"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" Classic Series Talkback (Spoilers)

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leticias

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With Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on the big screen and on the small, I thought it might be fun to discuss the classic series we all grew up with!

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Original Run: December 14, 1987 – November 2, 1996

Heroes in a Half-Shell! Turtle Power!

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Related Threads:
-Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Season One DVD Talkback (Spoilers)
 
Probably THE 1980s show that everyone remembers and enjoyed growing up. It hasn't aged well but it's still THAT show that is apart of everyone's life.
 
Not to change the subject all that much, but does anyone have a favorite character or episode of the show? I'd be interested to hear what aspects of the show you guys enjoyed the most.

Also, what character would you have liked to have been in the show that was in the toy line, but never appeared in any episodes?
 
Favorite character? That's easy, Raphael. He was always my favorite character, and I was glad to see him start getting focus episodes when CBS picked the series up.

I always wanted to see Ace Duck make an appearance (Beyond his two second cameo in a S3 episode). He was one of my favorite figures, and when I read his bio card, I couldn't wait to see him show up on the show, but he never appeared. I even acted out an episode for his origin at one point, using the figure's bio card as influence.
 
So it all started when I watched the CGI TMNT flick a few weeks ago. Although I didn't like the 2003 animated series, it got me eager to go back to the older animated show. So with all the currently available DVD releases in hand I decided to reacquaint myself with the original 1987-1996 animated series.

At this point I'm just about done with season 4 which in my youth was the season I pretty much had turned away from the show and got into cartoons like Tiny Toons and stuff from the Disney Afternoon.

I have mixed feelings looking back on it all now. When the show was good, it was really good. But when the show was bad it was sometimes almost unwatchable. I enjoyed (and continue to enjoy) Shredder, Krang, Bebop and Rocksteady but I think anyone can agree that they were seriously overused, especially in the third season when they were in almost every show. And if the villains weren't being overused than the gang over at Channel 6 were getting way too much screentime. Did we need to see Vernon in almost every season 3 and 4 episode?

But for some reason I appreciate some of the writing more now that when I was a kid. Some if the stuff involving the turtles was actually really good. And as the show evolved it seemed Rob Paulsen and Barry Gordon really found their groove with Raphael and Donatello who probably became the most developed of the four turtles. I loved Michaelangelo as a kid, but nowadays I can only tolerate him so much before he grates on my nerves. And Leonardo was pretty wooden most of the time. I gotta say I loved the jokes that broke the fourth wall, as well as just about every one of Raph's wisecracks, as well as the old married couple relationship Shredder and Krang had.

Who did the animation for this show? It seems three different studios worked on the third and fourth seasons. I loved the quality stuff that was turned out for most of season 4. Who animated it? It really stinks that animation houses were never listed in the credits. For that matter, who did the horrible animation for episodes such as "Turtle Terminator" or "Cowabunga Shredhead"? I want to say Wang, but I could be wrong. Lots of bad animation mistakes and cover-ups abound whenever things got cheap, which unfortunately was often.

Any thoughts?

Mod Note: Merged with previously made series talkback.
 
I always wondered what was the deal with Ace Duck, especially considering he showed up in the second wave of action figures. You'd naturally think that he was a character who would end up appearing on the show (Genghis Frog, Krang, General Traag, The Rat King and Leatherhead certainly did) but I just found it odd that he never made an appearance. Even odder was how close in concept he was to Launchpad McQuack, who was starring in Ducktales around the same time.
 
First five episodes were by Toei, who usually does anime. Starting with season 2 they switched to A-1, which I -think- is based out of South Korea. Not sure if there were other studios here and there, though I seem to recall someone saying they used Morning Sun. "Red Sky" episodes were by Dai Won, IIRC.
 
I think Ace Duck did appear on the show but he was only portrayed as the star of his own TV show. I forgot the episode though.

The writers missed the boat on not incorporating him into the show though.
 
I don't think Toei just did the first season. Just comparing styles I think they did episodes in the 3rd and 4th seasons as well because many of those episodes have a very anime-ish look to them. Thanks for pointing out A-1 as well.

But who did the crummy stuff?
 
You know, I love TMNT in all forms with the exception of the Concert Tour Videos (at least the Christmas one...E-gad!) and the Live action series. But without the 1980's series, I don't think anyone would have given a hoot, except indie comic book buffs.

I will say this, The Red Sky episodes once they got rid of Shredder and Krang and replaced it with Lord Dregg... that's when the show really stunk. I liked the newer character designs, but the lack of Rob Palsen (was it due to Animainacs and Pinky and the Brain taking up his schedual, or did Fred Wolf Films not pony up enough dough?), as well as the dull new villains, and irrellivant plot twist about Ultimate Mutations really ruined the end of the series, which could have gone off a lot stronger than it did.
 
