Inspector Gadget (1983) TV Show Retrospective and Review

 Hey everyone, how were your weekends? Mine was pretty quiet. Today I'm here to talk about a show that was a huge favourite of mine when I was a kid, and was one of the first TV shows I remember loving, besides The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin and Star Trek: The Next Generation. That show is Inspector Gadget. So let's get into it.

Airing for two seasons in first run syndication from September 5th, 1983 until November 15th, 1985, Inspector Gadget was created by Bruno Bianchi, Andy Heyward, and Jean Chalopin at DIC Entertainment as the first show made to take DIC into the North American television market, as it was originally founded in France in 1971. The show was about a cyborg police officer named Gadget, who works in the fictional Metro City, and fights the criminal organization, M.A.D., led by the evil Dr. Claw and his cat, M.A.D. Cat. But, being that Gadget is a moron, his success happens because his niece, Penny, and her highly intelligent dog, Brain, secretly help him out on his missions, which are given to him by Chief Quimby. For example, Gadget is easily taken in by M.A.D. agents in disguise, but being that he's so oblivious to the danger he's in, Gadget escapes the M.A.D. agents just as easily as he gets captured by them. 

Gadget is voiced by Don Adams, who played Agent 86, Maxwell Smart in the NBC/CBS comedy, Get Smart (1965-1970), and Adams does such a good job as the character. I remember seeing reruns of Get Smart after seeing Inspector Gadget, and being amazed that Maxwell Smart had the same voice as Gadget. Which is when my dad told me that Don Adams played both characters. Penny was voiced by Cree Summer, who also voiced Elmyra in Tiny Toon Adventures and Susie Carmichael in Rugrats. In season 1, Chief Quimby was voiced by Dan Hennessey, a Canadian voice actor who I know as Brave Heart Lion in Care Bears, and various voices in Star Wars: Droids, and in season 2 Hennessey was replaced by Maurice LaMarche, who I know as the voice of Egon in The Real Ghostbusters and Extreme Ghostbusters, and as The Brain in Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain, among many other roles. Dr. Claw, whose face we never see, was voiced by legendary voice actor, Frank Welker, who also voiced Brain, the Dog.

One of the things I love about this show is how easily Brain can disguise himself as anyone, and Gadget is too oblivious to realize that this random person he runs into on every assignment is his niece's dog. I also love Penny's devices, such as her computer book, which is a computer inside of a case that looks like a giant encyclopedia, and her wrist video communicator, which she uses to talk to Brain. I also love that the vehicle Gadget drives, the Gadget-mobile, can transform from an every day mini-van to a high powered police car in an instant.

Of course, Gadget is so inept that every time he goes to see Chief Quimby, usually in some public place, and he reads his assignment, which ends with, "This message will self-destruct", always crumples it up and tosses it back at Quimby, right before it explodes. Being a cartoon, the explosion never hurts Chief Quimby, it just scorches him slightly.

Also, Gadget has a gadget for everything built into him. He has rollerblades, a helicopter propellor, retractable arms and legs, which allows him to grab things from a distance, and walk faster, and many many others. To activate them, he says, "Go Go Gadget" and then speaks the name of whatever gadget he wishes to use. Except that it always glitches on him and ends up activating a gadget he doesn't want to use, or is inappropriate for the situation he's in. For example, if he accidently falls out of the window of a tall building and he calls for the Gadgetcopter, the Gadget toothpaste dispenser might activate instead. 

The theme song for this show is awesome. It was composed by Haim Saban and Shuki Levy, like alot of '80s TV shows it seems, particularly ones that I watched when I was a kid. But, while I enjoy the opening theme, I love the closing theme even more because as he flies away in his spaceship car, Dr. Claw says, "I'll get you next time Gadget! Next time!" with M.A.D. Cat meowing in agreement. That line is probably Dr. Claw's most famous piece of dialogue, yet it's not actually spoken in the show.

 For season 1, Inspector Gadget aired on First Choice Superchannel here in Canada. First Choice is now known as Crave TV, which owns the Crave streaming service. 

Then starting with season 2, the show began airing on the Global Television Network, as part of its children's television block, Kids TV, which aired weekday mornings and on the weekends. This is where I watched it when I was a kid. It aired alongside contemporary shows such as The Real Ghostbusters, The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin, The Care Bears Family, Beetlejuice, Alvin and the Chipmunks, and Dennis the Menace, as well as newer shows such as Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Tiny Toon Adventures, and Animaniacs. In fact Inspector Gadget is the only cartoon from the '80s that remained in reruns on Global throughout the '90s. The show was finally pulled off the channel in 2004 when it got rid of children's programming altogether.

