Inspector Gadget (1983–2023)
8/10
Wowers, What A Show
8 May 2017
Recently I finished watching every episode of the original "Inspector Gadget" episode. It's kind of crazy considering I didn't even like the show as a kid.

The main reason for the differences because how I perceive Gadget as a kid as an adult is that when I saw it as a kid, I didn't know who Don Adams was. Becoming acquainted with "Get Smart", I learned what a genius Don Adams was and this gave a lot more credibility to Gadget as Don Adams voiced him. "Inspector Gadget" has long been considered a spiritual successor to "Get Smart". It helps that Gadget said "sorry about that, chief" on a few occasions and even said "would you believe..." once or twice.

"Inspector Gadget" is one of those shows that has a set formula for what happens in each episode but it's so entertaining in action and comedy that even after 86 episodes it didn't seem stale. No matter what happens, you'll still be laughing at Gadget and cheering on his niece Penny & dog Brain as they're the real ones who save the day. You'll probably laugh at the self-destructing messages harming Chief Quimby but I always felt sorry for him.

Of course you can't talk about "Inspector Gadget" without its awesome villain. Dr. Claw is always entertainingly evil (he perhaps gets his name from Get Smart's villain "The Claw"). I never get tired of hearing him threatening his underlings. His pet/punching bag, Mad Cat is also very entertaining, especially when he does random stuff like mimicking Dr. Claw's fish- shaking or tying Dr. Claw's hand to his chair for no reason.

While the show was always good, it declined a bit in the second season. It seemed a tad lazy to use the same chief henchman in 3 separate episodes after all Season 1 episode used a different chief henchman. I was disappointed that they did less travel episodes and keep most of Season 2 in Metro City. The less said about Corporal Capeman the better. DIC thought he's be a welcome addition and they were wrong.

One good thing I can say about season 2 is they had good parodies of movies like Ghostbusters, Gremlins, The Godfather and Arsenic & Lace. It's good to see Frank Welker & Maurice Lamarche working on the same show 1 year before they began voicing Egon & Ray in "The Real Ghostbusters".

DIC was no match for Nicktoons or Disney Afternoon but they still made some dang good cartoons.
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