Physician Impossible first aired on 21 November, 1969. It was written by Lloyd Turner and Gordon Mitchell.

Early in the day, while working undercover, Maxwell Smart (Don Adams) shoots and injures a high profile criminal, Big Eddie Little (Henry Corden). Later, when he goes to visit 99 (Barbara Feldon) and the twins in the hospital, he is mistaken for a doctor and kidnapped.

He and 99 are whisked away to work on the very man he shot. Threatened at gunpoint they are forced to tend to Eddie, but happily, Max still has his shoe phone.

Can they stall long enough for CONTROL and the Chief (Edward Platt) get to them in time?

There’s a great gag of Smart promising to get the bullet out in no time, and with a pat on the back, it pops out of Eddie. It’s a very fun moment.

CONTROL shows up, just as Eddie recognizes Smart, but they surrender and are all injured afresh when they drop their weapons.

99 and Smart are able to survive the day, and they also know that the twins will be able to go home soon.

There is some very funny moments in this episode, even as it riffs on familiar material.

The Apes of Rath first aired on 28 November, 1969. It ws also written by Mitchell and Turner.

It seems CONTROL agents are receiving bunches of bananas and then being murdered. After Max receives one, he knows he’s the next target. To keep him safe, he’s assigned protection in the form of Agent Armstrong (Charles Bateman) an ape that has been altered to look like a human.

… okay…

To make sure Smart stays safe, the Chief orders him home and tells him to keep Armstrong close.

The KAOS doctor behind everything is Dr. Rath (Reuben Singer) and he can trigger Armstrong… who is under his control… meaning Max is going to be in serious trouble, his protector may be his assassin.

Will Max be able to sort things out? He seems to be a little panicky about everything.

Armstrong is distracted by 99, so you can see this one building towards a riff on the classic film, King Kong. It’s definitely goofy, and Bateman is pretty silly with his ape-act, but that’s what makees it appealing. I do like the opening sequence quite a bit.

And it looks like the Smart apartment has been re-carpeted and refurbished since the arrival of the twins.

Age Before Duty was written by Bob DeVinney, and it first aired on 5 December, 1969.

Something is happening to everyone at CONTROL. They seem to be aging incredibly fast! Can they figure out what is going on before they all die of old age?

It all has to do with a paint that a CONTROL scientist, Felix (John Fielder, the voice of Piglet, and of course, Star Trek’s Wolf in the Fold episode) has created, which, when applied to photos of agents, causes them to age (a la Dorian Gray). KAOS learns of this and wants to exploit it by wiping out the entire agency, starting with Max, 99 and the Chief.

The trio work to figure out what is going on, but the strain of things is really starting to wear on their aging bodies. But they may be able to save the day, by pure luck. But that seems to be how things work out for Smart most of the time.

There’s some fun latex work to make them all look elderly.

The makeup work is fairly solid, even if the story itself is sillier than usual. And that’s saying something.