Inch High, Private Eye celebrates its 45th anniversary next month. This month, it's our Famous First episode entry.
In the opener, Inch (Len Weinrib) takes the case of a wealthy socialite to protect her valuable diamond necklace.
The writing staff on the show included primetime TV veterans such as Fred Fox & Seaman Jacobs, who'd written a bazillion scripts for, for example, F-Troop. Otherwise, this was a generic plot.
Rating: B.
4 comments:
Curiously, to my knowledge, there was never an episode of Inch High, Private Eye where it was revealed how Inch became a tiny man in the first place. An origin story wasn't really necessary, but it might have been interesting to see.
In its' network run, Inch High was 'bundled' in the same hour with Goober and the Ghost Chasers; the 2 shows even shared a lunchbox! It wasn't until syndication and cable that the shows were finally separated: Goober was one of the rotating segments on the syndicated 'Fred Flintstone and Friends' while Inch wasn't, whereas Inch High, Private Eye aired on the USA Network's Cartoon Express for a time, but Goober didn't.
Actually, Inch High was on NBC (w/Butch Cassidy) while Goober was on ABC (w/Yogi's Gang and Super Friends). Aladdin/Thermos decided to save money by having Goober & Inch share a lunch box.
Regarding Inch High's origin story:
I remember reading on one of the cartoon sites that "Hiram Inch" was a detective for Finkerton Detective company and he would drink a formula he created which would shrink him down to size when needed. However, there would be times in which he would grow back to normal size - usually at the worst possible moment. I'm not sure of it's true but it sounds like something from a series bible/presentation which got altered when the show went to series. I rather like that idea - but then again, he probably wouldn't have needed Gator as his bodyguard as much if he could return to normal size at some point. I suppose in some ways it could be compared to DC's The Atom but with Elasticman's detective abilities (if Inch were that good of an investigator that is).
Several years earlier there was a TV series which had a similar premise - except it was a secret agent and his chauffeur who had stepped into a shrinking ray (but they were shrunken permanently) and had adventures fighting supervillains.
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