We get more domestic stories with The Farkas Fracas. 99 (Barbara Feldon) is playing housewife, sigh, what a waste, as Max (Don Adams) and the Chief (Edward Platt) take on KAOS agents.

The story, written by Allan Burns, Chris Hayward, Arne Sultan, and Leonard Stern first aired on 7 December, 1968.

Mx invites the Chief over for dinner, and things go well, except that they don’t have a dessert. Happily the Smarts have neighbors with desserts ready to go. Unfortunately, the neighbors are KAOS agents, and the dessert, a chocolate mousse, is poison!

The neighbors, the Farkas, are played by Tom Bosley and Alice Ghostley. And their plan, after the poison takes effect is to steal Chief’s briefcase. It has a list of agents in it. Bosley and Ghostley aree hilarious together, and while Smart and the Chief struggle with their illness, the KAOS agents are copying the files.

Once things go sideways for KAOS, things settle for our heroes pretty quickly, especially when they realize the baddies took the wrong case.

It’s ridiculous to see 99 reduced to silly things like this. She was always the better agent. And to see her doing nothing more than working from home, it’s really bothersome, and a ridiculous example of the mentality of the times.

Temporarily Out of CONTROL was written by the same group, Burns, Sultan, Hayward and Stern, and aired on 14 December, 1968.

Max and the Chief get temporarily called back to the Navy, where Smart outranks his boss. It’s all a KAOS plan to get them out of the agency. The whole thing interrupts a planned Caribbean vacation for 99 and Max’s delayed honeymoon.

Once aboard ship, they learn that they were called back into service so that KAOS can put their own plans into action. But when they reveal the truth to the captain (Russ Conway), he doesn’t believe them and throws them in the brig.

They have to find a way out and stop KAOS.

So once again, it looks like we’re getting a Smart and Chief story, and 99 gets sidelined again. Sigh. A lot of this season, despite some good ideas, feels like it’s straying from what made the series enjoyable.

I will say this, the episode does make some nice location work on an actual naval ship, specifically aboard the Yorktown. But once again, little to no 99 makes this a different kind of show. And while I love seeing the Chief more involved, I miss 99 being in on the action.

Schwartz’s Island debuted on 21 December, 1968 and was, you guessed it, written by Sultan, Stern, Hayward and Burns.

99 and Max are on their honeymoon!But they end up marooned on a deserted island, after their sailboat explodes. Well, it’s not completely deserted. Siegfried (Bernie Kopell) and Starker (King Moody) are there as well. And it’s not a real island, it’s a manufactured KAOS island (actually the Gilligan’s Island sets).

While the Chief tries to find and rescue them, the pair have their work cut out for them. They have to survive, get rescued, and stop Siegfried (again). He plans to use a giant magnet to cause the sixth fleet to crash against the island, and sink.

And hey! It’s fun to see Max and 99 out on an adventure together again.

And I love when Siegfried shows up, and he is going all out in this episode. Entertainingly so. He’s so funny, and arguably has become my favourite character in the series.

The Chief ends up on the island with them, and while Siegfried escapes, they’ll have to figure out how to save the day together.

I like this one. 99 is back in the limelight, Siegfried is in it, and it’s an entertaining episode. This is Get Smart.