"99...Don't Be Ridiculous!" :>(

[Borderstone]

The title of my post is my favorite line from "Get Smart". As most of us know that's a line Don Adams said very often. Don Adams passed away last night at age 82 from a lung infection.

His voice and demeanor were unmistakeable. He did many a TV show but he will always be remembered fondly for Maxwell Smart and the great routines like,"The Cone Of Silence","Would You Believe....?" and of course the good old shoe phone!

Along with "Get Smart",Don was also the voice for 2 different cartoons. In the 1960s he was the voice of "Tenessee Tuxedo",a penguin who lived in a zoo but wanted very much to be human. In the 1980's he voiced the very popular,"Inspector Gadget",a detective who had several gadgets attatched to him for crime fighting.

Two other Adams shows were "Don Adams' Screen Test (sort of the original,"Whose Line Is It Anyway?") and a short lived mid-'80s sit-com called "Check It Out",where he played the manager of a local grocery store.

In more recent years he continued to voice "Inspector Gadget" direct to video cartoon movies and made a few more atempts at Get Smart related projects,like the ill fated version where his son decides to get into the spy-biz.

In 1980,there was a Get Smart movie called,"The Nude Bomb",where Kaos makes a bomb that dissolves the worlds clothing supply. It sank at the box office,sad to say.

The great thing is,Don Adams will never be forgotten for Get Smart and the above cartoons he voiced. Hang up the shoe phone Max,Don has hung up. RIP Mr Adams.

[ September 27, 2005, 18:33: Message edited by: Borderstone ]

[Auburn Annie]

Would you believe...??
Sorry about that, Chief.
And...loving it.
Why that's the old [fill in the blank] trick!
Missed it by THAT much!
I asked you not to tell me that.

I'm old enough to remember him on the Bill Dana Show ("My name Jose Jimenez" early to mid 60s.)

And ah, yes, Inspector Gadget - one of my kids' favorite cartoon. My husband favored "Count Duckula" from the late 80s, which followed on our local station for a few years. The housekeeper, Nanny, sounded remarkably like his (British Canadian) mother (see http://www.toonhound.com/countduckula.htm ).

Darn, now I've got the Inspector Gadget theme running through my head (you can even download the ringtone if you want.)

So long, Agent 86!

[Molly]

Very nice epitaph Borderstone, I wish his family could read it.

[Borderstone]

Thanks Molly . I think they would too. I also amazed myself at how much I recalled too.

Want to hear something strange? Monday morning,before I heard anything about Don,the Inspector Gadget theme was already in my head! I swear to God!

In a lesser coincidence,just days ago I watched the start of a Simpsons show,where they do their version of the opening credits from Get Smart! Homer walks through all the halls & doors and gets in the phone booth and drops onto his living room sofa. Strange.

[Borderstone]

A quick addition here. The day before Don passed away,Johnny Bond (who played the bully "Butch" in "The Little Rascals/"Our Gang" shorts) passed away at age 79 of heart disease.

Butch was always funny,especially when he got his come-uppance. He was one of the less then 20 remaining.

[Sydney Steve]

The thing that pi**es me off is not so much about Don, and more about the general symptom that he is a part of .

So many of the icons we grew up with in all spheres (music,film, TV,)- if they are not already dust are dust in waiting - every week we see another one in the obituary columns...
Geeze getting older has its down sides....

I may just have to go and swallow a mug of warm milk with a nonchalant swagger (which now includes a roll of a formerly non existent gut) and being the rebel I am I may even leave off my slippers to prove there is still some youth living in me somewhere.....

PS This post is DEFINITELY NOT endorsed by the Combat Depression in the Aged Society.. (lol)

[ September 29, 2005, 03:46: Message edited by: Sydney Steve ]

[Borderstone]

Sydney S. ; I know,it seems like every other week it's another famous person
saying good-bye.

In 2003 it seemed like every five minutes! It got so bad that year,that I read an online column written by some jerk (who thought this comment would be funny,I guess) who said (paraphrasing),"All these old celebrities that are dying,heck,I thought they already had!"

Definelty....not funny!

[yaz8]

My favortite line was:
MAX: Not quite Chief.
CHIEF: What part didn't you get?
MAX: The part after, "Listen closely, Max"

Goodbye 86
________
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