Inch High, Private Eye

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Inch High, Private Eye was a Hanna-Barbera cartoon on NBC, premiering September 8, 1973 and running just one season of 13 episodes.

Inch High was a tiny (inch high, as his name implies), pragmatic but none-too-efficient employee of the Finkerton employment agency. He was assisted by his niece Lori, his addle-brained strongarm Gator, and his cowardly St. Bernard Braveheart. Mr. Finkerton, head of the agency, would love nothing more than to fire Inch on principle alone, but ascribing to the adage "the bigger they are, the harder they fall," Inch brings in his criminals. It was never disclosed how Inch High got to be as tiny as he is, but a publicity card from Hanna-Barbera attributes it to a secret formula he concocted.

After its NBC run, Inch High would go into syndicated replays in select markets for some ten years. The character would appear in episodes of Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law.

Tropes used in Inch High, Private Eye include:
  • Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: The three main (human) characters, Lori being the beauty, Inch being the brains, and Gator being the brawn.
  • Comic Book Adaptation: In Inch High's only comic book appearance (Hanna-Barbera Fun-In #14, Gold Key, October 1974), Lori becomes Inch's lovestruck secretary. Jack Manning drew both stories for the issue
  • Cool Car: Inch's Hushmobile.
  • Expy: The tiny secret agent was previously affected in 1966 on Tom Of T.H.U.M.B., a segment of Videocraft's King Kong cartoon series. In that show, the character was a janitor for a secret agent bureau and accidentally got shrunk from a ray gun.
  • Hey, It's That Voice!: Lennie Weinrib is Inch High, John Stephenson (reprising his Mr. Peevly voice) is Finkerton.