Baggy Pants and the Nitwits

Baggy Pants and the Nitwits is a 1977 American animated series produced by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises and broadcast on NBC.^[1]

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 minutes
Production company	DePatie-Freleng Enterprises
Original release
Network	NBC
Release	September 10 (1977-09-10) – December 3, 1977 (1977-12-03)

Overview

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 silently, 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.

Episodes

No.	Title	Original release date
1	"Construction Caper" "Earthquake McBash"	September 10, 1977 (1977-09-10)
2	"Lost Dog" "The Dynamic Energy Robber"	September 17, 1977 (1977-09-17)
3	"Baggy Pants and Forgetful Freddy" "Splish Splash"	September 24, 1977 (1977-09-24)
4	"The Moving Man" "The Hopeless Diamond Caper"	October 1, 1977 (1977-10-01)
5	"Circus Circus" "The Evil Father Nature"	October 8, 1977 (1977-10-08)
6	"The Painter's Helper" "Mercury Mike and His Jet Bike"	October 15, 1977 (1977-10-15)
7	"Electric Girlfriend" "Rustle Hustle"	October 22, 1977 (1977-10-22)
8	"A Pressing Job" "False Face Filbert"	October 29, 1977 (1977-10-29)
9	"A Haunting Experience" "Genie Meanie"	November 5, 1977 (1977-11-05)
10	"Horse Laff" "Chicken Lady"	November 12, 1977 (1977-11-12)
11	"The Magician's Assistant" "Simple Simon and the Mad Pieman"	November 19, 1977 (1977-11-19)
12	"The Frog" "The Hole Thing!"	November 26, 1977 (1977-11-26)
13	"Beach Fun" "Ratman!"	December 3, 1977 (1977-12-03)

Cast

• Ruth Buzzi - Gladys
• Arte Johnson - Tyrone