The Original 1987 Logo for "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles"
In 1984, two comic book artists named Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird released their independent comic book titled “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”. Originally, the comic was only supposed to be a one issue story stemming from a fun brainstorming session between Eastman and Laird. The first issue’s initial run of 300,000 copies sold out quickly and the young artists realized that they were on to something that could be much bigger than they had initially imagined.
The comic book continued beyond issue one and it became a huge indie hit. Soon after the comic’s success, a toy company named Playmates Toys was looking for a potential action figure line. They chose the Turtles, but they needed to know if kids would actually want the toys as the comic book’s audience was fair but small overall. In the ‘80, the biggest way to appeal to American children was to develop an animated series featuring elements that would be turned into toys.
Soon, a show developed by David Wise and Patti Howeth and led by production company Murakami-Wolf-Swenson (later Fred Wolf Films) premiered and aired from December 14-18, 1987. This five episode first season proved to be insanely popular and soon more episodes were ordered for the series and the toy line from Playmates began soon after. The phenomenon known as “Turtlemania” had officially begun.
The show ended up running for 10 seasons from 1987 to 1996 for a total of 193 episodes. It spawned a major franchise that would include more comics, toys, products of all kinds, and live-action films. In the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, you couldn’t escape the Turtles as they were everywhere.
Later, after the series had ended, more television series would come around that would reinvent the concept. That would include a series in 2003, another CGI animated series in 2012, and yet another series called “Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” in 2018. Each series has had their own set of followers and success, but for some reason the ‘87 series is still fondly remembered by most fans of the franchise across the board.
The Turtles often found themselves facing off with Shredder, Krang, and the dreaded Technodrome.
Part of this can undoubtedly be attributed to the fact that it is the first series in the franchise and was the one that started it all, so to speak. Still, its popularity has continued to thrive for so long that new products related specifically to the ‘87 series continue to be produced to this day. Just recently, a new video game called “Shredder’s Revenge” was released that takes its visual cues and story directly from the Fred Wolf produced series.
So, why does this show continue to stick with fans well into their adulthood when so many other series from the era eventually fell to the wayside? Well, I have a few thoughts on this and one of those has to do with how meta the show is. I noticed this recently when I was revisiting the series.
Other Saturday morning cartoon shows of the era had their fair share of cheesiness, but they still tried to be more straightforward than what “TMNT” did. Instead, this series embraced how absurd it was and even broke the fourth wall from time to time to not only let us know that they were in on the joke, but also to let the parents know as well. I remember that of all the shows I watched as a kid, my dad found it easier to watch this show with me than he did others. I now know that they let him in on the fun as much as they did myself.
I think it is also for this very reason that the show has stuck with us into our adulthood. Make no mistake about it, this show was made to sell toys and when I rewatch it, I definitely notice all of the characters and things that ended up as toys in my bedroom as well. Yet, the show is still a lot of fun to watch thanks to all of these colorful characters.
First, there are the Turtles themselves. The fearless leader is Leonardo, the wild card is Raphael, the tech expert is Donatello, and the partier is Michaelangelo. They are led by their wise and fearless master, the rat known as Splinter. Together, they are in a never ending battle against the forces of evil, mostly personified by their mortal enemies Shredder and Krang.
The popularity of the original series eventually led to crossovers with other series.
The biggest ally of the Turtles is April O’Neil, a reporter from Channel 6 who often joins them on their adventures in addition to protecting their privacy from the outside world above their Sewer Lair. To be honest, she’s mostly used as the stereotypical damsel in distress that the Turtles have to save, but I’ll be honest, I always thought she was a pretty strong character at heart. April is headstrong, independent, and never afraid to go out there to get the story for her job or to fight alongside her friends.
Then there are the primary villains I’ve already mentioned, Shredder and Krang. Shredder is the human mortal enemy of Splinter and the Turtles who leads the Foot Clan and Krang is an interdimensional brain from Dimension X that wants to conquer Earth. The unique thing about these two characters, though, is that while they may want to take over Earth, they are more like an old married couple that constantly bicker and this adds to the humor of the show that helped make it so popular.
In shows such as “G.I. Joe”, “Thundercats”, and even “Transformers”, you had variations on warrior characters and villains that pretty much just wanted to take over the world. In “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”, you have a wide array of colorful cast members that you can just have fun with. There are the Punk Frogs from Florida, the hot rodding Neutrino teens from Dimension X, the Rat King in the sewers, Baxter “The Fly” Stockman, and many more characters in addition to our primary heroes and villains.
Animation wise, the show is admittedly rough. Again, let’s just acknowledge that the show was a giant toy commercial more than anything else. Yet, unlike other shows, this one seems to have aged better than others. Now, this is where I should admit that I’m probably looking at it through rose colored glasses a bit, but I actually found myself enjoying all of the little flaws as it feels like it adds more to the overall charm of the series.
Now, the last three seasons is where things got a little weird. To be honest, it was extremely rare for a Saturday morning cartoon to last as long as this show did. By the time season eight arrived, there was plenty of new content to take kids away from this show and the popularity had already started to wane pretty extensively.
The "Red Sky" seasons (8-10) marked the beginning of the end for the original series.
Shows like “Batman: The Animated Series” and “Gargoyles” were reinventing what animated shows looked like in the ‘90s. As a result of this, the series tried to mature with its audience a little bit. They used the same techniques as “Batman” by drawing on black paper, giving the show a much darker look and a noticeably red sky. In fact, the fans often refer to these seasons as the “Red Sky” seasons.
Shredder and Krang are eventually replaced by an alien warlord named Lord Dregg. This villain is a more stereotypical antagonist that didn’t have the same appeal as the often bickering Shredder and Krang. I’ll be honest, when I did catch some of these episodes back in the day (I was already out of the show by this point for the most part), I found Dregg to be utterly boring and there was also a weird storyline about the Turtles and their mutations being out of control.
The truth is that the show did outstay its welcome. That means that it never got a truly good series finale by the time season 10 wrapped up in ‘96. The characters in this show, however, did have multidimensional crossovers with both the ‘03 and 2012 series, showing that these versions of the characters still existed and were continuing their fight against the forces of evil.
At the end of the day, you don’t see the popularity of too many Saturday morning cartoons carrying over into future generations nor do you rarely see the original generation of fans stick with said shows. For some reason, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles seem destined to stick around for a long time and their popularity doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon.
If you’re ever looking for a retro distraction from your childhood or you just want to see what a prime example of a Saturday morning cartoon looked like from yesteryear, then order yourself a pizza and sit down with some bodacious ninja fighting friends! Cowabunga!
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