At the end of the English title sequence, when the letters "Inspector" come down over "Gadget" with the Inspector forming the "I", you may notice that "Inspector" is indented slightly, which seems odd - most titles are left-justified or centered. In the French version, the indentation is gone because of the extra letter in the different spelling - "Inspecteur".
In the opening credits, the scene of the gadgetmobile transforming is from either episode 1-3 "The Farm" or 1-6 "Health Spa".
In the end credits, the scene of Chief Quimby in the garbage can and Gadget falling backwards past a railing are from the episode 1-7 "The Boat". The scene of the seagull picking at Gadget in the water is possibly a cut scene from this episode.
The urban legend that Dr. Claw and Chief Quimby are the same person comes from the closing credits, in which Dr. Claw's voice track accompanies a shot of Chief Quimby. In the very different original credits from "Gadget in Winterland" (the pilot), Gadget caught up to Dr. Claw only to reveal that his foe had once again escaped. The "I'll get you..." line made perfect sense in context, but led to some misunderstandings when the series' "standard" credits sequence was instituted.
Averted in a Greek dub that was telecast on ANT1. Chief Quimby says "Well done Gadget, you made it, well done!"; what follows is Dr. Claw's line, replacing M.A.D. cat's meowing.
The original pilot was previewed as a special on Saturday December 4, 1982 on all five Field Communications stations: WFLD-TV Chicago, KBHK-TV San Francisco, WKBD-TV Detroit, WLVI-TV Boston, and WKBS-TV Philadelphia. The reworked version was syndicated as the 65th and final episode of season 1.
This is the last show aired on Qubo, the network abruptly cutting to black during the episode "The Coo Coo Clock Caper".
Adored by the Network: This show got an insane amount of love when it was aired on Nickelodeon from 1987 until 1992, and again from 1996 until 2000. It was by far their most adored cartoon from the 1980s. Notably, when Nickelodeon did a trading card promotion with Capri-Sun in 1991, Inspector Gadget was one of the featured shows.
Breakthrough Hit: DiC Entertainment's first animated seriesnote alongside The Littles created specifically for an international audiencenote Their first series was "Archibald le Magi-Chien", created specifically for France/Europe. Their nexttwo series were Japan/France co-productions.. and perhaps its most well-known.
Creator Cameo: In "The Japanese Connection" some of the background characters were designed after TMS animators.
Cross-Regional Voice Acting: For Season 1, due to Nelvana's involvement, most of the supporting and guest cast are played by Canadian actors.
Dawson Casting: Penny is 10 years old, but her voice actresses are all far older than her. The closest in age at the time was Cree Summer at 14. Notably, Mona Marshall was 35 when she did Penny in the original pilot.
Executive Meddling: In the pilot episode, "Winter Olympics", Inspector Gadget had a mustache. DiC Entertainment had to remove the mustache for the rest of the series after MGM threatened to sue them for Gadget looking too much like Inspector Clouseau. In later airings of the pilot, a scene was redubbed explaining that Gadget's mustache was fake (with Frank Welker voicing Gadget's line.)
Fake Brit: Gadget in the pilot. This was dubbed over with Don Adams' rendition in later airings.
Fandom Nod: The direct-to-video film Inspector Gadget's Last Case ended with Gadget mistaking Chief Quimby for a disguised Dr. Claw, a reference to many fans believing that Quimby and Claw were one and the same.
Hey, It's That Sound!: The Season 2 episode Gadget Meets The Grappler uses two instances of what would later be known as the "Pokéball Pop" sound effect from Pokémon: The Series.
DVD releases of the show were piecemeal from the dawn of the medium until 2013, when box sets of the entire series were released, with accompanying digital purchases made available at that time.
The original pilot featuring Jesse White as Gadget is considered Lost Media. The version seen on the box sets and more recent airings is the Gary Owens one.
Kids' Meal Toy: Burger King released a set of four action figures in 1991. For example, one figure had a rotating blade (The Gadget Copter) on Gadget's head.
The first version of the pilot had Jesse White voicing Gadget, but is currently considered lost. Then he was voiced by Gary Owens in the second version. Finally, Don Adams played the role in the third and final version of the pilot.
Maurice LaMarche played Gadget in Gadget and the Gadgetinis and the animated direct-to-video films Inspector Gadget's Last Case and Inspector Gadget's Biggest Caper Ever. He also filled in for Don Adams on occasion in the original show's second season when Adams couldn't do certain lines just right, and provided Gadget's singing voice in the 1992 Christmas special.
In the first season, whenever Frank Welker wasn't available, Dr. Claw was voiced by Don Francks (Cree Summer's dad), including one episode where Francks did one line, while Welker did the rest. In the second season, someone else took over voicing Dr. Claw, though Frank Welker still remained on board as Brain and various incidental voices.
Brian Drummond provided Dr. Claw's voice in Gadget and the Gadgetinis and the DTV movies Inspector Gadget's Last Case and Inspector Gadget's Biggest Caper Ever.
In the pilot, Penny was voiced by Mona Marshall. In the second season, Holly Berger took over the role from Cree Summer.
She was also played by Erica Horn in the 1992 Christmas special and by Tegan Moss in Gadget and the Gadgetinis and the DTV movies Inspector Gadget's Last Case and Inspector Gadget's Biggest Caper Ever.
Lee Tockar provided Brain's vocal effects in his guest appearance on Gadget and the Gadgetinis as well as the two animated DTV films Inspector Gadget's Last Case and Inspector Gadget's Biggest Caper Ever.
Dan Hennessey voiced the Chief in the first season. The second season had Maurice LaMarche take up the role. Prior to both of their performances, Chief Quimby was voiced by John Stephenson in the original pilot.
The Latin American Spanish dub replaced the entire cast starting the second season, as the dub went from the U.S. in Los Angeles to Mexico instead.
On that regard on the Mexican dub, Penny and Chief Quimby went from Gaby Willer and Victor Guajardo to Elsa Covián and Agustin Sauret respectively in the Christmas special.
Modern viewers raised on cellphones, laptops and wireless internet may or may not see what's so special about Penny's computer book or communicator watch.
In the Viper Comics adaptation, released nearly three decades after the series premiered, Penny even has an iPad in lieu of her computer book.
Heck, there are more of those ways that the show predicted the future in this Cracked link here.
Uncredited Role: Despite still showing up in his major roles and various one-offs, Frank Welker is uncredited for Season 2.
The show itself nearly didn't happen- DiC and TMS were planning another series based on Lupin III called Lupin VIII (centered around one of Lupin's descendants), but the Leblanc estate killed the show while it was in production. Since both firms had invested a ton of money in the project that wasn't gonna happen, they needed to recoup the costs quickly- and Inspector Gadget was born. note It's entirely possible that Lupin VIII got as far as a number of storyline ideas being hashed out. Whenever Dr. Claw engages in small-time heists or hires a master of disguise, chances are that episode started out as Lupin VIII, and then was rewritten and carried over to Gadget.
An animated series to cash in on the 1999 live-action film titled GI Gadget was planned with a TV movie with Arles Animation to animate the series, but it was quietly canceled. The show would have followed the titular character joining an elite army commando unit. That being said, Gadget and the Gadgetinis does fulfill a similar purpose and plot.
Word of God: It was revealed in 2018 that Gadget's real name is Augustin Tamare.
, when the letters "Inspector" come down over "Gadget" with the Inspector forming the "I", you may notice that "Inspector" is indented slightly, which seems odd - most titles are left-justified or centered. In the French version, the indentation is gone because of the extra letter in the different spelling - "Inspecteur".