Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987)

Hello and welcome to the 15th episode of tune

cast brought to you by the geek cast radio network

I am your host TFG1 Mike and today I am NOT joined

by Kevin our usual co -host he's got some personal

stuff going on so He won't be on for a few while,

but we do have a special co -host which is Mike

the Birdman Dodd hello Hey guys, what's going

down? Not much We are going to be discussing

the awesome 87 to me turtles this in this episode.

So what's been going on with you Mike? I know

the day of on headshot, but Since then I've pretty

much just been bombing around went to the stage

this past weekend on another one of my famous

video game runs and built myself a new media

hub in my room. I scored myself a big -ass TV,

bought a PS3 in there, and then after I'm done

this show, I'm gonna play Street Fighter and

Marvel vs. Capcom 2 for review for $11 .50. So

that's pretty much all the cool stuff with me,

a lot of video game stuff. Oh, actually, I'm

going to a Microsoft press conference in Toronto

on Tuesday, so that you can see my coverage there

on screwattack .com on probably Wednesday. That's

very, very cool. Yeah, there hasn't been a lot

going on with me. Tunecast has actually been

on a hiatus for about two weeks, only because

Kevin's had stuff going on, I've had stuff going

on, and we just haven't. I think our last episode

was Jim and the Holograms. Wow. Yeah, yeah. Well,

it's 80s. It was a popular cartoon back then,

and I do remember watching it. Actually, just

as a programming note, there will be three episodes

of Tunecast this week, 15, 16, and 17. yes turtles,

ducktails, and tailspin which I'm trying to hunt

down the snowball to see if he'll be on the tailspin

one so I think that's about it and we're gonna

head on into the show time for the history lesson.

For episode 15 we travel back to 1987 with the

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Teenage Mutant

Ninja Turtles known as Teenage Mutant Ninja or

Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles in the United Kingdom

is an animated television series produced by

Murakami, Wolf, Swenson and I can't pronounce

that Studio name whatever I just I can't pronounce

that it's Shogun Kukan or something. I don't

know. Yeah It's a ninja version of the studio's

exactly it premiered December 14th 1987 first

as a five -part miniseries animated by Toei the

series featured Teenage Ninja Turtles characters

created in the comic book form by Kevin Eastman

and Peter Laird but the property was changed

considerably from the darker tone comic in order

to make it more suitable for the family. The

initial motivation behind Teenage Mutant Ninja

Turtles animated series was that upon being approached

to create a toy line, Playmates Toys was uneasy

with the comic book characters small cult following.

They requested that a television deal be acquired

first. And after an initial five episode series

debut, the California Toy Company released their

first series of Ninja Turtle action figures in

the summer of 1988. The two media would correspond

in marketing style and popularity for many years

to come. David Wise and Patty Howeth wrote the

screenplay for the first five part mini series

with input from Eastman and Laird. When the series

continued in the second season, comic artist

Jack Mendelecon join the show as the executive

story editor. The show is a Saturday morning

syndication from October 1, 1988 to September

23, 1989. After it became an instant hit, the

show was expanded to five days a week and aired

weekday afternoons in syndication in most markets

from September 25, 1989 to September 17, 1993.

On September 8, 1990 the series began its secondary

run on CBS's Saturday Morning lineup beginning

as a 60 minute block from 1990 to 1994 and then

a 30 minute block until the series ended on November

2, 1996. The show helped launch the characters

into mainstream popularity and became one of

the most popular animated series in television

history. Breakfast cereals, plush toys, and all

manner of products featuring the characters appeared

on the market during the late 1980s and early

1990s. A successful Archie Comics comic book

based on the animated show instead of the original

black and white comics was published throughout

the late 1980s and early 1990s. Action figures

were top sellers around the world. In 1990 the

cartoon series was being shown daily on more

than 125 television stations and the comic book

sold 125 ,000 copies a month. Holy crap, well

that's a history lesson. Yeah, for sure. I mean,

I remember when Archie used to publish these.

And in fact, I think recently they released a

trade paperback of some of the earlier issues.

I remember having a really big collection of

them. It had Cuddly the Cowlick, Wingnut and

Screwloose. And I remember finding the individual

issues. They weren't very common, actually. They

were just super hard to find. But when you found

them, they were a pretty good read. I think they

were like something like, I don't know, 30, 40

pages, which wasn't too bad. You got like two

or three complete stories in them. Yeah, that's

cool. That's cool. The next segment up here is

the general memories. For me, this show, this

was right after Transformers was dying down,

and Thundercats was already dead, and Voltron

had since kind of moved on, and He -Man, I think,

was gone as well. This was the show that picked

up Saturday morning for me in 1987. This was

a show where I actually learned how to hack my

first satellite. And what I mean by that is way

back in the day when satellite used to be on

transponder channels, when it just wasn't already

programmed for you, I remember searching around

the satellite feeds really late at night, because

I was a really curious kid. And I remember finding

the CBS direct morning feed, or it was the syndication

block. And I could find it being broadcast at

really odd hours of the night. So I fell into

Ninja Turtles because it was a bit of a tech

challenge for me just to get into it. But my

parents bought me all the toys for this show.

