SATURDAY MORNING CARTOON SPOTLIGHT: TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES

Jeremy G. Butler, Turtle Power...Indeed! Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is just...Awesome! I loved watching this series. Raphael is of course, my...Favorite Turtle Ninja! Villains would just...SAI, at the skill he used with his...Tuning forks of doom. Casey was not the only one to have a...Jones, for reporter, April O'Neill! The news team, including April's Gal Pal, Irma was a trip. Bebop and Rocksteady, were always left out of the films. The Shredder...Looked, like an Iconic villain. He definitely was one of the funniest, Uber villains. Krang was quite the...Brain, himself as the, overlord/landlord for all of Shredders tech. The TMNT Arcade Game was great. But...Turtles In Time was even better. I...Shelled out alot of quarters at local arcades. I rate the films, as so...
1) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (90)
2) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles Forever
3) TMNT (07)
4) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III
5) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II

I hope Legendary Pictures, gets the TMNT right. I would love to see, The Shredder, The Foot Ninja and Bebop, Rocksteady and Krang. Maybe we can see...TMNT Begins, and see Krang and The Shredder, when they first joined forces. Maybe this time, April can get her, Yellow Jumpsuit as well.

Wasn't Splinter actually a mutated Human in the Cartoon, and an old enemy of Shredder from their days in Japan?

What a great selection for a Saturday Morning Cartoon! TMNT has always been one of my favorite franchises, and the cartoon was a big part of that. While I hope that the upcoming film takes a realistic approach to the characters, the cartoon holds a special place in my heart. I used to watch it all the time when it was on TV, and the pizza addled animated incarnations of the TMNT were the first ones I ever really knew. By the time my parents purchased us the live action turtle films (one and two) on VHS, I was hooked for life

I've gone back and watched a few episodes of the classic series since coming of age (I own an episode called APRIL FOOLS! on VHS, which I got from BK back in the day), and while I must admit that some of the humor is aimed at a younger generation, the characters created by Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman have withstood the test of time and remain iconic American Heroes

Seriously, just try to read this description of TMNT from wikipedia without breaking out into a grin:

Turtle power now, turtle power forever!

FUN FACT! Peter Laird of Turtle Fame grew up in North Adams Massachusetts, and the fearsome villain Baxter Stockman is named after a building that I used to eat lunch/dinner in all the time!

PS My favorite turtle? Donatello, I think

PPS: I even have the Technodrome Playset, which is by far the weirdest/most delightful toy I've ever owned

Possibly even moreso than Transformers, TMNT was THE childhood franchise of my childhood. The cartoons, the movie, the video games, and the toys! Though, I didn't have too many action figures. My parents used love as an excuse to screw me out of toys.

I ordered one of those VHS tapes featuring 2 episodes of the show from the school book club. The episodes were:

-Cowabunga, Shreadhead
-New York's Shiniest

I watched these two episodes so many times with my brother. My favorite line was when Uncle Phil thought he was Michelangelo and found the others wrapped up in a pizza on a conveyor belt.

"HEY DUDES! How'd ya get in this fix!? Or SHOULD I SAY... FIXINS'!?"

I was too late for transformers, but this.. this was my childhood. I had all the action figures (still do, they are in a TMNT toy bag from the early 90s in my garage). One of the greatest toys was the submarine and the American Gladiator like hand wheel that a turtle could ride across string that had been strung from the highest point in the basement. I loved that Arcade game and had it on a emulator.

This show got me into comic books (Not the original Eastman/Laird stuff, but the series after the show came out.) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures was great stuff for a 9 year old.

Yes, you're right. In the original comics and the movie, Splinter was Hamato Yoshi's pet rat. But in the cartoon, he was Hamato Yoshi himself, mutated into a giant rat.

See I actually spaced on this when I was writing it so I took to the Googles to find out, and the only thing I could find was a Youtube video of Splinter telling the pet rat story. Granted it was from the newer series and even though I remembered the shot of a dude turning into Splinter from the original's title sequence I didn't know which was canon (fucking NERD ALERT) so just went with the most readily available option.

Dude, it's Ninja Turtles -- "canon" doesn't really mean anything. It was a good article.

Great article, Jeremy! You touched on a lot of the same things that made the Turtles THE cartoon of my childhood (next to G.I. Joe, of course). I also had so many of the toys, vhs' of the episodes that were released on tape, and even the bath products that were marketed.

I still need to complete picking up the dvds of the original cartoon series.

Rene (Mr.Eko), I am sorry to report that you cannot...Complete your Turtles set. Only...8 seasons are on dvd. You should buy...Turtles Forever. It is a..Sequel, without equal!

This was also the biggest cartoon of my childhood (until "Batman: The Animated Series" came along). This is the one I always say I grew up with, and it had probably the coolest, most wonderfully weird and diverse toy line of all time. I got really nostalgic about it in 2007 realizing this was the twentieth anniversary and decided to go back and watch the series on DVD. I was surprised at how well it holds up. Of course, there are times when it feels like there is too much exposition/talking down to the audience so the kiddies can keep up (it was a kids' show, after all), but there's also a lot of clever stuff like witty dialog and pop culture references thrown in there that you can appreciate as an adult.

Watching it as an adult, you're also likely to gain a new appreciation for what a delightfully oddball whackjob Shredder was. I wish a movie interpretation would capture his bizarre charisma someday. Some of his dialog is just gold. I find the Turtles themselves a little too corny, childish, and repetitive much of the time (Michaelangelo says "Cowabunga" about 50 million times), but Shredder and Krang are non-stop laughs. James Avery says he and Pat Fraley played the two like a bickering old married couple and you can totally see it. Bless this show. Thank you for the article. It's always nice to see this staple/monument of my childhood get some love.

loved this show. one of the best cartoons of my childhood

I also had the Technodrome playset, and my cousins had the sewers and the turtle van, so we could have crazy adventures all day

that and once we had optimus prime adn the ghostbusters hall, the cartoon crossovers never ended

Rene (Mr.Eko), I watched, Turtles Forever, for the...4th time, yesterday. This time with my young TMNT, loving cousins. Their parents are so happy, that we have watched, the first...6 seasons, the original live action film, TMNT (07), and played some of the videogames. Truly, the title is apt, as apparantly...The TMNT, will go on...Forever!

OMG! I had that too!!!!!I loved the cartoon, the action figures, the original movies, and the arcade game. I ATE THAT SHIT UP.

I don't want you to think I was being a dick to you over this, it's a great article and you are a hell of a writer, I just wanted to see if I was remembering it right.

Great choice, great article, great idea for a series.

I loved me some Turtles as a nipper, too. Even though they never matched Transformers, I still have a soft spot for them. I'd no idea they were returning to the small screen next year, by the way. Must try to keep an eye out for that.

Raphael was my favourite, because of his John Woo approach to combat.

Loved Raphael in the movies, but Donatello was my favorite everywhere else.

Especially in the games, where Raph isn't worth a damn, ever.