A great step up from the last several episodes. This is classic Get Smart with a great guest star of Buono and a great setting of a radio play which is always fun to use and perfect for Max to mess up and things with. And back to a great great whodunnit as well. Above all laughs are back with a lot of fun.
2 Reviews
Victor Buono should have won a guest Emmy for this show
FlushingCaps26 January 2021
Warning: Spoilers
We begin with 99 going to see the Chief, complaining that she hasn't been given any choice assignments, even now, 6 months after the babies were born. All she's gotten is routine courier duty. The Chief explains that he's concerned that some of Max's clumsiness is rubbing off on 99-which she proceeds to prove correct as she knocks the ashtray flying.
Later that day, the Chief comes to the Smarts' apartment, saying he's reconsidered and will start giving 99 good assignments. He has them tune in a radio show, an old-style radio dramatic program called The Hannibal Day Show, with guest star Victor Buono in the Day role. The Chief has arranged for 99 to become his new secretary.
The next day, 99 meets the crew, which includes an organist, a really short man as the show's announcer, who stands on a platform to reach the microphone, instead of just having a microphone lower for him, a producer named Rodger Hammerstein, and a sound effects man named Windy.
Just before rehearsal, Windy reveals himself to 99 to be a government agent-not CONTROL-and says he knows who the KAOS agent is. Despite 99 pleading with him to just say the name, he insists on meeting her after rehearsal to tell her then. During the rehearsal, he is electrocuted-supposedly an accident but we all know better.
99 takes a script to CONTROL and they write a key paragraph that Windy had circled on his copy on the blackboard, where they figure out it is an oddly-written coded message to tell about a CONTROL raid in Sweden set for the following night. All they need now is to find out who wrote the script. Back at the studio, she learns it is Day himself.
Max has been hired to replace Windy as the sound effects man. With almost no time to prepare and no experience at the job, we can understand his incompetence here better than most times.
Indeed, the scene where the show is on the air is hilarious with Day having to quickly ad lib his narration of his characters actions with every sound made by Max that doesn't fit the script. Max knocks when he is supposed to ring a doorbell, and vice versa. Day says "That's when I picked up the knife and threw it!" only to hear Smart firing a gun. Day now says, "Luckily the knife hit a gun lying on the floor and the gun fired once." Right then Max fires two more shots, so Day adds, "Twice...maybe more..."
My favorite bit here was when Day says "I ran down the path" just as Max picks up two props and makes the sound of a horse trotting down the road. Day adds, "on my horse."
There's no need to give away the surprise twist we took at the end. This was a classic Get Smart, with actual plot twists, great lines, some good slapstick featuring 99 for a change, and that radio show scene was one of the funniest this series ever had. For those who don't know Victor Buono, he was a heavyweight actor and comedian, who turned out a hilarious comedy record album in the 60s but who is mostly known as a guest actor on tons of shows in the era. He had a marvelous voice and I believe did his role here as well as anyone could have.
He played a tough boss here, exhibited when 99 was late for work the second day. He comes in and sees her, smiles, and asks, "Did you get those notes?" She asks what notes and he says the ones I've been trying to give you the last two hours." A moment later he calmly introduces her as "my former secretary."
Best episode in a long time, a 10 to me.
Later that day, the Chief comes to the Smarts' apartment, saying he's reconsidered and will start giving 99 good assignments. He has them tune in a radio show, an old-style radio dramatic program called The Hannibal Day Show, with guest star Victor Buono in the Day role. The Chief has arranged for 99 to become his new secretary.
The next day, 99 meets the crew, which includes an organist, a really short man as the show's announcer, who stands on a platform to reach the microphone, instead of just having a microphone lower for him, a producer named Rodger Hammerstein, and a sound effects man named Windy.
Just before rehearsal, Windy reveals himself to 99 to be a government agent-not CONTROL-and says he knows who the KAOS agent is. Despite 99 pleading with him to just say the name, he insists on meeting her after rehearsal to tell her then. During the rehearsal, he is electrocuted-supposedly an accident but we all know better.
99 takes a script to CONTROL and they write a key paragraph that Windy had circled on his copy on the blackboard, where they figure out it is an oddly-written coded message to tell about a CONTROL raid in Sweden set for the following night. All they need now is to find out who wrote the script. Back at the studio, she learns it is Day himself.
Max has been hired to replace Windy as the sound effects man. With almost no time to prepare and no experience at the job, we can understand his incompetence here better than most times.
Indeed, the scene where the show is on the air is hilarious with Day having to quickly ad lib his narration of his characters actions with every sound made by Max that doesn't fit the script. Max knocks when he is supposed to ring a doorbell, and vice versa. Day says "That's when I picked up the knife and threw it!" only to hear Smart firing a gun. Day now says, "Luckily the knife hit a gun lying on the floor and the gun fired once." Right then Max fires two more shots, so Day adds, "Twice...maybe more..."
My favorite bit here was when Day says "I ran down the path" just as Max picks up two props and makes the sound of a horse trotting down the road. Day adds, "on my horse."
There's no need to give away the surprise twist we took at the end. This was a classic Get Smart, with actual plot twists, great lines, some good slapstick featuring 99 for a change, and that radio show scene was one of the funniest this series ever had. For those who don't know Victor Buono, he was a heavyweight actor and comedian, who turned out a hilarious comedy record album in the 60s but who is mostly known as a guest actor on tons of shows in the era. He had a marvelous voice and I believe did his role here as well as anyone could have.
He played a tough boss here, exhibited when 99 was late for work the second day. He comes in and sees her, smiles, and asks, "Did you get those notes?" She asks what notes and he says the ones I've been trying to give you the last two hours." A moment later he calmly introduces her as "my former secretary."
Best episode in a long time, a 10 to me.
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