I remember getting up Saturday mornings to really

get into this. This was a show I loved to death

and used to tape all the time back when VCRs

were cool. And just recording them and just playing

with my turtle action figures. Like this show

was one of the hallmarks of animation for the

late 80s going into the 90s. And this show was

like. just amazing for what it accomplished in

terms of how long it ran first off and then even

changing the animation style half halfway through.

Oh yeah, very much so. I had all four turtles.

I had everything. I the only thing I really didn't

have is I don't have any of the vehicles and

I don't even know if there were played I'm sure

we'll get get to it when we get to the legacy

segment because that's when we usually talk about

the toy lines and stuff But I don't even I'm

not I don't even sure if there was like super

playsets back in there. Oh, yeah Oh, yeah, trust

me buddy. I had like everything way back when

I still wanted the turtle van, but I never got

it Used to crash it into things. I think I still

have my my like turtle van summer actually Twig

will be doing our own TMNT show for our season

4 premiere and Hopefully playmates will be sending

me one of the new turtle party wagon thingamajigs

Yeah, this show is just super awesome, you know,

it's just great stories I actually it the first

five episodes of the first season that that five

part miniseries is actually on itunes you can

buy it and when i still had my iphone i was watching

it and oh my god uh... there's a part where rafael

says uh... where they're fighting the uh... the

foot soldiers and of course the turtles don't

know that they're foot soldiers and he hits it

and it says clang and he goes clang did you say

clang i just laughed at that so hard i almost

pissed myself laughing because of that uh...

this show is just great for for kids of its time.

Anyhow, I think kids can get into it. I mean,

it's still a good kids cartoon. Yeah, I mean,

it wasn't as violent as a lot of people make

it out to. I mean, like, you never saw Leonardo

hurt people with a sword. I thought there were

a lot of good life lessons in it. In fact, just

before the show started, I was watching the...

something about the invasion of the punk frogs

and just how they're like, you know, we could

talk and work this out. We could reason with

them and shutters like, no, God damn it. You're

going to attack them. And I don't know. I just

remember the turtle show being one of those great

things. Or even you, if, where you could get

together with your friends because you were about

that age, you could sit there and just watch

it and just, you would all get into the moment.

Another really cool thing, speaking of the, excuse

me, the kind of legacy. About having the action

figures playmates actually released the 25th

anniversary turtles earlier this year Yep, so

if you don't have them go get them because they're

supremely awesome. I was gonna get them I was

I had I think I had all four and I had I think

I think target the target up the street for me

had Splinter as well, but I said no, I really

can't spit because they're like nine bucks a

piece which isn't bad But I just really couldn't

Couldn't bring myself to get them, but I will

get them eventually The only one I didn't get

as I don't have shredder, but I've got the four

turtles April bebop rock steady and Splinter

I got those sent to me by playmates and I remember

They're still as awesome as they're the only

my only complaint about the new 25th and anniversary

ones is the same complaint I had back in 1988

the weapons when you're trying to pry them out

of that little plastic cage thing You know what

I'm talking about, right? Yeah, good luck. Michelangelo's

nunchucks are still as shitty today as they were

way back when. Yes, yes, very much so. So we're

going to move on to the characters and voice

actors segment. These are the core characters

of the show. Appeared in nearly every episode

for the first eight seasons. After season eight,

only the turtles, April and Splinter were retained

as main characters, although Shredder and Krang

returned for several episodes in season 10. First

up you have Leonardo who is voiced by Cam Clark

and I'm only going to mention the US voice actors

because I just can't see other voice actors as

these characters much like anything else that

people that listen to our show know. See it's

weird I don't remember there being a different

voice cast for Canada but then again when I watched

it I watched this on CBS and it wasn't a like

simulcast so. It's weird. I have no idea there

were other voice actors for Leonardo. I can't

picture anybody else but Am Clark doing Leonardo.

This doesn't make any sense to me. Leonardo was

the one that had the blue bandana. He also had

the katana swords. He is the leader of the team

and his closest to Splinter. Leonardo, I don't

know. I like him, but he's not my favorite. Dude,

he's the shit, he has two swords. I'm not saying

he isn't, I'm just saying. I don't know, I just,

I never really connected with him that much.

