MovieChat Forums > Get Smart (1965) Discussion > What made this show great was that it wa...

What made this show great was that it was NOT completely a comedy...

posted 15 years ago by kartoon-1
31 replies | jump to latest

What made GET SMART unique as a show for not only the 60's but for even today was that it was actually a Action/comedy.
How many other comedies of the time(or even today) can you think of that had genuine intense adventure and suspense with characters actually getting shot, stabbed or killed? And the series even had suspenseful cliff-hanger episodes not usually found in other comedies of the time.
If you took out the slapstick buffoonery what was left was a competent tho' light-hearted adventure series in the mold of 'The Avengers' with Patrick MacNee and Diana Rigg, also a tongue-in-cheek show.

And what kept the comedy balanced was that Maxwell Smart was not completely an idiot. In every episode he demonstrated courage, resourcefulness and the ability to think on his feet. And he was a good shot and good in a fight.
Its just that he would alternate between these moments of cunning with moments of tomfoolery.

As for 99(Barbara Feldon) and the Chief (Ed Platt) was that they were the perfect 'Straight' man and woman for Don Addams. Barbara was perfect as the frustrated but adoring 99 and Ed Platt had some terrific facial expressions of sheer exasperation!

I sincerely doubt the show would have lasted as long as it did if it was a pure farce.

[–] trollomatic 9 years ago

>>>How many other comedies of the time(or even today) can you think of that had genuine intense adventure and suspense with characters actually getting shot, stabbed or killed?

Hogan's Heroes.

Not sure if F-Troop and McHale's Navy count.

But Hogan's Heroes does.

[–] trollomatic 9 years ago

>>>How many other comedies of the time(or even today) can you think of that had genuine intense adventure and suspense with characters actually getting shot, stabbed or killed?

Lost in Space

[–] FlushingCaps 9 years ago

Kartoon,

I agree with your comments almost entirely. The disagreement is only with your description of "unique" for Get Smart being a mix of action and comedy.

There was another excellent comedy that ran almost the same years as Get Smart that brilliantly mixed humor and some tense action sequences. The show: Hogan's Heroes.

Hogan's was more of a drama than Get Smart was, if you tried to clock the humorous parts of each episode vs. the dramatic moments. Both should truly be described as action-comedies.

I have also noted how Max, dumb as he was at times, did a great job of catching the KAOS men and saving the day, thus making it acceptable that he could keep his job despite his bungling.

Later on MASH also utilized a fair amount of drama, while being mostly a comedy. Then after about 3 seasons, MASH became about half drama and half comedy--and for many episodes the last half of its run, more like 65% drama to 35% comedy. I think virtually no episode of Get Smart was more than about 1/3 drama.

Why don't we just shoot 'em down and be through with it?

[–] kartoon-1 9 years ago

You're right. I forgot about 'Hogan's Heroes'.

[–] dpcole7 8 years ago

It's brilliant genre-blending.

Ed Platt got to play comedy straight long before Peter Graves in "Airplane!" Less raunchy dialogue, too.