Teenage Mutnat Ninja Turtles

[Sam The Smuggler 1]

Twenty years ago, give or take a few months, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles premiered on the Fox Network as part of children's programming weekday mornings. It featured the heroics of Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello and Michelangelo. My brothers and I would watch it every morning before school. We had many of the toys as well, but not enough,lol. It remained on FOX for 3 seasons until FOX canceled it. As luck what have it, CBS picked it up and ran it as part of the Saturday morning lineup. The show ran for 7 more seasons before coming to a close. The even defeated Shredder a year or two before it was over. That last few seasons were about a new villain. Am Alien named Dregg. Hmm..They defeated the enemy only to have a new, even worse bad guy show up for the last 2-3 years...and here I thought SG-1 was the first to do this. I have to admit, I still to this day have not seen every episode, from the later part of the series mostly. And come to find out, 4 episodes from final season weren't even aired. What's up with that? Perhaps I could do some research on this.

 

 

All this aside, what many of us youngsters at the time (and some still today) didn't know about was the origin of our new favorite show. I have since done my homework a few years back. The idea for our green skinned, shell-backed heroes began as little more than sketches to amuse the turtles' creators, as explain in this excerpt from their web-site.

 

After a long day of work way back in 1983, Kevin and Peter were relaxing at Laird's house watching television and sketching. "We got real punchy!" Peter explains, and they started drawing cartoons to amuse themselves. At the time Peter was doing editorial illustration and advertising art with some success while Kevin was working as a short-order cook and drawing comics in his spare time. As the evening evolved, Kevin eventually drew a bipedal turtle with Nunchukus strapped to its arms and called it a "Ninja Turtle". Peter, aware of a nifty idea when he saw one, asked "Why not a teenage mutant ninja turtle?" and thus the legend was born.

 

This however did not directly lead to the cartoon show we all know so well. In fact, after many concepts phases, the first issue of their comic book was created. On April 1st, 1984, the first issue hit the printing press. It was printed in black & white and only 3000 copies were published. In addition, it was an over-sized issue. The comic debuted at a comic book convention in Portsmouth, New Hampshire on May 5. The comic also received media attention. It seemed many radio stations decided to run stories on it and to everyone's surprise and delight, all 3000 copies sold out quite fast.

 

 

Over the next couple of years as they continued to churn out new issues, their popularity grew and they were soon selling over 125,000 copies. The Turtles' licensing agent, Mark Freedman, thought they needed to expand. To this end, TMNT were presented to Playmates Toys. They agreed to produce a toy line, but only if they could get a TV show. Obviously, this lead to the creation of the original Cartoon show. The first season, a mini-series if you will, was only 5 episodes and told one long story. Within days of airing, it established itself as a favorite and as I said, went on for 10 years. The show however was quite a different take on the turtles. The comic was far more violent than the show. They even killed the bad guys in the comic book and it wasn't as humorous...well..I suppose that all depends on one's sense of humor. The cartoon shows was kiddied down to suit Fox's weekday morning lineup. Also, April O'Neil was changed from Baxter Stockman's lab assistant to Channel 6 reporter. The Pizza scarfing and I believe the surfer talk was also something that was added for the show. One of the most noticeable changes was that of the bandanna colors. Despite the fact that the original comics were B&W, they reached a point where the covers were printed in color and all 4 turtles wore red bandannas. As we all know, 3 of the turtles were changed. Leonardo's was changed to Blue, Donatello's to Purple and Michelangelo's to Orange. Many of the stories that were written for the show seemed to be derived from the comics, but severely twisted and butchered. The cartoon also emphasized humor over action, though that's not to say that it was without action. One of the more humorous aspects of the show is that every character knew they were in a TV show. To this day, it remains of my favorite cartoons when growing up. There were many other comic off-shoots as well, each with it's own continuity.

 

 

During the first few years, the show had gained enough popularity to warrant a film and on March 30th, 1990, the first movie, simply titled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles hit the theaters. Promotional materials, such as posters, also added the words "The Movie" to the title. Much to this Dismay of fans who knew nothing of the original comics, the film's plot was derived from the comic-book and only using elements from the cartoon, such as the bandanna colors, the Pizza, suffer talk, April being a news reporter. It had more action than the cartoon, but was still kiddied down enough for a young audience. Lots of humor was also present. One could say it was a compromise to please both the fans of the comics and that of the cartoon. While my younger brothers and I never saw it at the theater, we did however get it on VHS. I for one was disappointed by the lack of the continuity with the cartoon, but I enjoyed the film anyway. On March 22, 1991, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze was released. It featured the secret behind their mutations and new mutant foes. This one we saw with a friend on my brother's Birthday. We absolutely loved it. I love both films, though both outdo the other in certain ways. For example, part 2 was funnier, but the fighting was better in Part 1. We of course got this on video as well. In fact, If I'm not mistaken, It was I who found it at the store! March 17, 1993, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III was released. While not as good as the previous 2, it still was quite entertaining in it's own right. My brother's and I, as well as a friend saw this at theater. We were the only 4 people there. I don't think this had much to do with the movie, but more the theater itself, seeing as how were the only people in the whole building, save for the 2-3 employees. This was about Time travel back to Feudal Japan. As with 1 and 2, we got the video of this too. It was quite obvious that much of the crew from the previous 2 were absent for this installment. Several Toys based on all 3 films were also produced by Playmates Toys.

