The Old Network Switcheroo Trick

The Spy Command’s Bill Koenig is better at remembering cultural anniversaries than I am, because he notes that this weekend marks the 60th anniversary of the debut of Get Smart. That 1965-1970 spy-comedy TV series, starring Don Adams, Barbara Feldon, and Edward Platt, saw its NBC debut on September 18, 1965. Koenig recalls:

The show originally was developed for television network ABC. Comedic actor Tom Poston was intended to be the original Maxwell Smart. …

[It] would consist of a mix of James Bond and Inspector Clouseau. Mel Brooks and Buck Henry would take the basic idea and turn it into a pilot script.

There was one problem. At least one ABC executive hated the idea that the arch-villain, named Mr. Big, would be revealed as a dwarf.

The story goes that Mel Brooks was disappointed. An NBC executive saw Brooks at one of his Southern California hangouts. The NBC guy asked what was wrong. Brooks filled him in on the ABC debacle.

However, NBC had Don Adams under contract. The network was paying Adams (birth name Donald James Yarmy) until the comedic actor got a series. The NBC executive wanted to hear more about the spy project.

NBC commissioned a pilot, to be filmed after the so-called “pilot season.” Brooks and Henry retooled their script to incorporate Don Adams comedy bits such as, “Would you believe…?” …

In the final version of the pilot, Maxwell Smart punched into a time clock when going on assignment for Control, his agency. Brooks contributed the idea of the shoe phone. Henry contributed the “Cone of Silence,” [which was] intended as a security measure but instead made it hard just to have a conversation. (“What?”)

But, as Brooks and Henry intended, Mr. Big, the villain of KAOS (the villainous organization), was played by dwarf actor Michael Dunn. Dunn would soon be seen on The Wild Wild West as arch-villain Dr. Loveless.

Click here to read all of Koenig’s fine anniversary tribute.

Bullet Points: Pre-Corned Beef Feast Edition

Today’s installment of crime-fiction-related news items that don’t necessarily merit their own posts, but may still be of interest.

• Mike Ripley’s latest “Getting Away with Murder” column is up at Shots, and it’s packed with his usual amalgam of substantive and sassy items. You’ll find observations about The Shadows of London, the sixth of Andrew Taylor’s 17th-century thrillers starring Cat Hakesby (née Lovett) and James Marwood; Peter Robinson’s posthumously published, 28th Alan Banks novel, Standing in the Shadows; hard-boiled British author Douglas Sanderson (Pure Sweet Hell); Blessin Adams’ forthcoming historical true-crime release, Great and Horrible News; and a crowd of other March mystery/crime premieres, including Owen Matthews’ White Fox, T.M. Logan’s The Mother, and Rebecca Rogers’ The Purgatory Poisoning.

• This year’s 70th-anniversary celebration of James Bond, the British super-spy introduced in the 1953 novel Casino Royale, includes fresh paperback editions of Ian Fleming’s famous Agent 007 yarns. As The Spy Command explains, credit for their simple but striking new look belongs to UK-based Webb & Webb Design, which previously created posters and book art for a world-traveling exhibition called Bond Bound: Ian Fleming and the Art of Cover Design. In addition to the 007 adventures, Webb & Webb has developed new fronts for Fleming’s non-fiction books, The Diamond Smugglers (1957) and Thrilling Cities (1963). They’re all set to debut on April 13.

• A rather belated “happy birthday” to Pennsylvania-born actress Barbara Feldon, who played eye-catching Agent 99 in the 1965–1970 spy sitcom Get Smart. She turned 90 years old on March 12!

• This Friday is Saint Patrick’s Day, which means the enforced wearing of green and plentiful servings of corned beef and cabbage. Mystery Fanfare suggests it might also be time to pick up a celebration-related crime or mystery novel. The blog has a wide variety of suggestions, from Kathi Daley’s Shamrock Shenanigans and Ralph M. McInerny’s Lack of the Irish to The Whites, by Harry Brandt (aka Richard Price) and Paddy Whacked, by S. Furlong-Bollinger.

