December 30, 2024 • 43 mins
Morgan White Fills In On NightSide with Dan Rea:
Barbara Feldon, best known for playing the role of Agent 99 on the 1960s television series Get Smart, wrote her memoir at age 90 and is still going strong today! Morgan checked in with this legendary actress about life, family, and her continued career!
Ask Alexa to play WBZ NewsRadio on #iHeartRadio and listen to NightSide with Dan Rea Weeknights From 8PM-12AM!
Barbara Feldon, best known for playing the role of Agent 99 on the 1960s television series Get Smart, wrote her memoir at age 90 and is still going strong today! Morgan checked in with this legendary actress about life, family, and her continued career!
Ask Alexa to play WBZ NewsRadio on #iHeartRadio and listen to NightSide with Dan Rea Weeknights From 8PM-12AM!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're to part like cloudy for tonight, it will be
brisk and chillier. Low temperatures will be around forty As
we hit through New Year's Eve. Tomorrow, it will be
still a mild day. Sunshine will give way to clouds
a high temperature around fifty, turning out cloud eat smart
nights with some rain arriving toward midnight. That'll continue overnight now.
The temperature at midnight will be around forty five and
drop you to a low forty two rain ending early
(00:20):
on New Year's Day, but it will remain mostly cloudy
with a chili breeze, a high of forty nine and
brisk and chili are four Thursday with clouds and sunshine
on a high of forty two before it turns even
colder heading into the weekend. I'm ak you with a
Videoalytis Brian Thompson, WBZ, Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
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(00:56):
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Speaker 3 (01:07):
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(01:28):
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Speaker 1 (01:34):
Let's get back to night's side. Morgan White is in
for Dan Dan Watkins WBZ, Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
It's Night Size with Dan Ray unbilling bas Boston's News Radio,
Final hour of nights, siright, and it's been a very
very busy night, and.
Speaker 5 (01:55):
I expect this hour to be just as busy. If
you've always wanted to speak to the woman who played
ninety nine and get smart, Barbara Feldon, she is here
She's had a very interesting career more than just that
one TV show. How many people remember the Top Brass
(02:17):
commercials she used to do, Hey tiger, I'm talking to you.
I don't have her voice, I don't have her presentation,
So let's just bring her in and maybe she'll help you.
Remember that commercial from Good Grief a long long time ago. Barbara,
(02:37):
thank you for saying yes. You know how much I
appreciate you when you come up.
Speaker 6 (02:42):
Oh, it's such a pleasure to talk to you. And
you do have a good voice. You don't need that
sort of sexy kitnish voice that I used back then,
but you have a great voice.
Speaker 5 (02:54):
Well, thank you. Can you approximate the tops commercial tagline
you used to do?
Speaker 6 (03:00):
Well, let's see. I mean it started, I went a
word with all you tigers and then she growled, oh yeah.
At the end she said, let's see, and you see
I don't regard myself as her her. She said, so
use top bras and sick of them.
Speaker 5 (03:23):
So that's that's what the character said. And people have
to understand when we see commercials and we watch a
movie or a TV series, this is an actor that
we are witnessing performing what someone has written for them
to perform, and a lot of people get confused by that,
(03:47):
don't they.
Speaker 6 (03:48):
Oh gosh, you know, and I do too, as as
a viewer, say of when I get addicted to some
the streaming series or something and I'm just totally enamored
with the main character, and then you're just sort of
shocked to find out that that's just a character, that's
not the actor. The actor is another person, and that
(04:13):
I mean, certainly they use parts of themselves to put
into the character, but that is not who they are.
And I mean, I know that's happened the other way
around with me, where I was the character and people
thought I was in ninety nine and they attributed all
(04:34):
kinds of wonderful things to ninety nine, So I got
her glory.
Speaker 5 (04:40):
Well, you got a paycheck every week or every month
whenever to portray words that somebody put down on a
piece of paper a script, and it was up to
you to interpret those words and convince us at home
that you were this spy, that you were this temptress
(05:03):
in a commercial. But that was a tribute to how
good of a performer you were.
Speaker 6 (05:10):
Well, I think that's one of the things, one of
the reasons actors love acting is that we all sort
of kind of design our own persona through life, from
the time where children, we have sort of a basic personality,
and then we kind of add and substract from it
according to what's getting a good result. So then we
(05:33):
solidify it into saying, well, this is me, this is
who I am, but it really isn't. I mean, it
is a amy, but it's not all of you know,
we are so much more than the persona that we
use every day. So the actor gets a chance to
(05:54):
explore all these other selves and that's what I think
so much fun to act.
Speaker 5 (06:02):
I like it when you said it's a me, but
it's not all of me. Yeah, that's an accurate way
to look at it. Now, As you were a little
girl growing up in the forties and fifties, who were
some of your favorite performers that inspired you to do
(06:22):
an acting job.
Speaker 6 (06:25):
I'm not sure that I didn't see a lot of
movies when I was little. Pinocchio was the biggest, the
biggest influence on me because a friend of my mother's
took us to see Pinocchio, and so he was my
kind of role model. I wanted to be Pinocchio and
I would go around Stuard gargling, you know, underwater looking
(06:49):
for geppetto the same old geppetto, or you know, you
know when Pinocchio was in the whales Belly or something.
I don't remember the story that.
Speaker 5 (06:59):
Well, let me take you back, because in a way,
there was a song in that movie that may have
inspired you to get into the business. Hi did le
d an actor's life for me? Honest, John the Fox
was misleading Pinocchio down a crooked.
Speaker 7 (07:19):
Path and that.
Speaker 6 (07:25):
Yeah, yeah, I remember that.
Speaker 8 (07:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 9 (07:28):
Maybe.
Speaker 6 (07:28):
So there was that beautiful song when you wish upon
the Stars from Cliff Edwards.
Speaker 5 (07:36):
Yes, Cliffs was the voice of Jimminy Cricket.
Speaker 6 (07:43):
All right, yeah, I know these things, Yeah, I know.
Do you know the words? Do you want to sing it?
Speaker 5 (07:53):
I could, but they don't pay me to sing. They
pay me not to sing. I'll have radios turning off
all of thirty eight states. When you was upon a star,
there's no difference in who you are. Anything your heart's desire.
Speaker 10 (08:10):
Can come come.
Speaker 6 (08:11):
To you, to you you. Yeah, it's a beautiful, lyric
and wonderful for children.
Speaker 5 (08:20):
So give me another film or performer that inspired you.
Speaker 6 (08:27):
I wanted to be Margaret O'Brien. I don't know how
many people even know of Margaret O'Brien now unless they're
my age. But she always played orphans. I mean not always,
but she was always like a way. She was this
little she was adorable and she had this little wafy voice.
(08:48):
And I and she always, like Charles Boyer would save
her when she was a little orphan in the Canterbury
something that give her time.
Speaker 5 (09:01):
Well, you would tell she would teget your heartstrings.
Speaker 6 (09:04):
Yeah, she would always always you always got daddy character
to save her. And I was looking for a daddy
character to save me. And I definitely wanted Margret O'Brien.
And she was always praying, and.
Speaker 11 (09:17):
So I would.
Speaker 6 (09:18):
I would just pray all the time, you know, in
the little quavering voice, and wear little white Peter Pan
collars a little Mary Jane shoes, and I could pretend
that Markearet O'Brien.
Speaker 5 (09:32):
Well, let me take my first break of the hour.
Give the phone numbers. I already have a caller on hold.
Perhaps you can join them six one, seven, two, five,
four ten thirty or eight eight, eight, nine, two, nine
ten thirty. I've got Barbara Feldon here, probably most notably
remembered for the TV series Gets Mart, but she sent
(09:54):
other things as well, and we're going to talk about
the two books she has written when we come back
on nights Side Time and Temperature eleven fifteen forty seven degrees.
Speaker 8 (10:07):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
nights Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 5 (10:14):
This is night Side. Dan Ray will be back on Wednesday.
I'm Morgan, Morgan White Junior. I've been here for the
past seven shows, being tonight and tomorrow. But Gary is
in Wooburn and he wants to speak to Barbara Feldon Carrie.
(10:34):
Welcome aboard, Happy.
