Wow, super proud for Cree Summer. She's an absolute legend. I was never super nostalgic for this series, but I definitely have a healthy respect for it now. Which I think means you did your job damn well as always. I hope this is a successful video for you.
She got penny because her father auditioned voices, Inspector gadget she sitting in the lobby and he said why don’t have my daughter read for Penny and the rest they say it’s history
Gadget’s continuing popularity in the late 80’s also fits in with the introduction of Robocop and Mega Man, so they clearly had tapped into the cultural zeitgeist of the time.
I'm always shocked by the fact he wasn't the first choice. He was always meant to be a Get Smart tribute, they had various little references to Get Smart. I'm starting to think he was indeed the first choice, but they felt he'd be too expensive, so they argued themselves down to others before just saying "the hell with it" and contacting Adams. Unfortunately, it's clear in the second season that they only had Adams contracted for so long, so the delivery is a bit off, Gadget has none of the Maxwell Smart-esque "Ehhh" or "uh...yes...well" pauses Gadget had in the first season, and Maurice LaMarche actually first played the character in ADR, as well as the odd Gadget ancestors in the weird Time Machine saga.
It's a real shame we never got a third season. Disney originally had plans to reboot the series in '99 (Inspector Gadget: Completely Wired) that would have been tied to the Matthew Broderick film but it never released.
So, in a sense, I feel that TMS working on Gadget helped them realize a lot of the comedic angles that would end up leading to them working on Warner Bros' 90's series, to the point where the new Animaniacs even did the animation based on the look of what TMS did.
I never thought of it the way it was put so succinctly near the video's end: Brain is brave, Penny is smart (in the Larry-is-curly comic naming tradition) and Gadget is resilient. What's even more resilient is the show's stock musical score as an earworm. 35 years later, it's still inescapable!
Love the comparison of the "Inspector Gadget" clock factory destruction with the "Akira" high-rise destruction! I remember the "Animaniacs" episode "Temporary Insanity" having a very similar building collapse scene as well, and it was ALSO animated by TMS!
@@ricardocantoral7672 Oh yes. "The Infiltration", "Basic Training", "Sleeping Gas" and "The Japanese Connection" also have great animation. So do the episodes Shingo Araki's animation unit worked on, like "The Curse of the Pharaoh," the aforementioned "Coo-Coo Clock Caper," "The Bermuda Triangle," "Did You Myth Me?" and "Unhenged."
Lupin the 8th was a rare hard-to-find out-of-print manga that, while getting the okay from Monkey Punch to be made, was not made by Monkey Punch. A year or two ago, someone managed to get their hands on the series & scanlated it, uploading it to Bato to. So if anyone's interested, you can now check it out. Lupin III is like the Kevin Bacon of animes. It has it's hand in Inspector Gadget, the Ducktails reboot, Samurai Jack, Space Dandy, Cowboy Bebop, No More Heroes, Duck Avenger, Teenaged Mutant Ninga Turtles (90s), Excel Saga, Final Fantasy IX, Persona 5, Nusutto, Sly Cooper, Panda Go Panda, Space Adventure Cobra, City Hunter, Animaniacs, Azumanga Daioh, Big Windup, Catherine, Dinosaurs For Hire, Furi-Kuri (FLCL), Ginga Ninkyouden, Is trhe Order A Rabbit? BLOOM, Jojo's Bizarre Adventures: Stardust Crusaders, Little Princess Sara, Metal Gear Solid, Puyo-Puyo Quest, Street Fighter 2 Turbo, Super Mario RPG, xxxHolic, Urusei Yatsura, Pokemon, Sherlock Hound, Animation Runner Kuromi, Punch-Out, Scarlet Ammo Aria, Project A-Ko, I'm probably missing a bunch.
While we're at it, why not throw in Urusei Yatsura, due to Lupin sometimes, if not all the time, being as lecherous as Ataru? Think about the implications of those four protagonists solving a crime as a team.
The Inspector Gadget cartoon is so popular, that two songs were made about him in 1999: The song "Inspector Gadget" by the English boy band, Five (a bonus track, on their album, Invincible) The song "I'll Be Your Everything," re-written about Inspector Gadget for the live-action Disney film adaptation by American boy band, Youngstown
It's insane how much of a better Gadget Maurice LaMarche was for a silly sketch than BOTH actors were for both live action movies made by a real studio. Like Cree Summer, voice acting royalty.
Honestly, it makes so much sense. He was a comedian and impressionist before he got the role of Chief Quimby on Gadget as his first role ever, and he was asked to do the voice regularly at the request of Don Adams decided he didn't wanna do Gadget any more. Similar to Cree, this was his big start in the industry.
I had the thought that the Inspector Gadget villains reminded me of the art style of Lupin before you even got to the Lupin connection. Also, I wasn't expecting an Akira reference in an Inspector Gadget video, but here we are. XD
Didn't mind Penny and Brain going uncredited while their bumbling uncle takes all the fame - to me it was just an echo of Nickelodeon's "Kids rule parents drool" mantra. Look at all these adults stumble over themselves, it's the kids saving the day in the end! It would have been too easy to make the show a full spoof, have Dr. Claw be a parody pushover Dr. Evil-type bad guy, have Penny thwart bad guys Kevin McAllister style. They didn't; the bad guy is legitimately intimidating, and Penny's subplots are often played out like it's a whole other serious action show. It's an action comedy show, and Gadget never let one side or the other win out.
