Two questions

[rezny717]

1)Whose idea was it to have Max and 99 get married(and no,there was nothing wrong with that-they were a great team married or single)and 2)Were the late Don Adams,the late Edward Platt and Barbara Feldon in favor of the idea of having Max and 99 get married?

[JL82]

Carl B says the network pushed for it and much of the cast and creators were against it. I think I remember seeing a TV special about GS where Buck Henry says he "would have fought it like a tiger!"

Partly because he couldn't imagine Max and 99 doing...well, what married couples do.

Barbara has said "The Impossible Mission" was her favorite episode, which would imply she was in favor.

[Tweety]

It sounds like it was a network idea. According to wiki, Get Smart was #12 in the ratings in during 65-66 (Season 1), but never finished in the top 20 again (it was #22 in Season 2, but dropped out of the top 30 after that).

It was almost automatic at the time that some combination of three things would happen if a show slipped in the ratings and the network wanted to stir things up and create a buzz:

1) A character would get married
2) A family would have a baby
3) The character would move to a new home or apartment


My guess would be that the network demanded that Max and 99 get married (I'm sure they thought the public was clamoring for it, even though we really weren't). And then asap after that, they would have a baby (turned out to be twins).

I don't think it worked. The show turned more into a domestic sitcom after that. Imo, it was much better when Max was single and living alone in his own place.

[JL82]

Originally Posted by Tweety

The show turned more into a domestic sitcom after that. Imo, it was much better when Max was single and living alone in his own place.

Carl says that the Impossible Mission love-confession scene "felt forced," but to me what feels "forced" isn't their confessing their feelings for each other, but their conviction that they were going to die. They'd been in worse situations than that!

Many shows have suffered because the two leads go from "dancing around their feelings" to "officially together." The loss of the "unresolved" sexual tension has hurt many shows.

I don't think Get Smart was as dependent as some shows on the sexual tension for its entertainment value. I agree with Tweety in not being crazy about the later episodes that had more typical sit-com plots (especially the jealousy angle) - but I think it SHOULD have been possible to get Max and 99 together without changing direction to that extent.

There are also episodes where 99 becomes more of a housewife, but that went back and forth throughout the Seasons 4 and 5 - as she kind of went back and forth throughout.

[PhoenixAcres]

I had no problem with Max and 99 getting married, it seemed from the start that it was inevitable down the line. I never noticed a drop in quality during the fourth season and in fact seemed to me one of the funniest seasons of the show (the wedding episode was hilarious ).

As for the twins... to me that storyline seemed a little out of place, and as others above said, brought to the show more of a domestic sitcom feel, notwithstanding the fact that we rarely saw the children.

Originally Posted by JL82

Many shows have suffered because the two leads go from "dancing around their feelings" to "officially together."

Another show of this nature that comes to mind is "I Dream of Jeannie", whose producers I believe had the same conflict with the network (both NBC) over where the relationship should go in the later seasons. Yet here, too, I never noticed a dip in quality, only a different environment in which the stories were told.

[getsmartbeaver]

Yes, I definitely preferred the episodes where Max and 99 were engaged and married. What I liked about Max and 99's relationship was that it was almost like a courtship. They seemed more concerned about each other mentally than romantically. I feel that a marriage should be based on friendship, not passion. Although there are people who are more "huggy and kissy" and others who are more conversational or more into having fun or working on projects together. It's like what Mr. Rogers said, "There are many ways to say 'I love you.'"