20 Years of Ninja Turtles on Television

E

enjoi675s

New member
Exactly 20 years ago today, December 14th 1987, the very first episode of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles premiered in syndication.

Now, multiple comic book series, three TV series (with over 360 episodes and counting), a two-episode OVA, four movies (a fifth one on the way), MANY toylines and other merchandise later, Ninja Turtles has earned a significant place in pop-culture history.

180full.jpg


Party on dudes, and remember: Never pay full price for late pizza.
 
I really wish Boomerang would pick the original series up. Nothing against the new show, but I'm just too used to the old cheesy series.
 
I wouldn't say 20 years. You did have that six year hiatus between Next Mutation and TMNT 2003. If anybody knows someone who works at Teletoon, see if they can suggest putting the classic series on Teletoon's Retro channel. It's so hard for me to find the DVD sets.
 
I was just at Best Buy, and they had about 4-5 copies of each release for the original series.

Man, 20 years. Hard to believe. I can still vividly remember recording that five-part premiere the week it aired. I must have watched that tape hundreds of times. I picked up the DVD with them last year, and it was great to relieve the memory.

I also enjoyed the first season of the 2003 series, but I haven't seen much of the subsequent seasons.
 
And I was there to see the second half of the first episode against my will, then I was sucked into the fad for the rest of the series.

I'd have to say the best thing I can remember from this franchise was the Turtle Lair Playset and Turtle Van. I don't see toy props like that anymore. Well, the Batcave from the 1989 movie kind of sucked too, so there wasn't much competition then either.
 
It is hard to believe its been 20 years since the first ep of the original cartoon aired. Man, what can I say?

They were my childhood, and it was amazing to have a show that lasted for 10 seasons and almost 200 episodes. For an American cartoon, it was pretty amazing to continue to tune in year after year and STILL find new episodes of the TMNT saving the world.

Lionsgate already released Seasons 1-5 on DVD, hopefully Season 6 and up start to be released next year.
 
It's been a fun ride. It's nice to see the TMNT had some form of staying power instead of just being a relic of its time. I doubt 20 years would mean as much without the recent 4Kids series and the new movie.
 
Hmm... sounds like a good time to rewatch the season 1 DVD.

The other day someone at work was watching the first episode of Ninja Turtles on their break and they got quite annoyed at me for quoting things as they happened. What can I say... I know that episode quite well.

The 20th anniversary of the cartoon I grew up on. Ah... memories. While TMNT and I are actually about the same age (3 years older at 23) I didn't get introduced to TMNT until I was 3 years old. Wow man... 3 years old? That was a long time ago.

I still love that series to death but I must applaud the quality of the 2003 series. It's a fantastic show that surpasses the old cartoon in a lot of ways. Even so the old series will always have a place in my heart as well as on my DVD shelf.

Merry Cowabunga everyone.
 
There have been a few black eyes when it comes to the franchise.

- Ninja Turtles 3. This movie had no real point. All it ended up being was Turtles in Time, minus all the good stuff the game had

- Fast Forward. Turtles + Time Travel = Bad idea again.

- The Konami games based on the 2003 series. There was a reason why the old games were good, and it's because they were simple yet fun. Original storylines which didn't take over the whole game, plus the fighting kicked serious ass. The newer games had no originality (they were pretty much cramming a saga we'd already seen into game form), bad controls, bad everything, and in the latter 2, even the arcade games couldn't save them because they themselves were messed up.
 
At this moment, I'd like to point out, I didn't hate TMNT 3 as much as everyone else. In fact, I liked quite a bit of it more than I remember TMNT2. But without Jim Henson's Creature Shop anamatronic suits.... just not as good.

I'd also like to point 2 things out.

TMNT the live action series wasn't even a year after the original series had ended. And it was only cancelled due to an extremely high budget. Though I still hate it, just for Venus.

TMNT has come a long way from being a B&W cult comic back in 1984. Why, not even 3 years later, a cartoon based loosley on the characters appeared. How long did it take Batman, Superman, and Spiderman to get their most famous shows? And TMNT helped pave the way for other obscure B&W comics like The Tick and Sam and Max to have their own series.

I also see TMNT as a living, breathing idea than just a resurgance of a fad. other than the long hiatus between Next Mutation and 2k3, there wasn't that long a wait. So I can't even say they were gone. they were just resting. And when I'm in my 40's, by God, I will celebrate the 20th anniversary of 2k3 and TMNT the movie.

Go Green Machines, and always fight with honor.
 