Speaker 12 (10:36):
New Day, exacularly Barbara, what a thriller is for you
to be on the airways again with Morgan. It's so
nice of you to say yes. My question is to
you because it's an easy answer. It's probably like, oh,
I don't have time for that. Why don't even more celebrities?
Speaker 4 (10:53):
Yeah?
Speaker 12 (10:54):
I don't know if you get asked to want to
even do what you're doing right now a little interview.
Speaker 6 (11:00):
Wait a minute, say the question again.
Speaker 5 (11:03):
I'll repeat the question. He wants to know, why aren't
more of your contemporaries doing radio interviews. A lot of
contemporaries of yours just once the role is over that
made them famous, they necessarily don't want to talk about it.
Speaker 6 (11:20):
Yeah. I think that a lot of people who do
series were ambivalent about the characters that they did because
it kind of type casts them. I don't feel that way.
I feel very grateful, oh more than grateful, that I
had an opportunity to be in a series that was
so well written and also that stayed on long enough
(11:45):
so that it would give me a career. Being a
woman that's not as easy as if you're a guy,
and especially back in that time, there were many more
rules for men than women, as there still are. But
I was very fortunate. So I'm I'm very grateful. But
to be on the show. I've been talking to Morgan
(12:07):
for years, right.
Speaker 5 (12:11):
Fourth or fifth time I've had you on.
Speaker 6 (12:14):
Yeah, So whenever he calls, I say, yes, it's fun,
yea anything else?
Speaker 12 (12:25):
Absolutely. My question is to you, Barbara, is back in
your day when you're doing Gates gets including right now
in your life, have you been part of the autograph shows? Also,
he is a travel.
Speaker 6 (12:39):
I've done some of the autograph shows. Mostly the ones.
There's one here in New York called Chiller, which I've
done a few times. I know, I have not done
like circuits of autograph shows. I don't know they they're
(13:01):
I'm not that interested in being in the public. But
whenever I've done them, it's been very sweet to meet fans,
and it's really four fans, you know. They get kick
out of seeing people in person. Whether that may be
disappointing or not, I don't know. But occasionally I've done them,
(13:26):
but no, I don't seek them out, and mostly I
turn them down.
Speaker 5 (13:30):
It's funny because you're always going to be nineteen sixty five,
nineteen sixty six or so in their minds, and let's
be honest, one's going to look that way after fifty
sixty years.
Speaker 6 (13:46):
Yeah, I mean that's part of it, but they don't
seem to care about that. They want pictures of you
when you were in the show, so that's the pictures
they buy, and who's you know. That's fine. I'm ambivalent
about doing them, but as I must say that, when
(14:09):
I've done them, I've met such sweet people that I've
been happy to have done them. But I'm not really
motivated to seek them out.
Speaker 5 (14:20):
And Barbara, I know that you haven't come to Boston,
but I've given you a standard open carpet invitation. If
you know you're coming to Boston, please call me. I
will take you out for lunch and it would be
my treat. And I'm not going to put you in
(14:40):
the middle of a media frenzy with two or three
or four photographers. Say it'll be just you and I
for lunch.
Speaker 6 (14:49):
That would be a nice treat. I thank you very much,
and I'm going to just file that invitation in a
very good place.
Speaker 5 (14:57):
Okay, Gary, anything else a questions?
Speaker 12 (15:00):
Here we go, Barbara. My question is this Don Adams,
ed Platt and other people that you work with and
so forth?
Speaker 5 (15:07):
What he is.
Speaker 12 (15:07):
I'm sure you probably kept in touch and you guys
were friendly and so forth. What I wanted to know
was this, Who were the women and men that you
kept in touch with in Hollywood that became got even
more work and work, work, work, and you just stayed
in good correspondence with Who are your friends with?
Speaker 5 (15:28):
Okay, good question, Garry, Happy New Year to you.
Speaker 6 (15:32):
Happy New Year.
Speaker 13 (15:33):
Gary.
Speaker 6 (15:36):
My friends, mostly, I mean where I lived my life
in la was mostly with a small group of very
close friends, and one of them was a man who
was producer. I think he was the vice president of
one of the movie companies. Another wash Well one that
(16:01):
I stayed very close to was the guy who produced
Gats Smart, who I lived with for eleven years after
I met him on the show. But mostly my friends
were not in the business. They were artists and or
they were in the producing And I didn't have any
(16:21):
actor friends. And the only actor friend I have left
from the Guts Smart Time is Bernie Cappel.
Speaker 13 (16:30):
Oh.
Speaker 5 (16:30):
Yeah, he's a very close friend.
Speaker 13 (16:34):
Create.
Speaker 6 (16:35):
I know he'd love to do your show.
Speaker 5 (16:37):
And you know what, you've got my phone number? Ask
him and give him my phone number, or get permission
for you to give to me his phone number. I
would love to have him.
Speaker 7 (16:51):
Oh, okay, you to coordinate.
Speaker 6 (16:56):
Okay, great. I don't know if I have your phone
number written down. It's usually on my phone log, but
I'm not sure it stays on the log for months.
Speaker 5 (17:06):
I will call I will call you with it tomorrow.
Speaker 6 (17:10):
Great, leave it for me, Tom. That would great. I
know he would love it. He loves to talk about Yeah,
I'd love to have it anyway. Bernie is a great friend,
but he's the only one from the show that I
stayed in touch with. The funny thing about my career
(17:30):
at that time is that I was always hired to
be the skirt. In other words, I was the I
was the companion to the male lead. And consequently, I
think in my entire career out there, I may have
acted with a woman once or twice in all of
those years. So I didn't have any girlfriends from the shows.
(17:56):
So I just had friends outside of that kind of
realm that we're just and stayed very very close friends,
and many of them are no longer living.
Speaker 11 (18:06):
Now.
Speaker 5 (18:07):
All right, let's go to another call in Wellesley. Robert,
you are speaking with Barbara Feldon here on nights Side.
Speaker 13 (18:15):
Hello Robert, Oh, Hello, good evening, Morgan, And to your
guest Barbara Feldon, I can't believe I'm I'm speaking, and
thank you for having her as a guest on your show.
Again the I thank you, and I want to thank
the coler mentioned Bernie Cappell. I hope I'm pronouncing the
(18:36):
name right.
Speaker 12 (18:37):
Played playing a part of Sacred and.
Speaker 13 (18:40):
I was wondering how interactive was Mel Brooks.
Speaker 14 (18:44):
Was he producer but also director?
Speaker 6 (18:48):
Now Mel UoT it with Buck Henry. They collaborated on it,
and then I think during the course of the five years,
Mel directed one show and he wrote one show, so
he was not very hands on. The person that we
were most close to, of course, was Buck, because Buck
(19:10):
was there every day for two years. He stayed as
the story editor, and Mel just very very occasionally. I
mean I got to know Mel a little socially, but
but not from the show.
Speaker 13 (19:26):
The writing was I thought was fantastic, and the the
inside jokes were amazing. The inside jokes about government and
intelligence work I were seemed to be whether subtle and
I'm just they after I used, of course to watch
it as a kid, but I want when I waiter
(19:46):
watch it again as a as more of an adult.
I just there were a lot of things that I
didn't see the first time first time around.
Speaker 6 (19:55):
That, Yeah, it worked for kids on a kid level,
and it worked for adult on a level, you know,
on a more sophisticated level. Yeah, the humor was wonderful.
I'm in the I forget totally the scripts, and occasionally
I will come across one and I watch it like
(20:16):
I'd never like I wasn't in it, and I find
myself laughing out loud, and they're just so sharp, and
the style of it was so specific, and it was
just a little gem. I think maybe I'm prejudiced.
Speaker 13 (20:38):
Oh wow, you agree one hundred percent. I was wondering,
as a matter of trivia, did ninety nine have a
name before she became missus Maxwell Smart?
Speaker 5 (20:47):
Oh, here we go. I'll let you answer it. But
you know we've talked about this before.
Speaker 6 (20:54):
Oh, yes, very curious. I had lunch with Buck Henry
about ten years ago and I said, you just clear
this up, because everybody asked this question. And he said, no,
she was never intended to have a name, and at
first her number was going to be one hundred because
they were going to make her perfect. But he said,
(21:16):
you know, a hundred didn't He said, it didn't sound
like a girl's number. Ninety nine sounded like a girl's number.
