Sad news:
LOS ANGELES(AP) Don Adams, the wry-voiced comedian who starred as the
fumbling secret agent Maxwell Smart in the 1960s television spoof of
James Bond movies, "Get Smart," has died. He was 82.
Adams died of a lung infection late Sunday at Cedars-Sinai Medical
Center, his friend and former agent Bruce Tufeld said Monday, adding the
actor broke his hip a year ago and had been in ill health since.
As the inept Agent 86 of the super-secret federal agency Control, Adams
captured TV viewers with his antics in combating the evil agents of
Kaos. When his explanations failed to convince the villains or his boss,
he tried another tack: "Would you believe ... ?" It became a national
catch phrase.
Smart was also prone to spilling things on the desk or person of his
boss _ the chief (actor Edward Platt). Smart's apologetic "Sorry about
that, chief" also entered the American lexicon. The spy gadgets, which
aped those of the Bond movies, were a popular feature, especially the
pre cell-phone telephone in a shoe.
Smart's beautiful partner, Agent 99, played by Barbara Felden, was as
brainy as he was dense, and a plot romance led to marriage and the birth
of twins later in the series.
Adams, who had been under contract to NBC, was lukewarm about doing a
spy spoof. When he learned that Mel Brooks and Buck Henry had written
the pilot script, he accepted immediately. "Get Smart" debuted on NBC in
September 1965 and scored No. 12 among the season's most-watched series
and No. 22 in its second season.
"Get Smart" twice won the Emmy for best comedy series with three Emmys
for Adams as comedy actor.
CBS picked up the show but the ratings fell off as the jokes seemed
repetitive, and it was canceled after four seasons. The show lived on in
syndication and a cartoon series. In 1995 Fox network revived the series
with Smart as chief and 99 as a congresswoman. It lasted seven episodes.
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Steve Laifman
Editor - TigersUnited.com
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