- "President" redirects here. For other uses see the President (disambuguation) page.
- For the character played by James Caan in the 2008 film, see The President (2008 film).
An onscreen president is seen for the first time in The Nude Bomb.
Head of State and Head of Government of the United States of America [Wikipedia].
The importance of the CONTROL organization is illustrated by the fact that its chief reports directly to the president via a telephone hot line between the White House and the chief's office at CONTROL Headquarters.
[In the Get Smart TV series, the president remains an unseen presence who nonetheless can be identified, implicitly or explicitly, with the real-life president at the corresponding time period. See individual articles about George Washington, Herbert Hoover, Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon.]
In 1980, Maxwell Smart, now working for PITS, takes part in a face-to-face meeting with the President during a moving highway rendezvous between their respective vehicles [Portrayed by Thomas Hill, Movie "The Nude Bomb". The film breaks with the tradition of the TV series not only with the depiction of an onscreen president but in that he bears no resemblance to the real-life president of the day, Jimmy Carter].
In 1989, the President appears via video-link at the headquarters of the United States Intelligence Agency to discuss the threat from KAOS's weather control machine. His appeal, with precipitation falling around him inside his office, is initially decried as "another snow job from the White House." Later, after being called upon to reactivate CONTROL, Max is invited to meet the President at the White House [Portrayed by Lou Felder, TV Movie: "Get Smart, Again!". Another onscreen president, unnamed but resembling Ronald Reagan whom it seems he is intended to represent].
In 1995, Max, now Chief of CONTROL, is ordered by the president to no longer go into the field as it is too dangerous. He is evidently calling from a place where fries are served [GS95 Episode #6: "Wurst Enemies". The Get Smart (1995) series returns to the original practice of an unseen president who may therefore be inferred to be Bill Clinton].