Yeah, there were quite a few on Nick Junior in the 80s. Maya the Bee, Little Bits, The Little Prince, Noozles, Adventures of Little Koala. All back when you could rent only 2 episodes at a time on VHS in the Japanimation section of the International isle in rental stores. I don;t even remember which network first aired Samurai Pizza Cats, Robotech, or Voltron.
Who else was introduced to the concept of "voice actors" and how they're actual people by the fact that Penny and Susie Carmichael on "Rugrats" sound almost exactly alike?
The Gadgetmobile's design is a Matra Murena-inspired French-style sports car that transforms into a minivan, that is filled with just about as many gadgets as Inspector Gadget himself.
That is funny because I barely remember Inspector Gadget being on Nickelodeon before I stopped watching it and moved on to other shows not geared towards children.
One of my all time favorites. The animation and music really gave this series a punch. Dark, moody synth pop music, highly detailed Japanese animated segments, it really gave the show a feeling of urgency taking the goofy humor of the series to a new level and tempering it with dramatic stings. Dr. Claw was threatening, Penny getting kidnapped or frightfully watching her uncle in danger had weight to it. Compare it to the incredibly similar, and one of my other all time favorites, Hong Kong Phooey. Same clumsy, deluded hero bungling his way through, same pet basically doing all the hard work and suffering in silence, but much denser and wackier with goofier visuals and cartoony Chinese-ish sounding music cues. I especially like how the second season goes full on anime visuals. I think the Godfather parody had some of the best visuals in the series. But anyway, I get the feeling DIC was going to go full on Inspector Gadget revival in the early 90's. The Christmas special, the SNES game, there was an action figure line that had a Dr. Claw figure packaged so you had to buy it to see what his face looked like. It's like they were just short of actually developing and pitching a new cartoon series, but they backed out and made some lame merchandising tie in show instead.
It does. When I was younger, I would whistle the song like Gadget would do in the show. It's one of those theme songs that doesn't leave your head like DuckTales or Fraggle Rock or the Power Rangers theme.
I remember Inspector Gadget very well. It aired from 1987 to 1992, and 1996 to 2000 on Nickelodeon; although it originally aired on syndication from 1983 to 1986.
There are existing VHS tapes and DVDs of the original Inspector Gadget, released through a partnership with many companies: Family Home Entertainment Golden Book Video Maier Group Communications DiC Toon Time Video (distributed by Buena Vista Home Video) Sterling Entertainment Group Shout! Factory
During the show’s run in syndication, rappers like Doug E Fresh and Slick Rick did a hip-hop classic called “The Show” and halfway and in the middle of the song, you hear a few bars of the “Inspector Gadget” theme with the synthesized version.
Explains why I remember Gadget being on multiple channels. So many in fact that I could not even associate the show with a specific network. The theme song was so attention-grabbing that it could actually make conversations & arguments come to a screeching halt. If anyone here has not heard the english theme song to Ulysses 31, you NEED to go listen to it.
As I mentioned a few episodes ago, this show took "formula" to a new level--even as a kid I knew every single episode was the same, beat for beat. But you can't deny that that's an Inner Circle HOF theme song.
I was likely based on the SNES game (A very decent platformer by the way, and sadly probably the best game the series ever get) which does show his face in the final level for some reason.
These days I mostly know Inspector Gadget as a weird thing I liked 20 years ago and a thing that Mike Matei has an unusual obsession with. But this video gave me a new appreciation for it! I'm amazed at the effort of this series! Keep it up!
I love the depth you put into this series with not only the historical context and details, but when we get your thoughts on the shows as well it's very fun and soothing at the same time. I share your hope that an inspirational inspector gadget like the one from last case can get his day in the spotlight as a heroic interpretation, and I've never even watched inspector gadget and probably never will lol. Might try to find last case tho. Also wow this cartoon started because of the lupin the 3 anime? That is very intriguing
IDK if I necessarily *liked* inspector gadget, but I tolerated it when it was on. I did find penny's computer book a neat concept, we definitely have similar enough devices nowadays! I was also waiting to hear if there was any truth to the 'lupin the 8th' story I'd seen floating around on twitter. So nice to get some closure on that. also wild to see the inspector gadget shots interspersed with the AKIRA clips, yeah i kinda see it! and yeah shout-out to cree summer I looked up her work on IMDB, that's definitely a legacy!
Your theory that Inspector Gadget was a replacement for Danger Mouse is very interesting because those are two of the only acquired Nick shows to leave and then come back.
Inspector Gadget and Get Smart (Nick at Night) were my jams growing up. But, I don't found out about the shared actor when I was an adult. Mind blown, DUH it's totally the same concept! I was overjoyed to see the Get Smart clip here and to finally get to Gadget!
Gadget is pretty much a 50-50 blend of Maxwell Smart & Detective Zenigata from Lupin 3. Both detectives were bumbling & clumsy go-getters who gave their chiefs migraines & were in the habit of blaming the wrong person for a crime. Maxwell had the high-tech gadgets, a female assistant who was the brains of the duo, & the same voice actor. Zenigata had a one-track mind & laser-focus on a single person, & habit of just launching handcuffs at people.
