Talk:Don Adams

Another Don Adams
Not to be confused with Donald Adams.

Mother’s religion
This page says that Don’s mother Consuelo was Catholic. But his brother’s says she was Jewish. I personally have no idea which is correct, but seems to me they can’t both be correct. (If she converted from one to the other, I would assert they are both wrong, not both correct. :-) I give slightly more weight to Catholic as that one has a citation, but that does not seem definitive to me. Sbauman (talk) 16:57, 10 January 2021 (UTC)
 * Census records confirm that his mother was born in Ireland, which tends to support the reports that his mother was Roman Catholic. Figureofnine (talk • contribs) 19:53, 4 July 2022 (UTC)

Emmys
Re: the paragraph on Emmy Awards. Three was not the record at the time (Don Knotts won five for his work on The Andy Griffith Show, for instance), so I edited this paragraph to reflect that. AnDrew McKenzie 18:25, 2005 July 31 (UTC)

Addition
Perhaps a filmography would be appropriate?

Get Smart
The section GET SMART is unreadable! I hope there is someone knowledgeable on the subject who could rewrite it with clear sentences, using correct grammar, spelling, punctuation, and syntax.

71.124.200.121 (talk) 04:21, 18 November 2007 (UTC)Barry Oremland

USMC drill instructor
The biography of Adams on IMDB says that he joined the marines, served in the battle of Guadalcanal, was ill for a year with blackwater fever, and became a drill instructor after recovering. And that makes sense, given that he was either 16 or 18 at the beginning of 1942, small, and inexperienced. So I have changed the sentence that stated that he was a drill instructor before serving on Guadalcanal.

Agemegos 09:01, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

Sean Adams
I edited the page a few weeks ago to reflect that Don Adams's son, Sean, is deceased, and my edit was reverted without explanation. I'll be glad to cite an obituary for Sean Adams if somebody disputes that he's deceased.

I'd be interested to see an obituary - Google doesn't seem to show up much info on Sean, and no info at all about the fact that he is deceased.

Here's a Usenet post about Sean's death: http://groups.google.com/group/alt.obituaries/browse_frm/thread/584fa283cf0cf4ef/99e9a7b4ab5bf58e?lnk=st&q=sean+adams&rnum=1#99e9a7b4ab5bf58e 68.38.127.139 00:11, 6 September 2006 (UTC)

This is Sean's Wife...

I did not post an obituary, as Sean and I were awfully sick of his family's life in the media spotlight and tended to shy away from it. Yes, this information is accurate that my brother in law, Jim posted. Sean passed away June 28th, 2006 at 6:52am while holding my hand. He went very peacefully, with his sisters (Stacey, Beige, and Kenya) and I by his side. He is deeply, DEEPLY Missed.

--- Anna Heilig-Adams

Quotes section?
What's this doing here? It seems completely out of place. The Last Melon (talk) 04:02, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

Redirect
Donald James Yarmy should redirect to this article. Proxy User (talk) 00:20, 28 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Consider it done. --   Jack of Oz   [your turn]  21:07, 6 September 2011 (UTC)

Alzheimers?
The last few years of his life Adams suffered from Alzheimers. I remember seeing him on TV, he was being featured in a segment after getting a star on the walk of fame and was very slow to respond. The studio commentator mentioned Don is suffering from Alzheimers. This isn't mentioned anywhere in the article, though. --RyanTee82 (talk) 08:00, 26 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Find a citation from a valid source. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 13:23, 26 October 2009 (UTC)

Main index
I have changed this page. Don Adams refers to too many people. People who look up Don Adams, should not head directly to any favored person.--Rodejong (talk) 19:13, 24 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Why does this person get favorited to be on the main page? --Rodejong (talk) 11:45, 2 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Disambiguation policy says that where a primary topic exists for a name then that should be the article you get. Looking at the others with this name it seems that Don Adams the actor is by far the primary topic for this name. --Errant Tmorton166(Talk) 12:21, 2 August 2010 (UTC)

