Max answers a knock on his door one morning to admit veteran character actor Percy Helton as a Mr. Pfister who wants Max to sign his petition to eliminate noise from the world. He wears red earmuffs, accuses Max of "shouting" when he speaks in a normal voice, and was quite disappointed Max wouldn't sign his petition.
Max meets 99 at a city park near a statue CONTROL is using for an information drop, and suddenly, silently, the statue explodes. Mystified as to how it was done silently, our heroes feel certain it must have been the work of arch-enemy Siegfried.
Then we see Siegfried in (the) park, anxiously waiting, when Starker shows up and Siegfried excitedly exclaims one of my all-time favorite Siegfried lines, "Where haf you been, Shtarker? I've been vaiting and vaiting for (checks his watch) 17 seconds?"
Starker explains he was held up by an old man with red earmuffs who wanted him to sign a petition. Siegfried asks if he signed it, and when Starker says he didn't, Siegfried says, "That gut because you can't write anyvay!" For my money, Bernie Kopell should have won Emmy awards for his portrayal of Siegfried.
The KAOS pair are near a statue in the park that KAOS uses for an information dropoff point and it suddenly explodes as silently as the other statue did earlier. They see Max and 99 nearby and figure they blew up their statue. They confront them and the four soon figure out it must have been the little old man with the red earmuffs. They get a note from a carrier pigeon explaining that he, Pfister, will destroy the world because neither side would sign his petition.
They find him in a clock store (how we are not told) but Pfister gets the drop on them holding a handgun with about 3 feet of silencers attached to the barrel. He leads them to his rooftop where he has hundreds of homing pigeons all ready to take off for their home cities-Pfister says every city of the world-but only quick action by Max stops the little man from accomplishing his feat.
There were a host of laughs directly connected with the plot I cannot get into here. One of the best things they did on this series regarding catch phrases was have someone other than Max say them at various times. Here we get Siegfried saying, I asked you not to tell me that," right after we are led to believe he said so in German.
Percy Helton was over 70 when he played Pfister. He has 238 different movies and TV shows in his IMDB credits going back to a role in a silent movie made in 1915 when he was 21. His first role in a feature-length motion picture well-known today was as the drunken Santa Claus in the Thanksgiving Day parade whose firing led to the real Kris Kringle getting hired to play the role in 1947's Miracle on 34th Street. He was in films featuring Jimmy Stewart, Abbott and Costello, and Martin and Lewis before moving into TV series. He was with the Lone Ranger and Maverick, Lassie, Rin Tin Tin and Mr. Ed, Eliot Ness (on the Untouchables) and Perry Mason. He was on sitcoms including Bob Cummings, Hazel, The Real McCoys, The Bill Dana Show (where he would have worked with Don Adams), Father Knows Best, My Three Sons, Green Acres (three times) and as one character in 6 episodes of The Beverly Hillbillies. He always had a quite soft voice, making him perfect for his role here.
Seeing Max & 99 working with Siegfried and Starker made this episode a true classic Get Smart, thus I give it a 10.
Max meets 99 at a city park near a statue CONTROL is using for an information drop, and suddenly, silently, the statue explodes. Mystified as to how it was done silently, our heroes feel certain it must have been the work of arch-enemy Siegfried.
Then we see Siegfried in (the) park, anxiously waiting, when Starker shows up and Siegfried excitedly exclaims one of my all-time favorite Siegfried lines, "Where haf you been, Shtarker? I've been vaiting and vaiting for (checks his watch) 17 seconds?"
Starker explains he was held up by an old man with red earmuffs who wanted him to sign a petition. Siegfried asks if he signed it, and when Starker says he didn't, Siegfried says, "That gut because you can't write anyvay!" For my money, Bernie Kopell should have won Emmy awards for his portrayal of Siegfried.
The KAOS pair are near a statue in the park that KAOS uses for an information dropoff point and it suddenly explodes as silently as the other statue did earlier. They see Max and 99 nearby and figure they blew up their statue. They confront them and the four soon figure out it must have been the little old man with the red earmuffs. They get a note from a carrier pigeon explaining that he, Pfister, will destroy the world because neither side would sign his petition.
They find him in a clock store (how we are not told) but Pfister gets the drop on them holding a handgun with about 3 feet of silencers attached to the barrel. He leads them to his rooftop where he has hundreds of homing pigeons all ready to take off for their home cities-Pfister says every city of the world-but only quick action by Max stops the little man from accomplishing his feat.
There were a host of laughs directly connected with the plot I cannot get into here. One of the best things they did on this series regarding catch phrases was have someone other than Max say them at various times. Here we get Siegfried saying, I asked you not to tell me that," right after we are led to believe he said so in German.
Percy Helton was over 70 when he played Pfister. He has 238 different movies and TV shows in his IMDB credits going back to a role in a silent movie made in 1915 when he was 21. His first role in a feature-length motion picture well-known today was as the drunken Santa Claus in the Thanksgiving Day parade whose firing led to the real Kris Kringle getting hired to play the role in 1947's Miracle on 34th Street. He was in films featuring Jimmy Stewart, Abbott and Costello, and Martin and Lewis before moving into TV series. He was with the Lone Ranger and Maverick, Lassie, Rin Tin Tin and Mr. Ed, Eliot Ness (on the Untouchables) and Perry Mason. He was on sitcoms including Bob Cummings, Hazel, The Real McCoys, The Bill Dana Show (where he would have worked with Don Adams), Father Knows Best, My Three Sons, Green Acres (three times) and as one character in 6 episodes of The Beverly Hillbillies. He always had a quite soft voice, making him perfect for his role here.
Seeing Max & 99 working with Siegfried and Starker made this episode a true classic Get Smart, thus I give it a 10.
