It’s almost exactly 50 years since Get Smart wrapped, yet the classic spy comedy is still on our screens.
The show followed bungling spy Maxwell Smart and his sidekick Agent 99.
WATCH the memorable intro from the TV show here.
While Agent 99 goes on to give birth to twins in the series, actress Barbara Feldon, 86, who portrayed the character, tells New Idea why she never went on to have children in real-life.
“It didn’t happen,” Barbara says. “I didn’t even notice that it wasn’t happening. I’m not one of those women who felt that they had to have a child or they wouldn’t be fulfilled. If it had happened, I would have embraced it, but it didn’t, so I embrace that.”
After the show went off air in 1970 the performer immersed herself in theatre and wrote several books, including Living Alone and Loving It, penned after the demise of her second long-term relationship to Get Smart producer Burt Nodella.
So, more than 15 years on, is the actress still single and loving it?
“Yes!” she laughs. “I’m living alone and loving it. When I was newly single my instinct was to find another guy. But times had changed … I found that relationships weren’t as stable as they once were and that people were less interested in getting committed.
“So, I found myself living alone first for a week, then a month, and then years. I used to think that you needed to have a partner in order to be happy, but that’s just not true.”
Writing the book in a pre-smartphone age, the 60s starlet is horrified at the prospect of immersing herself in the world of online dating.
“I am just gobsmacked by what young people go through today,” she says. “I have a friend in his 40s who does a lot of online dating, and I’ve seen how unsatisfying it has been for him along the way.”
Half a century has passed since Barbara called time on the famous TV series, yet her passion for Get Smart hasn’t lessened. “It was so beautifully written,” she says, smiling. “So charming and clever.”
Barbara also revealed that she turned down a cameo role in the big screen remake of the show – Get Smart – which starred actor Steve Carell as Maxwell and actress Anne Hathaway as Agent 99, and doesn’t believe a reboot of the classic series would work today.
“Times have changed too much. The psychology of the writers and the audience has changed radically,” she says. “Get Smart belongs in the 1960s, or it’s not going to be Get Smart.”
Barbara Feldon will be a guest at Supanova in Sydney from June 21-23, and Perth from June 28-30. For more info visit supanova.com.au
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