I mean, outside of the fact that he has two swords,

you know, I mean, that is cool. I'm not saying

that's not, but I just never really connected

with him. And you have Donatello, who was voiced

by Barry Gordon, who, actually Barry Gordon also

voiced Junior Wentworth in the snorts. The purple

masked turtle wields a bow staff often used to

disarm adversaries He is the scientist of the

team and is constantly tinkering with various

inventions Now I don't do a lot of tinkering

but Donatello over the years has kind of become

a tech kind of guy or kind of turtle I guess

you could say and I always kind of Associated

with him the most and actually he is the character

that I do like the most out of the four of them

See Donatello is actually the guy that got me

into figuring stuff out when I was a kid I used

to watch him play with all the crazy inventions

of the show that I got the idea Hey, maybe I

can do the same thing and more than one thing

was taken apart to be put back together And it

never quite worked the same way again The L voiced

by Rob Paulson the red mask turtle wields to

size which make him a match for any swordsman

He is the joker of the team and often comes out

with sarcastic remarks. I've never read the comics,

whether it be the original comics or the Archie

comics. Before the movies, Raphael in the cartoon

didn't seem like the angry one like he does in

the films. Yeah, he's more... very much laid

back like very yeah that sucks but whatever you

know he was just kinda there I mean and they

really significantly tone his character down

from the original comics because I just I remember

reading one of the turtle comics called body

count And yet no, just raff more serious, you

people know. Michelangelo, who was voiced by

Townsend Coleman, god the tick, voiced Michelangelo.

Holy crap. That's amazing. Wow. And Waldo when

where's Waldo? In Sentinel Prime from Transformers

Animated. Which, yeah, whatever. The orange masked

turtle wields the whirling nunchucks and later

a grappling hook and often whirling pizzas. He

is the most relaxed member of the team and is

the source for many of the catchphrases of the

series such as Cowabunga. I've always liked Donnie

and Mikey the best out of the four of them. I

always thought they were the funniest. They were

the ones that always got me laughing or always,

you know, made me really smile when I watched

the show. Raphael and Leonardo, I don't know,

I just don't... I never got into them that much.

Raph I always thought was really... cool. I don't

know, Raph is probably my favorite turtle because

he wears red and that's sort of my thing. But

Donatello, I liked, but he didn't get enough

screen time. Leonardo always got downplayed.

I always thought the show was more focused on

Mike and Raph than it was anybody else. And then

you have Splinter, voiced by Peter Reneday, a

strict and wise and sincere this mutant rat who

trained the turtles. in the art of ninjitsu.

Now when I was watching this on my iPhone the

very first episode when I tell the origin story

I had seen the movies previously about a few

months ago and the story in the movies is the

origin for Splinter is completely different obviously

the movie had to bring it up to live -action

standards but in the series Splinter is actually

Hamato Yoshi. They're not a separate person.

He gets turned into a rat. Whereas in the movies,

Hamato Yoshi was the master and he had a pet

rat. Which, I don't know, makes no sense. Yeah.

I don't know. You know, Splinter was cool. He

had a few good moments throughout the first five

episodes. April O 'Neill who is voiced by Renee

Jacobs a redheaded TV reporter discovers the

turtles home in the sewers and be friends that

and be friends them um when I was watching April's

outfit can almost be a stripper outfit Yeah,

that's true actually I was actually gonna send

you something kind of funny here When I get a

chance there was actually a girl. I met at fan

X up as April O 'Neill and Well, holy shit um

what? She was uh, yeah. Yeah, it was very good.

I'm just trying to find pictures right now. So

keep going Mike Then you had shredder who is

voiced by James Avery who is like you sit off

air uncle Phil That's so fucked up uncle Phil's

get the turtles The arch villain of the turtles

is usually the main villain in other media, but

in this TV series Shredder always is against

his will and has to take orders from Kraang.

Kraang, who is voiced by Pat Fraley, an extremely

intelligent, disembodied brain from Dimension

X, who commands the Technodrome. He finds and

helps plan most of Shredder's schemes. Alright,

now Shredder I liked. Shredder was cool. Kraang,

when I watched, again I really only watched the

first five episodes because that's all I could

afford on iTunes. But when I saw Krang, first

of all, the voice is creepy as hell. Second of

all, the way he is animated as a, oh god, it's

all squishy. Yuck. Yeah, there were some pretty

vivid moments with Krang. I mean, like there

are ones when he's walking around outside of

his cyborg body, and you hear the little squish

of his tentacles on the ground. Yeah, that's

kind of gross. Yeah. uh... when you have the

bop of rocksteady voice by barry gordon and cam

clark respectively uh... shredders clumsy ophish

henchman who often provided the show's comic

relief and you know what hog and rhinoceros respectively

uh... we will have a rocksteady in the show were

really funny uh... i thought they were really

cool i like when they always went up against

the turtles and obviously rocks it is either

an osseous he would always charge them And they

just jump out of the way and he'd end up in a

wall or something. There's one thing out of the

first season, and I think it was in the first

five episodes for some odd reason. And I always

remember where one of the turtles hits, I think

it's Rocksteady over the head with like a light

post. And his eyes turn yellow and red like the

sign. Yeah. Yeah reason that's one piece of animation.

I've never quite forgotten I do remember that

Just going over some of the some of the alternates

for the voices, which I did not know Because

I it's been so long since I've actually seen

this and of course That's the whole point of

tune cast is looking back on shows that we remember

as kids uh... shredders uh... alternates dorian

hairwood which he's i know he's done plenty of

other animation jim cummings darkwing duck was

alternate for shredder what's here that's what

it says on the thing because i've got the the

the voice cast list from from wiki where it shows

where it should all that all that stuff And then

just some of the other characters Baxter Stockman,

Rat King, Leatherhead, Casey Jones, Irma, Vernon

Fenwick, General Trag. Overall I think it was

an awesome voice cast. I don't think there isn't

any one voice actor that played a role that I

could not stand. outside of the fact that I did

not know Townsend Coleman played Michelangelo.

