The One and Only Agent 86 Maxwell Smart

Those close-set eyes, that clueless demeanor, the self-centered attitude and cavalier optimism in the face of disaster. Don Adams may no longer be with us, but he will never be forgotten as Agent 86 in the 1960’s NBC/CBS “Get Smart” TV series. He was so successful as Maxwell Smart, in fact, that it became impossible for producers or the public to see him in any other role. It seems impossible now to imagine anyone else as Agent 86. Who else could have played the role? Well, there is one other person. Close-set eyes, clueless demeanor, self-absorbed attitude, cavalier optimism. It’s only a matter of time until the Bush White House gets its just due: a TV series based on the worst administration, Republican or Democrat, ever to have foisted itself on the American people. We had an ideal TV President in Martin Sheen’s Josiah “Jed” Bartlett in “The West Wing”. We now have a woman President in Geena Davis’s new TV show, “Commander in Chief”. If President George W. Bush had not existed in reality, television would have had to invent him. Don Adams, who played George W. Bush but didn’t know it, died on September 26th at the age of 82, long may Maxwell Smart live. But we still have SNL’s Will Ferrell, who has the Bush persona down. And we have David Hyde Pierce who played a depressed and suicidal United States congressman in 1992’s “The Powers That Be”. And was, would you believe, hilarious. We still have “Get Smart” writers, Mel Brooks and Buck Henry. With the Bush polls plummeting, the unnecessary war in Iraq going nowhere but into a black hole of failure, and new false moves and wrong-headed decisions occurring daily, the TV industry may decide to laugh the BushMen into oblivion with a sit-com they deserve. Supporting cast: Laura Bush: Renee Zellweger Dick Cheney: Jason Alexander Karl Rove: Dennis Franz Condoleezza Rice: CCH Pounder Scott McClellan: Paul Giamatti Michael Chertoff: Michael Richards Michael Brown: Gordon Clapp