Sorry About That, Chief

One by one the icons of my youth are dropping like flies. And as each one falls, it further reminds me that I'm getting old myself.

Frankly, it's pissing me off.

Anyway, the latest is Don Adams, who died yesterday at the age of 82. He, of course, played Maxwell "Agent 86" Smart on Get Smart. I only vaguely remember watching the show in the '60's, but a few years later, it was one of the reruns that populated one of the four TV channels in the DC area. As I recall, it used to come on about the time I got home from school.

Max had some great recurring lines. His most famous, of course, was the unforgettable "Sorry about that, chief." That's a line that lives on even today, and I can imagine former FEMA Director Micheal Brown saying that to Bush in the days after Hurricane Katrina.

But my favorite was the one he always said whenever the Chief would give him a complex set of instructions for some delicate mission involving the fate of the free world. Max would be listening to the Chief, a look of intense concentration on his face. The Chief would finish up by saying, "Did you get that Max?" And Max would say "I lost you at the bakery."

Of course there was never any mention of a bakery anywhere in the instructions, and the Chief would begin screaming.

Sure, I enjoyed Gilligan's Island, loved Mr. Ed, and found My Favorite Martian to be out of this world. But it was Get Smart that missed my heart by that much.