The only reason why I don't like Townsend Coleman

is because of Sentinel Prime and Transformers

animated. That's it. Everybody knows that but

I mean overall there isn't a single person in

here that I don't think did an excellent job

with this show as far as the voice talent. I

mean just super super stuff. So we're going to

be moving on unless you have any final thoughts

about I was just looking at some of the other

stuff Like some of the other kind of voice actors

just looking at seeing what Irma has done in

the years and It looks like a lot of sweet and

fuck all Nothing super memorable. Yeah, although

if you can believe it she was born in 1946 so

Irma's old man So up next, we have the behind

the scenes segment. This is where we talk about

not really the actual production, but just who

is producing the show and the writers and stuff.

Outside of Fred Wolf, I don't recognize anybody

on the produced by credits. Let me take a look

here. I believe he did some diagnosis murder,

I think. I don't really remember. I'm just looking

at Andrew Lucky, seeing what he's done. Well,

he did Dragonflies. And Robocop versus The Terminator,

he was a consulting producer. That's kind of

cool. He also did James Bond Jr. I used to have

those books. Oh my god. He also did the California

Raisins. Oh my god. And he wrote Toonstruck and

Growing Up Creepy. Oh, OK. uh... as far as the

writers the ones that stick out to me obviously

david wise who did plenty of gi joe transformers

he manned stuff uh... fred wolf as i said uh...

also uh... michael reaves who had done who had

done some uh... transformers and uh... i believe

he wrote on voltron as well And then again for

the series other crew for dialogue director yet,

Susan blue who was also attached to RC Yeah,

transformers in GI Joe and then David wise who

is the executive script consultant? I'm not really

getting into the distribution of the studios

because everybody probably knows I mean it was

on USA Network for a while family home entertainment

were the ones that released the VHS tapes So

I think we're gonna move on to the actual show

um... the story line for this it was it was very

intricate story i thought uh... it starts off

with basically it differs greatly from that from

the original mirage studios comics presumably

to make it more appropriate for family and audience

which is what we said before in this version

splinter was formerly a human being an honorable

ninja master named hamato yoshi yoshi was banished

from the foot clan in japan after being deceived

by Satidious Urokusaki who pinned Hamato Yoshi's

doji to the wall with a knife preventing him

from kneeling before their sensei Which was seen

as an insult when Yoshi removed the knife the

sensei was again insulted believing Yoshi was

drawing the blade in opposition to him Exiled

from the ninja clan Hamato Yoshi moved to New

York City where he was forced to live in the

sewers I'm not really gonna read the entire storyline

for this because it is extremely long I mean

everybody really knows what the story is. Let's

just get down into the censorship part because

I knew nothing about this. The logo in the censored

UK opening sequence which is also used in a few

other countries which said the Teenage Mutant

Hero Turtles, I'm sorry you stiff -ass Brits

give me a break. I understand you know Ninja

is probably not you know culturally sound or

whatever but Who the fuck cares? Ninja sounds

cool. Hero sounds stupid. I know, I was like,

Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles? I mean, you'll hear

me every time I hear - Every time I try to say

it when it comes to censorship, I always say

Nin - Oh, oh wait. Uh, no. Hero Turtles. In the

UK TMNT was released in the name Teenage Hero

Turtles. This was due to the controversy surrounding

ninjas and related weapons such as nunchucks

at the time. The intro sequence was heavily edited

because of this replacing the word ninja with

hero or fighting used digitally faded logo instead

of the animated blob. And removing any scenes

in which Michelangelo wields his nunchucks replacing

them with random clips from the show. You dumb

bastards, what the hell is wrong with you people?

Yeah, that's kind of retarded. Yeah. I mean,

I remember when they changed his weapons to that

stupid grappling hook thing. And I remember thinking,

what the fuck are you doing? I mean, sure, he

used it in some pretty cool ways, but nothing

was as awesome as his nunchucks. But then again,

when I was a kid, when I saw this, I'm not going

to lie, a lot of us made our own nunchucks. Actually,

because of Ninja Turtles, Some of us took up

martial arts, and we'd actually fight with these

weapons. And it probably led to us not dying,

but still, it was fun. I mean, do you remember

some of the role play for this? I mean, because

once the series moves past a certain point, there

were no Michael Enzo role playing jokes. I never

once saw his grappling hook as a toy. I'm not

saying it didn't exist, but I never saw it. Right.

