Ninja Turtles lasted until 1996??

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Nocturnal28

New member
I was a big TMNT fan from the 80s to about 1992, but by the time the third film came out in about 1993 and the action figures got so overly diverse (Samauri TMNT or whatever), TMNT seemed clearly passe and irrelevant. I remember that if you even mentioned the TMNT in conversation you would get funny looks and eye rolls because it was nolonger in fashion after the peak of 1990-1991, at least to what I had experienced. Even saying all the valley girlish buzzwords like "Cowabunga" and even especially "Dude" created lots of unintentional laughter after about 1992.

I cannot remember them being televised actually even between 1992 and 1993. That said, I have read that they kept going with the TV show until 1996! I find this incredible to believe that in an era of Power Rangers the TMNT were apparently still being churned out! So fascinating to read about Red skies and such...

I remember the Chiodo Bros live action show airing in the late 1990s and feeling very embarrassed by the sight of it (the target audience seemed to be pre school and the puppets looked to me as far from Henson's as one could imagine). Shokcing to know that it directly followed the kids cartoon show.

In 2003 when TMNT had the big reboot comeback it seemed like a lifetime since the original TMNT cartoon. Seems like the fact is though that the original series only ended a few years prior to the new makeover.

Were there plans for another Golden Harvest TMNT movie during 1994-1996? Were they still making action figures? Which countries were the TMNT toons most popular in? Was the music for 1993-1996 TMNT still the same synthesised incidental stuff? Did they still say "Cowabunga" and "Dude"?

Let's talk about TMNT's pop cultural relevance and the fact that regardless of changing fads, TMNT apparently kept going. Why did it ultimately finish in 1996?

Let's get discussing!
 
Yeah, it lasted until early 1996 and they went ahead and changed the theme song and intro to the series with scenes from the live action movies and everything, but I didn't really watch anything TMNT after 1992 or maybe even a little earlier. I don't even remember what channel TMNT aired on, I thought that most of the major networks dumped cartoons around 1993 or so, I guess someobody hung in there a couple more years and the Turtles enjoyed a longer than expected run....

You know, as much as I liked the TMNT 2003 version, I just couldn't make myself enjoy it as much as I enjoyed the original cartoon, it just had something to it that made me love the show. Maybe it was magic? ;)
 
I enjoyed both series, but in different ways. I liked TMNT 2K3 because it stayed closer to the original Mirage comics than the 1987 syndicated show did, which is why I don't consider the syndicated series to be the "original", although that show was the Ninja Turtles' 1st television series.

Basically, if you want to see how the original comics' TMNT was, watch the 4Kids version. If you want goofy Saturday morning style comedy, horrible puns and breaking the 4th wall gags, then watch the syndicated TMNT series.
 
I totally agree, I did enjoy the 2003 version of the Turtles a lot, it had a lot of action and some really good storylines running through it's initial run, but there was just something special to me about the original show, maybe it's just nostalgia or maybe it's just my preference. I watch both in DVD format every now and again, the franchise is probably the most important franchise of the past 20 or so years as far as American animation goes.

Turtle Power!
 
I did think that the syndicated show had a better supporting cast of villains (though the only one who was really a threat was krang) but the problem was it developed into a toy-commercial cartoon almost instantly, especially in the cbs seasons (and they really screwed up with wingnut and screwloose IMO). However, the writing for TMNT 03 WAS superior (at least they werent constantly talking about pizza half the episode).
 
I too find it odd to discover that the original TMNT series lasted for nearly a decade. :eek: I had pretty much "grown out" of the whole Ninja Turtle thing by 1992. Then again, there are a ton of TV shows (animated and otherwise) that last for an insanely long time for no discernable reason. Why is Smallville still on the air? :confused:
 
Interesting that most of us who have posted so far had moved on from TMNT by 1992.

As for the Smallville comparison; at least I am conciously aware of Smallville still being made and televised. At least we are all still aware that it has an audience (for whatever reason). I had no idea between 1992-1996 they were still making TMNT cartoons.

I thought the original TMNT had some really amazing episodes that really pushed the boundary on kids TV. I loved the episode with Baxter Stockman, where he gets incinerated at the end, and not much of a come uppance. I also think the single best TMNT episode was quite ahead of it's time, in which a sleazy Springer style chat show host launches an on air grilling of the heroes. I haven't seen said episode in nearly 20 years admittedly, but that struck a chord and felt like edgey viewing to a kid even back then.

