Get Smart
The Day Smart Turned Chicken
TV Flash files “The Day Smart Turned Chicken” as a desk essential hour — Get Smart (1965–1970) on NBC/CBS, season 1, episode 8, aired 1965-11-06, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S01E08: listed hour 8 of 138 in the Get Smart guide, hour 8 of 30 in season 1. It aired 1965-11-06 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “KAOS in CONTROL” (S01E07). Next is “Satan Place” (S01E09).
Essential hour: “The Day Smart Turned Chicken”. Adams's cadence as a delayed fuse. The hybrid tightening instead of only stacking catchphrases.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Smart is to testify against KAOS soon, so they devise situations to show that Smart is losing his mind. A dying cowboy comes to Max's apartment to reveal a plot to poison the Morovian Ambassador at a costume party that night. Max calls the Chief, but when help arrives, the dead cowboy is missing and there's no proof of his ever having existed. Max dresses as a giant chicken and attends the costume ball at the embassy in order to protect the ambassador, but it's not a costume party and there's no poison in the ambassador's drink. It's all a KAOS plot to convince everyone that Max is crazy and discredit his testimony in an upcoming court case.
Viewer FAQ
Where does The Day Smart Turned Chicken sit in the Get Smart guide?
S01E08 is listed hour 8 of 138 — hour 8 of 30 in season 1, season 1 episode 8.
When did Get Smart S01E08 air?
The Day Smart Turned Chicken aired 1965-11-06 and is listed at 30 minutes.
Do I need to watch Get Smart in order?
Mostly no. It is episodic spy farce. Recurring gadgets and the Smart/99 partnership reward a little sequence, but you can hop after the pilot grammar clicks.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Watch a spy satire that loves its gadgets enough to mock them. Adams' timing, Feldon's cool, and farce that still understands tension — proof a laugh can share a frame with a ticking briefcase without dropping either assignment.
The cone still matters more than the catchphrase. Get Smart, 1965, is a spy novel that keeps tripping on its own gadgets and somehow still completes the mission. Mel Brooks and Buck Henry built a CONTROL agent who is both the punchline and the plot: Don Adams's Maxwell Smart, Barbara Feldon's Agent 99, Edward Platt's Chief. Bond mania had already sold the tuxedo. This series sold the gag without throwing away the thriller's timing. That dual assignment is the craft. Plenty of satires love the joke and forget the…
Filed against
- Don Adams as Maxwell Smart
Don Adams played Maxwell Smart — Agent 86 — on Get Smart, spy satire so sharp the shoe phone still works. Nasal bravado and cone-of-silence timing made 1960s gadget mania hilarious. TV Flash salutes the original bumbling superspy who…
- Barbara Feldon as Agent 99
Barbara Feldon’s Agent 99 outclassed Maxwell Smart on Get Smart — spy satire so sharp the shoe phone still works, and she was usually the brains in the cone of silence. Cool competence made 1960s gadget comedy sing. TV Flash files her as…
- Edward Platt as The Chief
Edward Platt played The Chief on Get Smart — CONTROL's straight man in a gadget farce that loves its toys enough to mock them. Cone of silence, shoe phone, a briefing that has to survive Don Adams' miss. TV Flash files him as the…