Young Sheldon

[mikey0]

On tonight’s episode of Young Sheldon (season 3 premiere), Sheldon’s sister, Missy and their father watched a season 4 or 5 episode of TMNT (a CBS episode). Missy was explaining to her father, George, that she found Leonardo (who was eating a pizza fresh out of the oven) to be the hot one (not Raphael like so many girls did in 1990). This particular episode is set in the fall of 1990. George Cooper didn’t understand TMNT like so many adults in the early 90s.

[IndigoErth]

So basically she's me back in the day, I just wouldn't ever have said it. (Would anyone actually have dared to about a cartoon character back then?) Not a show I've watched, but the kid's got good taste in Turles. lol

[mikey0]

Originally Posted by IndigoErth

So basically she's me back in the day, I just wouldn't ever have said it. (Would anyone actually have dared to about a cartoon character back then?) Not a show I've watched, but the kid's got good taste in Turles. lol

I can’t find the clip online yet of Missy and George Cooper watching the TMNT CBS Saturday morning cartoon, but it’s been almost forever now since clips from the classic cartoon were the standard networks.

In a sixth season episode of The Big Bang Theory, adult Sheldon sung the opening theme to the FW cartoon. Don’t quote me on this, but I believe the 1987 TMNT theme was written by Young Sheldon co-creator, Chuck Lorre. I’ve seen clips from Tiny Toon Adventures and Pee Wee’s Playhouse on Young Sheldon before, so I was expecting a TMNT reference to pop up (especially since the 2018 to 2019 was when the characters entered the 90s).

From my understanding, boys of the very early 90s wanted to be Donatello and usually had a crush on April, while girls in the very early 90s liked Raphael because he was ‘cool, but rude’. Both adults and children were all familiar with Michelangelo, so he was featured in quite a few PSAs in the very early 90s. Leonardo was the one a lot of people got wrong when they were asked to name the turtles by the headbands in 1990. Leonardo was the least liked back then, but the original action figure was always hard to find in the very early 90s.

[Roseangelo]

TMNT didn't start on CBS until fall 1990, so I'm curious what episode it was and whether or not I need to be "that nerd" who points out that this episode wasn't actually out yet.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Isn't that a season 2 TMNT episode?

[MikeandRaph87]

I watched the episode just for the few seconds after seeing this thread. George states he didn't understand Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles which Missy replies it's all in the title. The last scene had so little of it. I was going to guess Leonardo Lights Up. It was not enough to get an accurate idea of what is being shown in the background. A friend of mine told me that in elementary school her first crush was Michelangelo. It was the only time I heard of a girl romantically interested in the Turtles. Sure, boys would quietly prefer one April actress over the other based on looks, it was usually Turco over Hoag despite the hair being different from the cartoon character.

[mikey0]

Originally Posted by Original TMNT Cartoon Fan

Isn't that a season 2 TMNT episode?

Wasn’t the checkered red and white tablecloth (usually seen in Italian restaurants) in their dining room during the 1990 to 1993 CBS episodes? CBS is credited for the TMNT clip after the show, so it wasn’t a syndicated FW episode.

[mikey0]

Originally Posted by MikeandRaph87

I watched the episode just for the few seconds after seeing this thread. George states he didn't understand Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles which Missy replies it's all in the title. The last scene had so little of it. I was going to guess Leonardo Lights Up. It was not enough to get an accurate idea of what is being shown in the background. A friend of mine told me that in elementary school her first crush was Michelangelo. It was the only time I heard of a girl romantically interested in the Turtles. Sure, boys would quietly prefer one April actress over the other based on looks, it was usually Turco over Hoag despite the hair being different from the cartoon character.

Michelangelo was the era appropriate TMNT character, so he was instantly recognizable to many children of the early 90s.

Going by the pictures online, there was a chicken on the red and white checkered tablecloth in Leonardo Lightens Up, but it’s unclear to me whether Leonardo made a pizza for his three brothers at the end of the episode at this moment.

