adams later voice in a near-identical voice?

He got a cameo in the 1999 live-action Gadget film starring Matthew Broderick.

The actress who played 99 nearly lost the role because of what?

The show's sponsor was a deodorant soap; her big break had been a much-parodied Revlon 'Top Brass' hair-pomade advert.

Which talk-show host appeared as a 'special guest conductor' in the episode 'Aboard the Orient Express'?

He came back uncredited as a royal footman in 'The King Lives?'; Bob Hope, Milton Berle and Phyllis Diller also did cameos.

Where did Max supposedly disappear to during 'Ice Station Siegfried'?

It's the only episode where the character is close to absent.

What was the title of the 1980 theatrical Get Smart film, made without Brooks or Henry?

KAOS plans a bomb that destroys only clothing; Barbara Feldon wasn't even told it was being made.

On which network did the 1989 TV movie Get Smart, Again! air?

Ironically the very network that had rejected the original pilot as 'un-American'.

In the 1995 Fox revival, who played Max and 99's bumbling son Zach?

Max was now Chief of CONTROL and 99 a congresswoman; Dick had already moved on to NewsRadio.

Who played Maxwell Smart in the 2008 film?

Anne Hathaway was 99, Alan Arkin the Chief and Dwayne Johnson Agent 23; it made $230 million.

In the 2008 film, Max starts out at the agency doing what job?

The Chief keeps blocking his promotion because his analysis is too valuable, until KAOS bombs headquarters.

Where did TV Guide's 2010 readers' poll rank Get Smart's door-filled opening titles?

The Simpsons has parodied that door-and-phone-booth walk in three different couch gags.

Which comedian's ad-libbing with Don Adams in "The Little Black Book" turned the episode into a two-parter?

Dialogue was otherwise rarely ad-libbed, though the cast pitched plenty of gadget ideas.

Which frequent extra, producer Leonard Stern's real aunt, appeared in at least 44 episodes?

Fans call her 'Aunt Rose'; in one episode Max identifies her photo that way and the Chief says she's really a KAOS agent in disguise.

Which comic-book artist, co-creator of Spider-Man, drew part of the Dell Get Smart comic in 1966–67?

William Johnston also wrote a run of tie-in novels for Tempo Books.

Where did TV Guide rank Maxwell Smart on its 1999 list of the 50 Greatest TV Characters?

Only briefly absent from a single episode, he's in all 138.

Get Smart's 'laser blazer' concealed a laser weapon where?

Other gadgets included a camera hidden in a bowl of soup and an invisible wall Max kept walking into.

Get Smart was the first TV franchise to air new episodes or films on all four of which US networks?

NBC then CBS for the series, ABC for Get Smart, Again!, and Fox for the 1995 revival.

Who composed the Get Smart theme and conducted the music for the show's entire run?

Leonard B. Stern was executive producer for the whole series, while Mel Brooks drifted away after season one.

Where did Get Smart rank in the Nielsen ratings in its first season?

It slipped to 22nd in season two and never cracked the top 30 again over its last three years.

How many Emmy Awards did Get Smart win?

It was nominated for another 14 Emmys plus two Golden Globes.

Producer Daniel Melnick asked Brooks and Henry to create a show capitalising on James Bond and which other character?

Henry recalled Melnick calling them 'the two biggest things in the entertainment world today'.

Where were the first four NBC seasons of Get Smart filmed?

The final CBS season moved to CBS Studio Center.

Who directed the most episodes of Get Smart?

Bruce Bilson directed the second-most; Don Adams himself directed 13 episodes and wrote two.

In the 1995 revival, who played Agent 66?

Adams and Feldon returned alongside Andy Dick as their son Zach.

In which episode did the Cone of Silence first appear?

The scene was shot before the rest of the pilot and used to sell the series to NBC.