What Happened To...Inspector Gadget: Part Three

Like an amazing amount of TV-based dogs, Brain wasn't your average kind of dog. Like Lassie, Scooby-Doo and even Family Guy's Brian, Brain was a lot more intelligent than you might initially think. I'm not really sure who's dog he was, whether he was Gadget's or Penny's. But, one thing I do know, is that he was the other half of the crime-solving double act that was him and Penny.

Interestingly, Brain was voiced by the same person as Dr. Claw, and that person was probably one of the voice acting industries most well-known and respected voice actors: Frank Welker.

Even if the name doesn't mean anything to you, I promise you that you will know his work and his voice talent, even if you don't realise it. How do I know that? Because he's provided the voices for so many well-loved characters. But, it's incredibly difficult to know which ones to pin down, because there really are too many of them, and it seems unfair to miss any out.


However, a few of his more popular roles include: 

Fred: Scooby-Doo

Fred in various incarnations of Scooby-Doo
Gol in classic Studio Ghibli film Nausicca of the Valley of the Wind
Several Gremlins in both of the Gremlins film.
Megatron, Soundwave and other voices in Transformers animations
Totoro in another classic Studio Ghibli My Neighbor Totoro
Dumbo and various other voices in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (although these role were uncredited)
Slimer, in The Real Ghostbusters
Max (the dog) in Disney's The Little Mermaid
The Devil and Station in Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey
Kermit, Skeeter and Beaker in Muppet Babies
Abu in Disney's Aladdin


Welker also provided various voice talents for:

Slimer

DuckTales
Potsworth and Co.
Alvin and the Chipmunks
TaleSpin
Adventures of the Gummi Bears
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
The Jetsons
Dinosaurs
Where's Wally?

This may seem like quite a lengthy list, but trust me when I say that this is barely the tip of the ice berg, with the amount of work that Frank Welker has done throughout his career, and I very much doubt that he'll be retiring any time soon.

Well, that's it for the Inspector Gadget Mini Series. I hope that you enjoyed it, as much as I enjoyed researching the three main voice actors. Even though I grew up watching this show, I didn't have a clue what kind of histories the voice actors had, so it's been interesting.

If there are any other TV shows, or films that have had you wondering "I wonder what happened to them..." then, please do get in touch, and I'll happily do a little research for a future series :)

Thanks for reading.

What Happened To...Inspector Gadget: Part Two

Cree Summer

During it's two season run, the character of Penny was never given any form of a back history. And the only really information relating to her, is the fact that she was Inspector Gadget's niece. Despite not being the title character, Penny was very much the intelligence behind solving crimes, even if the thanks would quite naively be handed over to Gadget himself.

For me, as a kid, I always loved the fact that Penny was the smarter one, because she was a girl, even if at times, I'd now probably have found her quite irritating.

Susie Carmichael

The role of the blonde, pig-tailed character was actually taken by two actresses. The first 64 episodes being voiced by Cree Summer, and the final 21 episodes being taken over by Holly Berger.

Summer, is the daughter of Don Francks who also voiced several characters in Inspector Gadget. including Dr. Claw (when Frank Welker was unable to play the role). Gadget was Summer's first role, but it was the beginning of a very long career for the voice actress.

Not knowing that she had been the voice of Penny, I had grown up knowing her as the sassy Susie Carmichael, in popular nineties TV show Rugrats. A role that she would play for twelve years, from 1992 to 2004, including various movies and spin-off's such as All Grown Up. I instantly recognised her voice, whilst playing 2004 classic game Final Fantasy X-2, as the enigmatic Callie, and the mysterious Lenne.

Lenne

Since doing a bit of research into Cree Summers' career history, I've actually discovered that I know her voice from quite a variety of cartoons that I grew up with, including Care Bears (alongside her father), Pepper Ann (which also featured Don Adams), Batman of the Future, Star Wars: Clone Wars, As Told by Ginger and Batman: Arkham Asylum.

Summer's replacement Holly Berger didn't have quite as big a career following her stint as Penny. Before taking the role, she had featured as the voice of Jennifer in 1985 TV movie Star Fairies. Other than that, and two further stints as Penny, in Inspector Gadget video games, Berger doesn't appear to have done much else in the entertainment industry.

Continues tomorrow with...Brain

What Happened To...Inspector Gadget: Part One

Thirty years ago, in 1982, three employees of DIC Entertainment: Andy Heyward (Former Chairman and CEO), Jean Chalopin (French Producer and Writer, who created DIC Audiovisual) and Bruno Bianchi (a French Artist and Animator) devised an animated series that would spawn several spin-off television series, and a live action film featuring Ferris Bueller star Matthew Broderick. 

The series was such a huge success, that in 2009, it was ranked 54th in IGN's Top 100 Animated Series, one higher than those Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which is pretty impressive. So, to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of this classic TV shows conception, I thought that it was only right to pay homage to the series, by looking into whatever happened to those sometimes forgotten people: the voice actors. Starting, of course, with Inspector Gadget himself.

As the show's main protagonist, my main memory is always that he was a little bit of an odd-ball. Style-wise, he dressed a lot like the Inspector Clouseau character from The Pink Panther, is constantly in danger (even if most of the time he is completely oblivious to it), and spends an unusual amount of time in suitcases...seriously!

Gadget was voiced, over 86 episodes, by Don Adams. Of Irish and Hungarian origin, Adams was already an established actor, when he took the role. Credits included The Love Boat and The Bill Dana Show, but perhaps most prominently in 1960's spy show Get Smart as lead Maxwell Smart (re-made in 2008, starring Steve Carrell and Anne Hathaway). Adams went on to reprise his role as Smart, in the Get Smart revival in 1995. 

Adams also reprised his role as Inspector Gadget several times, for various spin-offs and sequels, including Inspector Gadget Saves Christmas. In fact, Adam also voiced the character of Gadget Boy, in the spin-off series Gadget Boy and Heather.

Before his death in 2005, Adams' final role had been in children's character Pepper Ann, as Principal Hinkley, a role voiced from 1999 until 2000. He left behind seven children, and sadly died only a year after one of them.

Throughout his life, Adam had been good friends with Playboy Bossman Hugh Hefner, and spent a great deal of time at the Playboy Mansion. 

Continues tomorrow with....Penny