[oldmanwinters]

[IndigoErth]

Hah, cute, thanks for the screen shots.


I was never allowed to have a sizeable collection of anything I was ever into and had only a small handful of figures, so I guess I never noticed that Leo was hard to find. (Though of the six TMNT figures I had, three were him.) I guess the poor guy got the treatment Donnie tends to get these days, but he certainly had us outliers who loved him and still do.

[mikey0]

Originally Posted by IndigoErth

Hah, cute, thanks for the screen shots.


I was never allowed to have a sizeable collection of anything I was ever into and had only a small handful of figures, so I guess I never noticed that Leo was hard to find. (Though of the six TMNT figures I had, three were him.) I guess the poor guy got the treatment Donnie tends to get these days, but he certainly had us outliers who loved him and still do.

I think boys and tomboys of the early 90s liked having their parents purchase Leo figures because he was the most masculine turtle out of all them in action figure form and theatrically. Leonardo in the cartoon was known as being the strict one who bagged his three brothers all of the time. The fact that Leo was leader with the katana blades saved him in all incarnations of the TMNT timeline. So, the creators made up for what Leonardo lacked as an 80s cartoon character by making him the most aggressive and competitive one with the weapon that could make the deepest cuts.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Maybe Leonardo Lightens Up?

[mikey0]

Originally Posted by Original TMNT Cartoon Fan

Maybe Leonardo Lightens Up?

It’s possible. Unfortunately for us, there are not enough screen caps from the 1990 episode “Leonardo Lightens Up” for anyone to tell so far.

[MrPliggins]

Looks like "Donatello Makes Time" to me. I can tell by the scientist that is shown briefly.

[MikeandRaph87]

Originally Posted by Original TMNT Cartoon Fan

Maybe Leonardo Lightens Up?

That is what I said above and seems like the most plausible. We don't have enough footage to know for sure unless the show creative team gives out the information.

Yes, to the above inquiry, Chuck Lorre got his start by writing the TMNT(1987) theme song. There is also the connection he made with Charlie Sheen's Two and a Half Men character getting his start by writing said theme song.

Leonardo was the least popular? I thought it was Donatello that was most people's fourth of four which is why they injected the Rob Paulsen effect into Donatello that he brought to Raphael along with that crush on April.

[mikey0]

Originally Posted by MikeandRaph87

That is what I said above and seems like the most plausible. We don't have enough footage to know for sure unless the show creative team gives out the information.

Yes, to the above inquiry, Chuck Lorre got his start by writing the TMNT(1987) theme song. There is also the connection he made with Charlie Sheen's Two and a Half Men character getting his start by writing said theme song.

Leonardo was the least popular? I thought it was Donatello that was most people's fourth of four which is why they injected the Rob Paulsen effect into Donatello that he brought to Raphael along with that crush on April.

The cartoon Leonardo wasn’t as popular among boys and tomboys as the action figures and first movie version of him. Children wanted action from the cartoon, so any turtle that spoke the most (the least active turtles) were the ones that they did not like seeing on the small screen.

Donatello invented vehicles and accessories the turtles could use against Shredder and the Foot Clan in the cartoon. All versions of Donatello were as loved then as they are now. Leo was hyper-masculine in the movie, so the first wave action figures were sold out until late in the fall of 1991 (after the craze officially died down).

[MikeandRaph87]

Originally Posted by MrPliggins

Looks like "Donatello Makes Time" to me. I can tell by the scientist that is shown briefly.

It turns out that you are correct. I just watched it on Dailymotion. It is 6 minutes into the episode that the scene appears. So it is atleast October 6th, 1990.

[CyberCubed]

Nobody has a youtube clip?

What is this, the year 2003 again when we had thumbnails?

[mikey0]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

Nobody has a youtube clip?

What is this, the year 2003 again when we had thumbnails?

A YouTube clip isn’t up yet. Give it 4 or 5 weeks.

[CyberCubed]

So people don't record things off TV anymore? I mean I am out of touch these days but I think people still do that