It’s time to Get Smart about your favorite TV show from the 1960s, about a bumbling secret agent called Maxwell Smart. If you don’t get a perfect score on this quiz, you can just say, “Missed it by that much!” Let’s get started.
1: Get Smart is a parody of what famous movie franchise?
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Mel Brooks and Buck Henry created Get Smart as a parody of the James Bond movie franchise, which was very popular at the time. The first James Bond movie was Dr. No, released in 1962. The first Get Smart episode aired in 1965.
2: It’s time to Get Smart with math! What do you get if you add together the agent numbers of the title character and his female partner?
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Maxwell Smart is Agent 86, and his partner is Agent 99, of course. The real name of Agent 99 is never revealed. Add 86 and 99 to get the correct sum, 185.
3: What organization does Maxwell Smart work for?
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CONTROL is spelled in all caps, even though the word is not an acronym. The leader of this spy organization is known only as the Chief.
4: In the show’s title sequence, Maxwell Smart walks through a series of doors. What happens next?
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Max enters a phone booth and then appears to drop through its floor. Actually, the actor, Don Adams, had to squat quickly as if he were falling.
5: In the episode All in the Mind, what happens to a phone booth (not in the title sequence)?
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Max and 99 are in a phone booth together, and it starts to fill up with water. They cannot escape. Max reluctantly inserts a quarter to make a ten-cent phone call for help.
6: What is the international organization of evil that CONTROL seeks to thwart?
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KAOS is spelled with all caps, like CONTROL, and it is not an acronym. Founded in Bucharest, it is a Delaware corporation for tax purposes. Divisions within KAOS include the League of Imposters, the Contrived Accident Division, and ice skaters called the KAOS Capades.
7: Which episode features a duplicate Maxwell Smart?
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In The Spy Who Met Himself, KAOS’ League of Imposters infiltrates CONTROL by replacing their agents with duplicates. The KAOS agent who impersonates Max is named Yohan.
8: What was 99’s profession before she became a spy?
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99 was a high-fashion model before she became a spy. Barbara Feldon, the actress who played 99, also worked as a model early in her career. Feldon was smart—she won the top prize on a game show called $64,000 Question by answering questions about Shakespeare.
9: Why is Agent 13 always resentful about his spy duties?
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Agent 13 always has to hide in cramped quarters, including a mailbox, an airport locker, a safe, a vending machine, and a sofa, among others. In the episode Bronzefinger, Max asks 13 how he got inside such a small safe, and 13 replies that the Chief gave him the combination.
10: What is the agent name of Fang the dog?
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Logically, a dog would be Agent K-9, right? Well, think again. Fang the dog, who was in the same graduating class as Max in spy school, is Agent K-13.
11: Who is Siegfried?
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Siegfried’s official title is Vice President of Public Relations and Terror for KAOS. He and Maxwell Smart face off regularly in the series. In the 1995 Get Smart reboot, Siegfried’s daughter thinks he is a doctor on a cruise ship—the joke here is that Bernie Kopell, the actor who played Siegfried, portrayed the ship’s doctor on another popular show, Love Boat.
12: In which episode do Max and 99 finally marry?
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After years of flirting and miscommunication, Max and 99 finally get married in season four, in the episode called With Love and Twitches. The twitches come in because Max swallowed a liquid that gave him a rash on his chest, in the form of a KAOS map. Side note: 99’s flowery wedding bonnet is hard to believe, even by ‘60s standards.
13: What is the name of the device Max always wants to use in the Chief’s office, to discourage eavesdroppers?
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The Cone of Silence is a clear plastic device that is lowered over the heads of two people so they can converse without being heard by others. Unfortunately, the two speakers usually cannot hear each other, either. Would you believe that the Cone of Silence was invented by someone named Professor Cone?
14: What is unique about the agent known as Hymie?
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Hymie the robot originally worked for KAOS, but he switched sides when Max treated him like a real person. At CONTROL, Hymie befriends Shirley the intercom, Trudy the typewriter, and other office devices. Hymie weighs 982 pounds.
15: What are the names of Max and 99’s twins?
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99 gives birth to twins in the episode called And Baby Makes Four, Conclusion (the second episode of a two-part story arc). Neither twin is named at the time, but in the 1995 reboot of Get Smart, the boy is named Zach. The female twin, like her mother, remains unnamed.
16: In a time long before cell phones, what kind of phone did Maxwell Smart use?
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Max had a shoe phone—convenient because it was always nearby, inconvenient because it’s odd to take off your shoe and hold it near the side of your head. Later on, to make the ringing shoe less noticeable, a button on his vest would flash to indicate an incoming call.
17: What is nitrowhisperin?
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In the episode Spy, Spy Birdie, an inventor thinks the world is too noisy, so he threatens to silence it with his nitrowhisperin bombs. He plans to use homing pigeons to drop silent bombs on major cities.
18: What is London’s version of the Cone of Silence?
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London’s Umbrella of Silence, as seen in the episode That Old Gang of Mine, can hold up to four people. While in London, Max poses as an American gangster called The Scar.
19: What 1980 movie featured Maxwell Smart?
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The Nude Bomb was, in fact, a bomb at the box office. In this movie, Max works for PITS, or the Provisional Intelligence Tactical Service. His wife and partner, 99, is nowhere to be seen.
20: Which of the following is NOT a well-known Maxwell Smart catchphrase?
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Sorry about that, Chief, but would you believe the answer is “This tape will self-destruct in five seconds”? It’s from another popular '60s show, not a comedy, called Mission: Impossible.
