The franchise follows the adventures of a powerful but dimwitted cyborg police inspector named Gadget as he investigates the criminal schemes of Dr. Claw and his organization, M.A.D., and fruitlessly attempts to stop him.

Gadget is powerful, lovable, brave, caring and protective, and loyal to his career as a lawman, but he is also dim-witted, silly, clueless, incompetent and gullible.

[4] However, his attire and absent-minded personality are much closer to Peter Sellers' portrayal of Inspector Clouseau from the classic The Pink Panther series of movies.

He has a pet cat, who is often napping but is startled awake when Dr. Claw slams his fist on his console if Gadget foils his evil plans.

She uses many high-tech devices to help her secretly solve the cases and stop the bad guys such as a computer book, a video watch, a laptop, and a holographic tablet.

In Inspector Gadget's Biggest Caper Ever, she is notably more selfish, and unlike any other version, she doesn't try to help her uncle at all.

He returned in the episode, No Brainer, where Penny made him a translation collar in order to help find Gadget.

In the special, Dr. Claw has locked up Santa Claus at the North Pole and hypnotized his elves, forcing them to break all toys that are being produced.

Inspector Gadget, Penny, and Brain travel to the North Pole in an attempt to stop Dr. Claw and save Christmas.

Don Adams, Frank Welker, Erica Horn and Maurice LaMarche provide the voices for the characters.

Instead of Penny and Brain the Dog, Gadget Boy was assisted by the resourceful Heather (voiced by Tara Strong).

In 1996, Gadget took students around the world in this series of 50 field trips, mainly created to market to stations to fulfill the FCC E/I requirements.

In 2002, the French studio SIP Animation (Saban International Paris), in cooperation with DiC, produced 52 episodes of the then-new TV series Gadget and the Gadgetinis.

It follows the same plot as the original series, with the dim-witted Gadget attempting to fight crime on his own, while Penny and her helpers secretly do all the work.

In January 2012, the then-in-development show was mentioned by Ray Sharma, the CEO of XMG Studio, which produced the hit mobile game "Inspector Gadget: M.A.D.

"[8] In September 2012, Cookie Jar issued a short press release about the then-upcoming series, as part of the advertising for it during the MIPCOM market that October, stating: "Cookie Jar Entertainment is celebrating Inspector Gadget’s 30th anniversary with the launch of a brand-new series with its Canadian broadcast partner TELETOON.

His ever trusty police-dog, Brain, is still by his side and he's getting extra crime-fighting help from his new partner, Inspector-in-training Penny (voiced by Tara Strong).

[14] Inspector Gadget was adapted into a 1999 live action film by Walt Disney Pictures, starring Matthew Broderick as the title character and Rupert Everett as Dr. Claw.

Original series actors Cree Summer and Frank Welker reprised their roles as Penny, Brain and Dr. Claw in the modern segments.

It premiered on television on October 6, 2002, on Nickelodeon and was released on DVD and VHS shortly afterward by MGM Home Entertainment.

Even though the film uses the same character designs as the concurrent Gadget & The Gadgetinis TV series, SIP Animation wasn't involved with the production of this movie.

The plot features Dr. Claw breaking out of jail with the help of a specially hired Scottish agent named Bombaboy.

[18] In November 1992, DIC announced they would be developing a spin-off titled Gadget Girl, featuring a female protagonist.

In March 2000, it was announced that Ubi Soft had teamed with Light & Shadow Production to release an Inspector Gadget game for the PlayStation.

After Light & Shadow Production was purchased by Hip Games, the latter company released Gadget & Gadgetinis for the PlayStation 2 and PC in Europe.

Another game titled Inspector Gadget's MAD Dash was released for iOS devices, iPhone and iPod Touch, by XMG Studio in 2010.

In order to fix this, Inspector Gadget and his ancestors compete in challenges to collect parts to repair the time machine, capture disguised MAD agents, and save Metro City from the rule of Dr. Claw.

The Kartoon Krew also released "Inspector Gadget" on ZYX Music, which contains vocal samples and quotes from the popular cartoon series, reenacted by the rap group for the song.

Following the trend, Slick Rick and Doug E. Fresh used samples from the Inspector Gadget theme song on their single "The Show".

California-based punk band Lagwagon recorded a short instrumental cover of the theme song on their 1992 album Duh.