 Reruns of Inspector Gadget also aired on Teletoon Retro from its launch in 2007 until it was shut down in 2015, where it transferred over to Cartoon Network Canada, which was originally Teletoon. While the show no longer airs on Cartoon Network Canada, I'm glad the reruns still aired with only a three year hiatus between the end of its run on Global, and its start on Teletoon Retro.

In the U.S., Nickelodeon aired reruns of Inspector Gadget from 1987 until 1992, and then brought it back for another run from 1996 until 2000. This is how most American kids, who grew up in the '90s saw the show for the first time.

The show had two toylines. The first was produced by Galoob and was released in 1983, during the show's first season. The second was produced by Tiger Toys and was released in 1992. I had the Gadget-Mobile which you could transform between the minivan and the police car and had an extendable claw arm on the front, which could be used to grab the Dr. Claw and M.A.D. Agent figures.

In 1991 Burger King had a toyline for its Kids Meal, and it was three versions of Inspector Gadget. I'm pretty sure I had all four versions. The toy with the main trench coat and hat came with a Gadgetcopter accessory which you could pretend that Gadget was flying with.

In 2011 comic book publisher Viper Comics, put out a Free Comic Book Day comic for Inspector Gadget, along with a graphic novel containing that issue and a second story.

Inspector Gadget also has a long history of video games, going all the way back to the SNES in the early '90s. In 2003 Inspector Gadget: Mad Robots Invasion was released for the PlayStation 2.

Throughout the '80s and '90s, various VHS releases came out from Family Home Entertainment, The Maier Group, and DIC Toon-Time Video (the DIC arm of Buena Vista Home Video/Walt Disney Home Video). These tapes contained 1 to 4 episodes per tape.

Buena Vista Home Video released Inspector Gadget: Gadget's Greatest Gadgets, which was a compilation of three episodes from the original series, in 1999 to coincide with the live action movie that Disney released that same year.

Inspector Gadget had its first DVD release in 2004 when Sterling Entertainment released The Gadget Files, which contains the pilot episode, "Winter Olympics" as well as the first three episodes of the series.

Then in 2006, Shout! Factory released Inspector Gadget: The Original Series on DVD. This set contained the first 22 episodes of the series.

20th Century Fox Home Entertainment released Inspector Gadget: Go Go Gadget Collection, in 2009, which was a single disc release that contained ten episodes of the series. Wikipedia doesn't specify whether those ten episodes are the first ten episodes or just random ten episodes from the show.

In 2013, New Video Group released all 86 episodes on DVD for the first time spread out among four volumes, with season 1 collected in three volumes, and season 2 in a single volume. Each set contains three discs.

Also in 2013 a complete series set, called Inspector Gadget: Megaset was released on DVD. It contained all 86 episodes as well as the 2002 TV movie, Inspector Gadget's Last Case. 

Unfortunately I don't own any of the show's DVD releases, as they're fetching a pretty hefty price on the second hand and online markets, but I do have one of the 1990 VHS releases put out by The Maier Group, Inspector Gadget: The Invasion. This contains Season 1, Episode 16, "The Invasion", where M.A.D. plans to scare everyone with a fake alien invasion to keep them occupied while they go on a crime spree. Naturally, Gadget, Penny, and Brain save the day. I got this in that massive haul of VHS tapes that I got a little over two years ago now. It's what I watched last night in order to freshen my memories of the series.

On December 4th, 1992, NBC aired the Christmas special, Inspector Gadget Saves Christmas. As the title says, Inspector Gadget saves Christmas when he stops M.A.D. and Dr. Claw from locking Santa away and forcing the elves to destroy all the toys that they'd been working on all year, effectively ruining Christmas. I'm pretty sure that I saw this special at some point, but I honestly don't remember it.

From September 9th, 1995 until March 7th, 1998, the first spin-off, Gadget Boy & Heather, aired. I don't remember seeing this show, but it aired on Family Channel from 1998 to 2000. It did air in first run syndication in the U.S. and aired 52 episodes across two seasons. This was basically a prequel series where Inspector Gadget is a boy named Gadget Boy who solves cases the way Gadget did in the original series, except his companions are his friend Heather, and a robotic dog named G-9 (Gadget 9 perhaps?). 

The second spin-off, called Inspector Gadget's Field Trip, aired for a total of 22 episodes across two seasons from November 3rd, 1996 until January 4th, 1998. This was a live action series where the animated Inspector Gadget, voiced once again by Don Adams, shows children famous locations from around the world in a travelogue style series. Gadget was the only character from the franchise to appear. It aired on the History Channel, though I don't know if it aired on there here in Canada as well or not. This is another show from the franchise that I was completely unaware of.

