This starts out with Max trying to follow a KAOS courier (Robert Ito, Sam from "Quincy"). He's number three in a chain. They hope to use him to find number two and the plans for the TK800 tranquilizer bomb. After a funny silent bit with some wet paint, Max is discovered and it leads to a shoot out that ends when 99 draws down on him! The trail of the KAOS courier takes Max and 99 to San Francisco where we meet the brains behind the operation, Max's old nemesis, the Claw ("Not Craw, Claw!") and his dopey henchman Bobo. They kill KAOS' number two man in the chain to lure Max and 99 into a trap. The crime is investigated by Harry Hoo (Joey Foreman who later played Agent 13 in "The Nude Bomb") a Charlie Chan parody. Instantly Max turns into the dopey number one son to Hoo's wise oriental detective. Their scenes together are brilliant. Carusco and Gardner give the boys great stuff to work with. Foreman is very strong here and Hoo was brought back for more laughs later in the series. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for the Craw and Bobo. Although Leonard Strong did come back as another character, its a pity he did not come back again as Craw. He's a great villain and Bobo makes for a very funny henchman as well as a genuine threat to Max.
5 Reviews
brilliant spoof...
tatz3200018 February 2006
Warning: Spoilers
"Get Smart" has so many brilliant episodes, but this is one of the best. A classic spoof of all the Charlie Chan films, when Anglo actors always put on funny makeup in order to portray Chinese/Hawaiian Detective Charlie Chan--here we have the Anglo Forman trying to look and sound Asian as Master Hawaiian Detective Harry Hoo. As my wonderful Asian girlfriend said years ago, watching this episode on NICK, "He's not Asian!" But, that doesn't stop Forman from quoting Chan-style aphorisms and doing a bad Asian accent, with "Moment, prease, Mistah Smart", a favorite trademark phrase. Leonard Strong adds to the arguably politically incorrect fun with another wonderful portrayal of Asian badguy "The Craw". All in all, lets' hope GET SMART comes out on DVD soon so we can enjoy this subtle spoof!
One of TV's funniest half hours ever!
FlushingCaps22 December 2020
Warning: Spoilers
We begin with Max trying to follow someone who keeps looking around, prompting our hero to duck around a corner and lean against a wall that's been freshly painted. Max winds up chasing the man and just when he is about to fire at him, a hand reaches out from a doorway and fires, knocking the gun out of Max's hand. The figure steps out and we see it was 99 who shot at Max's gun.
The Chief is angry that Max tried to fire at the man. He had other agents to backup Max and it was most important that this KAOS agent not be stopped because he would soon lead CONTROL to the head of KAOS.
We learn that the head is a villain Max faced before, the Claw. The one-handed criminal mastermind sets up a trap for Max by killing one of his own agents in a hotel in San Francisco. Soon Max & 99 find the agent they were following, dead, in his hotel room. Enter the "famous" Hawaiian detective Harry Hoo, an obvious spoof of Charlie Chan, complete with the white suit that he tells Max he began wearing in Honolulu when "I was employee of ice cream firm." Max tells him his suit is very attractive. Hoo replies, "You should see my cleaning bills."
For my money, the long scene where Hoo and Max look for clues in that hotel room was about the funniest scene in the entire series. Long, long ago, I tape recorded the sound of much of this episode (no VCR in those days) and found myself knowing almost every line of dialogue.
It is full of Chan-like witticisms with Smart acting more-or-less as an assistant to Hoo. They begin with takeoff of Abbot-and-Costello, "Who's he. He's Hoo..." Almost every clue leads to Hoo saying it presents "Two possibilities." I will give away only one of the lines to demonstrate. Found in the murdered man's pocket was half of a laundry ticket. (We viewers already knew that the Claw purposely had his aide leave that to lead Smart to the laundry so the Claw could trap him.) Hoo suggests the first possibility is that murdered man tore ticket in half in struggle with his killer. Before he can finish, Max says, "Moment please" (Hoo's line). He asks if he can provide second half of the possibilities. Hoo tells him to go ahead. Smart says, "Maybe the victim only took HALF his laundry to the cleaners." Hoo can only roll his eyes and say, "Amazing."
When Smart is later caught by his old nemesis, we get more of the wild "Not the Craw, the Craw" lines. Hoo saves Smart and makes us yearn for a repeat appearance of Hoo, which we get, but sadly only in one more episode. I think he should have been on as often as Siegfried.
I don't know if there have ten half-hour shows in TV history that made me laugh as much as this one. It is simply that funny. Obviously, I rate this one a 10 because IMDB won't let me go higher.
The Chief is angry that Max tried to fire at the man. He had other agents to backup Max and it was most important that this KAOS agent not be stopped because he would soon lead CONTROL to the head of KAOS.
We learn that the head is a villain Max faced before, the Claw. The one-handed criminal mastermind sets up a trap for Max by killing one of his own agents in a hotel in San Francisco. Soon Max & 99 find the agent they were following, dead, in his hotel room. Enter the "famous" Hawaiian detective Harry Hoo, an obvious spoof of Charlie Chan, complete with the white suit that he tells Max he began wearing in Honolulu when "I was employee of ice cream firm." Max tells him his suit is very attractive. Hoo replies, "You should see my cleaning bills."
