Film editor remembers Don Adams

Sue Kesler may be the world's greatest fan of the 1960s comedy series "Get Smart."

The film editor - who has worked for 30 years on TV shows from "The Love Boat" to "Heroes" - served as a technical advisor on the new "Get Smart" movie because of her intimate knowledge of the series, especially Maxwell Smart's famed 1966 Sunbeam Tiger.

"I know a lot of people who worked on the show and the stuntman who actually drove the Tiger," she told The Nugget.

Kesler credits the series as the spark to her whole career.

"I loved it so much and it was so well done, it was one of the reasons I got into the film business as a film editor," she said.

Don Adams was the actor who played Maxwell Smart. Kesler met him several times before he died in 2005 and has since become very close with Adams' family.

Kesler takes exception to the portrayal by Bob Bridgeford of Sisters - who now owns Adams' personal Tiger - as a flake and a philanderer (see "Get Smart movie to open with unique Sisters connection," The Nugget, June 18, page 13).

Kesler saw Adams as a kind and compassionate man. She said that the fact that he had three marriages does not mean he was a philanderer.

"He's not the only one in Hollywood that has done that (been married multiple times)," Kesler said. "I just think it's sad that people are going to get that impression. I don't think it's fair."

She also thinks calling Adams a flake is unfair.

"If he was famous for any foibles as was written in the article, it was for his absentmindedness," she said.

Absent-mindedness, not flakiness, was responsible for his leaving the Tiger with the top down overnight under a rainstorm, Kesler said.

As for the several times the powerful car was wrecked in his possession, "He'd given it to his daughters to drive and they got into accidents and he was sick of fixing it, so after the third accident he took it to the junk yard," Kesler said. "So it wasn't him who wrecked it."

Kesler acknowledged that Adams was, indeed a gambler, but noted that the story of Adams losing his Tiger in a poker game remains unsubstantiated rumor (Bridgeford also referred to the incident as a rumor).

For Kesler, the most important thing to remember about Don Adams is that he created a TV character that has lived for generations. She noted that the very fact that there is a "Get Smart Movie" is testimony to his talent, since a movie will only be made from a nearly 40-year-old show if it has attained the status of a classic.

And, she says, "Get Smart" and Don Adams are nothing if not classics.

"Get Smart" is playing at Sisters Movie House.

Author Bio

Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.

• Email: editor@nuggetnews.com
• Phone: 5415499941