But I really think that they used ninety nine because
of the rhythm of it, you know, not ninety nine
is a very easy thing to say. A hundred is awkward.
Speaker 4 (21:34):
Right.
Speaker 6 (21:35):
Yeah, So, no, she had a cover name, Susan, but
it was only a cover and when she got married
and the priest to Max and the priest said, will you,
And when he says her supposed name, somebody in the
audience coughs, and so you can't hear the name.
Speaker 5 (21:58):
Robert. A lot of people you go to a convention
or you're playing trivia with a bunch of friends, they'll
say her name, as Barbara just said Susan, Susan Hilton
hilt In like the hotel chair. But that was a
cover name. And at the end of the episode where
that was mentioned it, Max says, I never knew your name,
(22:20):
and the character ninety nine said you still don't because
that's a cover name. Max, right right, terrific.
Speaker 13 (22:29):
Oh, thank you for thank you for taking my call
and uh and giving these great answers.
Speaker 5 (22:35):
Robert, thank you for making the call. Happy New Year
to you. Bye bye now, Alan Danvers, I've got a
news break to take, so I promised you will be
next with Barbara Feldon. Do not hang up during the news.
Anyone else wants to call in six one, seven, two, five, four,
ten thirty or eight eight, eight, nine to nine, ten thirty,
(22:58):
this is your chance to speak with ninety nine from
Get Smart Barbara Feldon and on that note, time and
temperature here in BZ eleven thirty forty seven degrees.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
It's Nightside with Ray on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 5 (23:23):
Dan is off obviously for the rest of the show,
which ends at midnight, and I'll be here tomorrow night, Tuesday,
Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve. But Dan, we'll be back
on Wednesday, eight pm. Nightside the first of January twenty
twenty five, Dan, We'll be back. My name is Morgan.
(23:46):
My show Saturdays from nine to midnight is when you'll
find me doing The Morgan Show. Right now, I've got
Barbara Feldon as a guest. We've got people calling in
to speak with her. So let's go to al In Danvers.
Speaker 12 (24:05):
Happy New Year, now, Happy New Year?
Speaker 11 (24:08):
Ow, yes you too on the show? Did you have
a compact like and it was a fall has a fun?
Speaker 5 (24:29):
Yeah?
Speaker 11 (24:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (24:30):
There were all the devices that the spy shows of
that era where what was a normal everyday device was
more than that. And I remember on let's say Honey
West and Francis who was Honey West, had a compact
that she could communicate with her partner Sam Bolt. And
(24:52):
I think I was referring to ninety nine having something
with which she could communicate with Max, because Max used
his shoe.
Speaker 6 (25:05):
But oh, oh yeah, sure, I know sure that she
had a lipstick transior transistor lipstick. And certainly she had
a ring special ring unless I'm remembering that from my
childhood from Jack Armstrong or No Dick Tracy or what
(25:28):
was it were you you wrote in and you got
a ring that told secret mess It was.
Speaker 5 (25:35):
Oval team Jack Armstrong, Jack Armstrong, the All American boy.
Speaker 6 (25:39):
Yeah. Yeah, but but Max got most of the cool props.
I mean Max got to be in the Cone of Silence.
Ninety nine never did except when they years and years
later when they made a remake for ABC as an
ABC movie, ninety nine got to be in the in
(26:04):
the Cone of Silence. But during the show, during the
five years, ninety nine was never invited into this cone
of It's a good.
Speaker 5 (26:14):
Thing because that thing never worked. You didn't want to
be dripped in that.
Speaker 6 (26:21):
She was too smart to get in it.
Speaker 10 (26:23):
Yes, now anything else, Oh, it was just yeah, the
chief fan he had all like the cool Kaz Mustang
shall be.
Speaker 11 (26:37):
I saw like a couple of the shows you. I
was souped up once.
Speaker 9 (26:46):
The cars.
Speaker 6 (26:50):
He had an don I think had an Austin Austin
Martin is.
Speaker 5 (26:58):
Yeah, he had a sunbeam sunde.
Speaker 9 (27:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (27:01):
Yeah, we almost backed off a cliff and at once.
I remember it very clearly.
Speaker 5 (27:08):
Oh what in real life?
Speaker 6 (27:11):
No, you put the garden the verse? Okay, putting it
going straightforward didn't happen.
Speaker 7 (27:19):
It was okay, all right, now anything else.
Speaker 11 (27:26):
She's just a great a secret agent.
Speaker 5 (27:33):
It was a great secret agent. As an actress. She
is superb.
Speaker 6 (27:40):
Yeah, secret agent for sure.
Speaker 5 (27:44):
All right, Well, thank you, bye bye. Okay, let's let's
go to Ohio and speak to Duke Duke. Happy new
Year to you.
Speaker 9 (27:54):
How are you doing, Barbara? How are you?
Speaker 12 (27:58):
Oh?
Speaker 9 (27:58):
Great, happy to happy to get a chance to talk
to you.
Speaker 12 (28:02):
Hey.
Speaker 9 (28:03):
My favorite character on Get Smart was Simon the Likable.
Can you tell us about working with Jack Guilford?
Speaker 6 (28:11):
Oh I don't. I'm not sure I ever did any
scenes with him.
Speaker 9 (28:19):
You did know what I'm talking about, though. He was
the chaos agent who was just so nice that people
could not turn him down. And every time they would
show him, he would smile and both his teeth and
his eyes would sparkle.
Speaker 6 (28:33):
Oh my god, that I don't remember that.
Speaker 9 (28:36):
Any remember him? Morgan?
Speaker 5 (28:39):
I do?
Speaker 6 (28:40):
Yeah, he had a wonderful actor and he was hilarious. Yeah,
and you know how to.
Speaker 5 (28:47):
Play that scene for laughs.
Speaker 9 (28:51):
Oh yeah, And then quickly somebody mentioned Max's cark. Did
he at one point in the series try about Carmen Gia.
Speaker 5 (29:01):
No, he drove a Sunbeam, a Triumph, and a Buick
Opal over the five years of the show.
Speaker 9 (29:13):
I'm sure that he wore he drove a Carmen Ghea
and at some point. And the reason I know that
is because the teacher I had at the time had
one as well, and I don't know, four through fifth
grade whatever Euro was, and we talked about that in
class because he was explaining to us that this was
(29:34):
a German car, and you know, history was exactly.
Speaker 5 (29:41):
But the thing of the Carmen Gea. Maybe my mind
is playing a trick on me. But the three cars
I mentioned, because they had different opening scenes over the
five years that they were just a little living and
tucking here. And the last car he drove was a
(30:03):
Buick Opal. He drove Triumph, and he drove a Sunbeam.
Speaker 9 (30:10):
Maybe I remember both of those, but I do not
remember the Buick. And I remember that at least the
first season, you would see Mark, you would see Max
Glatt and get in a car and drive away like
he was leaving, and he would just do a U
turn in park and go into the building.
Speaker 6 (30:27):
Yeah, okay.
Speaker 5 (30:29):
Hold. On nineteen sixty seven, mac Max acquires a blue
Volkswagon Carmen Gea, although he is seen driving it only
once in the opening credits seasons four, he retains a
possession of the vehicle until nineteen ninety five, when he
finally sells it. Uh and there's no answer. Nancy looked
(30:53):
that up. So there you go, proof, Duke that he
drove a Carmen Gia.
Speaker 9 (31:00):
Wow, I learned something, my good grade teacher, I remember
so well discussing that in the classroom. And that's been gosh,
sixty years.
Speaker 5 (31:10):
Ago, yeah, exactly sixty years.
Speaker 6 (31:13):
Two years ago that the show started. Yet I just
learned that today. That's pretty sobering.
Speaker 5 (31:23):
Yes, and now I appreciate you.
Speaker 9 (31:25):
Talk to you again. I'm sorry, Roby, Barbara.
Speaker 5 (31:28):
You're only thirty nine years old right now.
Speaker 6 (31:31):
No, how could that bee? That's really weird arithmes.
Speaker 12 (31:36):
It is.
Speaker 5 (31:36):
It's weird arithmetic. And I'm going with that me too. Okay,
to thank you for the.
Speaker 9 (31:43):
Call, Thank you, good night, good night, right.