• Deadly Pleasures editor George Easter surveys the growing field of do-it-yourself murder yarns. “Authors are coming up with such words as ‘how to’ or ‘guide’ to describe their mysteries,” he observes. “Others use ‘art of’ or ‘unsolicited advice.’ If you are planning to knock off your significant other, my unsolicited advice to you would be to discard these before the police show up.”

• Deadline brings word that David Kane, lead writer for the BBC One crime drama Shetland, will adapt Denise Mina’s Alex Morrow novels for the small screen. “Set in Glasgow, Morrow, which consists of five books, follows [Detective Sergeant] Alex Morrow, a formidable detective who can’t face talking to her husband or bear to sleep in the family home following a recent trauma. As she investigates a crime with partner Bannerman for season one titled Still Midnight, questions arise about whether their ambitious Machiavellian boss McKechnie has their backs. … Kane and Mina are exec producing Morrow, having combined on BBC drama cult hit The Field of Blood, which starred Peter Capaldi and David Morrissey and was also BAFTA Scotland nominated.”

• There’s still no announced date for the U.S. launch of Endeavour, Season 9. However, that final three-episode run of the Inspector Morse prequel series starring Shaun Evans and Roger Allam concluded last weekend in Great Britain. Sad to report, The Killing Times says that it left “big questions unanswered.” The site goes on to rate all nine seasons of the show (with the 2012 pilot and Series 2 winning the most stars), and muses on whether there might be more stories from the Morse universe deserving to be told.

• At least a couple of crime-themed works are among the victors in this year’s Spur Awards competition, hosted by the Western Writers of America. Ann Parker’s The Secret in the Wall (Poisoned Pen Press) won in the Traditional Novel category, while Dead Man’s Trail, by Nate Morgan (Kensington), trotted away with Original Mass-Market Paperback Novel honors. These prizes will be bestowed during the 70th annual WWA convention to be held in Rapid City, South Dakota, from June 21 to 24. Registration information is available here.

• R.I.P., Rupert Heath, the founder and publisher of Dean Street Press, who died of a heart attack on March 6 at the tender age of 54. Both Curtis J. Evans, at The Passing Tramp, and Steve Barge, at In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel, have posted tributes.

• We mentioned last month that Michael Stradford, author of the 2021 book Steve Holland: The World’s Greatest Illustration Art Model, had completed another look back at Holland’s prolific appearances, this time on paperback fronts. But there wasn’t yet an Amazon link available for those wishing to purchase the new, 216-page book, Steve Holland: Paperback Hero (St. Clair). Now there is!

• Have you checked out The Rap Sheet’s YouTube page recently? We’ve added to it a number of TV opening title sequences, including those from M Squad, Bosch: Legacy, Leverage, My Friend Tony, 87th Precinct, and David Caruso’s forgotten Michael Hayes.

• And in an amusing extract from his new book, Gentleman Bandit: The True Story of Black Bart, the Old West’s Most Infamous Stagecoach Robber (Hanover Street Press), John Boessenecker recalls his stylish subject’s initial California stagecoach robbery, in 1875.

Missed It By That Much …

As it turns out, yesterday—not today—marked the birthday of Manhattan-born comic-actor Don Adams, who is still best known for his role as Maxwell Smart, Agent 86, in the 1965-1970 NBC-TV situation comedy/spy series Get Smart, and who died in 2005 at age 82. In honor of this occasion, I am offering here a clip from a mid-1960s episode of The Dean Martin Show, in which the host quizzes Adams—in character—about the apparently hilarious challenges involved in being a top American secret agent. Enjoy!

(Hat tip to The Spy Command.)

Can You Hear Me Now?

