46 Fun Facts About Get Smart

In Get Smart's opening titles, Max's walk through a corridor of slamming doors ends when he drops through the floor of what?

A phone booth: Max steps in, dials a number and drops out of sight. Executive producer Leonard Stern designed and directed the sequence himself.

Hymie, the robot who defects to Max's side on Get Smart, has which comic failing?

He takes every order literally: told to 'hop to it', Hymie starts hopping. Built by the enemy as the perfect agent, he changed sides because Max treated him like a person.

What is Maxwell Smart's code number?

86 is bar and restaurant slang: to eighty-six a customer is to refuse him service, and to eighty-six anything else is to get rid of it. Mel Brooks picked the number for his bumbling agent.

Who played Agent 99 on the original Get Smart series?

Barbara Feldon, a former model who won the top prize on The $64,000 Question in 1957, was taller than her leading man, so she often played scenes shoeless, slouching or with her knees bent.

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

CONTROL is the Washington, D.C. spy agency whose headquarters hides behind a phone booth with a secret elevator, reached through a corridor of slamming steel doors.

Whenever Get Smart's Max just fails at something, he shrugs that he 'missed it by' what?

'That much' got its first airing when an enemy agent leapt from a window at a truckload of mattresses; Max looked out, turned back to the room and delivered the line.

On which network did Get Smart premiere in September 1965?

NBC took the show after another network had rejected the script, ran it for four seasons and then cancelled it; CBS stepped in at once for a fifth and final year.

ABC turned down Get Smart after demanding a lovable dog and which other character?

Max's mother was where Mel Brooks drew the line, insisting 'Max has no mother'; the dog went into the script and the mother never did.

Who played the Chief on Get Smart?

Edward Platt came to acting from music: a trained bass-baritone, he had sung with a big band before turning to film, and as the Chief he got to belt out 'Alouette' in one episode.

Outsiders know Get Smart's Chief as Harold Clark; what is his real first name?

Thaddeus is his real first name; Harold Clark is a cover so thin that every agent knows it is false, and the series never gives him a surname at all.

Where does Get Smart's Max keep his most famous concealed telephone?

In his shoe: Mel Brooks dreamed up the shoe phone, which Max has to take off to answer. The writers went on to hide phones in more than 50 other objects, a cheese sandwich among them.

Where does Get Smart's Agent 99 hide one of her concealed phones?

In her fingernail: she pretends to bite her nails nervously while actually talking into the phone. Her makeup compact hides another one.

What is the running joke about the Cone of Silence in Get Smart?

The users can't hear each other, while everyone outside hears every word. Buck Henry thought up the gag, and Max kept demanding the Cone even after it came down and crushed the Chief's desk.

Which car does Max drive most often in Get Smart?

A red Sunbeam Tiger is Max's car, though for the gadget scenes the crew used a lookalike Sunbeam Alpine: its smaller engine left room under the hood for the hidden machine gun.

Why does Max drive a VW Karmann Ghia in Get Smart's opening credits for seasons three and four?

The carmaker became a sponsor, so a blue Karmann Ghia took over the titles, yet Max never drives one in an actual episode; when Buick signed on for season five he got a gold Opel GT.

Who played Get Smart's recurring KAOS villain Siegfried?

Bernie Kopell played Siegfried as a villain who could not abide silliness, then spent nine seasons as the genial ship's doctor on The Love Boat; in the 2008 film he cameos as a motorist.

On Get Smart, what is the name of Siegfried's henchman, played by King Moody?

Starker, which Siegfried bellows as 'Shtarker', was a KAOS thug; King Moody, who played him, went on to spend years as the clown Ronald McDonald in McDonald's commercials.

Which actor played Hymie the Robot on Get Smart?

Dick Gautier won the part at an open casting call after the producers had despaired of filling it; he had been Broadway's original Conrad Birdie, a role that brought him a Tony nomination.

From Get Smart's second season on, which colleague of Max's turns up inside cigarette machines, mailboxes and washing machines?

Agent 13, played by Dave Ketchum, met every new posting with bitter sarcasm; his worst, three days inside a washing machine, left him so wrinkled that he had to iron his skin.

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

Cousin: their mothers were sisters, and when Karvelas, a stockbroker, was about to move back east, Adams kept him in Los Angeles with bit parts that grew into Larabee.

What does Agent 99 give birth to in Get Smart's final season?

Twins, a boy and a girl whose names the series never reveals, arrive in a two-part episode timed for the November ratings sweeps; both babies were played on screen by twin brothers.

Who beat Get Smart's Don Adams to the 1966 lead-actor Emmy?

Dick Van Dyke won in 1966 for the last season of his own show, his third Emmy in a row as Rob Petrie; Adams then matched him with three straight wins, in 1967, 1968 and 1969.

Which cartoon crimefighter did Don Adams voice after Get Smart, in tones almost identical to Max's?

Inspector Gadget was partly inspired by Get Smart, and after two other actors had recorded the part its producers brought in Adams and re-recorded every one of the hero's lines.

Why did the actress cast as Get Smart's Agent 99 nearly lose the role?