It's hard to know for sure, since they don't list studios in the credits after the second volume. But I didn't notice any major differences in designs or animation, at least not like the difference between the first and second seasons. No idea. There were episodes like April's Fool, which COULDN'T have been done by A-1. When I first saw that one I was hit by how different it looked.
 
I always wanted to see Pizza Face in the cartoon. That was an awesome figure. His origin story from the back of the box was completely ridiculous. Something about trying to cook pizza and accidentally being mutated in the oven.
 
I'm pretty sure it was an S3 episode, 'Attack of the Big Mac', maybe?

But yeah, there was a certain similarity to Launchpad, maybe that's why he wasn't incorporated, fear of Disney suing.

Another favorite character- and I'm going to get lynched for this- was Zack. He kind of made more sense to hang out with the Turtles than Vernon and Irma.
 
The thing that confuses me about the first five episodes all being done by Toei is that episode 5 looks COMPLETELY different than the previous four, and looks much closer to the A-1 style.

But yeah, the series was awesome during the first two seasons. Season three went from okay to...completely unwatchable until the three-part finale. Season 4 kept going from watchable to complete crap way too often. I'm still getting through season 5, and it seems a WHOLE lot better that it had been going.
 
The old show has a certain charm, I can't put my finger on it but its just enjoyable to watch. I'm not really nostalgic really since I only watched a few episodes as a kid for some reason even though I was a huge fan. But as I've been collecting the DVDs the show is much better than I'd ever expect. As great as the new show is it doesn't diminish the old show, its style is so unique they can both "live" together.



I hated Ace on Archie, he didn't look like him and his narcissistic personality was not interesting either. His 4 second cameo in the show leaves a better taste in my mouth.


Watching his episodes Zack isn't that bad, I ended up not finding him all that annoying. Of course I am not a fan of his either.



ugh, I always hated that figure as a kid. i don't know why I had it I guess it must have been a gift.
 
I looked that up because it sounded intriging but it was actually more along the lines that he wanted to mutate himself into a powerful pizza monster but the turtles pulled him out of his retromutagen pizza oven before he was fully cooked so now he's "half baked" apparently.

Oh and I just noticed Mutagen Man (a character whose body parts are held together poorly so you can see his insides) was once a guy named Seymour (sp?) Gutz. Seriously... Who came up with this stuff? I know Eastman and Laird designed some of the characters for the toys but I wonder if they were the wack jobs that came up with the stuff printed on the back of those boxes. That would have taken some serious... something.

Also, apparently the toy of Wingnut indicates he and Screwloose are aliens. But not "evil" ones like in the cartoon.

And Wyrm's description says he was a trash man that ended up in Shredder's trash (with mutagen I assume) and Muckman was a sewage worker. In the show Muckman ended up in trash Bebop and Rocksteady threw out. So they pretty much switch those origins. Seems odd...

There's probably more inconsistancies than that but I really don't care to look them all up. At least not at the moment.

And here's a really hillarious one (seen in the show). Tatoo... a hamster (or was it guini pig?) that mutated into a sumo wrestler. A human one from the look of it. Usually a mutant in TMNT retains some trait of the creature they originally were but Tatoo seemed to only retain a rodent's personality. Again... what were they smoking?
 
I just finished watching the entire Season 6 DVD, man this was a great season. Its too bad they skipped the 1 hour "Planet of the Turtleoids" special because that was fantastic, but hopefully its on the next DVD.

I remember why I loved this show so much when I watch the DVDs. The fact that I can still enjoy the same episodes now as a College student as I did when I was 7 years old really says a lot.
 
I've always loved the show. The humour was brilliant, some of the lines, even though it's was corny, always makes me laugh. I'm still a huge Micky fan, I prefer Raph in these series than in the film because he's less of a stress head. Donny is still a legend though but I agree that Leo is a bit wooden. He is a bit up himself too in the latest film sadly.

As for the animation I don't know. I used to laugh at all the silly mistakes that happened, because there was more than usual cartoons, so I assumed they had a low budget. I used to also giggle when they had different voices in almost each show at one point!
 
Having watched four DVDs of it in the last couple years, one thing about the show kinda annoys me: The reuse of music. It was a common thing during the time, yes, but I swear the series only had a dozen or so tracks that were always played in the same types of scenes. After a few episodes I wished they came up with a different melody when there was an establishing shot of the Technodrome, for example.

Then again, I guess you could say that by relying on a few melodies, the tunes stuck with you. I was experiencing some major nostalgia when I rewatched the episodes as an adult.
 
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