Inspector Gadget frustrated the hell out of me as a kid! I just couldn't accept the joke of him being an incompetent bumbler. I thought his gadgets were to cool and inventive to be wasted like that. I also didn't care for Penny and Brain always getting the shaft. That Last Case movie sounds like it's right up my alley.
DYNOMUTT's voice sounds like it's based on "The Bowery Boys"s Huntz Hall, and maybe that's why successor character says "You can count on me, Chief"-a Huntz Hall/Sach catchprase in the films.
Wow the Lupin link really surprised me but somehow makes sense. Thanks so much for continuing to make these. Your videos are always well-researched and a delight!
Huh, heard about Lupin VIII and actually watched the voice-less version but didn't know about the Gadget connection. Yeah, Inspector Gadget was formulaic, but with some exceptions until the Disney Afternoon days, that was to be expected. Capeman only being in 9 eps is a surprise, as he did seem to be in more. With how popular in its own way the series has been, it makes me wonder why Gadget and the Gadgetinis never made it over to the states. For your last point, I agree, but whenever I think about a "more serious" for lack of a better term Inspector Gadget, it makes me think that that's what the series "RoboCop: Alpha Commando" was supposed to be. I mean, look at the intro: RoboCop had Go Go Gadget skates! ua-cam.com/video/Xa5LM8NrREA/v-deo.html
Gagdet and the Gadgetinis not coming to the US is easily explainable. Long story short, Disney. More in detail, G&G was a coproduction of Saban and DIC, who you'll recall Disney owned Saban at the time, and this was just after their partnership with DIC, which only resulted in a brief VHS distribution deal (which lead to Sailor Moon actually being promoted in The Disney Store at one point), the lame Inspector Gadget movie (which if it did better, I'm sure Disney would have full owned DIC at that point) and it's DTV sequel, as well as distributing a few DIC shows on ABC and the syndicated One Two programming blocks. So partially a rights issue that kept the show from seeing any US release, but even if it did, it would have been buried on the Toon Disney/Disney XD line up. I don't know if any rights issue is holding it up today, but I'd hope DHX would have the entire rights to it and sell it to some streaming network. Oh, well... at least there's piracy.
That's nothing. Darkwing Duck came out of Disney thinking they owned the rights to Rocky and Bullwinkle, and having to scramble for another series when they found out they only had the VHS distribution rights.
I remember the pilot episode with Gadget sporting the mustache added to the regular series run and Gadget adding a throwaway line saying the mustache was for a disguise because why not, right? As a kid I didn't think much from it but thanks to the internet we can read into why this decision came about.
I don't think alot of people know how Lupin from the manga was VASTLY different from his animated incarnations ( especially the red jacket one). In the manga not only he was rapey but also a blood hungry killer AKA a bastard. The manga still fun though if you read it as a dark comedy ( which it was for the most part)
Over the years, Monkey Punch toned down Lupin's dark nature. By the second series, he was a still a walking hard-on but he wasn't down right evil like he was in the first manga run.
Gadget is basically animated Barney Fife. Rather dumb, extremely gullible, and dangerously incompetent at their jobs, yet propped up indefinitely by their friends for whatever reason.
Now, Inspector Gadget will be one cartoon out of a whole truckload of cartoons that Weigel Broacasting (the owner of the MeTV and H&I networks) just ordered for their upcoming classic animation network, MeTV Toons, expected to launch June 25, 2024!
I grew up in Canada during the 1980s and watched Gadget extensively but this is the first time I've ever herd of Corporal Cape or whatever his name is. The amount of time I spent watching TV growing up makes it hard for me to believe I didn't see any of the episodes that were in rotation. Season 2 must have been completely omitted here.
@@meyerj75 I didn't really watch that one (sounds familiar but it's a popular term) so I'll have to take your word for it. All I know is they thought the show needed someone dumber than Inspector Gadget to fawn over him and that's just not right.
@@ShadowWingTronix Most people don't remember that show which isn't surprising though I always though of being the only one who seen it. Couch Potatoes aired in syndication from January 23 to September 8, 1989 before it was picked up by the USA Network immediately airing until March 23rd of 1990 for the last and final time. It's host you may be familiar with thanks to his involvement with "Double Dare" was Marc Summers and the "goofball" or "next door neighbor" that appears during the intro and outro and before and after commercial break bumpers did the voice for Grandpa for the cartoon "Rugrats" after David Doyle passed away in 1997 so there is so Nickelodeon connections with this one though it was never seen on that network nor has it been seen for more than 30 years after USA dropped it. Saban Entertainment, whom on occasion would joint produce with DIC on cartoons such as Camp Candy, produced this forgotten gem.
I was waiting for the Dynomutt connection. I grew up with that in reruns and Inspector Gadget first run. Also Cree Summer has done some live action acting, most notably on the Cosby Show spinoff A Different World, but her most well know characters are in voice acting. As far as being unbingable the show WAS created before binge watching as we currently know it (we used to call it marathoning when networks ran marathons or full series home video releases began) so I don't think they were even considering how it would look back to back to back and so on.
Not true on the "same formula for every episode," there was one episode where Gadget actually realized whi the MAD agent was, and followed him well without Brain doing much.
You might be thinking of the Winter Games pilot, where Gadget is a little more competent than usual and is able to identify agents on sight (and incidentally the moustache is explained away as a disguise).
