A Star Trek legend beat Brad Pitt and Donald Glover to the punch decades earlier

It's hard to say you were first in a conversation that features Brad Pitt and Donald Glover. Two of the more impressive talents, generations apart, are benchmarks to many when discussing talent and likability. They've made their way through films, shows, and in Glover's case, music. Yet, when it comes to one of their biggest projects respectively, "Mr. and Mrs. Smith", they don't get to claim it as the first.

No, when it comes to that project, they were beaten to the punch years earlier by Star Trek: Enterprise leading man, Scott Bakula. That's right, the original Mr. and Mrs. Smith concept was not only a project that featured Bakula but was worked on by his production company.

The concept of the film and later Amazon series was that two spies, who didn't know the other was a spy, got married and lived their lives normally. That is, until one day everything they thought they knew about one another changed, and their secrets were found out. It was a compelling idea in 2005 when Pitt and now ex-wife Angelina Jolie did it. While the Glover-led reboot had its moments, it wasn't nearly the touchstone event the film was.

Still, his outing was arguably better than Bakula's. He starred in the show in 1996, nine years before Pitt, alongside Maria Bello. Unlike Pitt's version, Bakula's version didn't feature the two agents at each other's throats despite being married. They were paired together, with the hitch being that neither could share information about themselves with the other from before their initial pairing. Everything they were or had been through was a dead memory and couldn't be revealed.

This is more in line with Glover's version, where the two are on the same side but more because they're forced to be by their agency. There's more drama in the Glover version, but the same concept as the Bakula version exists.

The interesting thing is that the original version of the spy vs. spy concept is rarely ever mentioned alongside its more modern contemporaries. Considering the Glover version seemingly recreates the Bakula version nearly beat for beat in concept, you'd think that the original would get some love. What may be holding it back from getting recognition however may be as simple as who's involved.

The original is credited with three production companies, Bakula Productions, Page Two Productions, and Warner Bros. Television. The 2005 Pitt-led film and Glover series were both produced by New Regency. So that's likely why.