Get Smart on the Big Screen

Steve Carell has filled the shoe phone of Maxwell Smart, Agent 86, made famous by Don Adams in the 1965-70 series, for the new Get Smart movie. Although, sadly, we missed interviewing Don Adams by that much, would you believe we have interviews with executive producer Leonard Stern, producer Jay Sandrich, and Agent 99 herself Barbara Feldon? Would you believe the best boy and the script girl? What about a stand-in and an extra from the third episode?

Watch these videos of Archive interviewees talking about the original series, by clicking on the links below.

First, Tom Poston remembers how the script for Get Smart, was originally written for him. Leonard Stern adds that the network turned it down, but after they revised the script for Don Adams it was later picked up.

Then, Barbara Feldon (Agent 99) talks about being cast in the role after producers spotted her in a commercial for Chemstrand carpets, and then later, Executive Producer Leonard Stern realized there might be a problem since she was so much taller than her co-star, Don Adams.

Few know that Don Adams' character, including many of the catch-phrases from the show, such as "would you believe?", came from the pen of writer-comedian and Archive interviewee Bill Dana. After writing for Adams' standup routines in the 1950s, Dana enhanced the character's stringent delivery, based on William Powell in "The Thin Man", for a character Adams' played on The Bill Dana Show--Hotel inspector Byron Glick.

Would you believe Bill Dana's brother, Irving Szathmary, wrote the theme music for Get Smart? True!