Baggy Pants and the Nitwits

Baggy Pants and the Nitwits was an NBC network animated series created by Arte Johnson & produced by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises.

The show aired from September 10 to December 3, 1977, lasting for one season & 13 episodes.

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.

Baggy Pants is an anthropomorphic cat mimicking Charlie Chaplin's "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, with very little or no spoken dialogue by any of the characters in his segments.

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 with help from his wife Gladys Ormphby (Ruth Buzzi) and his anthropomorphic cane which he called "Elmo" (which, among other things, helped Tyrone and Gladys to fly), taking cases at his own discretion.

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 "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.

Episode list

1. Construction Caper/Earthquake McBash 2. Lost Dog/The Dynamic Energy Robber 3. Baggy Pants and Forgetful Freddy/Splish Splash 4. The Moving Man/The Dynamic Energy Robber 5. Circus Circus/The Evil Father Nature 6. The Painter's Helper/Mercury Mike and His Jet Bike 7. Electric Girlfriend/Rustle Hustle 8. A Pressing Job/False Face Filbert 9. A Haunting Experience/Genie Meanie 10. Horse Laff/Chicken Lady 11. The Magician's Assistant/Simple Simon and the Mad Pieman 12. The Frog/The Hole Thing! 13. Beach Fun/Ratman!

Voice Cast

• Ruth Buzzi as Gladys
• Arte Johnson as Tyrone