For my money, the long scene where Hoo and Max look for clues in that hotel room was about the funniest scene in the entire series. Long, long ago, I tape recorded the sound of much of this episode (no VCR in those days) and found myself knowing almost every line of dialogue.
It is full of Chan-like witticisms with Smart acting more-or-less as an assistant to Hoo. They begin with takeoff of Abbot-and-Costello, "Who's he. He's Hoo..." Almost every clue leads to Hoo saying it presents "Two possibilities." I will give away only one of the lines to demonstrate. Found in the murdered man's pocket was half of a laundry ticket. (We viewers already knew that the Claw purposely had his aide leave that to lead Smart to the laundry so the Claw could trap him.) Hoo suggests the first possibility is that murdered man tore ticket in half in struggle with his killer. Before he can finish, Max says, "Moment please" (Hoo's line). He asks if he can provide second half of the possibilities. Hoo tells him to go ahead. Smart says, "Maybe the victim only took HALF his laundry to the cleaners." Hoo can only roll his eyes and say, "Amazing."
When Smart is later caught by his old nemesis, we get more of the wild "Not the Craw, the Craw" lines. Hoo saves Smart and makes us yearn for a repeat appearance of Hoo, which we get, but sadly only in one more episode. I think he should have been on as often as Siegfried.
I don't know if there have ten half-hour shows in TV history that made me laugh as much as this one. It is simply that funny. Obviously, I rate this one a 10 because IMDB won't let me go higher.
Offensive and, worse, unfunny
intp18 May 2023
Warning: Spoilers
I actually quite liked Episode 1.2, "Diplomat's Daughter," which introduced the Asian villain "the Claw," played by veteran bit part actor Leonard Strong. There, I thought the race issue was handled surprisingly well, with Max calling the villain "Craw" only because he was too dumb to know better.
This episode, however, by the same writers, was a very different story. It was bad enough that they had a Chinese character (Harry Hoo) played by a white actor, but that might not have bothered me overly much, as in 1965, I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt on the difficulty of finding a suitable Asian actor for the role.
But the really offensive part for me was putting the actor, Joey Forman, in offensive make-up and/or prosthetics to grossly exaggerate the faked Asian features and to talk in pigeon English. Yes, I am aware of the vague callback to the Charlie Chan character, but those features were in the 1930's and 1940's, not 1965-1966. And unlike the Chan character, 'Harry Hoo' was not a competent detective but was almost as dumb as Max.
I guess that's supposed to be the 'joke' but it's uncomfortably unfunny as the actor does so in his grossly caricaturized fashion, unlike Don Adams with his impeccable delivery. Like Max, he draws dumb and wrong conclusions and ends up helping out by pure dumb luck, as he just happens to be going to his Chinese laundromat (owned by the Claw as a front) to do his laundry.
I seriously doubt Mel Brooks or the writers had any malicious racist intent here, and at least the other characters treated 'Hoo' reasonably well, but that doesn't make this watchable to me. In contrast, when a rare black actor appeared on this series, they were never put in a stereotyped role like this.
But even aside from the offensive elements, the writing was just weak with flat, unfunny jokes, mostly milking the offensive Hoo character too much, with far too much screen time. As just an example, when 'Hoo' calls the Claw 'the Craw,' that's just unfunny, as he should obviously know better. Leonard Strong, whom I like, barely even appeared. I might have found this somewhat tolerable, at least, if it had been funny.
Gardner and Caruso have been hit or miss on scripts for me. Some have been good, some quite weak. This one was so bad as to be cringe inducing.
This episode, however, by the same writers, was a very different story. It was bad enough that they had a Chinese character (Harry Hoo) played by a white actor, but that might not have bothered me overly much, as in 1965, I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt on the difficulty of finding a suitable Asian actor for the role.
But the really offensive part for me was putting the actor, Joey Forman, in offensive make-up and/or prosthetics to grossly exaggerate the faked Asian features and to talk in pigeon English. Yes, I am aware of the vague callback to the Charlie Chan character, but those features were in the 1930's and 1940's, not 1965-1966. And unlike the Chan character, 'Harry Hoo' was not a competent detective but was almost as dumb as Max.
I guess that's supposed to be the 'joke' but it's uncomfortably unfunny as the actor does so in his grossly caricaturized fashion, unlike Don Adams with his impeccable delivery. Like Max, he draws dumb and wrong conclusions and ends up helping out by pure dumb luck, as he just happens to be going to his Chinese laundromat (owned by the Claw as a front) to do his laundry.
I seriously doubt Mel Brooks or the writers had any malicious racist intent here, and at least the other characters treated 'Hoo' reasonably well, but that doesn't make this watchable to me. In contrast, when a rare black actor appeared on this series, they were never put in a stereotyped role like this.
But even aside from the offensive elements, the writing was just weak with flat, unfunny jokes, mostly milking the offensive Hoo character too much, with far too much screen time. As just an example, when 'Hoo' calls the Claw 'the Craw,' that's just unfunny, as he should obviously know better. Leonard Strong, whom I like, barely even appeared. I might have found this somewhat tolerable, at least, if it had been funny.
Gardner and Caruso have been hit or miss on scripts for me. Some have been good, some quite weak. This one was so bad as to be cringe inducing.
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