@@pronkb000 I don't think so, but since I was also binging at the time I may have taken a "stop mad agent" that was actually directed at a mad agent instead of Brain as competency. If Hulu didn't do away with the discussion feature I could look it up easily, but that was like 10 years ago.
The first season have some episodes that break the usual story rules, while I don't remember what episode that matches the story you said, Gadget in "The Haunted Castle" is actually quite competent and did the heavy lifting (with Brain help him out in the end)
My only real exposure to Inspector Gadget was a marathon we had recorded on VHS, but it stuck with me, and i thought it was cool. Surprised you didn't mention the Dr. Claw action figure.
I watched Inspector Gadget during its second Nickelodeon run, starting in 1996 - believe it or not the first time I heard of it was from Nick in the Afternoon, when Stick Stickley spun around on that wheel to pick the next show that aired. I remember seeing Inspector Gadget and getting intrigued because I'd never heard of it before. Maybe I didn't watch the second season, but I don't think it was in Nickelodeon's syndication package, because I don't remember that sidekick at all.
6:15 -- There was one episode where he mistook a giant snow monster of some sort for Santa and was sitting on his lap and among other things, asked for an Inspector Gadget doll!!
Penny invented the laptop, the smart watch and Google Glass.
I always question that.
@12:58 and truck nuts apparently
Wow, super proud for Cree Summer. She's an absolute legend. I was never super nostalgic for this series, but I definitely have a healthy respect for it now. Which I think means you did your job damn well as always. I hope this is a successful video for you.
The Last Time I Hear Summers Was Her Sassy Black Voice For Numbuh 5.
She got penny because her father auditioned voices, Inspector gadget she sitting in the lobby and he said why don’t have my daughter read for Penny and the rest they say it’s history
Gadget’s continuing popularity in the late 80’s also fits in with the introduction of Robocop and Mega Man, so they clearly had tapped into the cultural zeitgeist of the time.
And even Gizmoduck in DuckTales or the Bionic Six
Inspector Gadget predated all of these by quite a bit.
Don Adams as Gadget, he was also Agent 86 Maxwell Smart in Get Smart, a Mel Brooks creation.
Don Adams was great as not only Inspector Gadget but Maxwell Smart and Tennessee Tuxedo. May he Rest In Peace.
Like I say, Tennessee Tuxedo and Inspector Gadget does not fail.
I'm always shocked by the fact he wasn't the first choice. He was always meant to be a Get Smart tribute, they had various little references to Get Smart. I'm starting to think he was indeed the first choice, but they felt he'd be too expensive, so they argued themselves down to others before just saying "the hell with it" and contacting Adams. Unfortunately, it's clear in the second season that they only had Adams contracted for so long, so the delivery is a bit off, Gadget has none of the Maxwell Smart-esque "Ehhh" or "uh...yes...well" pauses Gadget had in the first season, and Maurice LaMarche actually first played the character in ADR, as well as the odd Gadget ancestors in the weird Time Machine saga.
Did you know he also hosted a game show back in 1975 called "Screen Test"?
I cannot get over how detailed and deep every episode of this retrospective is. This video should be #1 on trending more people need to watch these.
Here's hoping that'll at least be the case whenever he gets to the 90s.
Gary Owens would later reappear on Nickelodeon as the voice of Powdered Toast Man.
Patreon: Apply Directly To The Forehead!
Love this series.
It's a real shame we never got a third season. Disney originally had plans to reboot the series in '99 (Inspector Gadget: Completely Wired) that would have been tied to the Matthew Broderick film but it never released.
So, in a sense, I feel that TMS working on Gadget helped them realize a lot of the comedic angles that would end up leading to them working on Warner Bros' 90's series, to the point where the new Animaniacs even did the animation based on the look of what TMS did.
Can't stop listening to the main theme song without hearing Scout's Bonk sound in my head, lol.
I never thought of it the way it was put so succinctly near the video's end: Brain is brave, Penny is smart (in the Larry-is-curly comic naming tradition) and Gadget is resilient. What's even more resilient is the show's stock musical score as an earworm. 35 years later, it's still inescapable!
The background score gets in your head like the DuckTales theme song, or the acapella of Carmen San Diego
Pure genius using that vaccination PSA at this time!
Love the comparison of the "Inspector Gadget" clock factory destruction with the "Akira" high-rise destruction! I remember the "Animaniacs" episode "Temporary Insanity" having a very similar building collapse scene as well, and it was ALSO animated by TMS!
Race to the Finish, Haunted Castle, The Invasion were particularly well animated.
@@ricardocantoral7672 Oh yes. "The Infiltration", "Basic Training", "Sleeping Gas" and "The Japanese Connection" also have great animation. So do the episodes Shingo Araki's animation unit worked on, like "The Curse of the Pharaoh," the aforementioned "Coo-Coo Clock Caper," "The Bermuda Triangle," "Did You Myth Me?" and "Unhenged."
