Get Smart: Classic Shows Seem Smarter as Popular Tv Grows Dumber
Can a television show almost forty years old maintain an allure to audiences of all ages, or will it, like so many other pop culture media, fade into the archives of times long gone? In the case of Get Smart, perhaps cultural sustainability is in the cards.
Harking from almost a half-century ago, Get Smart was a quirky television show, even for its time. Featuring Don Adams as Maxwell Smart, a ne’er-do-well secret agent working for a covert government agency known as CONTROL, the show introduced concepts that have now become household names and inside jokes to former fans. There’s a reason that Adams won 3 Emmy Awards for his portrayal of Smart’s Agent 86 – he delivered his catchphrases with sheer comic genius, immortalizing such expressions as, “Missed my by THAT much,” “…would you believe?” and the enlightening, “If only they had used their powers for good, instead of evil.”
What is it that makes Get Smart such a hit, even among younger audiences today? It’s easy, really. Get Smart gives the suave secret agent persona an Everyman twist with the bumbling Maxwell Smart, and the charming Agent 99 shows young women today (as it did when the show first aired) that girls can grow up to be just as clever as their male counterparts. Secret agents, like pirates and ninjas, are one of the rare areas that can guarantee success; deep within the hearts of most Americans, you’ll find a child longing to go incognito, risk life and limb, and triumph time and again over those who would seek to rob of us of our liberties, ways of life, and crown jewels.
If having a band of undercover gumshoes isn’t enough to make a show work, throw in some nifty and creative gadgets and some clever catch-phrases to fill in the blanks. Get Smart is known for its gadgets, from the standard-issue shoe phone, which was very progressive for its 1960s creation and even worked in closets and underground, a feat which many current cell-phone providers have yet to master, to guns hidden cleverly in pens, canes, and a variety of other household items. From this series of technological marvels, we can see the influence that the show had on both future secret agent comedies, such as Johnny English, and on popular children’s television shows, such as Inspector Gadget (voiced by none other than Don Adams himself).
The acting on the show was so superb that the cast, quite unfortunately, was typecast due to the five-year stint of Get Smart. It grew hard to take Don Adams any more seriously than one would Maxwell Smart, and aside from reliving his previous comic role and variations of it, Adams gracefully bowed out of show business after being turned down for more serious roles.
Barbara Feldon was ever after the intrepid Agent 99, despite numerous roles in various television roles and hosting her own show. Get Smart viewers truly believed in their heroes, as imperfect as they may have been, and perhaps this is the big factor that allows Get Smart to survive until today. This is a show with values, albeit ones frequently hidden behind comedy so as not to come off heavy-handed, and it applies to America and Americans now as much as it did in the turmoil of the late 1960s, when it served as a way to unite viewers across the board, regarless of their personal political beliefs.
So what does Get Smart have to offer the audiences that have been born and grown since it was last shown on the air? Good, clean fun. Even children today will enjoy the tales of Maxwell Smart, and they can appreciate this show for its honesty. Who says that kids need bells and whistles to keep their attention? Give them strong comedy, a stunning cast, secret agents, and gadgets, and they’re good to go. Best of all, you’ll never have to worry about exposing them to too much violence or language when watching this show – the worst you might encounter is a firm instistence that any secrets told require use of the Cone of Silence.