Speaker 5 (31:47):
All right, and I'm going to say this, rob Let's
take that break a minute or so early. Anyone who
wants to jump on is room for you? Six one, seven, two, five,
four ten thirty or eight eight, eight, nine to nine,
ten thirty. There is one line available? Nope, now there
are two. Somebody was on it and hung up, and
(32:09):
Michael and Boston, let me get the breakout of way,
out of the way, and you will be next here
on night side time and temperature eleven forty three forty
seven degrees.
Speaker 8 (32:24):
Now back to Dan Ray Mine from the Window World
Light Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 5 (32:31):
I've got three people on hold. I'm going to do
the best I can to get all three on, so
I get a chance. Michael and Boston, you're next with
Barbara Feldon.
Speaker 14 (32:44):
By your kid.
Speaker 9 (32:46):
How are you to get?
Speaker 14 (32:48):
Curious as to whether Barber was aware that Get Smart
was shot the year before it became Get Smart in
New York as a pilot with another star, it was
called Detective at Large with mel Brooks and Buck Henry
(33:10):
and so forth, and the network liked it and said,
we've got this guy that we're paying the army I
believe was his last name, Your star and they said,
let's reshoot it because the money is down the drain.
(33:31):
He's got a contract, we've got to pay him, so
let's use him for something. Are you aware of that
or were you part of that original pilot.
Speaker 6 (33:39):
No, that's the first I've heard of that. I mean,
the story I know and that I know from the
people who produced it and created it, is that when
the James Bond movies were so popular, Dan Melnick, who's
the head of Talent Associates, who which was the production
(34:01):
company that made it, hired Mel Brooks and Buck Henry
to create almost a comic strip extension of of seven
you know, of the of the James Bond franchise and
that and mel sat down and created it, and I
(34:22):
handed it to them and then they cast it. And
that's the story I know. But there may have been
a precursor that that inspired the second script. I'm not sure.
Speaker 14 (34:39):
I was told by uh, the person who was cast
in that Tom Post and he was a part of it,
and it was called Detective at Large and they liked it,
but they wanted to use Don Adams because he was
under contract. But anyway, the other question I had, Yeah.
Speaker 6 (34:57):
I had heard that Tom Post and was considered first
for Maxwell Smart. That's that I heard. There's I'm sure
we could straighten the story out if we had more time.
Speaker 14 (35:12):
Okay alive, he tells me.
Speaker 5 (35:15):
Uh.
Speaker 14 (35:16):
The other question I had very quickly is were you
the first doing or Get Smart? Did you have to
compete with other known actresses or unknown actresses at the time.
Speaker 6 (35:26):
Or were you no id An auditioned for it because
they had seen me do a similar role in another
one of their shows, where I played an industrial spy
who was kind of sexy, and and so when they
saw the when they saw the script, they right away
thought that that was the character. They had seen me
(35:46):
do this other character, and they wanted that performance, so
they just gave it to me.
Speaker 5 (35:54):
Michael, take care, Michael, Paul, and Beverly you are next
here a night side. Yeah.
Speaker 15 (36:06):
Yes, I'm just so happy to speak to Baba. Can
you hear me? Yeah? I just want to say, yeah,
I just want to say I don't I mean in
a good way. I was very young, but you, to me,
you were the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.
(36:26):
You were on television, not in person, and it's probably
true too. And you know, I think probably the first
woman I was in love with. Of course, I was
very young, and I don't want to say it in
the wrong way, and I was thinking you always had
I'm telling the truth, though, but I always saw that
to me, you had like a wonderful smile. It made
(36:48):
me think of a word or a smile. It's usually negative,
but it was actually a wonderful type of smirk. I
would think, and it's not the right word, but I
was just thinking, if it could be a good mile,
you turn that into a you know, and you look
like you were happy while you were acting, and you know,
I was aware, although as a young boy, that you
(37:08):
were an actress also playing that character. So to me,
you were ninety nine and an actress playing ninety nine,
and it's just wonderful. I just wanted to say, you know,
it's just really just wonderful for me, and it means
a lot to me to actually speak to you. At
that time, I wouldn't have thought I'd ever get to
speak to you. Thank you so much, and Morgan.
Speaker 6 (37:32):
Here, thank you.
Speaker 5 (37:34):
If you take the first line of the Mary Tellermore show,
it's a perfect description to Barbara Feldon, who can turn
the world on with her smile.
Speaker 15 (37:44):
Yeah, absolutely, I agree with you. Thank you all.
Speaker 6 (37:49):
Well, I'm glad I had a little fan out there.
You were probably what about years old or.
Speaker 15 (37:55):
So well, I thought I was maybe twelve years old
or something. It's not important. It was a very nice thing,
you know, to feel and once hard anyways, you know, so.
Speaker 5 (38:07):
You know how we twelve year old boys can be
when we're smitten with someone.
Speaker 15 (38:12):
Yeah, you said, all right, take care, God bless.
Speaker 5 (38:19):
And now too. And most of you know when I
say this, who it is. Somehow she usually manages to
be the last call of the night. Karen in Wisconsin,
Hello Karen.
Speaker 6 (38:33):
By Karen, Karen, Oh you're bad.
Speaker 5 (38:42):
Yes, we're here. You're on.
Speaker 6 (38:49):
Get me back, Yes, Karen, you're.
Speaker 5 (38:52):
On the air. Karen, You're on the air with Barbara Feldon.
Speaker 7 (38:55):
All right, thank you. I have never seen the good
uh what Get Smart show. I've always heard of ninety
nine and didn't know who you were. But when you
start talking about Pinocchio, I've been looking for that album
instead of listening to the show, and I couldn't find it.
(39:19):
But I love that album too, so now I have
a to you.
Speaker 6 (39:23):
So yeah, it was. It was such a sweet movie
for kids. It yeah, it makes such an impression on
you when you're that age.
Speaker 5 (39:35):
Story is an old story, going back to.
Speaker 7 (39:43):
Oh really, the original story, the original story. Yes, what
was I got that album somewhere, but if you got it,
I wasted my time.
Speaker 5 (39:55):
Read the read the liner notes, he's got that album handy.
Speaker 7 (40:00):
I will anything else. Sorry for being late that I
was busy looking for instead of listening. But it was
nice to me too. And have a good New Year year,
both of you. Thank you, and with the.
Speaker 5 (40:19):
Minutes that we have left, tell people the two books
and it is too that you have written, and maybe
they can go out and find them.
Speaker 6 (40:28):
Oh okay, maybe if they're in need of them. The
first one was Living Alone and Loving It, which is
a series of essays on how to live alone happily,
which I have done since, oh my gosh, for decades.
But it's really about friendship and taking responsibility for your
(40:49):
own happiness and making sure you have plenty of friends.
And the other book is called Getting Smarter, which is
really the story of sort of quasi funny, quasi discomforting
story about my marriage to a guy who was kind
of a con man and very lovable and how that
(41:14):
came about and how I'd thought I was being followed
by the KGB and it was like imitating Get Smart,
if I.
Speaker 5 (41:23):
Remember the story correctly, didn't he rip you off as well?
Speaker 4 (41:29):
Well?
Speaker 6 (41:29):
He did because I won a lot of money on
a game show and I gave it to him to invest,
and he invested it at the racetrack, which I didn't
know for years. I always thought it was in a
trust fund. But that was that was a small part
of it. The bigger part of it was I thought
he was a spy working undercover for the CIA, and
(41:51):
that I was being followed. And it's quite an amusing
story and it was so much fun to write, and
it was a great adventure for me at the time.
Speaker 14 (42:01):
And what game show?
Speaker 5 (42:03):
Pardon me, what game show did you win money?
Speaker 6 (42:07):
Sixty four thousand dollars question? And I was quite young
and gave him the money to him and the money
was gone in six weeks, which by the way, is
not unusual for people winning great amount of money, great
amounts of money, and that it I think if they
ever did a book and followed up on all the
(42:30):
people who have won vast fortunes, and that was back
then a pretty big fortune. That it's gone fairly shortly.
Speaker 5 (42:43):
Family or relative or spouse.
Speaker 6 (42:47):
Yeah, some people are extravagant. But I just wanted to
save it. But I saved it in his pocket, which
was had a hole in it unfortunately.
