What Is Your Favorite Season of Get Smart?

The final 5th CBS season is my all-time fave. As a kid I remember watching these episodes on Saturday morning and finding some of them quite scary -the 2 part House Of Wax eps sticks out in my memory with 99 walking thru the park in thick fog with Jack the Ripper stalking her. The 2 part birth of the twins eps was also a fave of mine.I also at the time had a crush on 99 (still do!) and thought she looked her best in this season with the hair being the longest it had ever been in the series.
Of course today I still prefer this season over the others...the switch of networks did give the show a "fresh" new look and I thought the humor was at an all-time high. True some eps pushed the credibility limits (Max,99,& Chief on the moon) but hey -this was after all Get Smart! When I first started collecting tv shows on video, trying to find this season on video was a must and luckily versions I got were close to uncut. It's true that for years in syndication, this season was omitted from the packages (a real shame).
My 2nd fave season would be the 4th season with the wedding of Max & 99 being a high point episode (loved the Admiral) ...I know alot of people say that their getting married "ruined" the show, but the first 3 seasons clearly were leading up to this and for them to not have gotten married would have "cheated" the fans out of this on-going culmination of their romance.
As a married couple I thought this created more different types of storylines for them to explore.
I really wish their had been a 6th season...I love this show so much...all the seasons are great, but 5 and 4 are my favorites.This is easily one of my all time favorite comedies.
I just received my TimeLIfe Get Smart set in the mail today so have been having a non-stop GET SMART marathon. THe set is incredible and the episodes have been beautifully restored...complete and uncut.THe DVD extras are also amazing.... I am presently alternating between 1st & 5th season episodes in my watching of the set...I love how Barbara Feldon has personally introduced each episode and feature on the DVD making it more intimate.... The comedy of this series is TIMELESS and if possible seems to get funnier every time I see it.

I think my favorite season is 3. I enjoy watching the building romance between Max and 99. :)

I have to agree with Cherisland. Season five is my favorite, followed by season two, season four, season one, then season three. The fifth season was more unique from the others, it went a little more slapstick and contained sight gags and visual humor that weren't used as often in the earlier seasons. A good example is the Do I Hear A Vaults episode. The beginning scene in the library where Max and a KAOS agent are duking it out, and when the librarian comes in they stop fighting and act like nothing's happening. And in Ironhand, where the villian slams his iron hand on his desk and destroys the desk. You don't see stuff like that in the first four seasons, but all five seasons do have their share of funny, memorable episodes.

I really don't know. I haven't seen Get Smart in a long time but I can't wait to get Season 1 for Christmas.

Those first few episodes from the first season are juvenile in nature. Our Man In Toyland and KAOS In CONTROL. It made it seem like the show was intended for kids, I'm glad they toned it down a bit with the childishness after those first few episodes. Also, the dog Fang was discontinued after a few appearances in those early 1st season episodes. I guess the dog was undisciplined and hard to train on the set, so the idea was dropped. Good thing, the dog was a bad idea. Get Smart was always a silly show, but some of those early episodes went a little over the top until they got the formula just right.

Some say that when a show changes networks means that the show won't be as good as it once was, but Get Smart actually got better with each new season.

Season 5 also had the better opening credits to boot as well. The title font with red outlines, like another CBS show "Hawaii Five-O" and the gold car and the way the cast members and producers names zommed toward the screen gave it a better edge, too as opposed to the earlier seasons with the names following Max through the doors.

I'd say season five. I liked the idea of Max and 99 as a married team and them having kids.

all 5 Season

Definitely the fifth and last, 1969-1970, on CBS. The revamped Season 5 Get Smart theme was the best.

I remember when it was on Nick @ Nite waiting for months until they've used up the 4-year NBC run (1965-69) so I could tune in for the CBS year. :D

The episode "Age Before Duty" was the highlight of the final season. :cool:

While I agree that the 5th season is overall the best, when watching the episodes from that season you can also start to see signs that the series was starting to decline. Season five has many great episodes, but there are other episodes where the series was starting to look a little tired. So the season is a real mixed bag. The switch to CBS for the final season helped the show a little, there were some different writers and they gave the series a lift with some new ideas. The 5th season used more sight gags and took more of a slapstick approach to the comedy. One fifth season episode that's always been a favorite of mine is Only Two Ninety Nine. That's the one where KAOS kidnaps 99 and replaces her with a lookalike who pretends to be the real 99. The KAOS plan is to have the fake 99 poison Max, but the plot is foiled and 99 is rescued. There is some very funny dialogue between Max and the Chief in this episode while they are meeting in the Chief's office. Only Two Ninety Nine has a similar plot to the fourth season episode, The Farkas Fracas.

One of the best sight gags of the whole series takes place in the beginning of the C. Errol Madre episode when Max goes to ride the elevator to Control Headquarters only to find the Chief sitting behind his desk inside the elevator. Control had financial problems and the Chief was temporaily forced to work from inside the elevator. When Max asks what happened to Larrabee, a tile from the elevator's ceiling opens and there is Larrabee. A classic gag. It's stuff like this that makes the 5th season unique.

Why did Get Smart end? Was it because poor raitings or did Don Adams want to end the show?

Why did Get Smart end? Was it because poor raitings or did Don Adams want to end the show?

I think it was a combination of both, the ratings were slipping and Adams was ready to move on.

I think it was a combination of both, the ratings were slipping and Adams was ready to move on.
Thanks for your help.

I am very surprised. :eek:
I thought I was the only one who liked Season Five the best. I just think the episodes work very well and also the introduction is the best by far IMHO. Season Four is my second favorite. The two part "House of Max" from Season 5 is one of my top five all time GS episodes.

I think my favorite season overall is season 3.

However, I will say this. Season 5 is strong and they ended it just at the right time. If GS went on another season, you'd have...The Partners. When I've watched that show recently it comes off as a retread of Get Smart. Now I understand that wasn Don Adams original vision of the show but that is what it appeared like to me IMO.

In comparison to other series of its time that had so much impact, the final season of Get Smart was a lot stronger than say the final season of Batman.

The problem, to me at least, is that many of these shows get hip to their own joke. When Batman started out for example, there was still an element of seriousness about it that was played over the top for laughs. After that approach was analyzed, I think they started to believe their own publicity and by season 3, this unique TV concept became an out and out comedy.

With Get Smart, sure it had many repetitive gags and catchphrases but I don't really think it ever strayed to far from its original concept and aside from the obvious ratings ploys, I don't think the wedding or the birth of the twins really detracted from the overall concept of the series.