It’s Friday, and we could probably all benefit from a bit of lightheartedness in advance of the weekend. So here’s a video clip from the 1965-1970 TV spy spoof, Get Smart, in which secret agent Maxwell Smart (Don Adams) and his superior at CONTROL (played by Edward Platt) try to share top secret information beneath the notorious Cone of Silence. As Wikipedia recalls, this was one of the series’ best running gags:

Invented by “Professor Cone,” the device is designed to protect the most secret of conversations (aka “C.O.S. security risks”) by enshrouding its users within a transparent sound-proof shield. Unfortunately, CONTROL had purchased the device from a “discount place"” rather than the federal government, so it has never worked properly. Naturally, this frustrating situation provides fuel for comedy.

Whenever Maxwell Smart (“Agent 86”) wants to speak to his boss (“Chief”) about a top secret matter, “86” would insist on using the comically defective technology despite being reminded that it never works. The Chief, usually with annoyed skepticism, would press a switch, causing the device to descend from above his desk, surrounding the heads of the two would-be conversers. ...

Part of the humor is in the irony that Agent 86 and Chief cannot hear each other clearly, while bystanders outside the Cone of Silence can hear everything they say as well as speak to them. Sometimes the bystander would even act as a relay so that Chief and “86” inside the device could communicate. Often at the end of the labored conversation, Chief would become terribly frustrated and upset as it quickly becomes clear that the Cone of Silence is (as expected) completely useless.

I don’t know about you, but this just makes me smile.

Hold the (Shoe) Phone!

Salon critic Stephanie Zacharek likes the new Get Smart movie.

A Kiss Leads to Chaos

According to Fox News--always a near biblically accurate source of information (and I found this tidbit in a section called “Pop Tarts,” so you know it must be true. You don’t name things for toaster pastries if you’re dicking around)--while filming the soon-to-be released Get Smart movie, things got nasty on the set when the stars playing Maxwell Smart and Agent 99 were required to indulge in a big ol’ “on-screen smooch.”

“There was a health scare last year and a certain contact solution, I won’t say the name of it but it was the one that I use--gave you conjunctivitis,” [Anne] Hathaway explained to Pop Tarts while promoting her latest stint as Agent 99. “I also had a sinus infection at the same time. So I had to go up to Steve [Carrel], my eye is red, puffy and dripping green--I’m just like snotty and I’m just like ... ‘Come here!’”

It wasn’t until after their intimate lip-lock that Hathaway discovered she had the highly contagious eye illness and had to make the dreaded call later that night to the film’s producer, Alex Gartner.

“I said you might want to call Steve and let him know I had pink eye and my tears kind of got in my mouth, so he might want to worry about that,” she said.

In a really strange way, all of this just confirms my arms akimbo at the casting of Anne Hathaway as Agent 99. You just know that none of this would have happened to Barbara Feldon. Am I right?

Get Smart opens June 20 at a (ahem) theater near you.

And Loving It?

I’ve resisted buying into favorable expectations for the forthcoming Get Smart movie, mostly because I wasn’t really thrilled about Steve Carell occupying the role of bumbling Agent 86, Maxwell Smart. I have very fond memories of the original, 1965-1970 TV series, and am skeptical about Carell taking the place of Don Adams.

But I have to admit, the film trailers being made available online are ... well, pretty funny. Watch them here.

(Hat tip to Crimespree Cinema.)

And Playing the Cone of Silence Will Be ...

Prospects are looking up just a bit further for the forthcoming movie version of that beloved old TV series Get Smart. Not being a Steve Carrell fan, I was concerned when he signed on to portray Maxwell Smart (the role originated by Don Adams, But things started to look up when the curvaceous Anne Hathaway accepted the part of Agent 99. And now, coming off his recent Oscar win (for his supporting role in Little Miss Sunshine), veteran actor Alan Arkin has agreed to play “The Chief” (a role that’s still synonymous with Edward Platt), Smart’s superior at the super-secret agency CONTROL. Maybe I’ll go see Get Smart, after all.