Episode Teasers
 

Seasons 1 through 4 generally had a 'teaser' before the theme song that started in medias res, usually with one of the turtles narrating. Personally, I couldn't STAND this most of the time. And they got so predictable after a while:

"My name is Donatello and being a ninja turtles is hard! It's especially hard when you're trying to dodge lasers fired by space dinosaurs! But sometimes... not all lasers can be dodged!" *cue suspenseful cliffhanger music*

It's always something stupid or meaningless like that that really doesn't deliver any interesting or unique information to the viewer. I couldn't wait for it to be over so that the real episode could start. Am I in the minority here?

Nope, I hated them, too. The Leatherhead one in "Hunted" or whatever was pretty good, though.

So, it was brilliant for "Things Change". It was a smart way to start the show exactly like Mirage #1, but then jump back and tell their series opener in a different way.

They could have scrapped it after that lol.

They weren't always awful, and if you were a minute or two late to turn it on you didn't miss anything, but they got really lazy with them by the end of season 4 and into 5.

Yeah, "Things Change" worked as well. Two out of... 104, and that's just the first four seasons.

The one that always sticks in my mind was the intro to "Reflections," season 2's clip show with goofy framing segments. But the intro animation and style was so amazing that I think that week's "new episode" preview focused exclusively on that sequence.

I'll admit that I liked them. It was something different than many other kid's action shows were doing at the time. Like many aspects of the 4Kids show, good ideas that didn't often have great execution. In many cases, the intro suggested a lot more dramatic tension than the actual episode could deliver.

Agreed, I like the introspective ones. Every blue moon the character would tell the viewer what they would never tell anyone in the show.

Yeah, that one sticks out in my mind as well. The execution for that one was really cool.

I have no issue with them. I mean I didn't necessarily love them, but they were ok.

In the 1987 cartoon "The Maltese Hamster" has something similair (after the music).

I thought they were cool intros

The Baxter one was the best one (insane in the membrane). It showed everything he went through from his point of view.

That was also good.

Basically, when the teasers weren't simply a preview of the coming episode rehashing the same scene with different dialogue (monologue) but instead actually ADDED to the story and character, it was good.

And it didn't happen very often.

Nerd that I am, sometimes I tried to determine at exactly what point in the actual episode that the introductory sequence would have fit. There were a couple of instances (maybe "Return to New York") where it seemed like the intro account contradicted the actual continuity at some slight point.

They didn't always add too much, but I never minded them. They really fit the rhythm of the show, either way.

It's just now occurred to me that these intros are kinda similar to the frontispieces from the "Tales of TMNT" comics. Maybe, they should have been from different adventures and all ended with "Let me tell ya a story".

Maybe something for the 2012 cartoon to do some changes in the beginning?

I liked them as well. I thought they were a good way for allowing the characters to break the fourth wall outside of the actual episode.

2003
 

Didn't many action-cartoons have like these around 2003?

I could take or leave them but loved the first one for Things Change

It's a great refering to the Mirage opening.