Popeye the Sailor is a famous comic strip character, later featured in popular animated cartoons. He was created by Elzie Crisler Segar and first appeared in the King Features comic strip Thimble Theatre on January 17, 1929. Popeye quickly became the main focus of the strip, which was one of King Features' most popular strips during the 1930s. Thimble Theatre, carried on after Segar's 1938 death by artists such as Bud Sagendorf, was renamed Popeye in the 1970s. Today drawn by Hy Eisman, Popeye continues to appear in first-run strips in Sunday papers (daily Popeye strips are reruns of older strips).

In 1933, Max and Dave Fleischer's Fleischer Studios adapted the Thimble Theatre characters into a series of Popeye the Sailor theatrical cartoon shorts for Paramount Pictures. These cartoons proved to be among the most popular of the 1930s, and Popeye at one time rivaled Mickey Mouse for popularity among audiences. After Paramount assumed control of the Fleischer Studio in 1942, they continued producing the series until 1957. Future Popeye cartoons were produced for television from 1960 to 1962 by King Features, and from 1978 to 1982 as well as 1987 to 1988 by Hanna-Barbera Productions.

Scooby-Doo is a popular and long-running American animated television series produced for Saturday morning television by Hanna-Barbera Productions (now Cartoon Network Studios) in several different versions from 1969 to the present. Though the format of the show and the cast (and ages) of characters have varied significantly over the years, the most familiar versions of the show feature a talking Great Dane named Scooby-Doo and four teenagers : Fred "Freddie" Jones, Daphne Blake, Velma Dinkley, and Norville "Shaggy" Rogers.

These five characters (officially referred to collectively as "Mystery, Inc.", but never referred to as such in the original series) drive around the world in a van called the "Mystery Machine," and solve mysteries typically involving tales of ghosts and other supernatural forces. At the end of each episode, the supernatural forces turn out to have a rational explanation (usually a criminal of some sort trying to scare people away so that they can commit crimes). Later versions of the show featured different variations on the supernatural theme of the show, and include additional characters, such as Scooby's cousin Scooby-Dum and his nephew Scrappy-Doo, in addition to or instead of some of the original characters.

Scooby-Doo was originally broadcast on CBS from 1969 to 1976, when it moved to ABC. ABC cancelled the show in 1986, but presented a spin-off, A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, from 1988 until 1991. A new Scooby-Doo series, What's New, Scooby-Doo?, aired on the WB Network during the Kids WB programming block from 2002 until 2005, with a new Scooby series, Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue!, set to take its place on the new CW network in fall 2006. Repeats of the original series, as well as second-run episodes of the current series, are broadcast frequently on the Cartoon Network in the United States and other countries. For one year from 2004 to 2005, Scooby-Doo held the Guinness World Record for having the most episodes of any animated television series ever produced, a record previously held by and later returned to The Simpsons. Scooby-Doo was published as holding this record in the 2006 edition of the Guinness Book of Records.

Tom and Jerry were an animated cat (Tom) and mouse (Jerry) team who formed the basis of a massively successful series of theatrical short animated films created, written and directed by animators William Hanna and Joseph Barbera (later of Hanna-Barbera fame). The series was produced by Hollywood studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer from 1940 until 1958, when the studio's animation unit was closed down. MGM, in 1960, outsourced the production of Tom and Jerry to Rembrandt Films (led by Gene Deitch) in Eastern Europe. In 1963, production of Tom and Jerry shorts returned to Hollywood with Chuck Jones' Sib-Tower 12 Productions; this series lasted until 1967. Tom and Jerry later resurfaced in TV cartoons produced by Hanna-Barbera (1975 - 1977; 1990 - 1993) and Filmation Studios (1980 - 1982). The original MGM shorts helmed by Hanna and Barbera shorts are notable for having won seven Academy Awards, tying it with Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies as the most-awarded theatrical animated series.

Inspector Gadget is an animated television series about a clumsy, absent-minded, and oblivious detective, Inspector Gadget, who is a cyborg with various "gadgets" built into his anatomy. Gadget's main nemesis is the mysterious Dr. Claw, leader of an evil organization known as MAD. This was the merchandising company DiC Entertainment's first syndicated show, and ran from 1983 to 1986 in syndication. This article pertains to the original cartoon series and its characters and plots; for information on its later spinoffs, see Inspector Gadget spinoff incarnations.

Don Adams, who voiced the inspector, also played the main character on the hit 1960s American television series Get Smart!; a secret agent named Maxwell Smart. As a result, similarites between the two series' and his characters are often drawn. However, Inspector Gadget has far more in common with the bumbling trench coat–clad Inspector Clouseau of The Pink Panther movie series than Get Smart!. In fact in the pilot episode of Inspector Gadget, Gadget had a mustache just like Clouseau's. It was removed afterwards apparently because MCA threatened to sue because he was too similar to Clouseau. The episode was even voiced so Gadget could claim the mustache was simply part of a disguise.

The series was later adapted into a movie of the same name, which spawned a direct-to-video sequel.

The name has passed into common parlance to refer to people similarly obsessed with gadgetry.