Ninja Turtles 1987 Full Episodes
Raymond Freedman
The following is an episode list for the animated television series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles which premiered in 1987. In total, 193 episodes aired between 1987 and 1996. The first three seasons were aired in syndication. CBS aired the rest of the series on Saturday mornings.
From August 14, 2012 and onwards, all ten seasons are available on DVD in North America from Lionsgate Home Entertainment, the successor to Family Home Entertainment, which released the series' VHS tapes in North America (early Lionsgate DVD releases were co-branded with FHE).
Michael is a young teenage boy who is using marijuana and stealing his father's beer. His younger sister, Corey, is constantly worried about him because he started acting differently. When her piggy bank goes missing, her cartoon tie-in toys come to life to help her find it. After discovering it in Michael's room along with his stash of drugs, the cartoon characters proceed to work together and take him on a fantasy journey to teach him the risks and consequences a life of drug abuse can bring.
When the 1987 version of the Turtles are accidentally brought to the universe of the 2003 series, the old Turtles must ally with the new to stop Ch'rell, the 2003 Utrom Shredder, whose evil plan of revenge for his exile threatens the existence of the very omniverse itself of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles everywhere. Fortunately, he is double-crossed by his own adopted daughter, Karai, who aids the Turtles.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (also known as Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles in the UK, Republic of Ireland, Germany, and Sweden) is an American animated television series, produced by Murakami-Wolf-Swenson, Inc. which premiered in December 14, 1987, first as a 5-part mini-series (animated exclusively overseas in Japan then by Toei Animation). The series featured the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles characters created in comic book form by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, the property was changed considerably from the darker-toned comic in order to make it more suitable for children so they wouldn't be scared. It is the first time the turtles appeard in other media.
The initial motivation behind the 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 the initial five-episode series debuted, the California toy company released their first series of Ninja Turtles 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 Patti Howeth wrote the screenplay for the first five-part miniseries. When the series continued in the second season, comic artist Jack Mendelsohn joined the show as the executive story editor. Wise went on to write over seventy episodes of the series, and was executive story editor for four later seasons as well. Wise was fired partway through the ninth season after objecting to several changes demanded by CBS, and Jeffrey Scott took over as the story editor and chief writer for the rest of the show's run.
The show was in Saturday morning syndication from October 1, 1988 to September 23, 1989. Since it become an instant hit, the show was expanded to 5-days-a-week and aired weekday afternoons (in most markets) in syndication from September 25, 1989 to September 17, 1993. On September 8, 1990, it began its secondary run on the Columbia Broadcasting System Saturday mornings and ran as a 60-minute block from 1990 to 1994 and a 30 minute block from then until November 2, 1996. CBS canceled the original TMNT series because of FCC regulations stipulating that Saturday morning programming must contain educational material. The show was animated in Dublin, Ireland. In fact, In one episode, the Turtles visit Ireland to stop Shredder & Krang.
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 animated versions of the Turtles populated the market during the late-1980s and early 1990s, and 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. Between 1988 and 1992, with their images ubiquitous in advertising, cinema, comics, magazines, music, newspapers, and television. Their action figures were top-sellers around the world. In 1990 the series was being shown on more than 125 television stations every day, and the comic books sold 125,000 copies a month.
The origin story in the 1987 animated series differs greatly from that of the original Mirage Studios' comics, presumably to make it more suitable for a family audience. 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 the seditious Oroku Saki, who pinned Yoshi's keikogi to the wall with a knife, preventing him from kneeling before their honorable sensei, which was seen as an insult. When Yoshi removed the knife, the sensei and his followers believed this to be an assassination attempt. Exiled from the ninja clan, Hamato Yoshi moved to New York City, where he lived in the sewers.
While living in the sewers with the rats as his friends, Yoshi one day found four turtles, recently bought from a pet store by an unnamed boy who accidentally dropped them in the sewer. Yoshi returned one day from his explorations around New York to find the turtles covered with a strange glowing ooze. The substance caused the turtles - most recently exposed to Yoshi - to become humanoid, while Yoshi - most recently exposed to sewer rats - became a humanoid rat, and started going by the pseudonym "Splinter". This (and also the following Archie Comics' TMNT Adventures comics) is the only origin story in the TMNT franchise where the Turtles come to Yoshi before being exposed to mutagen. Also, it differs from most other version in that Splinter is Hamato Yoshi and becomes a rat, whereas in most other versions, he is Yoshi's pet rat that becomes humanoid. This is also the only version in which the Turtles become fully grown immediately after exposure to the mutagen, whereas Splinter raises them from infancy in other versions.
Yoshi adopts the four turtles as his sons and trains them in the art of ninjutsu. He names them after his favorite Italian renaissance artists: Leonardo da Vinci (Leonardo), Donato di Niccol di Betto Bardi (Donatello), Raffaello Sanzio (Raphael), and Michelangelo Buonarroti (Michelangelo). This is the only time in this version where they are always addressed by their full names: Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo. Each of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles wears different color bandanas and different weapons: Leonardo has blue bandanas and wields two katanas, Donatello has purple bandanas and wields a bō staff, Michelangelo has orange bandanas and wields two nunchakus which were later replaced by a grappling hook, and Raphael has red bandanas and wields two sais.
Meanwhile, Oroku Saki has left Japan and tracked Yoshi to New York City, where he intends to destroy him once and for all. He has become associated with Krang, a disembodied alien brain who has been banished from his home, Dimension X, where he was a great warlord. Saki has taken on a new persona, donning a suit covered with steel bladed armor, complimented by a long cape, a kabuto helmet and a metal menpō mask over his mouth. He has also taken on the pseudonym "The Shredder".
It becomes clear in the first season that the mutagen that transformed the Turtles and Splinter into their new forms was dumped into the sewer by Shredder in an effort to destroy Yoshi. Shredder thought it was a deadly poison. The Turtles vow to take revenge on the Shredder for dishonoring their master, as well as turning him into a rat. The Turtles want to force him to turn Splinter back into a human again. This quickly evolves into stopping Shredder's ongoing criminal career with the aid of Channel 6 reporter April O'Neil. The Turtles quickly take on the role of vigilante crime-fighters operating outside of the jurisdiction of law enforcement against any criminals, much like Casey Jones in the third season. For the first couple of seasons, it seems as if the Turtles are constantly preoccupied with hiding their existence. This seems to be slowly relaxed and, by the last few seasons, most citizens seemed to be well aware of them. They also frequently have to deal with citizens misunderstanding them, thanks to the efforts of Burne Thompson, April's employer, and Vernon Fenwick, a Channel 6 cameraman, who distrust the Turtles and frequently blame them for the trouble that the Shredder and Krang cause.
Shredder, Krang, Bebop and Rocksteady (two street thugs morphed into animal form by exposure to the Shredder's mutagen), and a small army of robotic Foot Soldiers try to destroy the Turtles and take over the world. Much of their quest for world domination hinges on bringing the Technodrome (Krang's mobile fortress, and his and The Shredder's base of operation) to the surface as it was either stuck in the earth's core, Dimension X, the arctic, or Arctic Ocean.
In the last three seasons, the show, which had already lasted well past the average lifespan of most Saturday morning animated series, then went through dramatic changes. The animation became darker and closer to the movies style, the color of the sky in each episode changed from the traditional blue to a continuous and ominous dark red sky (which was commonplace with newer action-oriented children's programming at that time), and the theme song was changed, the introduction sequence added in clips from the first live-action film, and the show took on a darker, more action-oriented atmosphere.
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