I know I mean when I first got into I didn't

really get into role -playing when I first heard

about like role -playing card games and crap

like that was when Pokemon came around is when

I first I knew nothing about Wait say you're

telling me you never got the Ninja Turtle role

-play stuff and played with your friends like

wearing the toys or anything. Oh But wow you

lonely bastard But have the little plastic toys

was neat and then and ninja turtles, I guess

I could see why they want to Difference from

ninja. I mean obviously people having nunchucks

and swords running around their neighborhoods

wouldn't be a great thing to have but still I

mean, this is a controversy You're gonna revisit

when you go to like Power Rangers and it was

ten times worse than frigging Ninja Turtles Yeah,

Power Rangers will not be covered on Tooncast

because technically it's not a cartoon we make

up at saturday morning we make up for on some

other show but it really is not animation but

if you go to the city dot net we have to know

how it is that was a uh... uh... so you know

if you can search and plug their uh... uh...

when shown on the bbc phrases like let's kick

some shell and bummer were removed from the episodes

the series ninja turtles the next mutation also

referred to uh... the hero turtles possibly using

the term hero or separate To separate the television

series from the live -action movies the 2003

television series however remained intact when

shown in the UK and I Okay, I'm sorry the 2003

fucking series remained intact when shown in

the UK and Ireland But the 1987 series got cut

to shit. That's bullshit Yeah, I always figured

that was really stupid. I mean like way back

when like we were kids I mean and it was back

in the mid 80s and Probably the early 80s late

70s when all these children activist groups started

getting involved Because they felt like a lot

of cartoons were nothing but propaganda for toys

and everything and for the large part they weren't

wrong But it's always oh save our children save

our children You know what? None of the the kids

that are growing up now like us like I'm almost

30 right like I'm 28 in like a month and People

from my generation aren't Looney Tunes, in my

opinion. Yet you look at the kids that grew up

a little bit later with all the censorship, I

think that may have screwed them up even more.

Oh yeah, very much so. Move on to some trivia

here because the censorship stuff is just pissing

me off some trivia here the show Let's see the

original comics all four turtles had red bandanas

But for the TV show they were each given a different

color to make it easier to tell them apart now

I think it's it's better to have the multicolor

to have the red blue purple Orange just you know

it because it is easier to tell them apart Because

without the bandanas, it's like who's who and

even though The first or second episode, April

is always mixing them up, calling them the wrong

name. Oh yeah, there were just so many dumb little

things that happened, but it was kind of funny

though. Yeah, kind of. See, at the time of its

final episode, it was the longest running cartoon

in American TV history. However, this record

was beaten two years later by the Simpsons, which,

as we all know, nothing can beat the Simpsons

nowadays. That show needs to end, but that's

a topic for a different day. That will most definitely

be covered on Tooncast at one point. I have a

rant for Headshot for that, so don't worry. As

humans, Bebop was African -American and Rocksteady

was blonde. Yeah, I remember that because I was

like, wait, what? I thought bebop actually looked

a little bit cooler as a human or as Yeah, Roxay

looked just kind of retarded, but that's okay.

He basically looked like a street punk version

of the kingpin He was a derpa derp. He was just

so big and goofy, right? Like derpy derpy diddly

derp, you know, he just I was nothing defining

about him yet with bebop. He had the purple hair

He had the sunglasses. He was black. He looked

cool. Yeah very much so There's a whole bunch

of goofs and stuff. There's continuity goofs.

There's audio visual goofs I'm not really gonna

go through them all just because there's so There's

that many of them, but there's just so many of

them So I've actually I will tell you about one

that I just saw not not a half hour ago Okay,

if you look in the episode Invasion of the punk

frogs splinters talking to the group and Michelangelo

and Raphael are eating pizzas And there's audio

clearly coming out of Mike's mouth But he's got

his face stuffed full of pizza. There's no like,

like, hey, talk with your mouth full thing. And

at one point, it's like they switch bodies for

like a second. And it's just, it's dumb little

goofs like that that plague the series. I mean,

they're talking here about audio visual. unsinking,

that happened more often than they probably want

to admit. I mean, it's almost as bad as the G1

Transformers cartoon, where people would randomly

have different things assigned, or different

headbands randomly appear. I remember once Raphael

had Leonardo's voice, and they just screw up

just dumb little things. And I'm thinking, for

a cartoon that's shown on a major network, you'd

think they'd go back and do a little bit of quality

control. And I mean, it can't be that hard to

go back and fix something. like that. No, it

really can't. But nowadays with remastering,

look what Shout Factory did with Transformers

with the G1 with the new Matrix big box set and

all that stuff. It's supposed to be remastered.