CBS or ABC?
According to a taped interview posted on YouTube, Get Smart writer/producer Leonard Stern and Tom Poston both say that the Get Smart pilot (starring Tom Poston) was first pitched to, and rejected by, ABC. This goes against this article that claims that the series was pitched to CBS. Here is the URL to the inteview for review:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiuHZLquz8w&feature=fvw 173.76.32.100 (talk) 02:29, 28 October 2010 (UTC)

Capitalization of "navy"
Per MOS:MILTERMS, "Formal names of military units, including armies, navies, air forces, fleets, regiments, battalions, companies, corps, and so forth, are proper names and should be capitalized. However, the words for types of military unit (army, navy, fleet, company, etc.) do not require capitalization if they do not appear in a proper name. Thus, the American army, but the United States Army." And the way a source capitalizes something does not trump Wikipedia's Manual of Style (see WP:SPECIALSTYLE). Chris the speller  yack  23:10, 6 July 2019 (UTC)
 * A Navy hospital is a hospital operated by the US Navy, including those it operates in other countries. A navy hospital is a hospital operated by some unnamed naval service, in this case possibly a facility operated by the New Zealand Navy (assuming there is such a thing).  In this case, the source says that Adams recuperated at a Navy hospital (not a navy hospital); since he was a US Marine, it would have been a US Navy facility.  Since the source uses the capitalized form, and it was a hospital operated by the US Navy, "Navy", not "navy" is the correct form.  General Ization  Talk  23:15, 6 July 2019 (UTC)
 * By the way, this may be relevant, if only to show that there were US Navy hospitals in Wellington during (and for a time after) WWII: .  General Ization Talk  23:26, 6 July 2019 (UTC)
 * By the same token, when we say "He was an Army sergeant," or "He is a Marine," we do not need to add "US" in front to understand that we are referring to the US Army or the US Marine Corps, proper names, and that they must be capitalized.  General Ization Talk  23:33, 6 July 2019 (UTC)


 * But we don't say (or write) "He was an Army sergeant"; "an army sergeant" occurs more often in Wikipedia. Nor do we write "he left the University in 1986", we use "university" even if we know which university. You seem to be convinced that the use of upper case conveys a different meaning than lower case, but I doubt the average reader sees two different meanings for "navy hospital" and "Navy hospital", and I doubt that the average reader would assume that one was run by the U.S. and the other by New Zealand. Indeed, you assume that the hospital was one run by the U.S. Navy, and that case is reasonably likely, but the source does not spell that out. If it were important to show which nation ran the hospital, guessing and then using an esoteric upper/lowercase code seems a poor way to obtain and transmit that information. I won't edit war over this, but you might try a little harder to follow the style that has been chosen by a consensus of Wikipedia editors; "Naval Hospital Oakland" is a proper name, but "Navy hospital" is not. Chris the speller   yack  02:59, 7 July 2019 (UTC)
 * Well, then, you'd better change his job title in the sentence "After his recovery, he served as a Marine drill instructor in the United States" to "marine drill instructor". I still think you're mistaken; once again, in this context, "Marine" is simply an abbreviated way of saying "US Marine Corps", the proper name of one very specific military organization, not just a type; and the name of that service is consistently capitalized. I maintain that the source was being very specific (referring to a US Navy facility) by writing "Navy hospital", and you are changing the meaning of the sourced content by changing the case.  General Ization Talk  03:07, 7 July 2019 (UTC)
 * Also, if we're talking common usage, yes, "He was an Army sergeant" (where Army is capitalized) is the common way to write it when referring to a sergeant in the US Army; the exceptions are quite rare.  General Ization Talk  03:24, 7 July 2019 (UTC)


 * I doubt that I will achieve anything by discussing this further, as there is an impenetrable lack of understanding of what a proper name is. Chris the speller   yack  14:27, 7 July 2019 (UTC)

Military records on Ancestry.com
I recently regained access to Ancestry.com through the Wikimedia Library after a long hiatus. I immediately ran a search on Adams and found a number of references to him that conflict with secondary sources. If I understand the information correctly: His enlistment date appears to have been 1942, and he served as a guard in a prison barracks on Hart Island, New York City. I hesitate to use this material for fear of misinterpreting it in addition to it being OR. I urge persons with a greater grasp of military records to replicate my search and see what can be done. Figureofnine (talk • contribs) 21:47, 3 July 2022 (UTC)