 

 

 

During the mid 90s, their popularity started it's descent, until finally the spotlight was moved to a certain group of rainbow colored super-heroes. I am of course talking about The Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, the only incarnation of that show I ever had any real interest in. Eventually, a live-action show called Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation was produced and ran from 1997-1998. It seemed to follow the continuity of the cartoon series and introduced a female turtle named Venus Di Milo. I saw one or two episodes, but it failed to capture my attention. Moving on, my memory escape me of when this happened, but someone thought it would be a good idea to do a TMNT Rock n Roll tour with people dressed as the turtles and other charactes. It was called Coming out of Their Shells. Twas vert silly, but somewhat entertaining I suppose. They even made a Behind the scene video as if the turtles were real. The suits used for both of these projects looked no where near as good as the ones used in the films, but this is to be expected. Not much more happened to the turtles for awhile...they were all but forgotten, but lets talk about the Video game franchise before we go into more turtles on TV.

 

 

Ah, the Video games... I remember it was one Christmas, there was a gift addressed to myself and my brothers. It was TMNT for the NES. The cover art was that of a Re-print of one of the original comic books, though we didn't know that at the time. Our love for this game was matched only by our hatred for it. Both felt very intensely. To this day, I still haven't seen the ending, though I've come very close. But my first memory of a TMNT video game is from when our class went on a field-trip to the mall. though a couple of years later, our entire school was subsequently banned by the Mall from taking field trips there...but I digress. I was in the arcade and I saw it...The TMNT arcade game...it was so awesome...I loved it. The home version, titled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game left much to be desired from it's arcade counter-part, but still deliver4d as solid NES game of it's time. We eventually did beat it, but took years. Fight 2 Shedders?? WTF man? When part III came out, I got it on my birthday. It was called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Manhattan Project. This game featured Shredder and Krang ripping the island right out of the sea and suspended it i the air..though nothing in the game reveals why this was done in the first place. This game was far easier than it's predecessors and we beat it within a year maybe. Moving aheah to TMNT IV: Turtles in Time for the SNES. We rented it and beat it during those few days we had it. Either the games were getting easier or we just played too much...probably alittle of both. Then we have The Hyperstone Heist for the Sega Genesis. Both it and Part IV used the same game engine, but HSH was far superior to part IV. For one, it was actually a hard game. We still beat it the das we had it for rent, but with far less ease. The Graphics were slightly better too. There were more games, some foe the hand-helds, but I never played them. There was even a fighting game, but I won't even talk about it.

 

 

2003, Enter a new generation of Turtle Power. A new cartoon show was created. Like the films of the Earlier 90s, this show derived it's story from the Comics, while incorporating elements from the old cartoon. I can't say how much the plot-line concepts came from the comics, but the opening 3 episodes I know were atleast loosely based on them. I'm in the minority of the Old-school TMNT fans who actually like this show. I haven't seen much of it, but what I have seen, I have enjoyed. I'd say more if I knew more about it, but that's about it. Perhaps later when I have more of the DVDs, I can say more. This Brings me to the 4th movie, which was released March 23, 2007. Unlike the previous 3, this film is an all CGI film. I haven't seen it yet, but I've been told it acknowledges the other 3 and therefore is part of that continuity. I hope to see it soon. So here I am, 26 years old and still a huge TMNT fan. I have the DVDs of the first 4 seasons of the old show, the fitst 2 movies and even the first 3 episodes of the new show on DVD. Perhaps one day I shall find some of the old or new comics..yes..the comic books still run today. Though I'm not into comic-books much in general, it'd bee cool to have some TMNT comics. I'm sure it's possible I left out some things or maybe even got something wrong, feel free to help out if you think you know what I messed up on. I leave you now with a picture a hand-made Michelangelo Necklace I got from a Vendor outside Toys R Us when I was a kid.

 

Edited April 2, 2007 by Sam The Smuggler

[Kor37 9]

Do I NEED to ask if you have already seen the new movie?........

[Sam The Smuggler 1]

If you had bothered to read everything you would have see this

 

I haven't seen it yet

 

[Tina 0]

I haven't seen it yet. I was a fan of the old show. Is it any good?

 

I haven't seen it yet. I was a fan of the old show. Is it any good?

[ARMS 0]

I read the first two thirds of that..

 

I had everything merchandise wise, I watched the show constantly and loved the films, then I grew up..

[Sam The Smuggler 1]

How very good for you.