- Baggy Pants and the Nitwits at IMDb
- Baggy Pants and the Nitwits Archived 2011-03-07 at the Wayback Machine at SaturdayMorning.Pop-Cult.com
- Baggy Pants and the Nitwits Archived 2010-12-03 at the Wayback Machine at Toonarific.com
| Baggy Pants and the Nitwits | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Cartoon series |
| Created by | Arte Johnson |
| Directed by | Brad Case Gerry Chiniquy Sid Marcus Robert McKimson Spencer Peel |
| Voices of | Ruth Buzzi Arte Johnson |
| Composers | Steve DePatie Doug Goodwin |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 13 |
| Production | |
| Producers | David H. DePatie Friz Freleng |
| Editor | Rick Steward |
| Running time | 30 min. |
| Production company | DePatie-Freleng Enterprises |
| Original release | |
| Network | NBC |
| Release | September 10 – December 3, 1977 |
Baggy Pants and the Nitwits is a 1977 American animated series produced by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises and broadcast on NBC.[1]
Though the characters appeared together in the show's introduction, they each appeared separately in their own episodes. Each 30-minute episode of Baggy Pants and the Nitwits contained two segments: one for Baggy Pants and the other for the Nitwits.[2]
Baggy Pants is an anthropomorphic cat mimicking Charlie Chaplin's "Little Tramp" character, right down to Chaplin's signature toothbrush mustache and walking cane. Similar to Chaplin and the Pink Panther, Baggy Pants performed all of his misadventures in pantomime, without a spoken dialogue by any of the characters in his segments.[3]
The Nitwits is about an elderly superhero named Tyrone (voiced by Arte Johnson) who, by public demand, re-emerged from retirement to again fight crime, taking cases at his own discretion with help from his wife Gladys (Ruth Buzzi) and his hopping cane which he called "Elmo" which, among other things, helped Tyrone and Gladys to fly.
Johnson and Buzzi adapted and reprised the roles they had originated in Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, with much of the adult innuendo (including Tyrone's original last name Horneigh) being removed to keep the cartoon family-friendly. In the opening titles of The Nitwits segment, Johnson himself was credited with having "created The Nitwits for television".
The series ran for 13 episodes; as of 2019, it has yet to be released on home video.
| No. | Title | Original air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Construction Caper" "Earthquake McBash" | September 10, 1977 |
| 2 | "Lost Dog" "The Dynamic Energy Robber" | September 17, 1977 |
| 3 | "Baggy Pants and Forgetful Freddy" "Splish Splash" | September 24, 1977 |
| 4 | "The Moving Man" "The Hopeless Diamond Caper" | October 1, 1977 |
| 5 | "Circus Circus" "The Evil Father Nature" | October 8, 1977 |
| 6 | "The Painter's Helper" "Mercury Mike and His Jet Bike" | October 15, 1977 |
| 7 | "Electric Girlfriend" "Rustle Hustle" | October 22, 1977 |
| 8 | "A Pressing Job" "False Face Filbert" | October 29, 1977 |
| 9 | "A Haunting Experience" "Genie Meanie" | November 5, 1977 |
| 10 | "Horse Laff" "Chicken Lady" | November 12, 1977 |
| 11 | "The Magician's Assistant" "Simple Simon and the Mad Pieman" | November 19, 1977 |
| 12 | "The Frog" "The Hole Thing!" | November 26, 1977 |
| 13 | "Beach Fun" "Ratman!" | December 3, 1977 |