Get Smart (TV Series) The Day Smart Turned Chicken (1965) User Reviews

Crazy like a Max

[zsenorsock · 9/10 · 22 May 2008]

Max has just finished a long and tiring case that had him travel all over the world. He gets a knock at the door and a man dressed as a cowboy (Simon Oakland) with a knife in his back staggers in with a warning about an impending assassination attempt. Only when the Chief arrives, there's no sign of the cowboy! Could an overtired Max have imagined it? The Chief leaves and the cowboy reappears, telling Max an ambassador is to be murdered at a costume party that night. Max springs to action, gets a costume and goes to save the ambassador. Only its NOT a costume party and there is no attempt made on the ambassador. Everybody thinks Max is a deranged lunatic, which is unfortunate since he is the key witness testifying in a case against KAOS.

The scene where the cowboy keeps dying then coming to life is one of the series best. Both Adams and Oakland show off perfect timing. Iris Adrian as Max's neighbor Mrs. Dawson, is screamingly funny. She's wonderfully loud and sarcastic, slightly reminiscent of Ethel Merman's character in "It's a Mad, Mad World". Howard Caine is good as Dr. Fish (he would later return to the series as Dr. Smith and the memorable actor Bediyoskin)and the ending is a classic as Max tries to prove to a court (and the Chief) he is not crazy, while once again discovering a clue that solves the case and shows that while a bumbler, he occasionally does do good work.

A rarity--and one of the funniest, too!

[tforbes-2 · 10/10 · 25 November 2016]

"The Day Smart Turned Chicken" is, hands down, one of THE funniest episodes of the entire series. This is an unusual episode from the start, because Barbara Feldon doesn't appear (though you see a painting of her).

Simon Oakland plays a cowboy character who keeps appearing and disappearing, and seems to be out to destroy Maxwell Smart's credibility. Both he and Don Adams turn in great performances, as does Ed Platt.

The trial scene is excellent. And the very tail end of the episode is priceless! As much as I love Barbara Feldon, this may be my all-time personal favorite, because of how screamingly funny this episode is!

They killed him twice

[FlushingCaps · 10/10 · 16 December 2020]

This has long been one of my favorite episodes. Tonight's viewing did nothing to lessen my fondness for it.

Smart is coming to the door at nighttime wearing his robe that displays his agent number--86, in answer to a knock. He sees a man who wants help and admits him. It is a man in a cowboy outfit with a knife protruding from his back. Smart takes him up to his own bedroom to lie down. The cowboy tells about "they're going to poison someone." He appears to die a couple of times, but comes back with a bit more info for Max.

Max phones the chief but when the Chief is there, the cowboy is nowhere to be found. The Chief thinks Max is too tired from a heavy work assignment and wants him to get some sleep because his testimony tomorrow is crucial to their case against high leaders of KAOS. Smart tries but finds the cowboy has returned, explaining he hid on the fire escape when he heard voices. He now tells Max the details-they're going to poison the Maurovian ambassador at a midnight toast during a costume party at the embassy.

Now Max goes to call for a doctor when he opens the door to find a man (Howard Caine, most noted for being the hilarious Major Hochstetter on Hogan's Heroes) who is looking for a Mrs. Dawson, who is a neighbor in Smart's apartment building. He says she sprained her ankle and called for his help because he's a doctor.

Smart now leads Dr. Fish to help his cowboy. Fish looks at him in bed, feels for a pulse, pulls the sheet over his head and asks for $12 for a house call. Smart smartly talks him out of his fee and phones the Chief again. To prove he's not dreaming, he goes to get the doctor to talk to the Chief. But at Mrs. Dawson's, her ankle is fine and there's no doctor around.

It's OK because the cowboy is gone again. Smart now tries to call the embassy and here we see part of what's really happening. In some nearby room we see a man, the cowboy, and after a few seconds, Dr. Fish, happy to hear that Smart has fallen for their scheme.

The intercepted call sees the one man tell Smart that he cannot talk to the ambassador and that if he came to the party, he couldn't get in without a costume. Max finds a card on his bed-left by the cowboy, for an all-night costume shop. When he gets there, the man has only one costume available-a chicken suit.

Max wears it to interrupt the party just before the ambassador drinks the toast. But another man laughs at the threat and drinks the poison to prove there is nothing wrong with it.

As the trial gets started, we learn the defense is asking for the case to be dismissed because it relies totally on one man-Maxwell Smart, and that his testimony is inadmissible because he's been acting crazy lately. Suddenly it is as if Max is on trial. People from the party-which wasn't a costume party at all, tell about him in his chicken suit. The neighbor, Mrs. Dawson, laughs hysterically when Max asks her if he has every given her reason to suspect his sanity. Even the Chief can only glare instead of answering questions about his abilities.

Then the judge says something that gives Max a big clue and he asks to put on one more witness, and he proceeds to prove that it was all a frame-up to discredit him, cleverly getting out of a jam.

There is a tag ending with the Chief back at the apartment that is also a good laugh.

I will report on two favorite lines: When seeking Dr. Fish, Max tells his neighbor who asks if he knows what time it is, "Yes, but I knew you'd be up with your ankle." She replies, "I'm rarely up without it." At the party, trying to explain to the ambassador, he says, "The dead cowboy told me...they killed him twice."

This was the first episode where Max used his catch phrase, "Missed it by that much" while holding his thumb and forefinger about an inch apart. On the DVD set, each episode has a straightforward introduction by Barbara Feldon (who was missing from this episode). In this one, she claims it was the first episode where Max said "Sorry about that Chief," which is an error because he said that two episodes earlier, but she missed the one that was used.

Max actually gets through a whole episode without bumbling. He may have said a few things that sounded silly, but he doesn't knock anything over or any of those things he's known for. There were laughs from start to finish here, which is why I don't hesitate to give it a 10.