Don Adams, who played Maxwell Smart in the 1960's sitcom 'Get Smart,' combining clipped, decisive diction with appalling, hilarious ineptitude, died on Sunday at a Los Angeles hospital. He was 82. New York Times
In my brazilian childhood I watched
'Get Smart' daily, faithfully. It was my favorite show, even though I might have been too young (and in the wrong country) to understand its "satiric jabs at an increasingly questioned status quo". Max was the opposite of 007 and, because of that, more attainable as a hero. And maybe a sign of the personality that was being shaped...
But Smart's charm lay in his utter humanness, the opposite of Bond's preposterous competence. In an interview with The Saturday Evening Post in 1966, Mr. Adams analyzed Smart: "He's not superhuman. But he believes in what he does and he wants to do his best." NYT
A scene I will never forget: It takes place between Maxwell Smart and Agent 99. She was captured by Kaos and is hanging up side down. He has just found her and cheerfully says: "Oh, hi 66!"