 * @Figureofnine I think there are definitely some inconsistencies between the summary of his service in the Evans book and the ones on the Marine Muster Rolls, but the basic outline (served Marines, Guadalcanal, wounded/ill, sent home and remained there) is consistent.
 * His enlistment date only appears once, but it is interestingly exactly a week after his 19th birthday. I am not sure of the fine nuances of US recruitment/conscription at this point but I also note he is shown as "Marine Corps Reserve", and I wonder if it was something like only being called up for active service when he turned 19?
 * He first appears in the rolls in July 1942 when he was with 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines, which matches Evans. The book implies that he had gone off with 3/8th Marines in May 1942, but I think this is an error and he was in fact still in training with the 1/3rd. He thus may not have been in the original landing, although again Evans does imply that's when he was wounded. He turns up in the rolls "aboard USS Hunter Liggett, at sea" with 3/8th Marines in October 1942; according to this short history the 8th Marines arrived on the island on 4th/5th November, so presumably he landed then.
 * In July 1943 he is in hospital in Wellington, but with a note that seems to indicate he was being transferred to San Francisco that month. By July 1943 he is in New York (officially posted to the barracks, but actually in hospital). He recovers enough by January 1944 to be in the barracks "guard company" (unclear to me exactly what that indicates, presumably guards on the Navy Yard site?) and then later in 1944 he winds up in what as you say seems to be the Harts Island guard detachment. He is a private or PFC throughout, not a corporal as given in Evans; he may have served as a drill instructor at some point in New York, but if he was either it was presumably short-lived.
 * Not sure what is best to do with the article here given the disagreement of primary sources with secondary ones, but at least they don't completely disagree! Andrew Gray (talk) 19:10, 4 July 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks very much for clarifying this. Obviously we are bound by secondary sources in situations like this, but it is helpful to know what the muster rolls say. Adams did dissemble on his military service in at least one sense, as he said that he lied about his age when he joined. Clearly he did not, but that was consistent with the 1927 birth date given in many sources while he was alive. It would be interesting if he actually wasn't a DI but that he was actually a prison guard at a stockade. But right now all we can do is speculate. If someone ever gets hold of his actual service record, as was done with Paul Newman, we'll have more information. Thanks again, Figureofnine (talk • contribs) 19:50, 4 July 2022 (UTC)

1966 appearance on The Andy Williams Show
Adams appeared on the show in 1966, playing himself/Smart, dialoguing with Williams and one other fellow. There's a youtube video of the bit, presumably taken from the Season One, disk 5 extras (part of the complete Get Smart series DVD collection). If you want an RS reference, one is provided on The Andy Williams Show. 2607:F470:E:22:D588:5D27:AA04:CB8F (talk) 16:44, 20 October 2023 (UTC)

Adams hosted the 1965 NBC fall preview special, playing Smart
The following paragraph is lifted from
 * NBC was a relative latecomer to the fall preview special, not airing its first until the 1965-1966 schedule. Hosted by Don Adams in character as Maxwell Smart, the half-hour network special was titled “A Secret Agent’s Dilemma, or a Clear Case of Mind Over Mata Hari” and aired from 7-7:30PM on Monday, September 6th, 1965. Smart spent the entire half-hour stuck in a closet, introducing viewers to the network’s 15 new fall shows. Included, of course, was Get Smart as well as shows like My Mother the Car, The Wackiest Ship in the Army, I Spy, Camp Runamuck, and Mona McCluskey.

A Don Adams/Maxwell Smart only version of this special appears on the Season One, disk 5 extras (part of the complete Get Smart series DVD collection). That is, there are various moments when Adams flicks some device at the viewer, swirly waves appear on the screen, and then you're right back to Don Adams. In the actual show, the swirly waves were a segue into scenes from the just-mentioned coming attraction.

This is of separate interest, since this is in fact Maxwell Smart's first appearance, before the black-and-white pilot! The closet mentioned above is the one Smart was stuck in at the beginning of the pilot. 2607:F470:E:22:D588:5D27:AA04:CB8F (talk) 16:55, 20 October 2023 (UTC)