Lupin the 8th was a rare hard-to-find out-of-print manga that, while getting the okay from Monkey Punch to be made, was not made by Monkey Punch. A year or two ago, someone managed to get their hands on the series & scanlated it, uploading it to Bato to. So if anyone's interested, you can now check it out. Lupin III is like the Kevin Bacon of animes. It has it's hand in Inspector Gadget, the Ducktails reboot, Samurai Jack, Space Dandy, Cowboy Bebop, No More Heroes, Duck Avenger, Teenaged Mutant Ninga Turtles (90s), Excel Saga, Final Fantasy IX, Persona 5, Nusutto, Sly Cooper, Panda Go Panda, Space Adventure Cobra, City Hunter, Animaniacs, Azumanga Daioh, Big Windup, Catherine, Dinosaurs For Hire, Furi-Kuri (FLCL), Ginga Ninkyouden, Is trhe Order A Rabbit? BLOOM, Jojo's Bizarre Adventures: Stardust Crusaders, Little Princess Sara, Metal Gear Solid, Puyo-Puyo Quest, Street Fighter 2 Turbo, Super Mario RPG, xxxHolic, Urusei Yatsura, Pokemon, Sherlock Hound, Animation Runner Kuromi, Punch-Out, Scarlet Ammo Aria, Project A-Ko, I'm probably missing a bunch.
Now I want a Lupin, Inspector Gadget, Dynomutt crossover O_O
Oh, sad we didn't get that. Maybe throw in Galaxy High for good measure!
And throw in Carmen Sandiego as well, for good measure.
While we're at it, why not throw in Urusei Yatsura, due to Lupin sometimes, if not all the time, being as lecherous as Ataru? Think about the implications of those four protagonists solving a crime as a team.
@@Launchpad05 I wouldn't doubt they learned a lot.
One of those things doesn't belong.
The Inspector Gadget cartoon is so popular, that two songs were made about him in 1999:
The song "Inspector Gadget" by the English boy band, Five (a bonus track, on their album, Invincible)
The song "I'll Be Your Everything," re-written about Inspector Gadget for the live-action Disney film adaptation by American boy band, Youngstown
Other than Double Dare, Inspector Gadget is one of those Milestone shows for Nick Knacks.
Let's not forget You Can't Do That On Television.
@@Rhomega
Good point.
@@Rhomega Or Danger Mouse!
It's insane how much of a better Gadget Maurice LaMarche was for a silly sketch than BOTH actors were for both live action movies made by a real studio. Like Cree Summer, voice acting royalty.
Honestly, it makes so much sense. He was a comedian and impressionist before he got the role of Chief Quimby on Gadget as his first role ever, and he was asked to do the voice regularly at the request of Don Adams decided he didn't wanna do Gadget any more. Similar to Cree, this was his big start in the industry.
I had the thought that the Inspector Gadget villains reminded me of the art style of Lupin before you even got to the Lupin connection.
Also, I wasn't expecting an Akira reference in an Inspector Gadget video, but here we are. XD
Didn't mind Penny and Brain going uncredited while their bumbling uncle takes all the fame - to me it was just an echo of Nickelodeon's "Kids rule parents drool" mantra. Look at all these adults stumble over themselves, it's the kids saving the day in the end!
It would have been too easy to make the show a full spoof, have Dr. Claw be a parody pushover Dr. Evil-type bad guy, have Penny thwart bad guys Kevin McAllister style. They didn't; the bad guy is legitimately intimidating, and Penny's subplots are often played out like it's a whole other serious action show. It's an action comedy show, and Gadget never let one side or the other win out.
(19:05) Oh yeah, that's definitely Shuki Levy's music right there. It reminds me of his "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" music.
So Nickelodeon was airing anime at least a decade before most anyone in the US even knew of the word...if the word existed at all!
Yeah, there were quite a few on Nick Junior in the 80s. Maya the Bee, Little Bits, The Little Prince, Noozles, Adventures of Little Koala. All back when you could rent only 2 episodes at a time on VHS in the Japanimation section of the International isle in rental stores. I don;t even remember which network first aired Samurai Pizza Cats, Robotech, or Voltron.
Omg you playing the vaccination psa
Yep!
@@Launchpad05 Still very important.
That aged like rotten cheese. LOL
God Bless the Anime Hobbyist community for convincing TMS that a Tony Oliver dub of Lupin III is well worth the effort to put on Adult Swim.
And to bring them back for the most recent two series and the CG film.
@@doryna_sira I think he's gonna be in part 6 too
Who else was introduced to the concept of "voice actors" and how they're actual people by the fact that Penny and Susie Carmichael on "Rugrats" sound almost exactly alike?
Love seeing so much Lupin the Third covered in this!
The Gadgetmobile's design is a Matra Murena-inspired French-style sports car that transforms into a minivan, that is filled with just about as many gadgets as Inspector Gadget himself.
Finally, we've gotten to a Nick Knacks of a show I actually remember watching on Nickelodeon growing up.
That is funny because I barely remember Inspector Gadget being on Nickelodeon before I stopped watching it and moved on to other shows not geared towards children.
Maurice LaMarche does an uncanny Don Adams!
One of my all time favorites. The animation and music really gave this series a punch. Dark, moody synth pop music, highly detailed Japanese animated segments, it really gave the show a feeling of urgency taking the goofy humor of the series to a new level and tempering it with dramatic stings. Dr. Claw was threatening, Penny getting kidnapped or frightfully watching her uncle in danger had weight to it. Compare it to the incredibly similar, and one of my other all time favorites, Hong Kong Phooey. Same clumsy, deluded hero bungling his way through, same pet basically doing all the hard work and suffering in silence, but much denser and wackier with goofier visuals and cartoony Chinese-ish sounding music cues. I especially like how the second season goes full on anime visuals. I think the Godfather parody had some of the best visuals in the series.
