Spies Like 86 and 99

Would you believe it’s been 86 years since Get Smart premiered? Would you believe 25?

Produced and developed by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, “Get Smart” was an instant hit when it debuted on NBC in September, 1965. Beginning Monday, Nick at Nite is bringing the slapstick adventures of Maxwell Smart, Agent 99 and the Chief back to television.

A spoof of James Bond movies and NBC’s own tongue-in-cheek spy thriller “The Man from U.N.C.L.E,” “Get Smart” starred comedian Don Adams as the most inept secret agent in history. Maxwell Smart, a.k.a. Agent 86, worked for the U.S. intelligence agency, C.O.N.T.R.O.L.

It was up to Smart and his beautiful cohort, Agent 99 (former model Barbara Feldon) to thwart the evil agents of K.A.O.S., lead by Siegfried (Bernie Kopell, later Doc on “The Love Boat”). The late Edward Platt co-starred as Smart’s perplexed boss, The Chief, who would summon Smart on his shoe phone. Dick Gautier played the equally inept C.O.N.T.R.O.L. robot, Hymie.

Whenever he got in a tight spot with K.A.O.S.- which was every week-Smart would say, “Would you believe?” It became a popular catch-phrase.

Though the series won Emmys for outstanding comedy series in 1967 and 1968, ratings began to drop after the ’68 season. Smart and Agent 99 fell in love and got married during the 1968-69 season, but by that time audiences didn’t really care.

“Get Smart” was canceled by NBC at the conclusion of the 1969 season and was picked up for one more season by CBS. In its final year, 99 gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl.

In 1980, Adams returned as Maxwell Smart in the ill-fated feature film comedy “The Nude Bomb.” Nine years later, Adams, Feldon, Kopell and Gautier teamed up for the more successful ABC TV-movie “Get Smart, Again!”

“Get Smart” airs every night at 9 on Nickelodeon.