The TV networks did us all a favor by developing all those comedy shows back in the day. The independent stations and affiliates kept a lot of the shows in circulation for years after they went out of production. Barbara Feldon is best known for her role as Agent 99 on NBCs wisecracks 'Get Smart.' I always thought that Barbara Feldon was hot but in a classy,commercial kind of way. She was an amiable person but she was very much in charge of her own personal life and career. I enjoyed her clothes. It's weird yet Ms.Feldon dressed like someone much younger and I for one was in a way,very endeared by that. She was about 30 when The first Get Smart Pilot aired and the early episodes came along in 1965. People nowadays go to parties and they enjoy wearing '60s clothes.' Barbara Feldon and the other women in that era were dressed in things like go-go boots and B-52 like hairstyles. Normally, if women wore that kind of stuff to work,in the 60s someone in a supervisory position would tell them to "tone it down. Students in high school weren't allowed to dress like that. It wasn't the end of the world but it was a inconvenience to have strict dress codes .

'Get Smart' was created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry. They also wrote many of the series' episodes. The show lasted from 1965 to 1970. Don Adams played the central character who was Maxwell Smart a comedic secret agent working for a fictitious arm of US government security and espionage services called "Control". Agent 99 would often accompany him on missions and assignments. Feldon's character was much calmer than Smart and she very often got Max out of terrible jams. Control's primary nemesis was an espionage and security agency that is never clarified as being East German,Soviet or Nazi called KAOS. KAOS represented an undefined cold war threat. Actually,I think the producers who put together the show thought they'd take any and all hint of nazi threat out of KAOS after only a few episodes. "Seigfreid" or "Zeigfreid" has one of KAOS' star dastardly agents played hilariously by Bernie Kopell. KAOS agents were portrayed as bumbling and inefficient. KAOS fired Zeigfreid at least once for being a "dummkopf" and for awhile he pushed an ice cream Trolley in DC. "Cheif" or Max and 99's immediate superior and department boss at Control was played by veteran actor Ed Platt who had a role in a James Dean film. He has played everything from gangsters to cowboys for years. After a few of the Get Smart episodes along came,Bob Karvelus who became a regular as an assistant to Chief known as "Larrabee". Larrabee means something like "assistant" or "attachment" or "accessory"in some obscure native American dialect. Larabee's role was eventually expanded and he had star billing with everybody else. When Get Smart went off the air it was to a whole lot of tailgate partying,fireworks and fanfare much like what had accompanied the final episode of MASH when it went off the air.

There have been several Get Smart movies,sequels and an attempt to revive the series. My vote goes for "Get Smart Again". Everybody was there and giving it their all. On a sad note,Ed Platt passed away in the 70s. Somebody or someone tried to get the show going again with younger actors but it didn't pan out. Barbara Feldon was born Barbara Anne Hall in Bethel Park,Pennsylvania in 1932. She grew up in Pittsburgh. Barbara graduated from Bethel Park High School and trained at Pittsburgh Playhouse. She graduated from Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1955 as a bachelor of Arts in Drama. Barbara then worked as a model. In 1957 Feldon won the grand prize in The $64,000 question in the category of William Shakespeare. Her first big break came in a commercial as a lsex kitten wear leopard lingerie hawking Revlon's "Top Brass" hair tonic for men. From there,she began to get roles in"Twelve O'clock High" "Griff" "Flipper" "The Man From Uncle" "Mr. Broadway" "East Side/West Side". A production company called Talent Associates were developing a TV sitcom called 'Get Smart.' Barbara Feldon was cast as Agent 99! The pilot was shot in black and white. The rest of the episodes from 1965 to 1970 were in color. Get Smart! was a hit! So was Agent 99.

Feldon made 5 guest appearances on The Dean Martin Show . She guest starred on Laugh-In and The Smothers Brothers, The Name of The Game plus McMillan and Wife. There were TV Movies like Let's Switch(1985) A Vacation In Hell(1979). Then there were those Get Smart! Remakes and visa versa which I've described. Feldon was married to Lucien Verdous Feldon in 1958. They eventually divorced. Ms.Feldon had a relationship with Get Smart! producer Burt Nodella starting in 1968. The relationship lasted 12 years. Barbara Feldon doesn't have children. She is an accomplished writer and her stuff has been printed. She lives in New York. She's strikingly tall. Almost 6 feet! I've seen her on TV from time to time in recent years. She has crow's feet and her speaking voice comes across as a bit crackly,not to mention slightly tinted hair but honestly,if you don't focus on those things too closely,you'd be amazed that this woman doesn't look any different than she did in 1966 and 1967!