Quotes

"There's not a day when somebody doesn't smile and say, 'Oh, you're Agent 99.' I like being in a world that regards me in a friendly way." Interview with Toby Kahn, 1983.

I wish I could say this was a wonderful script.....It was like what I would call mind candy and it just got rid of the best perfectly good 2 hours of your life. (on her part in the film, Let's Switch! (1975).

I was a very loving and good friends with Don Adams in the years after Get Smart (1965) and until he died. We never really bonded during the show except as characters. He was preoccupied with the role. We just thought of ourselves as congenial business colleagues. Yes. There was an extra sweetness about them, a sense of nostalgia. And you never know when something will turn into art. I don't think it's pretentious to say it was art, maybe pop art. Every element worked. It was crafted like a comic strip, in a way. Everything had to pay off with a laugh. Don would say 'there are too many words' or 'the set up isn't right'. There was no improvisation. There is a sort of poetry to writing comedy. Poetry is very crafted. You can't have too many words. It needs compression. It has to be spare, just the right number of words. And Don's instincts were infallible. We never rehearsed. I think we got more skilled as time went on. I did. At first, I had one foot in my little girl's self and one foot in my grown-up self. You can see it in my character. By the end, I had both feet in my adult self. 99 still had an adoration for Maxwell Smart, but with more authority. (on her professional on- and off-screen friendship with Don Adams, who played Maxwell Smart)