SMK and Get Smart

[jestress]

I was watching Get Smart again, and I started thinking about all the similar themes in episodes between Get Smart and SMK. Some of the episodes from SMK have a lot in common with episodes of Get Smart, but even though they are based around similar themes, they have different takes on them. I think I mentioned it a couple of times on JWWM, but for fun, here's a comparison:

About visiting retirement home for spies:

SMK -- The Pharaoh's Engineer -- Retired agents are targeted as someone attempts to learn the secrets of the construction of the Agency itself.
Get Smart -- Dear Diary -- A retired agent is abducted as someone searches for his hidden diary, which contains a lot of sensitive information about Control.

About training school for spies:

SMK – A Class Act -- Amanda is invited to a training session at Station One while Lee poses as "the ringer", going undercover as a student. Meanwhile, an enemy agent posing as a student plots to kill the ringer, mistakenly thinking that it’s Amanda.
Get Smart -- School Days -- Max and 99 both go undercover at Control's training school to uncover a KAOS infiltrator, 99 as an instructor and Max as a student.

About limited funding for intelligence agencies:

SMK -- Car Wars -- When the members of the Agency are told to cut expenses, Lee borrows a car for Amanda out of the impound lot that holds a dangerous secret.
Get Smart – Cutback at Control -- KAOS has planted one of their spies on the Senate committee in charge of deciding Control's funding. The funding cutbacks cripple Control so Max goes undercover, pretending to be a defector to KAOS to learn who the traitor is.

About prisoner exchanges:

SMK -- Saved By the Bells -- When Amanda is mistaken for "Scarecrow", Lee arranges an unauthorized trade to get her back.
also Wrong Number -- A mathematician investigated by Amanda may be a secret Russian agent, and they must decide whether or not to use him as a trade to rescue Francine.
Get Smart -- A Spy for A Spy -- KAOS's abduction of the Chief leads to a series of kidnappings between KAOS and Control, which ultimately leaves only two uncaptured agents, Siegfried and Smart, who must decide how to end it.

About pretending to be burned out:

SMK -- Burn Out -- Lee has to pretend that he's burning out so that he will appear a vulnerable target for someone trying to recruit members of the Agency, and he's unable to tell Amanda that it's an act.
Get Smart -- Double Agent -- Max has to pretend that he's burning out so that he will appear a vulnerable target for someone trying to recruit members of Control, and he's unable to tell 99 that it's an act.

About being brainwashed:

SMK -- If Thoughts Could Kill -- A corrupt doctor brainwashes Lee to kill Billy while he’s giving a speech. It’s foiled when Amanda learns the triggers that control Lee’s mind.
Get Smart -- Smart, the Assassin -- Max is kidnapped by KAOS and brainwashed to kill the Chief during their regular chess games. It’s foiled because Max is a terrible chess player.

About having to disarm a bomb:

SMK -- Playing Possum -- Lee and Amanda team up with a Russian agent to find a nuclear bomb hidden somewhere in Washington, DC. Amanda figures out which wire to pull based on her dishwasher.
Get Smart -- Stakeout on Blue Mist Mountain -- Control discovers that KAOS has smuggled parts to make a bomb into the U.S. so they can explode it near a military base. Smart manages to disarm the bomb by getting his tie stuck in it and having to pull it loose.

About going undercover on a ship:

SMK – Ship of Spies – Lee and Amanda go undercover on a honeymoon cruise to find Lee’s missing friend and uncover a smuggling operation.
Get Smart – Ship of Spies parts 1 and 2 – Max and 99 go undercover on a freighter to find the stolen plans to a nuclear amphibian battleship.

About faking someone’s death:

SMK – Remembrance of Things Past – After Lee is almost killed by a person targeting secret agents, he fakes his death so that he can find the murderer. At first, Amanda thinks that he is really dead until he suddenly appears to ask for her help.
Get Smart – The Only Way to Die – After Max is almost killed by KAOS agents, the Chief arranges for everyone to believe that he’s dead while they try to find the KAOS agent blowing up monuments around Washington. 99 is unaware that Max is still alive until almost the end of the episode.

About having amnesia:

SMK – I Am Not Now, Nor Have I Ever Been . . . A Spy – Amanda gets amnesia in a car accident after escaping from a group of men plotting to poison an entire American town and must get her memory back to give Lee the clues he needs to stop it.
Get Smart – Where-What-How-Who Am I? – After Max gets into a car accident on his way to report a KAOS plot to kill a group of scientists, a doctor in the employ of KAOS manages to give him temporary amnesia through drugs to prevent him from telling what he knows.

