MovieChat Forums > Get Smart (1965) Discussion > A couple of things I noticed about the 5...

A couple of things I noticed about the 5th season

posted 12 years ago by cind5
16 replies | jump to latest

I just bought season 5 on dvd, already had the other 4. Now I haven't seen any of these episodes in well over 20 years. The one thing that jumps out at me is that Maxwell Smart isn't using his usual catch phrases that much or even at all. I never heard during the 5th season,
Would you believe...
Missed it by that much...
And loving it ...
Just to name a few. Anybody know why they stop using the catch lines? Does it have to do with the switch to CBS?
Another thing I just happen to notice and that is Don Adams didn't smoke a cigarette during the 5th season. In the previous 4 seasons he was a smoking fiend. In fact no other actor smoked during that year. Just was wondering if the network, sponsors or whoever came down on the show for all the smoking.

[–] ExplorerDS6789 12 years ago

The catchphrases were done to death by that point. If anything, they should have given Max some NEW catchphrases for Season 5.

As for smoking, they probably couldn't get sponsored by a cigarette company because it was aroubnd 1970 that it became illegal to advertise cigarettes on TV, and thus, the number of characters on shows smoking was diminished. A majority of shows in the '50s and '60s depict characters smoking, probably the brand-name cigarettes that sponsor the show.

[–] gbennett5 11 years ago

The catchphrases were tired YEARS before the fifth year and, frankly, I
didn't miss them. At all. And, no, the show didn't need any other
catchphrases. Enough was enough.

What I did like was 99's bit of looking at us - breaking the fourth-wall -
whenever Max did something stupid. It gave Feldon, who had developed
into quite a comic presence, something for herself.

[–] beatlenut8 11 years ago

Don Adams was doing this as well by the 4th season in some eps ie looking at the camera telegraphing the gag. I dont particularly like it

[–] MrBlondNYC 11 years ago

He did have a new catchphrase in the fifth season and it was a terrible one. When someone said something that he didn't understand, he would pause then say "Eh?" like if you were saying the "a" in "ant". It was really eh-noying.

George Carlin: It's all bullsh-t and it's bad for ya.

[–] tbonesays 11 years ago

My friends recoiled at my aye? and asked if the Geico duck was in the room? I would explain that Maxwell Smart used that 50 years before the duck. I then had to explain who Smart was.

[–] ExplorerDS6789 11 years ago

I guess this just shows that Season 5 was meant to be Get Smart's last. Can you imagine how bad it would've gotten if they tried to make it to, say, Season 9? The jokes would be forced as hell, the villains would be cartoon characters, as would Larabee, and we'd have really ridiculous plotlines and twists, like Chief being Max's biological father, or Larabee's.

[–] beatlenut8 11 years ago

I watched the series from start to finish for the first time in 30 years and while the show is still brilliant to me, Larabee is another matter. He is a complete idiot. I used to love him as a kid but not now. It was good to bring in another character in Control but he was a moron. At least Max had a bit of a brain underneath the bumbling vagueness.

[–] ExplorerDS6789 11 years ago

I'm not sure why they changed Larabee's personality so much. If you recall, in the first four seasons, he seemed to be a straight man who just followed orders. Then all of a sudden he becomes a bumbling idiot. He was sort of like the equivalent of when they added Corporal Capeman to Inspector Gadget in the second season. Instead of ONE dumb hero, we now have TWO, which makes the first hero look smarter by comparison. And both series starred Don Adams. Weird how history repeats itself.

[–] hariseldon59 11 years ago

I think that by the fifth season Max had become a fairly normal father and husband, so the really dumb jokes didn't work with him anymore, and that's why they gave them to Larabee.

Actually, the first "dumb Larabee" joke occurred long before Season 5. It was during "A Man Called Smart" at the end of Season 2. A KAOS agent is escaping Max by car, and Max yells to Larabee (who is standing next to the Chief's car) to "follow that car". Instead of pursuing the suspect by car, Larabee yells "Right, 86", and takes off after the suspect's car on foot.

[–] ExplorerDS6789 11 years ago

Actually, the first "dumb Larabee" joke occurred long before Season 5. It was during "A Man Called Smart" at the end of Season 2. A KAOS agent is escaping Max by car, and Max yells to Larabee (who is standing next to the Chief's car) to "follow that car". Instead of pursuing the suspect by car, Larabee yells "Right, 86", and takes off after the suspect's car on foot.

I guess somebody rewatched that part, thought it was hysterical and said, "hey, let's do more of that for the fifth season."

[–] powersroc 11 years ago

Interesting to see the relationship between smoking on tv shows & the tobacco companies that advertised on some of these series.Either the stars of these shows would smoke during an episode,or do a commercial for cigarettes.I recall watching Dick Van Dyke,Andy Griffith,& Danny Thomas all smoking in an episode of their series from time to time.They did commercials for cigs in addition.Always found it interesting that on the DVD show we'd see Rob smoke but never Laura.Mary Tyler Moore was a smoker in real life so it would not have been a chore for her to smoke some episodes.Not that that's a good thing.

[–] hariseldon59 11 years ago

Even the Flintstones did commercials for Winston cigarettes in the early years.

[–] FlushingCaps 11 years ago

Regarding Laura Petrie smoking --there was one scene I remember when they were driving in their car home from a restaurant (the episode where Laura is furious at Rob for grabbing checks in restaurants) where he asked her if she'd like a cigarette and she said she'd love one. She proceeded to light up, and, if memory serves me right, the scene ended.

I thought that they normally showed her NOT smoking while some of the others did, on occasion, that it was because Mary did not smoke in real life and didn't want to do it on TV.

I wonder if we could both be right. Is it possible that in the early 60s she did not smoke, but took up the habit later?

[–] cind5 11 years ago

I remember seeing Mary Tyler Moore on the Letterman show talking about how tough it was to quit smoking. So, I don't know when she started, but I know she did kick the habit.

It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing.

[–] powersroc 11 years ago

No,Mary was a smoker in real life while the DVD show was filming.As well as afterwards.
I saw the scene you are referring to.You are correct in that we never see her smoking due to the scene ending.She also never smoked on the show even though both Dick & Rose Marie did from time to time.

[–] meowqueenx 10 years ago

In Valerie Harper's memoir, she wrote that on the set of the Mary Tyler Moore show, Mary smoked a lot behind the scenes/in real life (she's long since quit) but adamantly would not have her character smoke on the show because she did not want to influence other people to start. I know we're getting into the 70's there but perhaps she had the same way of thinking earlier on during Dick Van Dyke.