What was with all the mad scientists in the old toon?

[CyberCubed]

Whenever there wasn't a Shredder/Krang ep, or an ep about another recurring villain like Rat King, Baxter, Leatherhead or the mobsters....the villain usually wound up being a mad scientist.

I've actually lost track of how many different mad scientists there were in the original series. Either that or some other crackpot that was nuts for no reason.

Its odd to me the writers would use these one-shot mad scientists instead of introducing more of those Playmates mutants, but oh well. Some of them were entertaining at least.

[oldmanwinters]

I suppose it was a subtle philosophical critique against twentieth-century modernism. :tread:

[Powder]

I dunno, seemed like a thing of the times. Many 80's/90's cartoons had mad scientists pouring out of the screen.

[Jester]

Hey, those guys were cool. Philo Sopho, Dr. Wilhelm "Willy" Vanilli, Dr. Poly...Unsaturated...oh right, Polydorius. They were fun. And oddly memorable.

[oldmanwinters]

I dunno, seemed like a thing of the times. Many 80's/90's cartoons had mad scientists pouring out of the screen.

Mad scientist + Pseudo-science = Instant Plot

[cryan]

Yeah,Fred Wolf went crazy with the mad scientist angle.The Mad sceintist thing really didn't start up until Seanson 4 when the series moved to CBS.Oh,you can't forget the evil Scientist/modern day pirate Capt Filtch.

[CyberCubed]

Some of them even returned more than once. That bald guy from the university who Donatello idolized before he found out he was crazy, what was his name again? He returned for a second ep where he tried to spin the Earth off its axis.

[Jester]

Some of them even returned more than once. That bald guy from the university who Donatello idolized before he found out he was crazy, what was his name again? He returned for a second ep where he tried to spin the Earth off its axis.
That's Philo Sopho...how do I remember. He was voiced by Paulsen. And he tried to spin everyone of the planet in Donatello's Degree in Too Hot to Handle he tried to use Vernon's nephew, Foster's "Solar Magnet" to pull the earth toward the sun.

[CyberCubed]

Yeah, that's him. There was also the red-haired scientist who created Ray the fish mutant. Then there was the other scientist in, "Mr. Nice guy" where Raph's personality was altered.

Then there were those D-class villains like that guy who had the wax statues, or the musician who used his speakers to blow apart the city. Then those hicks from the Donatello ep.

[Jester]

Gah, I hate Big Badilia Badd and her boys.

[Powder]

Dr. Polydorian? Polydorius? That guy, hahaha. What a character.

[Jester]

I loved how no one could get his name right....classic.
Poly-urethane, Poly-unsaturated, Poly-woolly-doodle, Poly-olly-oxen-free...:D

[Jephael]

My personal favorite is Dr. Davins from "Unidentified Flying Leonardo". He had a pretty cool evil scheme.

BTW, if you read this earlier, I just remembered Billy Jim Bob is the name of the farmer dude who befriends Leo.

[Redeemer]

Dr. Polydorian? Polydorius? That guy, hahaha. What a character.

Hands down my favorite mad scientist:lol:

[ssjup81]

I like that Willy Banilli guy from Raphael vs the Volcano, only because of the way Rob Paulsen voiced him and how he would say his name. It makes me laugh every time, and this is also one of the episodes where I remembered it before I saw it.

Some of the other scientists are funny too, like the one mentioned from Rebel without a Fin. That was funny.

Seems like back then, the whole "mad scientist" thing was the fad. For the Archie comics, it was quite different though, I've noticed. It seemed to deal more with the super natural and had environmental messages.

[sdp]

They weren't written too badly so I didn't mind them but yeah what a huge missed opportunity, why fill up the show with mad scientists and mobsters when you have a ton of awesome mutant characters and toys to make shows out of. Many iconic mutants only got an episode or two in a 150+ episode show.

Some of them even returned more than once. That bald guy from the university who Donatello idolized before he found out he was crazy, what was his name again? He returned for a second ep where he tried to spin the Earth off its axis.

