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Get Smart is the most popular show in the history of television. Would you believe the second most popular? How about it was more successful than Davis Rules? Seriously, though, Get Smart is one of the all-time classic television shows in American history. Unfortunately, since late 1994, there has not been a widespread way of seeing Get Smart repeats on television. There needs to be one. Get Smart was one of the most influential shows in the history of television, and it should not be ignored. Yet, by not having repeats of the show in wide syndication, Get Smart’s distributors are depriving future generations of experiencing what truly was one of television’s all-time greatest series.

Get Smart debuted in 1965. The show was a spoof of the James Bond books, which, by that time, had become extremely hot material in America. Bond, a British spy created by Ian Fleming, spent much of his espionage adventure stories battling the evil forces of S.P.E.C.T.R.E. (Special Executive for Terrorism, Revolution, and Espionage). Get Smart’s main character, like James Bond, was a spy; unlike the brilliant Bond, however, this spy was a bumbler. Maxwell Smart was an agent for CONTROL, a secret government agency based in Washington, D.C. CONTROL’s purpose for existence was to keep America, and, to an extent, the world, safe from the evil forces of KAOS, an "international organization of evil . . . designed to forment unrest and revolution throughout the world." (McCrohan 93). Smart, with the assistance of his partner, Agent 99, spent each episode thwarting evil KAOS agents and making sure that niceness triumphs over evil.

Get Smart stayed true to that basic plot for 138 episodes, until 1970, when CBS cancelled the show (NBC had previously canceled the show in 1969, and CBS had added the series that fall). After its cancellation, the reruns of the show were syndicated and distributed to individual television stations across the country. While the show was never as widely distributed as, for example, I Love Lucy or The Beverly Hillbillies, it did develop a fairly wide following in reruns. In 1991, the national cable network Nick at Nite added the series to their nightly lineup of other classic television shows from the 1950s and 1960s. The show was introduced in the form of a marathon, in which all 138 episodes were broadcast over a period of seven nights. According to noted television scholar Joey Green, Nick at Nite’s ratings "skyrocketed." (17)

Due to its new nationwide exposure, Get Smart experienced somewhat of a rennaisance. For a time, it was one of Nick at Nite’s most prominently featured shows. The show had become so popular, in fact, that in 1995, the FOX television network revived the series. Still called Get Smart, the series reunited Don Adams and Barbara Feldon (who had played Agent 99). Maxwell Smart was now Chief of CONTROL, while 99 had become a Congresswoman. Max and 99’s son (whom they had in the last season of the original series) was now a CONTROL agent, and with the help of Agent 66, battled the evil forces of KAOS, which was still around, attempting to get the Cold War started again. Unfortunately, the series suffered from poor writing and even poorer Nielsen ratings, and it was cancelled.

The original episodes of Get Smart didn’t get much better treatment. After pushing the show back to later and later timeslots, Nick at Nite finally removed the repeats from their lineup on January 1, 1995. Initially, it was feared that the show was removed due to poor ratings. If so, the move would have made no sense, as the original’s ratings surely would have improved had the new series, which debuted in January 1995, been a ratings hit. However, as it turned out, low ratings were not the only factor in the show’s removal from the lineup. According to a Nick at Nite representative, the show was removed because its renewal license expired. This reason, too, seemed to make no sense, as the reruns of Get Smart are owned by Paramount Pictures, a company which is owned by Viacom. Viacom, in turn, owns Nick at Nite, so it would seem relatively simple for the show to be aired on the network. This is not the case, though, as Paramount and Nick at Nite, while sister companies, are completely separate entities. In short, Get Smart’s rerun license has yet to be renewed, either by Nick at Nite or its sister cable service, TV Land. TV Land, which debuted as a network in 1996, shows repeats of old television shows 24 hours a day, as opposed to Nick at Nite, which only shows repeats at night. Locally, Get Smart isn’t aired anymore, either. When Nick at Nite’s license expired, no individual television stations, anywhere in this country, chose to pick it up. As a result, it has been three and a half years since Get Smart repeats have been shown on television.

Get Smart deserves to be widely seen again. During its original run, it was a very acclaimed series. Over the course of five seasons, the show picked up a total of seven Emmy awards, which are television’s highest honor: two for Best Comedy Series; three for Best Actor in a Comedy Series (Don Adams, who played Smart, won the award); one for Writing Achievement in an Individual Episode; and one for Directing Achievement in an Individual Episode. The series was also one of the 25 most watched shows in the country for its first two seasons. Get Smart is also notable for the fact that it is the only satire, in the history of television, that was successful. Above all, though, Get Smart was a very influential show. According to noted television historian Donna McCrohan, it was the first comedy series to offer a tease at the beginning. A tease is a brief scene, before the opening credits of a show, setting up that episode’s story. While dramas had used teases previously, comedies had not. In addition to this, Alan Spencer, creator and executive producer of the 1986-1988 series Sledge Hammer!, has stated that "Get Smart’s innovative blend of sustained social and political satire, zany slapstick, character comedy along with frequent black humor paved the way for such subsequent shows as All in the Family, M*A*S*H, Saturday Night Live, and . . . Moonlighting." (McCrohan xii)

For the reasons stated above, Get Smart should be seen again. Every comedy series on television today shows Get Smart’s influence. By depriving future generations of the series, we are really depriving them of their television heritage. No class in television would be complete without mentioning Get Smart, and the networks are content in letting this television classic fall by the wayside in favor of other shows such as Petticoat Junction and The Munsters. America deserves to Get Smart.

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