Re: The Konami games. I didn't mind the first one for the cube, but the levels where way to long, and when you died, if memory seres, you had to start at the begining again. I still have not finished mutant nightmare for the Cube.

The GBA games where even worse. The characters moved so darn slowly, and there was very little in the way of fun. The ONLY on that felt like a true continuation of Turtles in Time, I thought, was Mutant Nightmare for the DS. THAT I Still play every now and again....


As for memories, I remember not wanting to watch a show that my friend from up the street managed to turn on. In this case, I believe the first episode I ever saw was 'Big Rip Off'. A year or so before CBS got the boys. Needless to say, I got hooked and the rest is history. I had not hung on to any other 80's show as tightly, although He-Man and RGB came close :).

Now, see kids, for those who didn't grow up with non digital cable, and DVR's, we had to pick and choose what we wanted to keep back in those days...and if you didn't have cable, you had to PRAY the picture came in well enough to watch. I remember holding a loose cable connected to an old Sears TV for 5 minutes trying to tape 'Leonardo is Missing', because if I let it go just slightly, it would get all fuzzy. I finally found a way to balance it on the desk wall to keep it steady.

Never mind the dillema of figuring out which tape held which episode, because most where either not labeled, or had episodes that where half taped, some taped over, etc. I have one tape that I should upload to youtube which is nothing but 5 minutes of 'false starts', where I would tape one episode up to the title card, know I already had it, stopped, and did again :). Ahh, those where the analog days..


Although, it's sad to see how things are in the Turtle Empire now after reading Murphs blog. You would think that the 'House that Turtles Built' would be just as fun loving to work there as the turtles themselves.
 
After looking at this thread, I have a mind to break out the first TMNT movie and watch it.



The only TMNT video game based on the 2003 series that I didn't like very much was Battle Nexus for the consoles. That's the one where when multiple people play, they share the same life guage. Plus you only got one shot at the levels. All the handhelds were fine, but I only have one problem with Mutant Nightmare for the DS. That's the one where you have to help Baxter Stockman through a level, and you have to cut wires in order to progress. What sucks about that is that even when you do cut the right wire, there's no way to even tell if it IS the right wire to cut. You basically just have to guess and then hope like hell that it's the right one.

I started to lose interest in TMNT altogether around 1993. I didn't care to watch Next Mutation, and I almost didn't care to watch the 2003 series when it was about to start. Then, something changed my mind. I don't know what that was, but it got me back into TMNT again. So now I watch the cartoon, buy the DVDs of the old and new series, and even own the first two movies on DVD as well as the movie that came out this year. So yeah, it's good to be back.
 
I believe I started to lose interest around 1991 or 1992. Maybe even earlier. But before that I was a TMNT nut. I had pretty much all the toys, 85% of the episodes on VHS, the video games, both movies and the Archie comic book.

I've never really gotten back into it. I tried to watch a few episodes of the new show, but it just didn't click with me. Sorry, but the original series (as corny as it was) will always be the "real" TMNT to me.
 
Me, I only had a few action figures, have three video games (Fall of the Foot Clan, TMNT II: The Arcade Game, and TMNT 4: Turtles in Time), and had a copy of TMNT 2 on VHS. I never really got into the comic books.
 
Hm. I guess I'm in the minority (and not for the first time) since I actually prefer the 2003 FOX TMNT series to the original syndicated series. I'm not trashing the 80's series, mind you, but the 2K3 Turtles boasted the better characterizations of the cast members and more hardcore action, closer to its' Mirage Comics counterpart. The 80's Turtles series was just a goof, IMHO.
 
Yeah, but without the 80's series, the franchise would have never grown to the massive proportions of today, and there wouldn't be a 2003 series to improve upon it.

Sure, we might have gotten the original TMNT movie and a video game, but without the power of the cartoon series to build things up, those would have flopped horribly,

Sure, the B&W comics came first, but without that 193 episode cartoon, the comics probably would have been as far as TMNT got in the media.
 
Ah yes the Ninja Turtles, I was/am/will always be a fan of these four "Heroes on Half-Shell". No other series emotes the same amount of joy from as the TMNT does, I have every movie and every release for each show on DVD. I still have alot of the original toys from when I was young and have also purchased a few that I'd lost off of Ebay. I never tire of watching either incarnation of the Turtles. I've watched the original mini-series probably close to 500 times since I first saw back in 1988 for the first time.

And today on their 20th Anniversary,I salute Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael and Michaelango. thanks for the great memories and I'm looking forward to the next 20 years.
 
Back
Top