max

Smart's charm lay in his utter humanness, the opposite of Bond's preposterous competence
New York Times

Maxwell Smart was always Mr Right in my book
apart from his shoe and his car
his ineptitude kept him charming and yet
he was disarmingly ept at the crunch.


The Age photo gallery Maxwell Smart remembered

Catchphrases

Sorry about that Chief!
This phrase really caught on when late in 1965 one of the Gemini astronauts used it when he made a mistake.

Sunbeam Tiger Marketing Materials

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Comments: max

Ve don't comment here!
Posted by Sieg.T at September 27, 2005 06:34 PM

Apparently he modelled his vocal delivery on William Powell in the "Thin Man" movies. But somehow added a spirit of incurable optimism.

And don't forget he was also the voice of Inspector Gadget.

He died at the same time a certain something else seems to be dying too in the current Empire. I can't quite put a finger on it but I know it's not a sense of childhood innocence for our generation.

Perhaps more a sense of what Bottom in a Midsummers Night Dream meant for Albion's perception of itself. A gentle and cheerful everyman clown who kept putting his foot in it but came up trumps in the end.

And lovin' it.
Posted by Nabakov at September 27, 2005 08:35 PM

Apparently he modelled his vocal delivery on William Powell in the "Thin Man" movies. But somehow added a spirit of incurable optimism.

And don't forget he was also the voice of Inspector Gadget.

He died at the same time a certain something else seems to be dying too in the current Empire. I can't quite put a finger on it but I know it's not a sense of childhood innocence for our generation.

Perhaps more a sense of what Bottom in a Midsummers Night Dream meant for Albion's perception of itself. A gentle and cheerful everyman clown who kept putting his foot in it but came up trumps in the end.

And lovin' it.
Posted by Nabakov at September 27, 2005 08:35 PM

Apparently I'm too quick on the trigger. A subconsicous homage perhaps?

Delete what you think fit Boynty.
Posted by Nabakov at September 27, 2005 08:37 PM

First Gilligan now Max - both in their eighties. Sheesh.

I said to a co-worker making a coffee the other night, "Push the button Max". She had no idea and trying to explain was going to be futile. A bit like another esoteric favourite of mine, "Keepa dancin Maria". Is television funny any more? Get Smart was so clever and way ahead of its time.
Posted by Link at September 28, 2005 07:18 AM

Shouldn't we be discussing this in the Cone of Silence?
Posted by Gummo Trotsky at September 28, 2005 09:37 AM

Sig T - I asked you not to tell me that.

Nabs - The old too quick on the trigger trick...;)
I wonder if Fang modelled himself on Asta?
I agree - that gentle fallibilty factor is rare.
These days most flawed clowns have to have lashings of tv irony or psychological profiling to balance the books. I love the way that the world of Get Smart is taken as read and not explained or framed with reflexivity. Makes everything more...dense...

(It's been a week for le temps perdu for me with childhood heroes and memories and colours congregating)

Link - Don't think there's much that matches Max in complexity - and simplicity.
A lot of comedy of our times is brutal.

Gummo - What was that?!


Posted by boynton at September 28, 2005 10:51 AM

'What was that?'...(err... that is)
'Sorry, I didn't quite catch that' or
'I can't hear you' ...etc

(was in a bit of a rush with those comments yesterday and didn't spot the ambiguity in my last until back on-line today.
Missed it by ...)
Posted by boynton at September 29, 2005 11:14 AM