In 1999 Walt Disney Pictures, which owned DIC Entertainment's television library at the time, produced a live action movie based on the TV show, similar to the George of the Jungle movie they put out only two years earlier. This one starred Matthew Broderick as Gadget, Michelle Trachtenberg, who was coming off her success with Harriet the Spy, as Penny, Rupert Everett as Dr. Claw, whose face you see throughout the movie, Dabney Coleman as Chief Quimby, and D.L. Hughley as the voice of the Gadget-Mobile's A.I. system. Brain is a regular Beagle and doesn't talk in this movie. The movie came out on July 23rd, 1999 and earned $134.4 million at the box office, against a budget of somewhere between $70 million and $90 million. I saw this movie in theatres and I own it on VHS, so it's on my list of movies to review on this blog.

Airing from September 11th, 2002 until November 29th, 2003, Gadget & the Gadgetinis actually never aired in the U.S. It was originally supposed to air on Fox Family Channel, but when Disney bought out Fox Family Worldwide, that plan was canceled and the show never aired in the United States. However it did air in Canada on Family Channel, and aired in most European countries on Fox Kids. In this version, Gadget, who is voiced by Maurice LaMarche, is a Lieutenant in the World Organization of Mega Powers, or WOMP for short, and still fights Dr. Claw and M.A.D. I remember watching this show on Teletoon, but it moved to Family Channel in 2003, after its November, 2002 debut on Teletoon.

On October 6th, 2002 the TV movie, Inspector Gadget's Last Case, aired on Nickelodeon in the U.S., and probably Family Channel or Teletoon here in Canada. This was basically an epilogue to the original series, with Maurice LaMarche voicing him alongside Tegan Moss as Penny, and Jaleel White as the Gadget-Mobile for some reason. I never saw this movie so I don't know what it's like in terms of quality.

Then on March 11th, 2003, Walt Disney Pictures released Inspector Gadget 2, the sequel to the 1999 film, direct-to-video, on both VHS and DVD. This time though French Stewart plays Gadget, with Caitlin Wachs as Penny, Tony Martin as Dr. Claw, and Mark Mitchell as Chief Quimby, with D.L. Hughley returning as the Gadget-Mobile from the first movie. I've also never seen this movie. Critics gave it better reviews than they did the first one only four years earlier.

Inspector Gadget's Biggest Case Ever was a direct-to-video CG animated movie released on September 6th, 2005. With the cast from Gadget & the Gadgetinis returning to voice their characters, the movie was about Dr. Claw seeking revenge after Gadget had put him in jail and using a prehistoric creature to exact said revenge. Brain returned for this movie and Gadget is back in his original trench coat and hat for the first time since Inspector Gadget Saves Christmas came out in 1992. This is the first I'm finding out about this movie, so it was a bit of a surprise to find this out.

Finally, from January 3rd, 2015 to May 18th, 2018, a CG TV series called Inspector Gadget aired on Teletoon from seasons 1 and 2 and on Family Channel for seasons 3 and 4 here in Canada and was released on Netflix in the United States. This was the second sequel to the original series, following Gadget & the Gadgetinis. This time Penny and Brain openly help Gadget on his cases and Chief Quimby wears glasses, looking like a cross between Quimby from the original series and Commissioner Gordon from the Batman comics. 

This time Ivan Sherry voices the character in an impersonation of Don Adams, Tara Strong voices Penny, Scott McCord as the vocal effects for Brain, and Martin Roach as Dr. Claw. Chief Quimby is voiced by Derek McGrath, who played Dr. Jeffcoate on the Canadian TV series, My Secret Identity (1988-1991), and Crewman Chell on Star Trek: Voyager as a recurring character starting in the season 1 finale, "Learning Curve". I probably would've enjoyed seeing this latest incarnation of the franchise, but, I never got to see it.

Overall, I still love Inspector Gadget. It honestly holds up pretty well. As I mentioned earlier, the DVD sets are pretty expensive and no new editions have come out since the Inspector Gadget: Megaset release came out in 2013. But it is available on streaming. It's on Tubi here in Canada, and on Paramount+, The Roku Channel, and Pluto TV, and on Amazon Video. However, WildBrain has uploaded various season 1 episodes, as well as hour long episode compilations of the series on the official Inspector Gadget YouTube channel, along with episode compilations of Gadget Boy & Heather. So check it out if you've never seen it, or check it out again if you haven't seen it in a while.

Alright my friends, that's it for me for today. I'll be back soon with more posts. I haven't quite decided what posts I'll be putting out this week will be, aside from this one, but I have a few options in mind. So until then have a great rest of the day and I will talk to you all later. Take care.