but i grew up watching inspector gadget and the absurd and surreal humour on the show, along with it's careful moral lessons, and even it's message of gender equality, were formative, and few things, perhaps besides the zany humour in sesame street, have had a bigger influence on me than inspector gadget.
i started watching get smart reruns, which still ran in the after school slot in the 90s, as a teenager. i found it more enjoyable than home improvement or degrassi high, both of which struck me as kind of boring. at some point my dad pointed out that don adams actually voiced inspector gadget, and it was one of those rare moments of cogency and clarity when that pieced itself together, and i understood something deeper about the transcendental multi-dimensional connections keeping the universe in place.