An ad for a sponsor's rival: she had endorsed a competing product a year earlier, and the sponsor dug in until the network and producers talked it round. She then signed for three years and stayed for five.

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

Johnny Carson, then hosting The Tonight Show, played the conductor and came back as a royal footman in 'The King Lives?'; Bob Hope, Milton Berle and Phyllis Diller also did cameos.

Which F Troop star played the mind-bending disc jockey of the Get Smart episode 'The Groovy Guru'?

Larry Storch played the Guru, a hippie disc jockey out to take over teenagers' minds through his radio show; TV Guide later named it one of the 100 greatest episodes of any series.

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

The Nude Bomb, in which the enemy threatens a weapon that destroys only clothing, was planned as a TV movie until the studio saw how popular the old series still was; Agent 99 is nowhere in it.

On Get Smart, Max's dog, Agent K-13, is better known by what name?

Fang was written in because ABC, the first network to see the script, wanted a lovable dog to give the show more heart; ABC then turned the show down anyway.

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

Andy Dick played Zach opposite Don Adams, whose Max now ran the agency; the revival lasted seven episodes, by which time Dick had already landed NewsRadio, which began weeks later.

Who played Maxwell Smart in the 2008 Get Smart film?

Steve Carell took the role after Will Ferrell, who had been attached to it, dropped out during years of script trouble; the film went on to earn about $230 million worldwide.

In the 2008 Get Smart film, what is Max's job at the agency before he becomes a field agent?

Analyst: Max passes the field-agent exam but the Chief keeps him at his desk because his reports are too valuable, until an attack on headquarters exposes the other agents' identities.

Which horror-film star guest-starred on Get Smart as the mad pharmacist Jarvis Pym?

Vincent Price played Pym, who threatens to dose Washington's water supply with a drug that causes hallucinations; the episode's title, 'Is This Trip Necessary?', borrows a wartime travel slogan.

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

Don Rickles, a friend of Adams, guest-starred as Sid Krimm and the two ad-libbed so much that 'The Little Black Book' was cut into two parts; dialogue was otherwise rarely improvised.

Producer Leonard Stern's real aunt walks through dozens of Get Smart episodes; what do fans call her?

Aunt Rose was Rose Michtom, Stern's actual aunt; in one episode Max sees her photograph and says 'my Aunt Rose', only to be told it shows a KAOS killer disguised as her.

Which comic-book artist drew two 1966 issues of Dell's Get Smart comic?

Steve Ditko had just walked away from Marvel, and from Spider-Man, the hero he co-created, and spent 1966 freelancing for smaller publishers, Dell among them.

Harry Hoo, the Hawaiian police inspector who twice works a case with Max on Get Smart, spoofs which fictional detective?

Charlie Chan is the target: Hoo meets every clue with 'two possibilities' and his trademark 'Moment, please!'; Joey Forman, a friend of Don Adams, played him both times.

On Get Smart, which everyday garment does a Hong Kong tailor hand Max as a new secret laser weapon?

A blazer, inevitably the 'laser blazer': Max thinks the tailor has fobbed him off with a sports coat he never ordered, and the secret weapon is left to be sent to the dry cleaner.

Which actor played Get Smart's Agent 44, the hiding-place agent of season one?

Victor French, later Mr. Edwards on Little House on the Prairie, played the self-pitying Agent 44, who was stuffed into a grandfather clock and a cello case and usually ended up in tears.

Get Smart's theme composer, Irving Szathmary, was the older brother of which comedian, a writer for Don Adams?

Bill Dana was born William Szathmary and took his stage name from his mother, Dena; the story goes that Irving objected to a stand-up using the family name: 'Don't you know that I have a reputation in music?'

What do Max and 99 do in Get Smart's 'With Love and Twitches'?

They get married, but only after Max drinks a secret map that will appear on his chest if he stays on his feet for 48 hours, the very hours set aside for the wedding.

Which show beat Get Smart to the 1967 comedy Emmy?

The Monkees won in 1967 for its first season; Get Smart then took the award in both 1968 and 1969.

Get Smart began when producer Daniel Melnick asked for a show cashing in on James Bond and which other screen character?

Inspector Clouseau, Peter Sellers's bumbling Pink Panther detective, and James Bond were, Henry recalled Melnick saying, 'the two biggest things in the entertainment world today'.

How does Get Smart treat the real name of Agent 99 across its five seasons?

It is never revealed: she calls herself Susan Hilton in one episode and then admits that is an alias, and her own mother only ever calls her 'dear' or 'sweetie'.

Who directed the most episodes of Get Smart?

Gary Nelson directed 23 episodes, one more than Bruce Bilson, and came back two decades later to direct the reunion movie Get Smart, Again!; in between he made Disney's Freaky Friday.

In Fox's 1995 Get Smart revival, who played Zach's partner, Agent 66?

Elaine Hendrix played the gung-ho Agent 66, who spent the short-lived series rescuing Zach from his own blunders; three years later she was the scheming fiancée in The Parent Trap.

The Cone of Silence was first seen in which episode of Get Smart?

The pilot, 'Mr. Big', introduced it, and the Cone scene was filmed before the rest of the episode so that it could be shown to the network to sell the series.