Don Adams(1923 -2005) ....Would you believe....?

This was a funny guy.
Nobody could deliver such absurd dialogue with absolute seriousness better than Don Adams. He was part of a group of comedians which have not been remotely paralleled in the last 40 years. Buck Henry, Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Sid Caesar these guys brought the funny. It wasn't dumbed down for the masses. It wasn't (for the most part) test marketed to chimpanzees in the Congo for an approval rating. It was raw, intelligent, irreverent and more than anything else, it was funny.

Really funny.

Don Adams had a way of delivering a line so that even though he was deadly serious, you were laughing before the payoff of the joke even reached the screen. Whether he was voicing "Tennessee Tuxedo, The Penguin With a Plan" or as Agent 86, Maxwell Smart, defender of justice and thorn in the side of KAOS and Bernie Koppell. He had no peer. He was an original often copied, never surpassed.

I am thrilled that a younger generation was able to enjoy him as the voice of "Inspector Gadget" but his true genius was his delivery coupled with his facial expressions. In case you never got to see it, he had a show in the mid 70's called "Don Adam's Screen Test". It was a great show where ordinary people from the audience would be put into famous scenes (very often perfect replicas of the actual set) with real actors (some times famous, I recall Don Rickles being a regular guest) and as they shot it, the comedy of recreating the scene was hysterical even when the scene wasn't supposed to be. It was the kind of TV that I really miss when I see ads for "The Apprentice 1, 2 & 3" or "Survivor. Unfortunately, those days are long gone.

Oh and the next time you watch "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer" listen for the voice of Comet the reindeer coach as he chastises poor Rudolph for his blinkin beacon ... It's Don.

Agent 86, you've been relieved of duty ... but I hear they have great job waiting for you up there ... Ok, would you believe ....