This show was far, far from being the "best TV show of all time. Some of the reviews are obvious shills (claques)-- one can't compare this show to true classics like "The Carol Burnett Show", "Star Trek (the original series)", "Sesame Street", "Gunsmoke", "Seinfeld", "Looney Tunes", The Daily Show, MST3k, "Mr. Roger's Neighborhood", "FireFly", "The X Files", "Twilight Zone", "Outer Limits"... one would have to go quite far down the list, well past 100 shows, to find this show on a list of "great TV shows of the past".
Neither is it a cultural icon, or a picture of the era's zeitgeist. For that, shows like "Star Trek", "All in the Family", "Sesame Street", or "The Outer Limits" are far better at capturing a slice of what people thought and felt at the time.
As another reviewer put it, the main character was rather funny over a short period, but the voice was grating if one watched more than one episode at a time. Likewise the Cone of Silence was a great gag...if used only once, but it got overused. The show was defined by a) being a James Bond parody, and b) shallow, overly repetitious humor.
It's true that many of the show's catch-phrases have become commonly-known and often-used language in daily life, as has Maxwell Smart's voice, but they only made it to that exalted status by being repeated often on the show...which means that the show relied heavily on rehashed dialog and series-long running gags rather than inventiveness.
So...view it once in a while on a TV retro station, as you would "Gilligan's Island" or "I Dream of Jeannie" or "The Partridge Family". Do not expect to find the show witty and sophisticated, or thought-provoking. At best, it's a cultural icon but a shallow one...a blast from the past, worth an occasional quiet reminiscing chuckle for the over-40 folks. At worst, it's the sort of repetitious won't-entertain-anyone-over-6yo stuff typified by "Gilligan's Island".
Neither is it a cultural icon, or a picture of the era's zeitgeist. For that, shows like "Star Trek", "All in the Family", "Sesame Street", or "The Outer Limits" are far better at capturing a slice of what people thought and felt at the time.
As another reviewer put it, the main character was rather funny over a short period, but the voice was grating if one watched more than one episode at a time. Likewise the Cone of Silence was a great gag...if used only once, but it got overused. The show was defined by a) being a James Bond parody, and b) shallow, overly repetitious humor.
It's true that many of the show's catch-phrases have become commonly-known and often-used language in daily life, as has Maxwell Smart's voice, but they only made it to that exalted status by being repeated often on the show...which means that the show relied heavily on rehashed dialog and series-long running gags rather than inventiveness.
So...view it once in a while on a TV retro station, as you would "Gilligan's Island" or "I Dream of Jeannie" or "The Partridge Family". Do not expect to find the show witty and sophisticated, or thought-provoking. At best, it's a cultural icon but a shallow one...a blast from the past, worth an occasional quiet reminiscing chuckle for the over-40 folks. At worst, it's the sort of repetitious won't-entertain-anyone-over-6yo stuff typified by "Gilligan's Island".