Get Smart – Pheasant Under Glass (1969)

Pheasant Under Glass is the 1^st episode from the 5^th and final season of the long running and much loved American TV show; Get Smart.

Get Smart was a spoof of that staple of 60’s fiction; the secret agent genre.  In its opening scene, that has nothing to do with the plot and everything to do with Neil Armstrong, Max and 99 go to the moon for one of their mission briefing with the Chief who’s already there and waiting for them.

The Chief tells them that it will probably be the last time that they’ll meet there as it’s about to become very busy.  Max says that at least they had a good four years using it.  The show aired September 1969 just a few months after the Eagle had landed.

And when returning to Earth, Max offers the Chief a lift back but apparently he’s not going that way!

It still made me smile and I’m watching some four decades later but maybe I’m easily pleased.

Anyhow, these are those space suits that were first seen in Way... Way Out, then; In Like Flint and, after a whitewashing for Escape from the Planet of the Apes, went on to put in an appearance at the Mos Eisley Space Port.  Interestingly, I’ve a notion that the helmets were also seen in the Star Wars cantina too but we’ll look into that when we get to there. 

It’s also interesting to note, because it’s very easy to see in these pictures, that there is a subtle difference between the helmets seen here, with Don Adams’ having a smaller, rounder visor which is particularly noticeable when viewed sideways on.

Steve