Trivia: Born in a multicultural New York City neighborhood, comedian Don Adams joined the Marines upon the outbreak of World War II. After Guadalcanal, Adams saw little action due to a life-threatening bout of blackwater fever (malaria) that kept him out of commission until the end of the war. As a civilian, Adams tried at first to carve out a career as a professional artist, taking outside jobs to support himself and his family. Blessed with a gift for mimicry, Adams and a friend teamed up for a comedy act but response was minimal, and soon Adams was involved in the cartographic and engineering business. Then in 1954, on a whim, he auditioned for Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts; his routine went over, and he was on his way. Collaborating with his close friend Bill Dana, Adams developed a topnotch act full of "inside" showbiz references that fortunately never went over the heads of the audience. His best monologue was "The Defense Attorney," wherein Adams adopted the clipped speech cadence of actor William Powell. Though he would be seen in a variety of sketches during his nightclub years and his early-1960s stint as a regular on The Perry Como Show, it was the Powell imitation that scored highest. Adams would use this voice for the cartoon character of Tennessee Tuxedo in 1963, and that same year expanded on the impression in the role of inept house detective Byron Glick on The Bill Dana Show. The "spy cycle" of 1965 enabled Adams to refine the Byron Glick character into the magnificently self-confident but monumentally inept secret-agent Maxwell Smart on the hit TV sitcom Get Smart, which ran until 1970. In addition to providing Adams a conduit for his beloved movie parodies, the series also gave him an opportunity to direct. In 1971, Adams moved onto another genre-spoof TV series, The Partners, in which he played police detective Lennie Crook. Hampered by weak scripts and a death-valley timeslot opposite All in the Family, The Partners perished after thirteen weeks. After this debacle, Adams found the going rough for a while, though he made a comfortable living with nightclub appearances and guest spots on such TV series as The Love Boat. He made no fewer than three attempts to revive Get Smart between 1980 and 1994, one of which actually resulted in a (very short-lived) weekly Fox network sitcom. Adams is best known to children of the 1980s as the voice of cartoondom's bionic blockhead, Inspector Gadget. Don Adams was the brother of another comic actor, the late Richard Yarmy; Adams' cousin Robert Karvelas played secret agent Larrabee on Get Smart.

Trivia: American actress Barbara Feldon claimed to be a lonely child, one whose escape from loneliness took the form of books and ballet. While studying drama at Carnegie Tech, she became an expert in Shakespeare, and in this capacity made her TV debut as a contestant on The $64,000 Question (kinescopes exist of this appearance; Barbara is instantly recognizable, though she hasn't quite lost all her baby fat). Feldon worked as a chorus girl in New York, then slimmed down considerably and became a high-priced fashion model. Commercials followed, in which Feldon pitched deodorant pads and--most famously--men's cologne. Few males who were going through adolescence in the early '60s will forget Feldon pitching Top Brass cologne to the "tigers" in the audience, staring into the camera with almost unbearable sultriness (the actress insisted that her come-hither glare was a result of nearsightedness). After doing the guest-star round on several TV dramatic programs, Feldon won the role of statuesque Agent 99 on the spy sitcom Get Smart. Part of the fun on this program was watching Feldon try to avoid revealing that she was a few inches taller than co-star Don Adams (in some scenes he was standing on an incline, as proven when the Nickelodeon cable network put together a montage of "who's taller?" scenes from Get Smart in the early '90s). Get Smart ran from 1965 through 1970, but Feldon has occasionally re-created Agent 99, once in a Smart TV-movie reunion, and more recently in a "return" series for the Fox Network, again starring with Don Adams. Feldon's film career has been less remarkable, save for her brilliant interpretation of a near-fanatic beauty contest organizer in the 1975 satirical comedy Smile. In the last few years, Barbara Feldon has distinguished herself as an expert voiceover artist in commercials and TV specials; she can be heard as the narrator of the PBS series Dinosaurs.

Trivia: American character actor Edward Platt is best remembered as the eternally exasperated Chief on the Get Smart series. Before making his screen debut in the mid-'50s, he worked as a singer for a band. In feature films, he was typically cast as generals and bosses.

Trivia: After starting out as a free-form stand-up comic in San Francisco and New York, Dick Gautier was nominated for a Tony Award for his portrayal of Elvis-like rock star Conrad Birdie in the 1961 Broadway production Bye Bye Birdie. Gautier was also half of an informal, improvisational comedy team with straight man Peter Marshall. In films since 1972, Gautier is better known for his television work on such series as Mr. Terrific (1967), Here We Go Again (1971), The Liars Club (1974), and especially Get Smart (1965-70), in which he played Hymie the Robot. Get Smart co-creator Mel Brooks later concocted a starring TV vehicle for Gautier, the 13-week Robin Hood spoof When Things Were Rotten (1975). In the 1980s, Gautier embarked on a sizeable career as a voice-over actor, lending his voice to memorable characters in the animated G.I. Joe (as Serpentor) and Transformers (as Rodimus Prime), and as stock characters in shows like Smurfs and The Addams Family. Gautier died in 2017, at age 85.

Trivia: Roly-poly, handlebar-mustached comic actor Avery Schreiber attended Goodman Theatre before joining Chicago's Second City improv troupe. It was here that Schreiber formed a long-term partnership with comedian/producer/director Jack Burns. The team gained fame on the variety-show circuit of the 1960s with their largely improvised routines, the most affectionately remembered of which was their cross-talk "cab driver" bit ("Yeh!" "Huh?" "Yeh!", "Huh?" "Yeh!", "Huh?") In 1965, Schreiber was cast as car-loving, people-hating Captain Manzini on that quintessential bad sitcom My Mother The Car; in real life, the actor loved people but hated cars, and had to be taught to drive for the series. Schreiber subsequently co-starred with his old partner Jack Burns on the 1967 summer variety series Our Place, then soloed as a regular on Sammy Davis Jr's syndicated Sammy & Company (1975) and as Grandpa Quirk on the daytime cartoon--live action hybrid Wake, Rattle and Roll (1990). In films, Schreiber has surfaced in "funny foreigner" parts in such comedies as Don't Drink the Water (1969), The Last Remake of Beau Geste (1977; as the used camel salesman) and Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1994). Having made his Broadway debut with the rest of the Second City-zens, Schreiber has since been featured in several New York stage productions, notably Metamorphoses and Can-Can. In recent years, Avery Schreiber, his bushy 8-inch moustache intact, has hosted more than his share of late-night TV infomercials.