[MsMarvelDuckie]

Well, he IS canonically the one who cooks most of their meals. Even mentions it in the TMNT rpg book.
(Which I now proudly own and plan to run a game out of at some point.)

As for the fans debate, What Cubed said is largely true. It WAS the biggest, most well-known, and "earliest" version for a VERY long time, and yes, that makes a huge difference. It was also the ONLY one outside the comics (movie trilogy aside) for many years, too. So naturally it fills a larger role in the fandom. Not only that, but it was what STARTED the Turtlemania craze to begin with. It is what people remember, so that is why so many are so vocal in their fondness of it.

For the record, the original Wizard of Oz movie DID have much the same role/impact, both for its time and even now, as a "family classic". And yes, Batman TAS was the "first" in the sense that it came right on the heels of the Burton film, so it was riding the popularity of it, since it had much the same tone and look but in animated form. It had a huge audience and was considered a game-changer for animation at the time.