[iwsod]

Hey Jestress - Hope you are well!
Thanks for sharing this- FUN! wow.. there are a few very close parallels here!
A few were quite striking!

The Burn out episodes are very close!! And the brainwashing episode too. LOL I would have enjoyed seeing lee be lousy at chess haaa.. but we just saw in Three little spies he can outplay a Russian- being lousy at it would have been much more fun!
A class Act and Pharaoh's engineer sound very similar! wow!!!

I had come across the ship of spies duplication of the title before it was a big surprise to me!

What studio was get smart created by? is it warner bros? I wonder what the makers of that show think of shows like smk pilfering storylines? err I mean 'paying tribute' to get smart!

Hope everyone is well bye!

[jestress]

I think the two shows were made by different studios. Mel Brooks was one of the creators of Get Smart. I suppose that some themes are just common to the whole spy genre, like the idea of brainwashing or faking someone's death or having a training school. But, it's interesting when you compare the ways the two shows are similar and the different takes they each had on the same issue. Both of them were comedy shows, but Get Smart was much less serious than SMK, so their scenarios on the same issues were much less serious. The Get Smart training school was located in a neighborhood instead of being like the camp set-up in SMK. They would do target shooting and stuff in the backyard, and when Max was trying to practice with their bowler hat which was also a weapon, he accidentally tossed it over the fence and broke something. Then, the irate neighbor stormed over to tell the spies, "I've warned you people enough! This time, you don't get the hat back!" So, I guess he wasn't the first person to mess it up. The retirement home for spies was also cooler in Get Smart because it had secret passages and a museum of spy equipment and torture devices. XD

Get Smart also featured a male and female partnership that later turned into a romance, like in SMK. I thought up some more episode comparisons:

About having to find an antidote for something:

SMK – DOA: Delirious on Arrival – Amanda is accidentally given a hallucinogenic drug when she eats Lee’s chicken sandwich, and Lee has to get the antidote before the effects become permanent.
Get Smart – Classification: Dead – Max has a limited amount of time to get the antidote after he’s poisoned by a KAOS agent.

About look-alikes and imposters:

SMK – Odds on a Dead Pigeon -- An assassin who looks like Amanda targets the agents who were responsible for killing her employer’s brother, including Lee.

Get Smart – they did this one a lot:
Too Many Chiefs – An assassin who looks like the Chief attempts to kill a woman Control is trying to protect.
also
The Spy Who Met Himself – Several KAOS agents disguise themselves as members of Control, including Max. Members of Control set up a kind of tribunal to determine who is who, but can the judges be trusted?
also
Only Two Ninety-Nine – A KAOS agent poses as 99, and although they know that she’s an imposter, the Chief orders Max to pretend like he’s fooled by the deception while the Chief and the real 99 try to find out what KAOS is planning.

About the relatives of spies:

SMK – A Relative Situation – Lee’s uncle, an Air Force colonel who is aware of his nephew’s profession, needs Lee’s help to uncover the traitor who caused the deaths of his men before he is court martialed.
Get Smart – My Nephew the Spy – Max’s aunt and uncle come for a visit, unaware of their nephew’s profession. While Max tries to infiltrate a shoe store that is a cover for a KAOS communication center, they come to believe that he is a shoe salesman who works there.

About when a partner resigns:

SMK – Murder Between Friends – Amanda is forced to leave the Agency to seek a better-paying job with a security company. Then, the head of the company is murdered, and Lee has to help prove Amanda’s innocence.
Get Smart – 99 Loses Control – 99 leaves Control when a wealthy casino owner proposes to her. Max investigates the situation out of jealousy and learns that 99’s fiancé actually works for KAOS. He has to convince 99 of the truth to save her life.

About getting jealous over a partner:

There are a number of instances of this in both series, but these episodes kind of focus on it.

SMK – Service Above and Beyond – Amanda has to pose as a socialite and romance the wealthy owner of a chain of restaurants being investigated by the Agency.
Get Smart – Kisses for KAOS – 99 has to pretend to be a wealthy art expert and romance the owner of an art gallery in order to investigate a series of exploding paintings.

[Janeth]

To say nothing of the crazy way Max had to get into Control through a series of doors and finally a phone booth. Thanks goodness Rupert figured out how to simplify it down to a simple closet elevator!

[leelovesamanda]

In my most recent rewatch, I, too, have noticed how much SMK and Get Smart are alike - not just in similar themes, but also in gadgets and weapons. It’s so fun!