In 1965, comedic icons Mel Brooks and Buck Henry decided to spoof the highly popular James Bond films that had premiered in 1962 with Get Smart, the adventures of Agent 86 (Don Adams) as he teamed up with the beautiful Agent 99 (Barbara Feldon) to fight the evil crime syndicate KAOS. I Love Get Smart says that ABC didn't think it would be funny, but NBC did; in fact the producers were so sure of Get Smart's success that the pilot was actually a made-for-TV movie, A Secret Agent's Dilemma, or a Clear Case of Mind Over Mata Hari. Get Smart was a break-out role for Adams, and his character's signature line, "Would you believe..." became a national catchphrase.
After the show was canceled in 1970, it became a highly popular rerun, says Would You Believe. But a 1980 reprise film, The Nude Bomb, virtually bombed itself at the theater. Then there was Get Smart Again!, a reunion TV film in 1989 which was successful, and the reprise of the original Get Smart in 1995, which was not. Thank goodness for 2008's Get Smart starring Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Alan Arkin, and Terence Stamp. Warner Brothers was smart to keep Brooks and Henry aboard as advisors, resulting in a fun summer film that Roger Ebert called "funny, exciting, preposterous, [and] great to look at."
