https://popculturereferences.com/when-did-get-smart-jump-the-shark/

Today, we look at when (or if) you folks believe that Get Smart “jumped the shark.” (https://web.archive.org/web/20061031123350/http://www.jumptheshark.com/g/getsmart.htm)

This is “Just Can’t Jump It,” (https://popculturereferences.com/category/just-cant-jump-it/) a feature where we examine shows and whether they “jumped the shark.” Jumped the shark (coined by Jon Hein (http://www.jonhein.com/)) means that the show had a specific point in time where, in retrospect, you realize that show was going downhill from there (even if, in some rare occasions, the show later course-corrected). Not every show DOES jump the shark. Some shows just remain good all the way through. And some shows are terrible all the way through. What we’re looking for are moments where a show that you otherwise enjoyed hit a point where it took a noticeable nose dive after that time and if so, what moment was that?

Get Smart was created by two legendary comedy writers, Buck Henry and Mel Brooks, as a mixture between James Bond and Inspector Clouseau, with Don Adams’ Maxwell Smart (Agent 86) being the incompetent, yet through sheer luck, also one of the most effective agents of CONTROL. He was paired with Agent 99 (Barbara Feldon), who was just as competent as Max was INcompetent. Their “will they or won’t they” energy helped carry the show, but mostly, it was just a bunch of wacky missions that were mostly spoofs of famous movies or novels. I liked Get Smart, and I think it was a good show, but the fact that it was a two-time Emmy winner for Best Comedy just sort of shows how bleak the late 1960s were for sitcoms.

So first…DID IT JUMP THE SHARK? I’d say so, yes.

WHEN DID IT JUMP THE SHARK A lot of people point to Max and Agent 99 getting married, and I understand the impulse, but I really don’t think that that changed the show all that much (people really just have a hate on for couples getting together on shows. I once saw someone say that Cheers jumped the shark when Sam and Diane got together, so, according to this person, Cheers jumped the shark in its first freakin’ season?!!?). However, I think in Season 5, Agent 99 having twins, coupled with the show just running out of stuff to spoof, really did drag the show down. Note that Season 5 was the only season not to be nominated for an Emmy. So I’m going with Agent 99 having her kids (not the episodes leading UP to the kids, but the ones after she gave birth, so about a third of the way through Season 5).

I don't think Get Smart Jumped The Shark, the audience Jumped The Ship. The show was a big hit the first year finishing at number 12, before dropping to number 22 in season two, and then the show went into full rating decline in season 3. The marriage plotline in season four briefly picked ratings up a bit, but it didn't stabilize and the exodus resumed leading NBC to bow out at the end of the season.

Any changes made to the show in seasons 4 and the CBS season 5 weren't so much creatively driven as they were driven by a need to do something different in hopes to save the show. The real question is why did the audience grow tired of the premise so quickly, if you look at the NBC schedule during the first four seasons the competition on CBS and ABC wasn't that tough, the episode quality was holding up, but the audience lost interest, why, that's the question.

Season 5 is enjoyable to me overall but honestly there are a bunch of very substandard episodes in that season that are worse than anything in the NBC seasons: C Errol Madre, Ice Station Zeigfried, House of Max parts 1 and 2, Hello Columbus, Age Before Duty, Rebecca and others...

A big problem in this last season is that Don Adams' heart wasn't in it anymore. I don't remember where I read this, but when NBC cancelled the show Adams didn't have a problem with it because he was more interested in moving on and developing his skills as a director. CBS picked it up the very next day and Adams was just in it for the $$$ at that point. Another problem was that in the NBC seasons, Max did dumb things but was also brave and clever and often figured out stuff before anyone else. I can only think of him doing this once in the last season in Ironhand when he tricked the villian into hitting himself in the head.

The season 5 premiere pretty much shows the major flaws in Max's character at this point: he just does dumb things like crashing through a wall, crashing into a phone booth and blowing his cover, and thinking he can get away with posing as Phyllis Diller. His old charm was gone and the writers painted him more as a nitwit than a clever govt agent.

IF anyone can think of other instances in year 5 where he uses his old quick thinking skills, I'd certainly like to hear about it.

The two two-parters from season 5 are also much worse than any of the multiparters from the NBC era all of which have their charms. And Baby Makes Four should have been a single episode but is padded with unnecessary stuff (including a full 6 minute recap in part 2) and House of Max is a takeoff on something they'd already taken off on in a much better episode (The Wax Max).

When Get Smart moved to CBS for it's fifth season, the show was still really funny. But as the season went on, Get Smart was beginning to run out of gas, especially when Agent 99 gave birth to twins. Also, the show was up against ABC's red hot game show Let's Make a Deal, which became a bigger success after moving from NBC to ABC in December 1968.

Season 5 is enjoyable to me overall but honestly there are a bunch of very substandard episodes in that season that are worse than anything in the NBC seasons: C Errol Madre, Ice Station Zeigfried, House of Max parts 1 and 2, Hello Columbus, Age Before Duty, Rebecca and others...

A big problem in this last season is that Don Adams' heart wasn't in it anymore. I don't remember where I read this, but when NBC cancelled the show Adams didn't have a problem with it because he was more interested in moving on and developing his skills as a director. CBS picked it up the very next day and Adams was just in it for the $$$ at that point. Another problem was that in the NBC seasons, Max did dumb things but was also brave and clever and often figured out stuff before anyone else. I can only think of him doing this once in the last season in Ironhand when he tricked the villian into hitting himself in the head.

The season 5 premiere pretty much shows the major flaws in Max's character at this point: he just does dumb things like crashing through a wall, crashing into a phone booth and blowing his cover, and thinking he can get away with posing as Phyllis Diller. His old charm was gone and the writers painted him more as a nitwit than a clever govt agent.

IF anyone can think of other instances in year 5 where he uses his old quick thinking skills, I'd certainly like to hear about it.

https://books.google.com/books?id=eWJSAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA35&dq=feldon&ei=RHaMZrKWKJOYjMcPwPapyAg&cd=2#v=onepage&q=feldon&f=false

the show changed. I don't know if I'd consider that jumping the shark.

When Get Smart moved to CBS for it's fifth season, the show was still really funny. But as the season went on, Get Smart was beginning to run out of gas, especially when Agent 99 gave birth to twins. Also, the show was up against ABC's red hot game show Let's Make a Deal, which became a bigger success after moving from NBC to ABC in December 1968.

I don't know how "red hot" LMAD was in that time slot since it was replaced mid-season (January '70) by The Flying Nun, which would also be cancelled that year. NBC's High Chaparral probably had a slight edge over GS and TFN in the Nielsens.

To me, in my opinion season 3 is the weakest. Season 4 is an improvement over season 3. Season 5 is decent, there's a few weak episodes but the better ones are very good. Seasons 1 and 2 overall are the best.