Why Did The Show Never Enter Syndication?

[MikeandRaph87]

I was an elementary school student with not much knowledge of when the show was airing. It just suddenly stopped. All I remember was it was to transition into a live action show and knew to tape as many episodes as I could. However as of Labor Day 1996 it stopped airing on USA Cartoon Express and CBS Saturday Morning. Why did another network not buy out CBS's rights to air from that time? Quite a few shows are syndicated by networks owned by different companies. It would seem like in the pass 22 plus years that someone who have tried to have bought syndication rights of a television show that had such success. Is there any clear answer as to why for 22 years TMNT(1987) has not aired in the United States? Its always been mind boggling to me.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Is there any clear answer as to why for 22 years TMNT(1987) has not aired in the United States? Its always been mind boggling to me.

Season 10 aired between September and November 1996. By that point the franchise was dead since around 1992–1993 (in the USA).

Also, I guess it would take time to air reruns of all 193 episodes so it's better releasing them to DVD.

[neatoman]

Allegedly, Fred Wolf has an absurdly high demand for airing the show. I remember something about Nickelodeon wanting to air it but backed out when they saw what it would cost.

[MikeandRaph87]

Season 10 aired between September and November 1996. By that point the franchise was dead since around 1992–1993 (in the USA).

Also, I guess it would take time to air reruns of all 193 episodes so it's better releasing them to DVD.

I remained a huge fan,able to have other interest alongside it( MLB,MMPR, Baseball),but I would have thought during the 2003 show or 2012 show interest in airing it would have happened.

Remember we only got two episodes per official VHS release. DVDs were still a couple of years from wide distribution, let alone season sets.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Allegedly, Fred Wolf has an absurdly high demand for airing the show. I remember something about Nickelodeon wanting to air it but backed out when they saw what it would cost.

I also recall, by 2003–2004, there were calls for TV 3 Sweden to air reruns of the series (and James Bond Junior).

[MikeandRaph87]

Allegedly, Fred Wolf has an absurdly high demand for airing the show. I remember something about Nickelodeon wanting to air it but backed out when they saw what it would cost.

I always thought CBS owned syndication rights? So Fred Wolf does? He has not had a hit before it or after it and his studio is pretty much dead. So this is the reason we have never seen it air again after September 1996? Sure, Turtlemainia was over,but why hold out for a price that does not work?

[CyberCubed]

Because TMNT was never owned by a major company.

Cartoon Network only mostly aired Time Warner/WB/Hanna-Barbera shows back then because it's what they owned. Nickelodeon aired Nick shows, and Disney aired their shows.

The original TMNT cartoon was not owned by any major network so none of them bought it.

[The Deadman]

I always thought CBS owned syndication rights? So Fred Wolf does? He has not had a hit before it or after it and his studio is pretty much dead. So this is the reason we have never seen it air again after September 1996? Sure, Turtlemainia was over,but why hold out for a price that does not work?

It was already in syndication when it first aired.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

I remained a huge fan,able to have other interest alongside it( MLB,MMPR, Baseball),but I would have thought during the 2003 show or 2012 show interest in airing it would have happened.

Remember we only got two episodes per official VHS release. DVDs were still a couple of years from wide distribution, let alone season sets.

Couldn't the VHS tapes have more episodes? I used to hometape and recall tapes running up to two or three hours.

[MikeandRaph87]

It was already in syndication when it first aired.

You know what I mean, it did air during the time it aired new episodes,but once the first television season without new episodes begin it was pulled. Since September 1997 it was pulled from the air altogether never to be shown by any network at all despite its mega success and further cartoons.

[MikeandRaph87]

Couldn't the VHS tapes have more episodes? I used to hometape and recall tapes running up to two or three hours.

I am referring to storebought and sold with TMNT episodes on them. Aside from the Eye of Sanrath which had four and a different case opposed to the usual slip cover it was just two episodes. The Burger King Kids's Club and the one from TV Teddy was just one episode!

[Leo656]

It actually was syndicated at a few brief points both during and after its run.

In my area, the weekday afternoon show was mostly on Fox Channel 5, but usually another channel like channel 11 would show older re-runs an hour later in the day. Eventually that stopped.

Also, USA Cartoon Express added the show to its lineup between 1994 and some time in late 1996 or early 1997. They even included poorly-drawn versions of them during the "Cartoon Express" intro that showcased all the shows and characters like Real Ghostbusters, G.I. Joe, etc., but as I recall they didn't air it as often as those shows. I can't remember 100% but I think they replaced it with Sonic SatAM, or at the very least, stopped airing it around the same time they started airing Sonic. Shortly after they abandoned the "Cartoon Express" concept completely and dropped most of the shows altogether.

I'm not aware of TMNT being syndicated anywhere else after that, but those are the two instances I'm aware of in which they were. It's very possible it was a regional thing and they may not have aired in syndication elsewhere. Hope that helps.

Couldn't the VHS tapes have more episodes? I used to hometape and recall tapes running up to two or three hours.
That's generally if you switched the Record setting to "SLP" or something, in which case you could hold up to 6 hours sometimes, but the more stuff you put on the tape, the sh*ttier the picture quality. Different tapes each had their own limit for what would fit on them.