Speaker 5 (43:00):
Now I'm going to call you tomorrow to give you
my phone number, and please pass it on to Bernie.
Speaker 6 (43:05):
Oh I will. I'm going to call him anyway, So
I'm giving your number.
Speaker 5 (43:11):
All right, Robert, thank you very much for being on.
I want to thank as well Cleio Campbell, and I
want to thank Joanne Desmond without forgetting mister Rob Brooks,
Nancy and Mike cat Gray. Bye, Boston,
You're to part like cloudy for tonight, it will be
brisk and chillier. Low temperatures will be around forty As
we hit through New Year's Eve. Tomorrow, it will be
still a mild day. Sunshine will give way to clouds
a high temperature around fifty, turning out cloud eat smart
nights with some rain arriving toward midnight. That'll continue overnight now.
The temperature at midnight will be around forty five and
drop you to a low forty two rain ending early
(00:20):
on New Year's Day, but it will remain mostly cloudy
with a chili breeze, a high of forty nine and
brisk and chili are four Thursday with clouds and sunshine
on a high of forty two before it turns even
colder heading into the weekend. I'm ak you with a
Videoalytis Brian Thompson, WBZ, Boston's News Radio.
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Speaker 1 (01:34):
Let's get back to night's side. Morgan White is in
for Dan Dan Watkins WBZ, Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
It's Night Size with Dan Ray unbilling bas Boston's News Radio,
Final hour of nights, siright, and it's been a very
very busy night, and.
Speaker 5 (01:55):
I expect this hour to be just as busy. If
you've always wanted to speak to the woman who played
ninety nine and get smart, Barbara Feldon, she is here
She's had a very interesting career more than just that
one TV show. How many people remember the Top Brass
(02:17):
commercials she used to do, Hey tiger, I'm talking to you.
I don't have her voice, I don't have her presentation,
So let's just bring her in and maybe she'll help you.
Remember that commercial from Good Grief a long long time ago. Barbara,
(02:37):
thank you for saying yes. You know how much I
appreciate you when you come up.
Speaker 6 (02:42):
Oh, it's such a pleasure to talk to you. And
you do have a good voice. You don't need that
sort of sexy kitnish voice that I used back then,
but you have a great voice.
Speaker 5 (02:54):
Well, thank you. Can you approximate the tops commercial tagline
you used to do?
Speaker 6 (03:00):
Well, let's see. I mean it started, I went a
word with all you tigers and then she growled, oh yeah.
At the end she said, let's see, and you see
I don't regard myself as her her. She said, so
use top bras and sick of them.
Speaker 5 (03:23):
So that's that's what the character said. And people have
to understand when we see commercials and we watch a
movie or a TV series, this is an actor that
we are witnessing performing what someone has written for them
to perform, and a lot of people get confused by that,
(03:47):
don't they.
Speaker 6 (03:48):
Oh gosh, you know, and I do too, as as
a viewer, say of when I get addicted to some
the streaming series or something and I'm just totally enamored
with the main character, and then you're just sort of
shocked to find out that that's just a character, that's
not the actor. The actor is another person, and that
(04:13):
I mean, certainly they use parts of themselves to put
into the character, but that is not who they are.
And I mean, I know that's happened the other way
around with me, where I was the character and people
thought I was in ninety nine and they attributed all
(04:34):
kinds of wonderful things to ninety nine, So I got
her glory.
Speaker 5 (04:40):
Well, you got a paycheck every week or every month
whenever to portray words that somebody put down on a
piece of paper a script, and it was up to
you to interpret those words and convince us at home
that you were this spy, that you were this temptress
(05:03):
in a commercial. But that was a tribute to how
good of a performer you were.
Speaker 6 (05:10):
Well, I think that's one of the things, one of
the reasons actors love acting is that we all sort
of kind of design our own persona through life, from
the time where children, we have sort of a basic personality,
and then we kind of add and substract from it
according to what's getting a good result. So then we
(05:33):
solidify it into saying, well, this is me, this is
who I am, but it really isn't. I mean, it
is a amy, but it's not all of you know,
we are so much more than the persona that we
use every day. So the actor gets a chance to
(05:54):
explore all these other selves and that's what I think
so much fun to act.
Speaker 5 (06:02):
I like it when you said it's a me, but
it's not all of me. Yeah, that's an accurate way
to look at it. Now, As you were a little
girl growing up in the forties and fifties, who were
some of your favorite performers that inspired you to do
(06:22):
an acting job.
Speaker 6 (06:25):
I'm not sure that I didn't see a lot of
movies when I was little. Pinocchio was the biggest, the
biggest influence on me because a friend of my mother's
took us to see Pinocchio, and so he was my
kind of role model. I wanted to be Pinocchio and
I would go around Stuard gargling, you know, underwater looking
(06:49):
for geppetto the same old geppetto, or you know, you
know when Pinocchio was in the whales Belly or something.
I don't remember the story that.
Speaker 5 (06:59):
Well, let me take you back, because in a way,
there was a song in that movie that may have
inspired you to get into the business. Hi did le
d an actor's life for me? Honest, John the Fox
was misleading Pinocchio down a crooked.
Speaker 7 (07:19):
Path and that.
Speaker 6 (07:25):
Yeah, yeah, I remember that.
Speaker 8 (07:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 9 (07:28):
Maybe.
Speaker 6 (07:28):
So there was that beautiful song when you wish upon
the Stars from Cliff Edwards.
Speaker 5 (07:36):
Yes, Cliffs was the voice of Jimminy Cricket.
Speaker 6 (07:43):
All right, yeah, I know these things, Yeah, I know.
Do you know the words? Do you want to sing it?
Speaker 5 (07:53):
I could, but they don't pay me to sing. They
pay me not to sing. I'll have radios turning off
all of thirty eight states. When you was upon a star,
there's no difference in who you are. Anything your heart's desire.
Speaker 10 (08:10):
Can come come.
Speaker 6 (08:11):
To you, to you you. Yeah, it's a beautiful, lyric
and wonderful for children.
Speaker 5 (08:20):
So give me another film or performer that inspired you.
Speaker 6 (08:27):
I wanted to be Margaret O'Brien. I don't know how
many people even know of Margaret O'Brien now unless they're
my age. But she always played orphans. I mean not always,
but she was always like a way. She was this
little she was adorable and she had this little wafy voice.
(08:48):
And I and she always, like Charles Boyer would save
her when she was a little orphan in the Canterbury
something that give her time.
Speaker 5 (09:01):
Well, you would tell she would teget your heartstrings.
Speaker 6 (09:04):
Yeah, she would always always you always got daddy character
to save her. And I was looking for a daddy
character to save me. And I definitely wanted Margret O'Brien.
And she was always praying, and.
Speaker 11 (09:17):
So I would.
Speaker 6 (09:18):
I would just pray all the time, you know, in
the little quavering voice, and wear little white Peter Pan
collars a little Mary Jane shoes, and I could pretend
that Markearet O'Brien.
Speaker 5 (09:32):
Well, let me take my first break of the hour.
Give the phone numbers. I already have a caller on hold.
Perhaps you can join them six one, seven, two, five,
four ten thirty or eight eight, eight, nine, two, nine
ten thirty. I've got Barbara Feldon here, probably most notably
remembered for the TV series Gets Mart, but she sent
(09:54):
other things as well, and we're going to talk about
the two books she has written when we come back
on nights Side Time and Temperature eleven fifteen forty seven degrees.
Speaker 8 (10:07):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
nights Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 5 (10:14):
This is night Side. Dan Ray will be back on Wednesday.
I'm Morgan, Morgan White Junior. I've been here for the
past seven shows, being tonight and tomorrow. But Gary is
in Wooburn and he wants to speak to Barbara Feldon Carrie.
(10:34):
Welcome aboard, Happy.
Speaker 12 (10:36):
New Day, exacularly Barbara, what a thriller is for you
to be on the airways again with Morgan. It's so
nice of you to say yes. My question is to
you because it's an easy answer. It's probably like, oh,
I don't have time for that. Why don't even more celebrities?
Speaker 4 (10:53):
Yeah?
Speaker 12 (10:54):
I don't know if you get asked to want to
even do what you're doing right now a little interview.
Speaker 6 (11:00):
Wait a minute, say the question again.
