History WesternAnimation / InspectorGadget

** There's a chance that Metro City is somewhere in Canada. In the 2015 CGI series, Chief Quimby is Canadian, with a apir of tiny Candaian flags on his desk. The first season was co-produced by the Canadian studio Nelvana, and Metro City is shown to be so generic that either an American or a Canadian kid could imagine it as being in their neck of the woods. One episode, "Tree Guesses", is explicitly set in [[CanadaEh the Canadian wilderness]].[[note]]At the beginning of the episode, Penny says: "What lovely scenery in Canada! I'm so glad you rented a cottage here, Uncle Gadget!" This comment could be taken to indicate that they have come over from the United States. Or it could simply serve to indicate the Canadian setting explicitly for that episode, without negating that Metro City is also in Canada. A middle-of-the-road possibility is that the comment was inserted deliberately in order to [[CanadaDoesNotExist obscure the question]] of which country Metro City is located in.[[/note]]

A total of 86 episodes were produced by Creator/{{DiC Entertainment}} for syndication between 1983 and 1985, though the 1992 ChristmasSpecial ''Inspector Gadget Saves Christmas'' shares many similarities with season 2 in art style, cast, and script, and could be seen as the series finale. Gadget stayed on in syndication well into the 1990s before being largely retired. Creator/MauriceLaMarche also made a Live-Action appearance as Gadget on ''Series/TheSuperMarioBrosSuperShow''.

* ActionGirl: Penny, who often truly saved the day. When a M.A.D. Agent leaves Penny BoundAndGagged, more often than not Penny is be able to free herself from danger and continue with the case.

* ConveyorBeltODoom: Seen in "Quimby Exchange," "A Star is Lost," "Clear Case," Dutch Treat," "All That Glitters."

** ''Inspector Gadget: Advance Mission'' (2001) - Action game for the UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance where the player controls Gadget to stop MAD from using a brainwashing machine to make everyone insane.

** ''Inspector Gadget: MAD Time Party'' (2023) - A party/open-world game for Platform/PlayStation4, UsefulNotes/PlayStation5, UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch, and Platform/{{Steam}}, where Gadget must contend against his ancestors to build a time machine to travel back in time and rescue Metro City from MAD's reign.

* IdiotBall: Usually any rare point Gadget gains [[SmartBall a bout of competence]], usually involves [[NotSoAboveItAll Brain or Penny acting like helpless goofs for a change]]. In the pilot for example, when Gadget is sensibly trying to dispose of some dynamite, [[MyInstinctsAreShowing Brain mistakes it for a stick and keeps bringing it back to him.]]

* NoManShouldHaveThisPower: In "The Emerald Duck", the ancient crystal weapon of the Aztec sun god proved to be one of the most destructive forces in the series, able to harness sunlight into a devastating beam that could destroy anything. To prevent Dr. Claw from getting his hands on it, Penny blasts it with her computer book's laser to blow it up.

-->'''Gadget:''' Never take your dog to the olympics.

** In another episode, M.A.D agents abducted astrophysicists and tricked them into building a heat cannon which they intended to use to blast the Tower of London and force London to pay Dr. Claw's demands. Fortunately, Penny managed to cause it to collapse before it could fire.
** One episode features a computer-controlled space station with a giant magnifying lens which was meant to be used to evaporate all the water on Earth, until the Hal-like computer which was in control decided to destroy the lens to prevent it from being used for its evil purpose.

* TimeTravelersDinosaur: In the episode "Tyrannosaurus Gadget", Dr. Claw has Thelma Botkin use a TimeMachine to catch some dinosaurs and use them to get rid of one of Gadget's ancestors and to destroy Metro City.