I think it's supposed to be color corrected as

well, so hopefully maybe, I don't know, we'll

get to whoever owns the rights when we get out

of the legacy segment and we'll figure it out

then. Up next is the music segment. The theme

song for this was so memorable. It is one of

the few songs I want to learn to play on guitar

because it kicks so much ass It's just like it's

one of those things where Like if you hear it

in the background or if you're like at somebody's

house and their kids are watching TV And you

just hear even like the the single you know just

one single note of it you're your head will just

whip around like oh really cool turtles and you'll

probably go sit and watch TV with the kids yeah

like it's just it has one of those very iconic

theme songs and that's something that I think

is so important to note about a lot of mid 80s

to late 80s animation going into the 90s the

theme songs actually had a lot of Production

value behind it because usually the theme is

where all the money went to so like the intro

sequences would look really cool and What kid

can't listen to that theme song that's from our

generation Mike that can't tell you when they're

listening to the theme song They know exactly

what's going on on screen. Oh Not like nobody

fake generation couldn't do that. Yeah. Yeah,

I I mean like you picture Mike or sorry you picture

Michelangelo on the dance floor and they're saying

and Michelangelo is the You see him dancing around

or you hear Raph is saying, he's rude but cool,

give me a break. You see him smashing the thing

into the camera. You know exactly what's going

on. And there are very few cartoon series that

can evoke that memory, I think. I mean, the only

other one I can think of is maybe Power Rangers

or maybe the original X -Men cartoon. The series

original music was done by Dennis C Brown and

Chuck Lorre who Chuck Lorre was actually the

producer and I believe producer and creator of

Dharma and Greg and the Big Bang Theory holy

shit Just overall great great great theme. So

we're gonna move into the legacy segment The

toys again were just awesome. Here is the status

of the television series there are Currently,

no TV reruns of the original Turtles animated

series in North America, although its last episode

to be broadcast on CBS aired November 2nd, 1996.

Reruns continue to air until August 16th, 1997.

The show has not aired anywhere else since. Reruns

had also aired in the USA Network's USA Cartoon

Express. I was right. I need to look that up

later. from September 13th, 1993 to September

15th, 1996. Lionsgate Home Entertainment and

Fred Wolf Films own the rights to the show and

they have been responsible for the DVD releases.

Mirage Studios does not own the rights of the

1987 television series, so Lionsgate and Fred

Wolf are under no obligation to inform them of

future releases. Many episodes were released

on many VHS tapes from 88 to 96. My Family Home

Entertainment. Some reruns were shown for UK

audiences on CBBC weekday mornings in the Republic

of Ireland. The series ended its original run

on August 8, 1998. But the show is still regularly

rerun on RTE2. Burger King had released four

single episode VHS's with their kids meals in

the late 80's. The episodes were Sky Turtles,

Invasion of the Turtle Snatchers, Great Boldini

and April Foolish. I had all four of those VHSs.

I love those. Well, I don't think we had this

promotion in Canada, but I seem to vaguely remember

some THMutant Ninja Turtles toys in Canada. I

just, I can't remember them fully. I actually,

I remember there's, I think there was something

going on with Pizza Hut at some point with the

Ninja Turtles, but I can't remember what. Yeah.

And it's been referenced in multiple things.

Stuff like Saturday Night Live, Saved by the

Bell, Mystery Science Theater 3000, Golden Girls

Cheers. Cheers. Let's see, Tiny Toon Adventures,

Animaniacs. King of the Hill. King of the Hill,

yeah. Wow. Futurama, Teenage Mutant Lila's Hurdles.

Oh my god, that's horrible. It's just horrible

the Incredibles the vehicle that the moment appear

at the end of the film is the same as the transport

modules in Ninja Turtles Night of the Living

Dead Family Guy Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends

South Park It was featured in I Love the 80s

in 2002 the 100 greatest cartoons in 2005 It

was spoofed in a whole bunch of stuff the real

Ghostbusters Mean Green Teen Machine uh... muppet

babies turn to adventures late night with conan

o 'brien uh... paper paper mario well that's

obscure that's a little weird i did not know

that the fairly odd parents robot chicken uh...

and man verses uh... here are two thousand oh

this is just let you know mike this has been

a recurring theme since tune cast has been in

existence we always get the reception and we

always find these i g n rankings for their uh...

for the top 100 cartoons. In January 2009 IGN

named TMNT as the 55th best show in the top 100

best animated TV shows. fuck that that should

be in the top fifty in the top ten i know exactly

well that's the whole point kevin and i might

my regular close kevin and i we have since uh...

since probably i believe episode eight which

is the mask episode we have pretty much denounced

the idea and they even though we still read it

off just just to basically bitch about it is

it's ridiculous i'm sorry i don't know who the

hell works at i g and they're just you know ranking

the shows how mask was ranked ninety nine It

was nominated for two Young Artist Awards and

the DVD releases there were volume sets and then

when it came to season 4 in the US they went

to season sets. Seasons 4 through 8 have been

released. Season 8 just came out September 1st

this year. uh... season nine season ten or to

be announced uh... not willing to go to the region

to stuff kids who cares yeah who cares exactly

uh... for the magazine came usual magazine the

children's magazine published quarterly by welsh

publishing group uh... during the height of the

t m n t popularity the late eighties early nineties

it was officially licensed by eastman layered

and available by subscription I guess we can

go into the closing, which is basically we give

our final thoughts, and then I just go into the

whole closing thing. Go ahead. In talking for

closing thoughts about the Ninja Turtles 87 series,

one of the things I've always wanted to talk

about, and we're going to talk about this more

on Twig in a couple of weeks here, is I think

that the Ninja Turtles franchise is probably

the most successful in terms of marketing. And

what I mean by that is, do you remember the marketing

blitz for this show way back in say, 89? Oh yeah.