But anyway, I get the feeling DIC was going to go full on Inspector Gadget revival in the early 90's. The Christmas special, the SNES game, there was an action figure line that had a Dr. Claw figure packaged so you had to buy it to see what his face looked like. It's like they were just short of actually developing and pitching a new cartoon series, but they backed out and made some lame merchandising tie in show instead.
Born in 2009, yet look at cartoons before my time (late 1900s to early 2000s)
Man I had forgotten how catchy the Inspector Gadget theme song was. Still fuckin' slaps.
It does. When I was younger, I would whistle the song like Gadget would do in the show. It's one of those theme songs that doesn't leave your head like DuckTales or Fraggle Rock or the Power Rangers theme.
I'm a Lupin The Third fan, and I appreciate the reference. I would like to check out Lupin the 8th show, looks cool
I remember Inspector Gadget very well. It aired from 1987 to 1992, and 1996 to 2000 on Nickelodeon; although it originally aired on syndication from 1983 to 1986.
There are existing VHS tapes and DVDs of the original Inspector Gadget, released through a partnership with many companies:
Family Home Entertainment
Golden Book Video
Maier Group Communications
DiC Toon Time Video (distributed by Buena Vista Home Video)
Sterling Entertainment Group
Shout! Factory
@@sammerz50 and my late 90s brought me so I didn't know it wasn't the first time.
During the show’s run in syndication, rappers like Doug E Fresh and Slick Rick did a hip-hop classic called “The Show” and halfway and in the middle of the song, you hear a few bars of the “Inspector Gadget” theme with the synthesized version.
Inspector Gadget was WLVI-TV 56"s (Bosston, Mass.) most popular show from 1983 to 1986.
Explains why I remember Gadget being on multiple channels. So many in fact that I could not even associate the show with a specific network. The theme song was so attention-grabbing that it could actually make conversations & arguments come to a screeching halt.
If anyone here has not heard the english theme song to Ulysses 31, you NEED to go listen to it.
The fact that rhis was uploaded on my brithday this morning makes this already great
As I mentioned a few episodes ago, this show took "formula" to a new level--even as a kid I knew every single episode was the same, beat for beat. But you can't deny that that's an Inner Circle HOF theme song.
surprise you didn't find a excuse to show off the hidious Dr Claw figure since you never seen what he looks like on the show.
I was likely based on the SNES game (A very decent platformer by the way, and sadly probably the best game the series ever get) which does show his face in the final level for some reason.
32:14 - No mention of Cree Summer's live-action role on A Different World? That's how I first knew of her. :-)
I loved her there!!!
I think that is where most people know her from.
But she’s mainly known for voice acting something that she’s been doing since 1983
These days I mostly know Inspector Gadget as a weird thing I liked 20 years ago and a thing that Mike Matei has an unusual obsession with. But this video gave me a new appreciation for it! I'm amazed at the effort of this series! Keep it up!
I love the depth you put into this series with not only the historical context and details, but when we get your thoughts on the shows as well it's very fun and soothing at the same time. I share your hope that an inspirational inspector gadget like the one from last case can get his day in the spotlight as a heroic interpretation, and I've never even watched inspector gadget and probably never will lol. Might try to find last case tho.
Also wow this cartoon started because of the lupin the 3 anime? That is very intriguing
IDK if I necessarily *liked* inspector gadget, but I tolerated it when it was on. I did find penny's computer book a neat concept, we definitely have similar enough devices nowadays! I was also waiting to hear if there was any truth to the 'lupin the 8th' story I'd seen floating around on twitter. So nice to get some closure on that. also wild to see the inspector gadget shots interspersed with the AKIRA clips, yeah i kinda see it! and yeah shout-out to cree summer I looked up her work on IMDB, that's definitely a legacy!
Your theory that Inspector Gadget was a replacement for Danger Mouse is very interesting because those are two of the only acquired Nick shows to leave and then come back.
Some shows are so formulaic they work ok weekly or even daily, but they really are 'unbingeable'
Inspector Gadget and Get Smart (Nick at Night) were my jams growing up. But, I don't found out about the shared actor when I was an adult. Mind blown, DUH it's totally the same concept! I was overjoyed to see the Get Smart clip here and to finally get to Gadget!
Gadget is pretty much a 50-50 blend of Maxwell Smart & Detective Zenigata from Lupin 3. Both detectives were bumbling & clumsy go-getters who gave their chiefs migraines & were in the habit of blaming the wrong person for a crime. Maxwell had the high-tech gadgets, a female assistant who was the brains of the duo, & the same voice actor. Zenigata had a one-track mind & laser-focus on a single person, & habit of just launching handcuffs at people.
Inspector Gadget frustrated the hell out of me as a kid! I just couldn't accept the joke of him being an incompetent bumbler. I thought his gadgets were to cool and inventive to be wasted like that. I also didn't care for Penny and Brain always getting the shaft. That Last Case movie sounds like it's right up my alley.
i always thought capeman was an escaped mental patient gadget took pity on.
22:34 is “Dynomutt, the Dog Wonder”, a show that it was first shown as part of the “Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour” in 1976.
The instant that Corporal Capeman was added to the cartoon's cast was when Inspector Gadget had "jumped the shark."