Speaker 5 (11:03):
I'll repeat the question. He wants to know, why aren't
more of your contemporaries doing radio interviews. A lot of
contemporaries of yours just once the role is over that
made them famous, they necessarily don't want to talk about it.
Speaker 6 (11:20):
Yeah. I think that a lot of people who do
series were ambivalent about the characters that they did because
it kind of type casts them. I don't feel that way.
I feel very grateful, oh more than grateful, that I
had an opportunity to be in a series that was
so well written and also that stayed on long enough
(11:45):
so that it would give me a career. Being a
woman that's not as easy as if you're a guy,
and especially back in that time, there were many more
rules for men than women, as there still are. But
I was very fortunate. So I'm I'm very grateful. But
to be on the show. I've been talking to Morgan
(12:07):
for years, right.
Speaker 5 (12:11):
Fourth or fifth time I've had you on.
Speaker 6 (12:14):
Yeah, So whenever he calls, I say, yes, it's fun,
yea anything else?
Speaker 12 (12:25):
Absolutely. My question is to you, Barbara, is back in
your day when you're doing Gates gets including right now
in your life, have you been part of the autograph shows? Also,
he is a travel.
Speaker 6 (12:39):
I've done some of the autograph shows. Mostly the ones.
There's one here in New York called Chiller, which I've
done a few times. I know, I have not done
like circuits of autograph shows. I don't know they they're
(13:01):
I'm not that interested in being in the public. But
whenever I've done them, it's been very sweet to meet fans,
and it's really four fans, you know. They get kick
out of seeing people in person. Whether that may be
disappointing or not, I don't know. But occasionally I've done them,
(13:26):
but no, I don't seek them out, and mostly I
turn them down.
Speaker 5 (13:30):
It's funny because you're always going to be nineteen sixty five,
nineteen sixty six or so in their minds, and let's
be honest, one's going to look that way after fifty
sixty years.
Speaker 6 (13:46):
Yeah, I mean that's part of it, but they don't
seem to care about that. They want pictures of you
when you were in the show, so that's the pictures
they buy, and who's you know. That's fine. I'm ambivalent
about doing them, but as I must say that, when
(14:09):
I've done them, I've met such sweet people that I've
been happy to have done them. But I'm not really
motivated to seek them out.
Speaker 5 (14:20):
And Barbara, I know that you haven't come to Boston,
but I've given you a standard open carpet invitation. If
you know you're coming to Boston, please call me. I
will take you out for lunch and it would be
my treat. And I'm not going to put you in
(14:40):
the middle of a media frenzy with two or three
or four photographers. Say it'll be just you and I
for lunch.
Speaker 6 (14:49):
That would be a nice treat. I thank you very much,
and I'm going to just file that invitation in a
very good place.
Speaker 5 (14:57):
Okay, Gary, anything else a questions?
Speaker 12 (15:00):
Here we go, Barbara. My question is this Don Adams,
ed Platt and other people that you work with and
so forth?
Speaker 5 (15:07):
What he is.
Speaker 12 (15:07):
I'm sure you probably kept in touch and you guys
were friendly and so forth. What I wanted to know
was this, Who were the women and men that you
kept in touch with in Hollywood that became got even
more work and work, work, work, and you just stayed
in good correspondence with Who are your friends with?
Speaker 5 (15:28):
Okay, good question, Garry, Happy New Year to you.
Speaker 6 (15:32):
Happy New Year.
Speaker 13 (15:33):
Gary.
Speaker 6 (15:36):
My friends, mostly, I mean where I lived my life
in la was mostly with a small group of very
close friends, and one of them was a man who
was producer. I think he was the vice president of
one of the movie companies. Another wash Well one that
(16:01):
I stayed very close to was the guy who produced
Gats Smart, who I lived with for eleven years after
I met him on the show. But mostly my friends
were not in the business. They were artists and or
they were in the producing And I didn't have any
(16:21):
actor friends. And the only actor friend I have left
from the Guts Smart Time is Bernie Cappel.
Speaker 13 (16:30):
Oh.
Speaker 5 (16:30):
Yeah, he's a very close friend.
Speaker 13 (16:34):
Create.
Speaker 6 (16:35):
I know he'd love to do your show.
Speaker 5 (16:37):
And you know what, you've got my phone number? Ask
him and give him my phone number, or get permission
for you to give to me his phone number. I
would love to have him.
Speaker 7 (16:51):
Oh, okay, you to coordinate.
Speaker 6 (16:56):
Okay, great. I don't know if I have your phone
number written down. It's usually on my phone log, but
I'm not sure it stays on the log for months.
Speaker 5 (17:06):
I will call I will call you with it tomorrow.
Speaker 6 (17:10):
Great, leave it for me, Tom. That would great. I
know he would love it. He loves to talk about Yeah,
I'd love to have it anyway. Bernie is a great friend,
but he's the only one from the show that I
stayed in touch with. The funny thing about my career
(17:30):
at that time is that I was always hired to
be the skirt. In other words, I was the I
was the companion to the male lead. And consequently, I
think in my entire career out there, I may have
acted with a woman once or twice in all of
those years. So I didn't have any girlfriends from the shows.
(17:56):
So I just had friends outside of that kind of
realm that we're just and stayed very very close friends,
and many of them are no longer living.
Speaker 11 (18:06):
Now.
Speaker 5 (18:07):
All right, let's go to another call in Wellesley. Robert,
you are speaking with Barbara Feldon here on nights Side.
Speaker 13 (18:15):
Hello Robert, Oh, Hello, good evening, Morgan, And to your
guest Barbara Feldon, I can't believe I'm I'm speaking, and
thank you for having her as a guest on your show.
Again the I thank you, and I want to thank
the coler mentioned Bernie Cappell. I hope I'm pronouncing the
(18:36):
name right.
Speaker 12 (18:37):
Played playing a part of Sacred and.
Speaker 13 (18:40):
I was wondering how interactive was Mel Brooks.
Speaker 14 (18:44):
Was he producer but also director?
Speaker 6 (18:48):
Now Mel UoT it with Buck Henry. They collaborated on it,
and then I think during the course of the five years,
Mel directed one show and he wrote one show, so
he was not very hands on. The person that we
were most close to, of course, was Buck, because Buck
(19:10):
was there every day for two years. He stayed as
the story editor, and Mel just very very occasionally. I
mean I got to know Mel a little socially, but
but not from the show.
Speaker 13 (19:26):
The writing was I thought was fantastic, and the the
inside jokes were amazing. The inside jokes about government and
intelligence work I were seemed to be whether subtle and
I'm just they after I used, of course to watch
it as a kid, but I want when I waiter
(19:46):
watch it again as a as more of an adult.
I just there were a lot of things that I
didn't see the first time first time around.
Speaker 6 (19:55):
That, Yeah, it worked for kids on a kid level,
and it worked for adult on a level, you know,
on a more sophisticated level. Yeah, the humor was wonderful.
I'm in the I forget totally the scripts, and occasionally
I will come across one and I watch it like
(20:16):
I'd never like I wasn't in it, and I find
myself laughing out loud, and they're just so sharp, and
the style of it was so specific, and it was
just a little gem. I think maybe I'm prejudiced.
Speaker 13 (20:38):
Oh wow, you agree one hundred percent. I was wondering,
as a matter of trivia, did ninety nine have a
name before she became missus Maxwell Smart?
Speaker 5 (20:47):
Oh, here we go. I'll let you answer it. But
you know we've talked about this before.
Speaker 6 (20:54):
Oh, yes, very curious. I had lunch with Buck Henry
about ten years ago and I said, you just clear
this up, because everybody asked this question. And he said, no,
she was never intended to have a name, and at
first her number was going to be one hundred because
they were going to make her perfect. But he said,
(21:16):
you know, a hundred didn't He said, it didn't sound
like a girl's number. Ninety nine sounded like a girl's number.
But I really think that they used ninety nine because
of the rhythm of it, you know, not ninety nine
is a very easy thing to say. A hundred is awkward.
Speaker 4 (21:34):
Right.
Speaker 6 (21:35):
Yeah, So, no, she had a cover name, Susan, but
it was only a cover and when she got married
and the priest to Max and the priest said, will you,
And when he says her supposed name, somebody in the
audience coughs, and so you can't hear the name.
