Inspector Gadget's Field Trip (onscreen title: Field Trip Starring Inspector Gadget) is an American live-action/animated children's television series that is a spin-off incarnation of Inspector Gadget, produced by DIC Productions, L.P. in 1996.[1] The series originally aired on The History Channel as one of only two DIC shows produced for the channel (Gadget Boy's Adventures in History was the other one and ran concurrently with Field Trip) in the United States.
| Inspector Gadget's Field Trip | |
|---|---|
 Title card | |
| Also known as | Field Trip Starring Inspector Gadget |
| Genre | Superhero Comedy Educational Children's |
| Created by | Andy Heyward Brad Kreisberg |
| Based on | Inspector Gadget by Bruno Bianchi Andy Heyward Jean Chalopin |
| Voices of | Don Adams |
| Theme music composer | Mike Piccirillo |
| Opening theme | "Inspector Gadget's Field Trip" |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 22 |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | Andy Heyward Brad Kreisberg Robby London Michael Maliani |
| Production company | DIC Productions, L.P. |
| Original release | |
| Network | The History Channel |
| Release | November 3, 1996 – January 4, 1998 |
| Related | |
| Inspector Gadget | |
Concept
editThe series was an educational travelogue program for children, in which the animated Gadget would show viewers the many different sites in famous places around the world via live-action-clips with historical facts.[2] The theme song is slightly similar to the one in the Gadget Boy series; in fact, Gadget Boy himself made a cameo appearance in one episode.
Gadget was the only main character to appear in this series; others such as Penny, Brain, Chief Quimby (although mentioned by Gadget in some episodes), Capeman, Dr. Claw, M.A.D. Cat and the M.A.D. Agents were absent. Don Adams reprised the role of Gadget in this series.
Broadcast
editTwo seasons consisting of a total of 22 episodes were aired, ending in 1998, where the show continued in reruns on The History Channel until 2000. In 2001, the show began airing reruns in syndication in order to fill respective station's E/I guidelines, and later aired as part of the E/I DIC Kids Network syndicated block from September 2004 until 2006. Comedian Don Adams returns as the voice of Inspector Gadget (this would be his final appearance as that character; he was concurrently voicing the title character of Gadget Boy).
A Spanish-dubbed version aired on Univision's Planeta U block on Saturday mornings as Los Viajes de Inspector Gadget from the block's premiere from April 5, 2008 to May 29, 2010 when it was taken off the lineup. During the opening sequence, an image of the Temple of Saturn in the ancient forum in Rome, Italy, is presented with the label of "Greece."
The show is currently available to stream on Paramount+ (formerly CBS All Access).
Episode list
editSeason 1 (1996)
edit| No. in series |
No. in season |
Title | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | "London" | November 3, 1996 |
| 2 | 2 | "Virginia/Florida" | November 3, 1996 |
| 3 | 3 | "Italy" | November 10, 1996 |
| 4 | 4 | "Washington/New York" | November 10, 1996 |
| 5 | 5 | "New York" | November 17, 1996 |
| 6 | 6 | "France" | November 17, 1996 |
| 7 | 7 | "Greece/China" | November 24, 1996 |
| 8 | 8 | "Spain/Southwestern USA" | November 24, 1996 |
| 9 | 9 | "Greece" | December 1, 1996 |
| 10 | 10 | "Paris" | December 1, 1996 |
| 11 | 11 | "China/Egypt" | December 8, 1996 |
| 12 | 12 | "Italy/San Francisco" | December 8, 1996 |
| 13 | 13 | "China/Hawaii" | December 15, 1996 |
| 14 | 14 | "Rome" | December 15, 1996 |
| 15 | 15 | "Australia/Florida Keys" | December 22, 1996 |
Season 2 (1997–98)
edit| No. in series |
No. in season |
Title | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16 | 1 | "Boston/The Wild West" | November 2, 1997 |
| 17 | 2 | "France/San Francisco" | November 2, 1997 |
| 18 | 3 | "Australia/San Francisco" | November 9, 1997 |
| 19 | 4 | "Spain/Australia" | November 9, 1997 |
| 20 | 5 | "Florida/Washington, D.C." | November 16, 1997 |
| 21 | 6 | "Egypt" | November 16, 1997 |
| 22 | 7 | "Greece/San Francisco" | January 4, 1998 |
Home media
editIn June 1996, DIC appointed Buena Vista Home Video as the home video distributor for the series.[3] Buena Vista, through subsidiary Disney Educational Productions, released various VHS tapes of the series with two episodes on each, which were sold as educational products for places like schools. The company would re-release the series on DVD in 2007, with the episodes varying between each DVD.
Anchor Bay UK released two volumes in 2004 and 2006 for public usage, each containing four episodes. Avenue Entertainment would release two volumes in 2004; these contained two episodes each.
References
edit- ^ Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 429–432. ISBN 978-1-4766-6599-3.
- ^ Margaret C. Hagood (2009). New Literacies Practices: Designing Literacy Learning. Peter Lang. p. 15. ISBN 978-1-4331-0444-2.
- ^ "DIC taps educators as program consultants".