If you look at the commercially-available TMNT VHS tapes, there's very little tape on the spool to begin with, which means that they purposely chose a cassette that would only hold a short amount of footage but would play back at the highest possible picture and sound quality.

By contrast, I used to own at least one commercially-bought tape of 6-hours worth of classic cartoons from the 40s and whatnot, and it looked and felt like a bootleg despite being store-bought. So the reason the TMNT tapes that were sold did not fit more than one or two episodes was primarily a quality control factor.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

I am referring to storebought and sold with TMNT episodes on them.

I know, but I said they should be sold with more episodes (compare to how much a videotape could fit).

[pferreira]

The only answer I can give to this is that by the mid-90s TMNT wasn't a big thing any more and with bigger then current properties being shown the networks guesses those shows would bring in more ratings. Having said that it did take a long while for the US to get Season 2 of TMNT after Season 1 on DVD.

[cammy85]

Our CBS affiliate in the early 90s was WTOL in Toledo. They were already famous for mixing in the Saturday morning lineup with their own local E/I shows. in 1994, they dropped TMNT altogether which left me to believe they did indeed end on Shredder Triumphant.

Two years later, we permanently switched to WCCO just as the summer reruns were winding down so I did discover that I had missed two years of TMNT. However... a few minutes into Get Shredder, it was very clear why that happened and I made sure to include my thoughts on that in an English essay I wrote that year regarding violence in the media.

Edit: now as to the main topic: despite being a national phenomenon, maybe it was too violent for some affiliate managers to want to carry? Look what eventually happened to Power Rangers.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

The only answer I can give to this is that by the mid-90s TMNT wasn't a big thing any more and with bigger then current properties being shown the networks guesses those shows would bring in more ratings. Having said that it did take a long while for the US to get Season 2 of TMNT after Season 1 on DVD.

Season 2 was released to DVD in April 2005, one year after Season 1

http://mutantooze.org/ninjaturtles/html/dvd_classictoons.html

[cammy85]

The only answer I can give to this is that by the mid-90s TMNT wasn't a big thing any more and with bigger then current properties being shown the networks guesses those shows would bring in more ratings. Having said that it did take a long while for the US to get Season 2 of TMNT after Season 1 on DVD.

Season 2 was released to DVD in April 2005, one year after Season 1

http://mutantooze.org/ninjaturtles/html/dvd_classictoons.html

The reason for the long delay was because they released Season 1 to test the waters. That's also why they included four episodes from Season 10 as "never before seen episodes". They could see the demand was high so again they tested the waters with Season 2. That's also why they were so silly with their Season 3 releases as well. Finally, they switched suppliers and the rest is history.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

The reason for the long delay was because they released Season 1 to test the waters. That's also why they included four episodes from Season 10 as "never before seen episodes". They could see the demand was high so again they tested the waters with Season 2. That's also why they were so silly with their Season 3 releases as well. Finally, they switched suppliers and the rest is history.

With no Youtube, it must have been awsome just to get your hands on the Season 1 DVD back in April 2004.

[cammy85]

I'll bet it was!! No complaining here. I was stuck with the aneurysm encodes for years until the Turtle Van set came out. I do notice difference with Season 1 quality compared to the later releases.

[pferreira]

The reason for the long delay was because they released Season 1 to test the waters. That's also why they included four episodes from Season 10 as "never before seen episodes". They could see the demand was high so again they tested the waters with Season 2. That's also why they were so silly with their Season 3 releases as well. Finally, they switched suppliers and the rest is history.I remember there being quite a gap between one of the seasons. Maybe it was between Season 2 and 3 then?

With no Youtube, it must have been awsome just to get your hands on the Season 1 DVD back in April 2004.Well it wasn't until 2009 I believe we got the first two seasons in the UK.

[cammy85]

I remember there being quite a gap between one of the seasons. Maybe it was between Season 2 and 3 then?

Well it wasn't until 2009 I believe we got the first two seasons in the UK.

Seasons 8 and 9 for sure. And it did take awhile for Season 10 as well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Teenage_Mutant_Ninja_Turtles_(1987_TV_seri es)_episodes#DVD_releases

There we go!!

[Redeemer]

It actually was syndicated at a few brief points both during and after its run.

In my area, the weekday afternoon show was mostly on Fox Channel 5, but usually another channel like channel 11 would show older re-runs an hour later in the day. Eventually that stopped.

Also, USA Cartoon Express added the show to its lineup between 1994 and some time in late 1996 or early 1997. They even included poorly-drawn versions of them during the "Cartoon Express" intro that showcased all the shows and characters like Real Ghostbusters, G.I. Joe, etc., but as I recall they didn't air it as often as those shows. I can't remember 100% but I think they replaced it with Sonic SatAM, or at the very least, stopped airing it around the same time they started airing Sonic. Shortly after they abandoned the "Cartoon Express" concept completely and dropped most of the shows altogether.

