Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987)

♥	This article is dedicated to Peter Reneday, who was voicing Splinter (September 6, 1935 – September 8, 2024), may he rest in peace)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Heroes in a half-shell, Turtle Power!
Genre: Action-adventure Martial arts Superhero Comedy Drama Running Time: 22 minutes Country: United States Release Date: December 14, 1987 – November 2, 1996 Network(s): Syndication (1987–1990) CBS (1990–1996) Created by: David Wise Patti Howeth Distributed by: Group W Productions (1987–1995) (Seasons 1–9) Eyemark Entertainment (1996) (Season 10) Starring: Cam Clarke Barry Gordon Rob Paulsen (Seasons 1-9) Townsend Coleman Peter Renaday Renae Jacobs James Avery (Seasons 1-7) Pat Fraley Jennifer Darling Tony Jay Michael Gough (Season 10) Bill Martin (Seasons 8 & 10) Seasons: 10 Episodes: 193 Next show: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003) (2003-2009) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012) (2012-2017)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) is an American animated television series. It was based on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics created by Mirage Studios and later spawned a toy line, two reboots of the series (one in 2003 and the other in 2012), and several live-action movies. The series was developed by David Wise and Patti Howeth, directed by Yoshikatsu Kasai for season 1, Fred Wolf for seasons 2-7, and Tony Love for seasons 8-10, and lasted for 193 episodes or 10 seasons.

Why It Goes Cowabunga

1. This is the first animated series that spawned a franchise that is immensely popular, even to this day.
2. The theme song is incredibly catchy, iconic and memorable, the red sky seasons theme is also memorable
3. Smooth and detailed animation, especially in the red sky seasons which has the best animation out of all.
4. The comedy implemented is funny and always leaves audiences laughing.
5. Iconic and memorable one-liners such as "Cowabunga" and "Go green machine", the former of which has become Mikey's catchphrase, and is carried on in the later three animated series.
6. Despite deviating from the source material, the show stands out because of the colorful concepts, new characters not seen in the comics, and light-hearted comedy. Also, Raphael has been changed to be more sarcastic, funny, and crude instead of brash and angry as in the usual appearances.
7. Memorable characters such as Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, Raphael, Splinter, April O'Neil, Shredder, Rocksteady, Krang, Lord Dregg (Who was added in the red sky seasons), etc.
8. Good voice acting, including Cam Clarke as Leonardo, Barry Gordon as Donatello, Rob Paulsen as Raphael (Who was later replaced by Michael Gough although it serves as a good replacement and sounds just as good as him), Townsend Coleman as Michelangelo, Peter Renaday as Master Splinter, Renae Jacobs as April O'Neil, James Avery as The Shredder (Who was later replaced by Bill Martin although it serves as a good replacement and sounds just as good as him) and Pat Fraley as Casey Jones and Krang, among many others.
9. Excellent pacing.
10. Iconic and memorable soundtrack.
11. Very appealing art style and character designs.
12. Amazing and threatening villains such as Shredder, Krang, Bebop, Lord Dregg, and Rocksteady, among many others.
13. The humor is well done, one example being Shredder and Krang arguing with each other.
14. This series ran for the longest out of all four of the TMNT series, and it managed to remain consistently great throughout the show.
15. Action-packed and entertaining fight scenes.
16. The first season of animation was done by Toei Animation who is well known for animating Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon, Digimon, and One Piece.
17. Many of the new characters are well-recognized enough that they've ultimately landed in the Eastman-written IDW comics, such as Krang and Bebop and Rocksteady and Lord Dregg.
18. "Divide and Conquer" episode was an amazing way to end the series.
19. It's spawned a lot of great tie-in video games, such as Turtles in Time on SNES on Arcade, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 & 3 on NES, Tournament Fighter on SNES and NES, The trilogy on the Game Boy, and the list goes on.

Bad Qualities

1. It's NES game is average at best.
2. While the animation is mostly good, there are some animation flubs here and there. This mainly consists of the occasional choppiness and inconsistencies. Still, it's hardly noticeable if you're just a casual viewer.
   • Luckily, the animation got better in the red sky seasons.
3. The Turtles refer to themselves by their full names rather than their nicknames, which can feel unnatural.
4. Cam Clarke's portrayal of Leonardo in the second season onwards was goofed down, compared to the first season where he was more serious and had a low-pitched voice. Even in the Red Sky episodes, his voice never changed.
5. While good, the voice acting can be slow-paced, limited, and cringy, often never matching lip movements, especially April O'Neil, who barely does any facial emotions when she talks loud, and her voice actress sounded like she's trying too hard to pull a convincing or dramatic portrayal only to end up falling flat and sounding like she came from an educational cartoon.
6. Due to censorship, Michelangelo's trademark nunchakus were seen less often in Season 4, till they were replaced entirely in Season 5 with a grappling hook called the "Turtle Line".
7. Most of the time in the later seasons, the Turtles act less like ninjas and more like open brawlers. For example, when they run, they run like normal people.
8. Carter (A character that was introduced in the Red Sky seasons), is a forgettable character, he was so hated that he got removed in Season 10.
9. The Red Sky Seasons, while good, kind of jumped the shark when it removed some characters such as the Channel 6 staff, Shredder, and Krang.

Reception

TBA

Trivia

• In the original comic, Splinter was Hamato Yoshi's pet. The two characters would be merged together for this cartoon.
• Vanessa Coffey, the known executive producer of Doug, Rugrats, The Ren & Stimpy Show and Rocko's Modern Life, both from Nickelodeon, worked in this show as production manager back in 1987-1988.
• The show was called "Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles" in Europe due to the belief that the word "Ninja" is too violent, when the 2003 show was released it was just called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles instead like the rest of the world, which made this show called "Hero Turtles" while the 2003 one called Ninja Turtles.
• The older wiki Terrible TV Shows & Episodes stated that the last two seasons were bad, this has now been fixed.

Videos

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