I mean, it was everywhere. I remember having

the hostess mutagen fruit pies filled with the

vanilla mutagen goop or whatever. It was green

vanilla, but it was the coolest thing. I remember

pizza flavored hot dogs. I remember. Like Ninja

Turtle High C, I think. I'm not 100 % sure on

that one. You're right. But I just remember this

being so cool. And I remember making friends

over this. I mean, I remember just playing with

the Rat King's sewer pontoon bikey thing. And

just playing with that with my friends, I remember

playing with my best friend Quincy, and we used

to have all these Ninja Turtle things. I remember

my neighbor across the road had the Technodrome,

and I remember having the sewer playset, and

the sewer playset could connect to the Technodrome.

And I remember the mutagen ooze. I mean, what

other toy had goop outside of Ghostbusters? The

Ninja Turtles, and I'd love to find a can sealed

of this stuff. I mean, this series did so much

for kids. And yes, later on, it got kind of retarded.

I mean, I remember the Ninja Turtles dressed

up as vampires, werewolves, and football players.

And those were just kind of stupid. But the coolest

thing that they ever did, and they tried to address

this, was they had this thing called the Real

Celluloid Heroes. And there are Ninja Turtles

done up in the style of the movies. And they're

actually made out of latex. And I will admit

they smelled weird, but they were really cool.

I've never seen that ever attempted since, where

you see, if the TV show is different from the

movie, they just, they take one animation style

and they run with it and they make toys based

on that. And I just, I remember that just being

tremendously cool. Plus you had just, I mean,

Turtles was everything. You had coloring books,

you had audio books, CDs. Actually, when you

buy the 25th anniversary Turtles right now, you

get episodes of the cartoon show on DVD. Yeah,

that's, you're talking about the 25th anniversary

movie versions, right? The 25th anniversary movies.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like you get them and that's

really fantastically cool that Playmates would

include those. Plus you get the TMNT game from

Ubisoft on a DVD as well, if you buy certain

other figures. I mean, we're talking about this

in a couple of weeks, but they send us these

figures called the Alien Hunters and they're

done up in the style of the 2007 movie. But they're

still reminiscent of the 1987 turtle toys because

they were turtles that are basically the basic

turtles But they're super posable, but they have

really cool items and stuff like that And I just

I don't know turtles. I think is the greatest

marketing franchise in the last 20 years I mean,

can you think of anything outside of Pokemon

that has accomplished what it did? Transformers

transform. Okay, but there wasn't transformers

food Ninja Turtles covered everything. All right,

I'll give you that, but you know, who wants to

eat a robot? Wait, don't answer that, I don't

wanna know. Yeah, but you know, it's weird though,

just the thing that Turtles became such a cultural

phenomenon, reference airmen, Transformers, yes,

it did have its references everywhere with a

bunch of big names, but Turtles did it first

and Turtles did it best. I mean, look at the

older movies way back when. I mean, He -Man had

a shitty movie with Dolph Lundgren and fucking

Tom Paris in it. and you had the Ninja Turtles

movies which didn't have any big -name cast members

outside of Corey Feldman as the voice of Donatello,

but it was still something that was respected

because the first Turtles movie was very dark,

right? And the cartoon show... You know, it's

still, it sat alongside the movies and you can

still view them together and still get the fact

that they happened in the same universe. I mean,

do you remember in, I think it was probably at

94 when the animation style changed? To try to

make it darker because the turtles lost all their

expressiveness and their bright colors. And that

sucks. However, though, that being said, any

video game that was based on the 1987 turtles

has been friggin' amazing. Oh, yeah. Turtles

in Time, one of the best Super Nintendo games

of all time. I have it in right now in the other

room. That's the game I've been playing for the

last probably five months. Because it kicks ass.

And the version that came out this year by Ubisoft.

TMNT reshell turtles in time. Sure, it was cool,

but it wasn't the turtles we know and love from

1987. It was the new turtles with the new voice

cast. And that's another thing too. The voice

cast from this series was so memorable. Oh yeah.

I mean, you think of the turtles. You think of

the 1987 voice cast. You don't think. of the

2003 cast or the 2007 cast for the movie. Now

with that being said, have you heard about TMNT

Forever? I've heard of Smash Up, but not TMNT

Forever. TMNT Forever, it's a turtles movie that

happens across all universes. So the 2003 series,

the 1987 series, basically all the turtle universes

that have ever existed come together in one show,

in one movie. That sounds pretty cool. And that's

supposed to be coming out, I think it's supposed

to come out later this month or it's already

out actually. So check on Wikipedia. I know it's

supposed to be showing on Cartoon Network. Bits

of it were shown at the Toronto Fan Expo and

the San Diego Comic Con this year. Plus there's

supposed to be a new movie coming up for the

Turtles I think next year. And I guess that's

another thing too is the video games, like I

did mention, anything based on the 87 has been

good. You had Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Turtles

in Time, you also have Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

2. the arcade game, which was like number two,

but you also had the Manhattan Project, the Hyperstone

Heist, which was basically retooled turtles in

time. This was an amazing franchise for what

it accomplished, and I'm really happy that it's

making a big comeback. Lionsgate Entertainment's

been putting out the DVDs. In fact, one thing

that my girlfriend Blair did for me, she bought

me a Ninja Turtle's messenger bag, and on one

side it's Leonardo, and on the other side it's

Michelangelo, and it is the coolest retro piece

of hardware that I have. Actually, when this

show was, right before the movies came out, My

dad had gotten me a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

beach towel imagine the blue logo with the TMNT

title from the 87 show and all four turtles on

it and His note was like don't get any pizza

on it, dude I was like I was like a kid in a

candy store back then when I got that One Halloween.

