Get Smart: Mr. Big

Get Smart: Mr. Big
NBC
September 18, 1965
Sitcom
DVD
C+

Regulars:

• Don Adams as Maxwell Smart
• Barbara Feldon as #99
• Edward Platt as Chief of Control
• Red as Fang AKA Agent K-13

Also, Scientist George Tracy would later be a Barfly, and Henchman Charles Horvath would be Igor.  Veteran performer Monty O'Grady (a child actor in the '20s) makes one of his six uncredited GS cameos, as an Audience Member.  And the then ubiquitous Vito Scotti plays Dante, but would later play Gino Columbus.

Co-creators Mel Brooks and Buck Henry wrote this pilot, which was shot in black & white.  Howard Morris didn't direct any other GS episodes, but we may see his work again.

So, this is a show I grew up watching but never became a huge fan of.  I haven't watched in years, although I did review the 1980 movie The Nude Bomb (https://reviewingeverymovieiown.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-nude-bomb.html), and I did walk out of the Steve Carell adaptation of the series.  It'll be interesting to revisit however much I get into but my hopes aren't too high.  A few things to note about this episode in particular:

• Max and 99 meet and he somehow fails to realize she's "a girl," and then when he does, they almost kiss;
• A lot of the catch phrases and a few of the devices that the show would become famous for are already here, but they aren't punched up because they're not yet known;
• Max's shoe phone going off in a fancy theatre obviously feels different viewing it in the cell-phone era;
• There's a lot of going from one location to the next, including seeing them in transit.
• And some of the acting feels not exactly off but unsure, mostly from the guest stars but even Feldon doesn't seem to have settled in yet.