Inspector Gadget
What could be better than a cartoon about a zany policeman with all the gadgets he could ever need taking on the forces of evil each week? As Inspect Gadget proved, not a whole lot.
The show focussed on a central trio of the Inspector, a policeman who just happened to have a load of gadgets installed (no one was ever too sure if he was just simply a robot or not), his diminutive genius niece Penny and their extremely bright dog Brain and their fights against the evil Dr Claw, the head of a maniacal organisation called M.A.D.
Forget the Six Million Dollar Man, Inspector Gadget was the ultimate crime fighter. Or he would have been if he wasn’t so absolutely useless at just about everything. Inspector Gadget himself concealed more tricks than the best Swiss Army Knife, with anything from a set of skis, a giant mallet or an emergency hat doffing device no more than a request away. That he always needed him to save his skin at the very last minute was just a part of the fun.
The show always had the same structure. Police Chief Quimby, always in a ridiculous disguise, would interrupt a normal, family day for Gadget, Penny and Brain to give him a new mission to stop M.A.D and its evil leader.
Gadget would then careen off to save the day, Brain and Penny would follow him, Gadget would mess up horribly and Penny and Brian would stop whatever the evil plans were, just in time.
The show was a massive success in its three year run, gathering a massive fanbase in the US, Australia and the UK and as well as Canada and France where it played in French.
While the first season is simplicity itself, and all the better for it, the show’s second, far shorter series decided to ramp up the complexity. New locations, new characters, new structure, the show was drastically different from the fantastic first series.
While it still had the brilliantly idiotic Gadget at its centre, the show really didn’t need the extra ingredients being thrown in to the mix, and suffered greatly because of it. Only running for 21 episodes, it proved to be the show’s downfall, with another series never being commissioned.
The show was still an absolute success for the show’s French creators and is still the studios finest product despite being made nearly three decades ago.
The success of the cartoon was inevitably capitalised on by the money men in Hollywood, who put in 1999 released a big budget, live action film version of Inspector Gadget to terrible reviews. Not only that, but it also managed to enrage fans of the old show, after it took the decision to not only show D Claw’s face, but also tried to give him an alter-ego of all things. Even the combined talents of Matthew Broderick and Rupert Everett couldn’t save it.
While the show may be predictable and silly, there’s still a charm to Inspector Gadget even to this day. While the show may need a pair of rose-tinted specs to get the most out of it, there’s still enough to Inspector Gadget to entertain.
FemaleFirst Cameron Smith
Tagged in After School Club