Sounds like Dr. Quease from TNM.

[ssjup81]

They weren't written too badly so I didn't mind them but yeah what a huge missed opportunity, why fill up the show with mad scientists and mobsters when you have a ton of awesome mutant characters and toys to make shows out of. Many iconic mutants only got an episode or two in a 150+ episode show.



Sounds like Dr. Quease from TNM.

Actually, that was Professor Sopho for the OT series. He was in Donatello's Degree and Too Hot to Handle.

The axis thing was his debut ep, where Donatello earned a degree through Sopho U, but due to a mix up, they thought that his name was "Donna Tello", so he asked Irma to go in his place to get his degree, and found out that Sopho wanted to spin the world off of its axis so that he and "Donna" could rule the entire world.

In the other ep, Vernon's nephew invented some gadget for a science fair that was raising the temperature. Professsor Sopho was his idol, until he stole his machine and so that he could overheat the entire world.

Some of the scientists had potential to be expanded on. Sopho, imo, probably could have been one of them.

[CyberCubed]

Remember Barney Stockman, Baxter's twin brother who looked just like him when he was human? lol

[ssjup81]

Remember Barney Stockman, Baxter's twin brother who looked just like him when he was human? lollol! Ironically, a Raph ep I remembered before rewatching it, but going back to it now, don't care for it. That was funny, though, how he was all, "I AM NOT BAXTER!!"

[Spitfire]

I assumed it was a homage to old cinema horror movies. There was always some mad scientists making some crazy invention or creature that almost destroys the planet. Turtles was if anything always there to make a joke about classic film.

[oldmanwinters]

Turtles was if anything always there to make a joke about classic film.

You're right on about that! Just look at all the homages in the episode titles!

"TheBlindAlley" over in Japan has attempted to compile a list of possible episode title homages:
http://www.theblindalley.cyber-ninja.jp/labframe.html
(You may have to hunt for the links in the sidebar, and I don't think she's made it past the 3rd season).

[Icebot]

I like that guy Wilbur Weisell from Michaelangelo Toys Around. I always thought it was funny how everyone kept calling him weasel and he kept correcting everyone with the pronounciation. It still makes me laugh.

Professor Lloyd Psycloid who stole the timestopper was pretty funny. It was scary how that scientist from Sleuth on the Loose almost destroyed the world.

[Powder]

I love how everyone here can remember all of these oneshot nutjobs' names, haha!

[CyberCubed]

What was the name of the guy who used his shrinking ray to shrink huge ships and turn them into small collectables for him to play in the tub with? This is also the ep Michaelangelo gets shrunk.

I know he wasn't really a "mad scientist," but he was a captain-type character who had a shrink ray at least.

[Icebot]

What was the name of the guy who used his shrinking ray to shrink huge ships and turn them into small collectables for him to play in the tub with? This is also the ep Michaelangelo gets shrunk.

I know he wasn't really a "mad scientist," but he was a captain-type character who had a shrink ray at least.

His name was Talbot Breech. He was angry about not making it into the navy because he was too small and he wanted to shrink the navy ships to let them know how he felt about being rejected.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Remember Barney Stockman, Baxter's twin brother who looked just like him when he was human? lol

Which episode was that? Is Baxter Stockman in it?

[Icebot]

Which episode was that? Is Baxter Stockman in it?

Raphael Knocks Em Dead. And Baxter wasn't in it. The turtles thought it was Baxter but he kept telling everyone he's Barney and he only looks like Baxter. Baxter was still a fly at the time.

[Scandia]

One of the most notorious minions of the most evil bad guy of the 20th century was THE mad scientist.

So it is a convenient villian archetype.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

One of the most notorious minions of the most evil bad guy of the 20th century was THE mad scientist.

So it is a convenient villian archetype.

Mad scientist is probably taken from the old Frankenstein stories, from the 19th century.