Speaker 5 (21:58):
Robert. A lot of people you go to a convention
or you're playing trivia with a bunch of friends, they'll
say her name, as Barbara just said Susan, Susan Hilton
hilt In like the hotel chair. But that was a
cover name. And at the end of the episode where
that was mentioned it, Max says, I never knew your name,
(22:20):
and the character ninety nine said you still don't because
that's a cover name. Max, right right, terrific.
Speaker 13 (22:29):
Oh, thank you for thank you for taking my call
and uh and giving these great answers.
Speaker 5 (22:35):
Robert, thank you for making the call. Happy New Year
to you. Bye bye now, Alan Danvers, I've got a
news break to take, so I promised you will be
next with Barbara Feldon. Do not hang up during the news.
Anyone else wants to call in six one, seven, two, five, four,
ten thirty or eight eight, eight, nine to nine, ten thirty,
(22:58):
this is your chance to speak with ninety nine from
Get Smart Barbara Feldon and on that note, time and
temperature here in BZ eleven thirty forty seven degrees.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
It's Nightside with Ray on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 5 (23:23):
Dan is off obviously for the rest of the show,
which ends at midnight, and I'll be here tomorrow night, Tuesday,
Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve. But Dan, we'll be back
on Wednesday, eight pm. Nightside the first of January twenty
twenty five, Dan, We'll be back. My name is Morgan.
(23:46):
My show Saturdays from nine to midnight is when you'll
find me doing The Morgan Show. Right now, I've got
Barbara Feldon as a guest. We've got people calling in
to speak with her. So let's go to al In Danvers.
Speaker 12 (24:05):
Happy New Year, now, Happy New Year?
Speaker 11 (24:08):
Ow, yes you too on the show? Did you have
a compact like and it was a fall has a fun?
Speaker 5 (24:29):
Yeah?
Speaker 11 (24:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (24:30):
There were all the devices that the spy shows of
that era where what was a normal everyday device was
more than that. And I remember on let's say Honey
West and Francis who was Honey West, had a compact
that she could communicate with her partner Sam Bolt. And
(24:52):
I think I was referring to ninety nine having something
with which she could communicate with Max, because Max used
his shoe.
Speaker 6 (25:05):
But oh, oh yeah, sure, I know sure that she
had a lipstick transior transistor lipstick. And certainly she had
a ring special ring unless I'm remembering that from my
childhood from Jack Armstrong or No Dick Tracy or what
(25:28):
was it were you you wrote in and you got
a ring that told secret mess It was.
Speaker 5 (25:35):
Oval team Jack Armstrong, Jack Armstrong, the All American boy.
Speaker 6 (25:39):
Yeah. Yeah, but but Max got most of the cool props.
I mean Max got to be in the Cone of Silence.
Ninety nine never did except when they years and years
later when they made a remake for ABC as an
ABC movie, ninety nine got to be in the in
(26:04):
the Cone of Silence. But during the show, during the
five years, ninety nine was never invited into this cone
of It's a good.
Speaker 5 (26:14):
Thing because that thing never worked. You didn't want to
be dripped in that.
Speaker 6 (26:21):
She was too smart to get in it.
Speaker 10 (26:23):
Yes, now anything else, Oh, it was just yeah, the
chief fan he had all like the cool Kaz Mustang
shall be.
Speaker 11 (26:37):
I saw like a couple of the shows you. I
was souped up once.
Speaker 9 (26:46):
The cars.
Speaker 6 (26:50):
He had an don I think had an Austin Austin
Martin is.
Speaker 5 (26:58):
Yeah, he had a sunbeam sunde.
Speaker 9 (27:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (27:01):
Yeah, we almost backed off a cliff and at once.
I remember it very clearly.
Speaker 5 (27:08):
Oh what in real life?
Speaker 6 (27:11):
No, you put the garden the verse? Okay, putting it
going straightforward didn't happen.
Speaker 7 (27:19):
It was okay, all right, now anything else.
Speaker 11 (27:26):
She's just a great a secret agent.
Speaker 5 (27:33):
It was a great secret agent. As an actress. She
is superb.
Speaker 6 (27:40):
Yeah, secret agent for sure.
Speaker 5 (27:44):
All right, Well, thank you, bye bye. Okay, let's let's
go to Ohio and speak to Duke Duke. Happy new
Year to you.
Speaker 9 (27:54):
How are you doing, Barbara? How are you?
Speaker 12 (27:58):
Oh?
Speaker 9 (27:58):
Great, happy to happy to get a chance to talk
to you.
Speaker 12 (28:02):
Hey.
Speaker 9 (28:03):
My favorite character on Get Smart was Simon the Likable.
Can you tell us about working with Jack Guilford?
Speaker 6 (28:11):
Oh I don't. I'm not sure I ever did any
scenes with him.
Speaker 9 (28:19):
You did know what I'm talking about, though. He was
the chaos agent who was just so nice that people
could not turn him down. And every time they would
show him, he would smile and both his teeth and
his eyes would sparkle.
Speaker 6 (28:33):
Oh my god, that I don't remember that.
Speaker 9 (28:36):
Any remember him? Morgan?
Speaker 5 (28:39):
I do?
Speaker 6 (28:40):
Yeah, he had a wonderful actor and he was hilarious. Yeah,
and you know how to.
Speaker 5 (28:47):
Play that scene for laughs.
Speaker 9 (28:51):
Oh yeah, And then quickly somebody mentioned Max's cark. Did
he at one point in the series try about Carmen Gia.
Speaker 5 (29:01):
No, he drove a Sunbeam, a Triumph, and a Buick
Opal over the five years of the show.
Speaker 9 (29:13):
I'm sure that he wore he drove a Carmen Ghea
and at some point. And the reason I know that
is because the teacher I had at the time had
one as well, and I don't know, four through fifth
grade whatever Euro was, and we talked about that in
class because he was explaining to us that this was
(29:34):
a German car, and you know, history was exactly.
Speaker 5 (29:41):
But the thing of the Carmen Gea. Maybe my mind
is playing a trick on me. But the three cars
I mentioned, because they had different opening scenes over the
five years that they were just a little living and
tucking here. And the last car he drove was a
(30:03):
Buick Opal. He drove Triumph, and he drove a Sunbeam.
Speaker 9 (30:10):
Maybe I remember both of those, but I do not
remember the Buick. And I remember that at least the
first season, you would see Mark, you would see Max
Glatt and get in a car and drive away like
he was leaving, and he would just do a U
turn in park and go into the building.
Speaker 6 (30:27):
Yeah, okay.
Speaker 5 (30:29):
Hold. On nineteen sixty seven, mac Max acquires a blue
Volkswagon Carmen Gea, although he is seen driving it only
once in the opening credits seasons four, he retains a
possession of the vehicle until nineteen ninety five, when he
finally sells it. Uh and there's no answer. Nancy looked
(30:53):
that up. So there you go, proof, Duke that he
drove a Carmen Gia.
Speaker 9 (31:00):
Wow, I learned something, my good grade teacher, I remember
so well discussing that in the classroom. And that's been gosh,
sixty years.
Speaker 5 (31:10):
Ago, yeah, exactly sixty years.
Speaker 6 (31:13):
Two years ago that the show started. Yet I just
learned that today. That's pretty sobering.
Speaker 5 (31:23):
Yes, and now I appreciate you.
Speaker 9 (31:25):
Talk to you again. I'm sorry, Roby, Barbara.
Speaker 5 (31:28):
You're only thirty nine years old right now.
Speaker 6 (31:31):
No, how could that bee? That's really weird arithmes.
Speaker 12 (31:36):
It is.
Speaker 5 (31:36):
It's weird arithmetic. And I'm going with that me too. Okay,
to thank you for the.
Speaker 9 (31:43):
Call, Thank you, good night, good night, right.
Speaker 5 (31:47):
All right, and I'm going to say this, rob Let's
take that break a minute or so early. Anyone who
wants to jump on is room for you? Six one, seven, two, five,
four ten thirty or eight eight, eight, nine to nine,
ten thirty. There is one line available? Nope, now there
are two. Somebody was on it and hung up, and
(32:09):
Michael and Boston, let me get the breakout of way,
out of the way, and you will be next here
on night side time and temperature eleven forty three forty
seven degrees.
