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Get Smart
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==Production == [[Talent Associates]] commissioned Mel Brooks and Buck Henry to write a script about a bungling James Bondβlike hero.<ref name="time1965">{{cite magazine |title=Smart Money |url=http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,834525,00.html |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=October 15, 1965 |access-date=August 30, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180503014149/http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,834525,00.html |archive-date=May 3, 2018}}</ref> Brooks described the premise for the show that they created in an October 1965 ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine article: <blockquote>I was sick of looking at all those nice, sensible situation comedies. They were such distortions of life. If a maid ever took over my house like ''[[Hazel (TV series)|Hazel]]'', I'd set her hair on fire. I wanted to do a crazy, unreal, [[comic-strip]] kind of thing about something besides a family. No one had ever done a show about an idiot before. I decided to be the first.<ref name="time1965"/></blockquote> Brooks and Henry proposed the show to ABC, where network executives called it "un-American" and demanded a "lovable dog to give the show more heart", as well as scenes showing Maxwell Smart's mother.<ref name="time1965"/> Brooks strongly objected to the second suggestion: <blockquote>They wanted to put a print housecoat on the show. Max was to come home to his mother and explain everything. I hate mothers on shows. Max has no mother. He never had one.<ref name="time1965"/></blockquote> The cast and crew contributed joke and gadget ideas, especially Don Adams, but dialogue was rarely ad-libbed. An exception is the third-season episode "The Little Black Book". [[Don Rickles]] encouraged Adams to misbehave, and he ad-libbed. The result was so successful that the single episode was turned into two parts.<ref>Don Rickles, ''Get Smart'' Series 3 DVD commentary.</ref> The first four seasons on NBC were filmed at [[Sunset Bronson Studios]], while the final season, shown on CBS, was filmed at [[CBS Studio Center]]. ===Production personnel === Brooks had little involvement with the series after the first season, but Henry served as story editor through 1967. The crew of the show included: * [[Leonard B. Stern]] β executive producer for the entire run of the series * [[Irving Szathmary]] β music and theme composer and conductor for the entire run * Don Adams β director of 13 episodes and writer of two episodes * David Davis β associate producer * [[Gary Nelson (director)|Gary Nelson]] β director of the most episodes * [[Bruce Bilson]] β director of the second-most episodes * [[Gerald C. Gardner]] and [[Dee Caruso]] β head writers for the series<ref name=thr>{{cite news |first=Mike|last=Barnes |title=Dee Caruso, a Writer on Classic 1960s Sitcoms, Dies at 83 |url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/dee-caruso-writer-sitcoms-332216 |work=[[The Hollywood Reporter]] |date=June 1, 2012 |access-date=June 26, 2012}}</ref> * [[Reza Badiyi]] β occasional director * [[Allan Burns]] and [[Chris Hayward]] β frequent writers and producers * Stan Burns and Mike Marmer β frequent writers * [[Richard Donner]] β occasional director * [[James Komack]] β writer and director * Arne Sultan β frequent writer and producer * Lloyd Turner and [[Whitey Mitchell]] β frequent writers and producers of season five
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