DYNOMUTT's voice sounds like it's based on "The Bowery Boys"s Huntz Hall, and maybe that's why successor character says "You can count on me, Chief"-a Huntz Hall/Sach catchprase in the films.
The 1996 run was even more of an early Nick memory for me than Rugrats. Mom always danced to the theme lol. Sounds like an exhausting binge however.
Every time I had thought of Inspector Gadget, I thought of Get Smart.
Tom Cat + Inspector Clouseau = Zenigata.
Zenigata + Maxwell Smart = Gadget.
I mean, they even had Don Adams voicing the character, and even does some of Maxwell Smart catchphrases like sorry about that chief
Mona Marshall, Penny's original voice actress, also voiced Chavo in the English dub of the Mexican Spanish cartoon El Chavo Animado.
Wow the Lupin link really surprised me but somehow makes sense. Thanks so much for continuing to make these. Your videos are always well-researched and a delight!
Now I'm sad Lupin the Eighth never got made. Damn you copyright!
AAAHH ONE OF THE LANDMARKS OF MY CHILDHOOD
Huh, heard about Lupin VIII and actually watched the voice-less version but didn't know about the Gadget connection.
Yeah, Inspector Gadget was formulaic, but with some exceptions until the Disney Afternoon days, that was to be expected. Capeman only being in 9 eps is a surprise, as he did seem to be in more.
With how popular in its own way the series has been, it makes me wonder why Gadget and the Gadgetinis never made it over to the states.
For your last point, I agree, but whenever I think about a "more serious" for lack of a better term Inspector Gadget, it makes me think that that's what the series "RoboCop: Alpha Commando" was supposed to be. I mean, look at the intro: RoboCop had Go Go Gadget skates!
ua-cam.com/video/Xa5LM8NrREA/v-deo.html
Gagdet and the Gadgetinis not coming to the US is easily explainable. Long story short, Disney.
More in detail, G&G was a coproduction of Saban and DIC, who you'll recall Disney owned Saban at the time, and this was just after their partnership with DIC, which only resulted in a brief VHS distribution deal (which lead to Sailor Moon actually being promoted in The Disney Store at one point), the lame Inspector Gadget movie (which if it did better, I'm sure Disney would have full owned DIC at that point) and it's DTV sequel, as well as distributing a few DIC shows on ABC and the syndicated One Two programming blocks.
So partially a rights issue that kept the show from seeing any US release, but even if it did, it would have been buried on the Toon Disney/Disney XD line up. I don't know if any rights issue is holding it up today, but I'd hope DHX would have the entire rights to it and sell it to some streaming network. Oh, well... at least there's piracy.
I did not know that Inspector Gadget was inspired by Lupin III.
That's nothing. Darkwing Duck came out of Disney thinking they owned the rights to Rocky and Bullwinkle, and having to scramble for another series when they found out they only had the VHS distribution rights.
This (beyond the Sample Platter stuff) is the FIRST thing I watched as a kid that you've talked about on Nick Knacks. WOW!
Since the E.W. Scripps Company acquired Ion in February 2021, they shut down Qubo, which unfortunately means no more Inspector Gadget marathons...
Some series just where never meant to be binged watched
You forgot to mention the fact that Frank Welker also played Dynomutt.
Rest in peace, Bruno Bianchi
Brown bricks in minecraft
I like to build brown bricks with minecrap
I remember the pilot episode with Gadget sporting the mustache added to the regular series run and Gadget adding a throwaway line saying the mustache was for a disguise because why not, right? As a kid I didn't think much from it but thanks to the internet we can read into why this decision came about.
Lord, how prescient was that Vaccine PSA. Good pull for this video PA
I don't think alot of people know how Lupin from the manga was VASTLY different from his animated incarnations ( especially the red jacket one). In the manga not only he was rapey but also a blood hungry killer AKA a bastard. The manga still fun though if you read it as a dark comedy ( which it was for the most part)
Over the years, Monkey Punch toned down Lupin's dark nature. By the second series, he was a still a walking hard-on but he wasn't down right evil like he was in the first manga run.
Cree would later reprise her role as Penny in a sketch on Robot Chicken where Inspector Gadget unwittingly links up his gadgets with SKYNET.
I remember that!
@@TheEman590 Same would be said for Frank Welker who gave a performance as Dr Claw finding out that Mad Cat is stricken with a terminal illness.
@@williamcrowe2576 That was great. I remember when Frank was on Family Guy as Fred from Scooby-Doo for a gag or two. What a legend.
Inspector Gadget. First cell phone in a cartoon show. I think.
Gadget is basically animated Barney Fife. Rather dumb, extremely gullible, and dangerously incompetent at their jobs, yet propped up indefinitely by their friends for whatever reason.
That TV-15 ad had a worse Gadget impression than Mike Matei.
Gadget with a New York accent for some reason.
To bad we never really got Lupan the VIIth that sounds cool.
I'm envious of countries that did like Italy.
11:55 Of course, images like this just beggared the eternal question, how much "human" was left in Gadget? Was he just a brain in a mechanical body?!
Did not expect it to have all these connections
Inspector Gadget was the first show I was obsessed with with! Before tmnt, power rangers and DBZ! And I was only born in 89'
Now, Inspector Gadget will be one cartoon out of a whole truckload of cartoons that Weigel Broacasting (the owner of the MeTV and H&I networks) just ordered for their upcoming classic animation network, MeTV Toons, expected to launch June 25, 2024!
