The Real Reason ‘Get Smart’ Was Cancelled After Five Seasons
Get Smart premiered on September 18, 1965 and quickly became one of the most beloved comedies of its time. The Mel Brooks-created series served as a parody of the 1960s spy craze, starring Don Adams as bumbling Agent 86, Maxwell Smart, and Barbara Feldon as the sharp and capable Agent 99. The show won multiple Emmys, built a loyal audience, and is still considered a classic; however, by 1970, after five successful years, Get Smart disappeared from the primetime schedule due to a perfect storm of ratings, production costs, network issues, and changing public tastes.
In its first two years, Get Smart was a top-rated show, landing in the Nielsen Top 30 and even reaching #12 in its debut season. Viewers loved seeing spies lampooned at the height of James Bond mania, and scripts by Brooks and The Graduate screenwriter Buck Henry brought a new, edgy comedy to primetime TV. By 1967, however, the show’s audience had begun to shrink. After Season 2, the show fell out of the Top 30 and never returned to that level. By the late 1960s, its ratings had slipped enough to make NBC reconsider its place in the lineup.
Gene Trindl/TV Guide /courtesy Everett Collection
By the spring of 1969, Get Smart was airing on Saturdays against The Jackie Gleason Show. Gleason’s variety program was pulling in stronger numbers, and Get Smart was no longer competitive. NBC made the call to cancel the show after its fourth season. But the cancellation was not the end, as CBS, sensing an opportunity, picked up Get Smart for a fifth season in the fall of 1969. The show was moved to Fridays at 7:30 pm. CBS placed it in the spot left open by the cancellation of its own spy-western, The Wild Wild West. Get Smart still lost out to lighter competition like Let’s Make a Deal and the western The High Chaparral. Ratings stayed low, and CBS even pulled the show off the air mid-season for a short hiatus. When it returned, the decision had already been made that the fifth season would be the last.
Before the cancellations, the producers tried big story changes to lure back viewers. In Season 4, Max and 99 were married, a major milestone for the characters. The following year, twins were added to the story. These developments were meant to refresh the formula and generate publicity. For many viewers, the spy parody concept felt past its prime by 1969, no matter how many twists were added.
Everett Collection
Behind the scenes, the business side of television also mattered. As shows go on, cast salaries increase, production expenses climb, and contracts must be renegotiated. Don Adams had a special ownership stake that made his situation unique, but keeping a full cast on board for a sixth season would have required new deals. For a show already underperforming in the ratings, those costs were difficult to justify. CBS had little incentive to invest more when the audience was shrinking.
In an interview with the Archive of American Television, Feldon once revealed that she was quite relieved when the show ultimately got cancelled. She admitted, “After, you know, doing the same character year after year, there’s not much left … it’s not really challenging. You know, you’re not scaring yourself to death. It’s nice to be scared once in a while.”
In the end, Get Smart reached 138 episodes, enough to thrive in syndication for decades. Its cancellation was not the result of creative failure but of the practical forces that shape television, including slipping ratings, rising costs, and changing audience tastes. Even though it ended after five years, the series remains a classic.
Feldon added, “It went off the air because it was time for it to go off the air. You know, it had lost its momentum by that time.”
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Classic TV Shows of the ’50s & ’60s
September 2020
Test your knowledge, from Bonanza and Gunsmoke to I Love Lucy, I Dream of Jeannie, Star Trek and more fun TV of the 1950s and 1960s.
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