I was Donatello When I was a kid It's just an

amazing, amazing show. Here's hoping that Lionsgate

puts out a, decides to take all of the seasons,

put them together in a complete series. I would

love to have that. Oh yeah, totally. I mean,

just, there's so many cool things this franchise

could do, and I'm so glad that they have. I mean,

one of the most memorable toys, this just makes

me think of it. Do you remember the pizza thrower?

Yup. That was fucking cool. I remember my parents

threw me a Ninja Turtle themed birthday one year

and my mom, my grandmother, took me to go see

the Ninja Turtles movie in theaters in Owen Sound

back when it was cinemas three. And I remember

we had Domino's pizzas afterwards. I couldn't

have been happier. Ninja Turtles, my parents

always bought me everything for Christmas. I

bonded with some of my best friends over Ninja

Turtles. I'd say it wouldn't be a far stretch

to say that Ninja Turtles is probably in my top

three animated series of all time for how it

shaped my life. And these guys did a fantastic

job with it. I mean, the comic books are cool

and you had your choice. You could go funny or

you could go serious. I mean, I know in one of

the comics Donatello gets his arm ripped off.

Yeah, I know it's pretty fucked up, but just.

It's good to see people younger appreciating

the turtles what they are. I mean and the 2003

series I've only seen a few bits and pieces,

but it definitely has the vibe of the 1987 with

with it being its own distinct creature, so I'm

glad to see that we can still get together and

talk about mutant ninjas It was okay. I I don't

think in my own personal opinion. I don't think

Any turtle series is gonna come anywhere close

to this one to the original cartoon series What

pissed me off about the 2003 series was when

it eventually as the seasons progressed They

changed it to teenage unit turtles flash forward

or fast forward and they're like time -traveling

basically a cartoon about turtles in time which

I guess is okay or dimension jumping or whatever

the hell they were doing. I don't know, I really

didn't get into it that much. I really didn't

like the animation style for the 2003 version.

What the hell was I gonna say? Oh, you know how

Transformers always has had repaints? Yeah. Well,

Turtles had multiple versions of the characters

and my favorite, outside of the original four

turtle action figures, my favorite were the ones

with the with the push down pop up heads. That's

an odd choice. So cool. Well those and the shell

backpack. Those were fucking cool. I remember

those. Those were awesome. But you know the push

down heads it was just like like in the movie

when Mikey puts his head down to make sure it

doesn't get chopped off. It was that kind of

thing. Do you have any twig stuff you would like

to promote before I go into our closing here?

Yeah, sure. Well, season four is going to be

coming out beginning in October, oddly enough,

with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles being our

first topic. Then we're going to be going into

George A. Romero's zombie universe. And lastly,

finishing it off with one of the greatest authors

of American horror, H .P. Lovecraft in Chaosium's

Call of Cthulhu. So it should be a good time

coming up. Stay tuned to ThisWeekInGeek .net

for more interviews. I'm gonna be talking to

somebody from Dead Space Extraction from Electronic

Arts in the next little while. So be sure to

be checking that out. Check me out on ScrewAttack

.com and TheGameHeroes .com where I'm always

doing something weird and wacky. Yes, exactly.

Especially with Mickey. That's what I do. My

little buddy. I love Nicky. He's my buddy. Thank

you for joining us here on Tooncast. There are

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This Week in Geek. Deal. We hope you enjoyed

this episode of Tooncast and wish you'll join

us next time when we will be reminiscing on DuckTales.

For now, I am TFG1Mike with Mike the Birdman

Dodds saying, live free or die hard. And in the

order of words, Optimus Prime, transform and

roll out. And thank you for listening. Until

next time, insert fart here. Ew. Good job, Mike.

And we finished well ahead of schedule. Nasty.

Thank you all for being here today. I've called

this press conference on behalf of myself, Ron

Algarwat, and my co -creator, Matt Robotham,

to inform you that once the current run of our

award -winning webcomic, Vengeance of the Interman,

is finished at the end of this year, we are hereby

retiring from comics. No more webcomics for us.

So that's why we brought you here, and we will

now take your questions. we uh there's uh there's

no one here there's nobody here there's there's

nobody here nobody uh nobody read the comic oh

at all ever well we're doing a podcast now yeah

we are doing a podcast now the sarcastic voyage

podcast available via itunes or on the web at

algar .com sword of omens give me sight beyond

sight i see a new episode of tune gas coming

this week Ninja Turtles!