I never got into the new TMNT

a) because I am now an adult who doesn't own a TV

more importantly

b) I think TMNT was a pop cultural phenomenon that defined an era ie the late 80s and early 90s. I think the first TMNT movie was the best, most definitive version of the story, and I don't think anyone can comprehend how mindblowing that big screen translation was back then. They had really adapted TMNT for the cinema and moderated the source material for this new medium like nothing before or after, in my opinion. I think Steve Barron and company did a phenomenal job, making something that was perfect for kids but also had a kind of independent street cred that was far above the source material. I can watch that movie now and it stands up as well to an adult as it did to a kid back then.
 
If you want to get technical about it, it didn't actually stop airing until either the Spring or Summer of 97. I originally watched until about the fall of 91. At that point I was 10 years old and didn't find cartoons as entertaining as I once had. So I went through about a four or five year period there when i changed my focus to sports. Then in about 1996 I started to watch cartoons again. And wow, I was pleasantly surprised how much the TMNT cartoon had changed. I really enjoyed those last 24 episodes a lot more than the previous seasons.
 
I think I stopped watching TMNT around 1992 as well, though that was mainly because of competition from other venues (Fox, Nick, as well as video games). I don't think it had to do with peer pressure, though I could be remembering wrong.
 
Do we agree that TMNT's pop cultural relevance was non existent past around 1992? The TMNT 3 movie really tanked and they clearly weren't given anywhere near the size of budget of the previous TMNT movies (and even they were all apparently really non union cheapies as well) so someone must have sensed it was all ending for the franchise.

Do the later red sky episodes of TMNT bare anything in common with the 2003 make over? Was the timing just wrong on this because by this point TMNT were "so 1990"?

Was the Chiodo live action show an attempt to jump on the power ranger bandwagon?
 
I didn't know that they made new episodes that late, but I did know at least reruns were playing at that time. I remember once my cousin was over at my house and we watched it (probably one of the only times I have seen the original series). Also like someone else said, I remember the live-action theme song.
 
It wasn't laugter inducingly dated to quote "Cowabunga", "Radical" or refer to someone as "Dude" post 1992? "Yo"?

Speaking of dated:

I also don't understand why the third TMNT movie used an old Technotronic song from 1989 as it's main theme? Technotronic didn't even exist in that guise when the first TMNT movie came out...
 
You guys have to remember Power Rangers is what screwed TMNT over in ratings around 1992. Power Rangers was the big hit at the time and TMNT was taking a beating.

The original cartoon lasted 10 years and made 193 episodes, so I say it did pretty well for itself.
 
There's two TMNT shows. The syndication version (1987-1990) and the CBS Saturday version (1990-96). When having conversations with people (both outside and within the Internet) it's obvious that most people didn't watch or don't remember the CBS version. And, by the way, the CBS version had two opening. The first used the syndication theme song but with a different opening. The second used a completely new song and opening.

Why did it last so long? The same reason Power Rangers and Pokemon are still on the air. Toys. Since they continued to sell merchandise the shows could be seen as a 30-minute commerical.

Plus, it's not as if CBS was doing that well anyway. I'm sure whatever ratings the show was getting they were happy with.
 
They're the same series. Just because it changed channels and the opening changed twice doesn't mean its a new show.

That's like saying every cartoon out there that changed its opening is considered a new show, which couldn't be further from the truth.
 
Seriously, I must have grown up in an entirely different planet than you. I never really spoke like that as part of my lingo, but no one ever found anything odd about cowabunga, or Radical.

Now as for "dude", it's something that is still in use where I am and that's not greeted with gales of laughter, a smug smirk or any type of derogatory response.

In all honesty though I do have to admit that "Radical", and Cowabunga became passe about 1999 where I am.
 
Here is Sweden, TMNT was very relevant and popular untill at least 1993. And i think the first three or four seasons were just re-run over and over again, with newer episodes never being released here.
 
I am 99.9% sure it was the same show but just with different openings and on a different network, otherwise there would probably be some kind of legal issue when it came to releasing the series on DVD. I could be wrong, but in all the research that I have done on this show I have never read or heard anything about this series being split into two and considered a different show. Could you explain more or maybe provide a link to some further information?
 
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