Speaker 8 (32:24):
Now back to Dan Ray Mine from the Window World
Light Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 5 (32:31):
I've got three people on hold. I'm going to do
the best I can to get all three on, so
I get a chance. Michael and Boston, you're next with
Barbara Feldon.
Speaker 14 (32:44):
By your kid.
Speaker 9 (32:46):
How are you to get?
Speaker 14 (32:48):
Curious as to whether Barber was aware that Get Smart
was shot the year before it became Get Smart in
New York as a pilot with another star, it was
called Detective at Large with mel Brooks and Buck Henry
(33:10):
and so forth, and the network liked it and said,
we've got this guy that we're paying the army I
believe was his last name, Your star and they said,
let's reshoot it because the money is down the drain.
(33:31):
He's got a contract, we've got to pay him, so
let's use him for something. Are you aware of that
or were you part of that original pilot.
Speaker 6 (33:39):
No, that's the first I've heard of that. I mean,
the story I know and that I know from the
people who produced it and created it, is that when
the James Bond movies were so popular, Dan Melnick, who's
the head of Talent Associates, who which was the production
(34:01):
company that made it, hired Mel Brooks and Buck Henry
to create almost a comic strip extension of of seven
you know, of the of the James Bond franchise and
that and mel sat down and created it, and I
(34:22):
handed it to them and then they cast it. And
that's the story I know. But there may have been
a precursor that that inspired the second script. I'm not sure.
Speaker 14 (34:39):
I was told by uh, the person who was cast
in that Tom Post and he was a part of it,
and it was called Detective at Large and they liked it,
but they wanted to use Don Adams because he was
under contract. But anyway, the other question I had, Yeah.
Speaker 6 (34:57):
I had heard that Tom Post and was considered first
for Maxwell Smart. That's that I heard. There's I'm sure
we could straighten the story out if we had more time.
Speaker 14 (35:12):
Okay alive, he tells me.
Speaker 5 (35:15):
Uh.
Speaker 14 (35:16):
The other question I had very quickly is were you
the first doing or Get Smart? Did you have to
compete with other known actresses or unknown actresses at the time.
Speaker 6 (35:26):
Or were you no id An auditioned for it because
they had seen me do a similar role in another
one of their shows, where I played an industrial spy
who was kind of sexy, and and so when they
saw the when they saw the script, they right away
thought that that was the character. They had seen me
(35:46):
do this other character, and they wanted that performance, so
they just gave it to me.
Speaker 5 (35:54):
Michael, take care, Michael, Paul, and Beverly you are next
here a night side. Yeah.
Speaker 15 (36:06):
Yes, I'm just so happy to speak to Baba. Can
you hear me? Yeah? I just want to say, yeah,
I just want to say I don't I mean in
a good way. I was very young, but you, to me,
you were the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.
(36:26):
You were on television, not in person, and it's probably
true too. And you know, I think probably the first
woman I was in love with. Of course, I was
very young, and I don't want to say it in
the wrong way, and I was thinking you always had
I'm telling the truth, though, but I always saw that
to me, you had like a wonderful smile. It made
(36:48):
me think of a word or a smile. It's usually negative,
but it was actually a wonderful type of smirk. I
would think, and it's not the right word, but I
was just thinking, if it could be a good mile,
you turn that into a you know, and you look
like you were happy while you were acting, and you know,
I was aware, although as a young boy, that you
(37:08):
were an actress also playing that character. So to me,
you were ninety nine and an actress playing ninety nine,
and it's just wonderful. I just wanted to say, you know,
it's just really just wonderful for me, and it means
a lot to me to actually speak to you. At
that time, I wouldn't have thought I'd ever get to
speak to you. Thank you so much, and Morgan.
Speaker 6 (37:32):
Here, thank you.
Speaker 5 (37:34):
If you take the first line of the Mary Tellermore show,
it's a perfect description to Barbara Feldon, who can turn
the world on with her smile.
Speaker 15 (37:44):
Yeah, absolutely, I agree with you. Thank you all.
Speaker 6 (37:49):
Well, I'm glad I had a little fan out there.
You were probably what about years old or.
Speaker 15 (37:55):
So well, I thought I was maybe twelve years old
or something. It's not important. It was a very nice thing,
you know, to feel and once hard anyways, you know, so.
Speaker 5 (38:07):
You know how we twelve year old boys can be
when we're smitten with someone.
Speaker 15 (38:12):
Yeah, you said, all right, take care, God bless.
Speaker 5 (38:19):
And now too. And most of you know when I
say this, who it is. Somehow she usually manages to
be the last call of the night. Karen in Wisconsin,
Hello Karen.
Speaker 6 (38:33):
By Karen, Karen, Oh you're bad.
Speaker 5 (38:42):
Yes, we're here. You're on.
Speaker 6 (38:49):
Get me back, Yes, Karen, you're.
Speaker 5 (38:52):
On the air. Karen, You're on the air with Barbara Feldon.
Speaker 7 (38:55):
All right, thank you. I have never seen the good
uh what Get Smart show. I've always heard of ninety
nine and didn't know who you were. But when you
start talking about Pinocchio, I've been looking for that album
instead of listening to the show, and I couldn't find it.
(39:19):
But I love that album too, so now I have
a to you.
Speaker 6 (39:23):
So yeah, it was. It was such a sweet movie
for kids. It yeah, it makes such an impression on
you when you're that age.
Speaker 5 (39:35):
Story is an old story, going back to.
Speaker 7 (39:43):
Oh really, the original story, the original story. Yes, what
was I got that album somewhere, but if you got it,
I wasted my time.
Speaker 5 (39:55):
Read the read the liner notes, he's got that album handy.
Speaker 7 (40:00):
I will anything else. Sorry for being late that I
was busy looking for instead of listening. But it was
nice to me too. And have a good New Year year,
both of you. Thank you, and with the.
Speaker 5 (40:19):
Minutes that we have left, tell people the two books
and it is too that you have written, and maybe
they can go out and find them.
Speaker 6 (40:28):
Oh okay, maybe if they're in need of them. The
first one was Living Alone and Loving It, which is
a series of essays on how to live alone happily,
which I have done since, oh my gosh, for decades.
But it's really about friendship and taking responsibility for your
(40:49):
own happiness and making sure you have plenty of friends.
And the other book is called Getting Smarter, which is
really the story of sort of quasi funny, quasi discomforting
story about my marriage to a guy who was kind
of a con man and very lovable and how that
(41:14):
came about and how I'd thought I was being followed
by the KGB and it was like imitating Get Smart,
if I.
Speaker 5 (41:23):
Remember the story correctly, didn't he rip you off as well?
Speaker 4 (41:29):
Well?
Speaker 6 (41:29):
He did because I won a lot of money on
a game show and I gave it to him to invest,
and he invested it at the racetrack, which I didn't
know for years. I always thought it was in a
trust fund. But that was that was a small part
of it. The bigger part of it was I thought
he was a spy working undercover for the CIA, and
(41:51):
that I was being followed. And it's quite an amusing
story and it was so much fun to write, and
it was a great adventure for me at the time.
Speaker 14 (42:01):
And what game show?
Speaker 5 (42:03):
Pardon me, what game show did you win money?
Speaker 6 (42:07):
Sixty four thousand dollars question? And I was quite young
and gave him the money to him and the money
was gone in six weeks, which by the way, is
not unusual for people winning great amount of money, great
amounts of money, and that it I think if they
ever did a book and followed up on all the
(42:30):
people who have won vast fortunes, and that was back
then a pretty big fortune. That it's gone fairly shortly.
Speaker 5 (42:43):
Family or relative or spouse.
Speaker 6 (42:47):
Yeah, some people are extravagant. But I just wanted to
save it. But I saved it in his pocket, which
was had a hole in it unfortunately.
Speaker 5 (43:00):
Now I'm going to call you tomorrow to give you
my phone number, and please pass it on to Bernie.
Speaker 6 (43:05):
Oh I will. I'm going to call him anyway, So
I'm giving your number.
Speaker 5 (43:11):
All right, Robert, thank you very much for being on.
I want to thank as well Cleio Campbell, and I
want to thank Joanne Desmond without forgetting mister Rob Brooks,
Nancy and Mike cat Gray. Bye, Boston,
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