Between Gadget or Get Smart its hard to pick which is the better Don Adam's shows
Amazing to think that such a goofy little show is somehow the crossroads of anime and cartoon history.
wow corpral capeman triggered some deep memories
Gadget and Ger vs JFK has been such an absolute trip. The wait to learn what Gadget's Ballyhoo is is killing me.
I watched one of these recently as an adult after not having watched them since the 80s run and found it surprisingly funny and well constructed
I grew up in Canada during the 1980s and watched Gadget extensively but this is the first time I've ever herd of Corporal Cape or whatever his name is. The amount of time I spent watching TV growing up makes it hard for me to believe I didn't see any of the episodes that were in rotation. Season 2 must have been completely omitted here.
You didn't miss anything. Corporal Capeman was unnecessary and annoying. I tended to avoid those episodes when I could.
He was like the Jar Jar Binks of the Inspector Gadget world. The show definitely jumped the shark once he was introduced.
@@ShadowWingTronix It's like that goofball idiot who appears as the "next door neighbor" on the 1989 game show "Couch Potatoes". WTH!
@@meyerj75 I didn't really watch that one (sounds familiar but it's a popular term) so I'll have to take your word for it. All I know is they thought the show needed someone dumber than Inspector Gadget to fawn over him and that's just not right.
@@ShadowWingTronix Most people don't remember that show which isn't surprising though I always though of being the only one who seen it. Couch Potatoes aired in syndication from January 23 to September 8, 1989 before it was picked up by the USA Network immediately airing until March 23rd of 1990 for the last and final time. It's host you may be familiar with thanks to his involvement with "Double Dare" was Marc Summers and the "goofball" or "next door neighbor" that appears during the intro and outro and before and after commercial break bumpers did the voice for Grandpa for the cartoon "Rugrats" after David Doyle passed away in 1997 so there is so Nickelodeon connections with this one though it was never seen on that network nor has it been seen for more than 30 years after USA dropped it. Saban Entertainment, whom on occasion would joint produce with DIC on cartoons such as Camp Candy, produced this forgotten gem.
Andy Heyward is why I don't mind lacking a Haim Saban digression. Oh, where. He. Took. DIC.
Yeah, Andy got cheap along the way. Poor Jean Chalopin lost his baby to him.
DIC killed Filmation!
I was waiting for the Dynomutt connection. I grew up with that in reruns and Inspector Gadget first run. Also Cree Summer has done some live action acting, most notably on the Cosby Show spinoff A Different World, but her most well know characters are in voice acting.
As far as being unbingable the show WAS created before binge watching as we currently know it (we used to call it marathoning when networks ran marathons or full series home video releases began) so I don't think they were even considering how it would look back to back to back and so on.
Those Kamar dolls were pretty weak yo LOL
i always wanted to have a flashlight built into my finger, even made prototype gloves when i was a kid
BOTH MY MOM AND HER SISTER LOVED THIS CARTOON, AND SO DID I.
Rest in peace Leonard Nimoy
Not true on the "same formula for every episode," there was one episode where Gadget actually realized whi the MAD agent was, and followed him well without Brain doing much.
You might be thinking of the Winter Games pilot, where Gadget is a little more competent than usual and is able to identify agents on sight (and incidentally the moustache is explained away as a disguise).
@@pronkb000 I don't think so, but since I was also binging at the time I may have taken a "stop mad agent" that was actually directed at a mad agent instead of Brain as competency. If Hulu didn't do away with the discussion feature I could look it up easily, but that was like 10 years ago.
The first season have some episodes that break the usual story rules, while I don't remember what episode that matches the story you said, Gadget in "The Haunted Castle" is actually quite competent and did the heavy lifting (with Brain help him out in the end)
@@PScoopYT that might be it then.
Go Go Gadget Lookback!
Whoa these promos feel like yesterday...
My only real exposure to Inspector Gadget was a marathon we had recorded on VHS, but it stuck with me, and i thought it was cool.
Surprised you didn't mention the Dr. Claw action figure.
I remember that! In order to make an action figure, they had to invent an actual body and face for him.
"He's just bad at his job...". So he's a cop... Seems right to me.
And of course as of mid 2024, Inspector Gadget is cornerstone programming on the new broadcast channel MeTV Toons. This show will never stop reruns.
Surprised you didn't mention the face reveal of Dr. Claw.
How much does it cost for a network to air a show like inspector gadget?
I watched Inspector Gadget during its second Nickelodeon run, starting in 1996 - believe it or not the first time I heard of it was from Nick in the Afternoon, when Stick Stickley spun around on that wheel to pick the next show that aired. I remember seeing Inspector Gadget and getting intrigued because I'd never heard of it before. Maybe I didn't watch the second season, but I don't think it was in Nickelodeon's syndication package, because I don't remember that sidekick at all.
The 2nd season was on Nick, but since there were only 21 episodes of the 2nd season, they ran them once in a great while.
6:15 -- There was one episode where he mistook a giant snow monster of some sort for Santa and was sitting on his lap and among other things, asked for an Inspector Gadget doll!!
I love how the "PSA" you chose to show was about vaccines.
I love, LOVE the comparison to Akira, though I was honestly thinking more Enigma at Amigara when he started twisting around.