With so much extra time on my hands lately, I’ve been rewatching Get Smart (the TV show). It’s such a classic! I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good satire. The show was co-created by Mel Brooks if that gives you any idea of what kind of humor is included.
For those who are unfamiliar with the show, it’s a satire on all the spy shows/movies that were coming out during the 60s such as James Bond, The Man from UNCLE, and so on. It follows bumbling secret agent Maxwell Smart, aka Agent 86, who works for a top secret agency known as CONTROL. CONTROL fights against KAOS, the international organization of evil. The show follows Max on his missions and assignments with his much more competent female partner Agent 99 and his long-suffering boss the Chief. The show was famous for its creative and ridiculous gadgets like the shoe phone and the Cone of Silence.
After rewatching the series, I just wanted to make a list of my top ten favorite episodes (in release order). I based my decisions on how much the episodes made me laugh. These top ten are the ones that had me literally laughing out loud through most of the episode.
Here we go:
01x13- ABOARD THE ORIENT EXPRESS
Five CONTROL couriers have been killed on their way to deliver top secret information while onboard the Orient Express. Max accidentally chains himself to the briefcase and therefore becomes the next courier.
Classic Max chaining himself to the case like that. This one had me busting up at the the usual antics of Max looking ridiculous as he tries to cover up his spy duties; like repeatedly eating the secret message before he could read it, that had me dying. I also loved the whole thing with the bowler hat.
01x17- KISSES FOR KAOS
When a series of buildings are inexplicably blown up, the trail leads to art dealer Rex Savage. 99 is sent undercover as an art expert with Max posing as her chauffeur in an effort to get his picture and fingerprints.
Watching your protagonist fail repeatedly is the reason why we watch TV, but it’s especially enjoyable when your protagonist is an idiot. There’s so many golden moments in this episode like the camera in the hat, the inflatable girl, the entire dinner scene. Hilarious!
01x30- LAST ONE IN IS A ROTTEN SPY
Max receives a call from a girl on a Russian swim team who has some information about KAOS. Max, 99, and the Chief go undercover to the swim meet to meet the girl, but find it harder to pull off than anticipated.
I love this episode because it makes for some funny situational comedy. I don’t know if the whole thing with the long complicated names is racist or something, but I laugh every time Max says he’ll recognize the name when he hears it and then they all sound the same (but they did make up for it by listing off a bunch of American names that sound the same). I also love a good slapstick moment of Max falling in the pool.
02x03- A SPY FOR A SPY
After the Chief is kidnapped by KAOS, Max retaliates by kidnapping KAOS’s top assassin. KAOS then retaliates by kidnapping another CONTROL agent. It spirals out of control until both sides are completely out of agents to kidnap.
The whole setup is already hilariously outrageous. This is Siegfried’s first appearance (and he is my favorite character on the show), setting himself up at Max’s “mortal enemy and good friend.” You’ll notice that a lot of the episodes on this list are Siegfried episodes because I love his and Max’s banter so much and this is an excellent episode to showcase it. “Shmart!”
02x09- RUB-A-DUB-DUB, THREE SPIES IN A SUB
Max and 99 are assigned a top secret mission to destroy a KAOS super computer. On their way back, they are captured by Siegfried on a submarine.
There are just a lot of small golden moments in this episode. Like when the sailors whistle at 99 as she boards the boat and the captain apologizes to Max because “they aren’t used to having a pretty face on board” and Max responds “if they like me, wait until they get a load of 99.” Or when Max tells 99 “if I have to go on a suicide mission, I’m glad it’s with you.” And then Siegfried again. I just love everything he says and then his and Max’s banter again. Their whole thing with good guys and bad guys. Haha! And then when Max and 99 are trying to get the KAOS agents to defect and mutiny against Siegfried is hilarious: “think of your wives and children!” “Dummkopfs, none of you are married.” There’s too much to pick!
02x24- THE EXPENDABLE AGENT
A British scientist comes to America to reveal his top secret formula for rocket fuel. He is accompanied by a British secret agent who is “expendable” and they both hide in Max’s apartment.
It’s funny to see Max get frustrated with someone else’s stupidity and incompetence for once. He and Agent Chain together are so fun to watch and then the innocent professor always getting stuck in the middle of their antics is just plain hilarious.
02x25- HOW TO SUCCEED IN THE SPY BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING
Max and 99 are saved by Siegfried who claims he wants to leave KAOS.
I just like this one really because of Siegfried. This is also the first time Shtarker appears and he and Siegfried together are classic. Siegfried’s verbal abuse of him is so good. I love their whole scene where they’re trying to record a fake “scene” on Max’s hidden tape recorder of Shtarker attacking Siegfried and Shtarker keeps improvising much to Siegfried’s annoyance.
03x01- THE SPY WHO MET HIMSELF
CONTROL is infiltrated by the League of Imposters who specialize in creating exact duplicates of people. Their next target, unbeknownst to CONTROL, is Max.
I forgot how much I liked this episode. There’s a lot of episodes with “lookalikes” played by the same actors and they’re usually just alright episodes, but this one had me in stitches. It’s just funny to see the training of the imposter to act like Max as he watches all sorts of secret films of Max to pick up on his mannerisms and habits (there’s lots of great moments of Max’s clumsiness and stupidity). And this is one of the rare occasions where seeing the lookalikes together was actually really funny. (Also, another Siegfried episode.)
03x07- ONE OF OUR OLIVES IS MISSING
KAOS creates a communication device in the shape of an olive, but it is accidentally swallowed by a traveling country singer. Max is forced to protect her as KAOS pursues her in an effort to retrieve their device.
Carol Burnett guest stars as the country singer and she’s just a gem. She and Don Adams work off each other so well and it makes for a great episode. By far the best part is when they’re in the gas chambers at the very end; holy moly, I have never laughed so hard! I actually had to rewind it several times to see it again, it was so funny.
04x25 & 26- THE NOT-SO-GREAT ESCAPE (PARTS 1 AND 2)
Over the past few months, twenty CONTROL agents have disappeared without a trace. After Max loses another agent at the airport, he and the Chief look into it, but then the Chief disappears too. Max investigates thoroughly and manages to uncover a KAOS prison camp run by Siegfried.
Siegfried again. I love how it spoofs The Great Escape while really poking fun at Germans and their prison camps. I love when the guard dogs run away because they don’t like the food so Siegfried asks Shtarker what he fed them and Shtarker says “the same thing as the prisoners” to which Siegfried cries “you fed that to the dogs!? You STUPID! You could’ve made them sick!” I also love the entire bit where Max is disguised as the KAOS official.
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