I'm not aware of TMNT being syndicated anywhere else after that, but those are the two instances I'm aware of in which they were. It's very possible it was a regional thing and they may not have aired in syndication elsewhere. Hope that helps.


That's generally if you switched the Record setting to "SLP" or something, in which case you could hold up to 6 hours sometimes, but the more stuff you put on the tape, the sh*ttier the picture quality. Different tapes each had their own limit for what would fit on them.

If you look at the commercially-available TMNT VHS tapes, there's very little tape on the spool to begin with, which means that they purposely chose a cassette that would only hold a short amount of footage but would play back at the highest possible picture and sound quality.

By contrast, I used to own at least one commercially-bought tape of 6-hours worth of classic cartoons from the 40s and whatnot, and it looked and felt like a bootleg despite being store-bought. So the reason the TMNT tapes that were sold did not fit more than one or two episodes was primarily a quality control factor.

As Leo said the show was syndicated.

[Leo656]

It sure was awesome during the "peak years" to get like a two hour block of TMNT every weekday, like an hour on Fox and another hour on Channel 11 or whatever immediately after with older episodes.

Multiply that times 5 and add Saturday morning, and we're talkin' serious "TurtleMania". But it also probably contributed to some folks like me getting a little burned out at one point.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

I remember there being quite a gap between one of the seasons. Maybe it was between Season 2 and 3 then?

Well it wasn't until 2009 I believe we got the first two seasons in the UK.

I bought some Fred Wolf DVD's in Sweden in September 2004. The same episodes as the VHS releases, but three episodes on each disc instead of two on each videotape as during the VHS era.

[pferreira]

Seasons 8 and 9 for sure. And it did take awhile for Season 10 as well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Teenage_Mutant_Ninja_Turtles_(1987_TV_seri es)_episodes#DVD_releases

There we go!!Thanks for that clarification.

Multiply that times 5 and add Saturday morning, and we're talkin' serious "TurtleMania". But it also probably contributed to some folks like me getting a little burned out at one point.You're lucky. In the UK if you were able to get Sky you could sometimes get an episode of TMNT in the morning and one after school.

I bought some Fred Wolf DVD's in Sweden in September 2004. The same episodes as the VHS releases, but three episodes on each disc instead of two on each videotape as during the VHS era.The UK by the way still hasn't had a full release of the show. :-?

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Thanks for that clarification.

You're lucky. In the UK if you were able to get Sky you could sometimes get an episode of TMNT in the morning and one after school.

The UK by the way still hasn't had a full release of the show. :-?

Here is what was released to home video (VHS and DVD) in Sweden

All of Season 1

All Season 2 episodes except the Eye of Sarnath tetralogy

Seven episodes from Season 3

[CyberCubed]

I know for a fact that once Next Mutation came out, the original cartoon was gone from all airwaves. At least where I live. I always remembered wanting to watch some reruns of the original cartoon but once Next Mutation hit in 1997 it was nowhere to be found.

And remember back then there was no real internet and no way to rewatch old eps unless you taped them on VHS or got those few official VHS releases. Man hard to believe how hard it was to rewatch shows before the days of DVDs and online steaming. How did we manage as kids/teens?

[Wesley]

I know for a fact that once Next Mutation came out, the original cartoon was gone from all airwaves. At least where I live. I always remembered wanting to watch some reruns of the original cartoon but once Next Mutation hit in 1997 it was nowhere to be found.

And remember back then there was no real internet and no way to rewatch old eps unless you taped them on VHS or got those few official VHS releases. Man hard to believe how hard it was to rewatch shows before the days of DVDs and online steaming. How did we manage as kids/teens?

In Ireland, the OT was regularly rerun on Rte Two from the mid 90s to late 00s, so it aired through Next Mutation and the 2003 series, though I remember how hard it was to rewatch other shows. The closest thing one could do was look up episode guides for them. I moved on to other shows, though, so it didn’t really bother me.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Man hard to believe how hard it was to rewatch shows before the days of DVDs and online steaming.

The Youtube was the major breakthrough for "everything is just one search away"

[cammy85]

Ninja Turtles Network was a huge help at the time especially for seeing episodes I hadn't seen in syndication in years like The Maltese Hamster or The Big Break-in. Reruns were eventually scrapped long before The Next Mutation once Goof Troop came on. It wasn't until Teletoon Retro that we ever say the earlier episodes of TMNT again.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Ninja Turtles Network was a huge help at the time especially for seeing episodes I hadn't seen in syndication in years like The Maltese Hamster or The Big Break-in. Reruns were eventually scrapped long before The Next Mutation once Goof Troop came on. It wasn't until Teletoon Retro that we ever say the earlier episodes of TMNT again.

What was the Ninja Turtles Network?

[pferreira]

Here is what was released to home video (VHS and DVD) in Sweden

All of Season 1

All Season 2 episodes except the Eye of Sarnath tetralogy

Seven episodes from Season 3When you total it about the same amount we got.

The Youtube was the major breakthrough for "everything is just one search away"Well YouTube made sure to get rid that option now. :ohwell:

[cammy85]

What was the Ninja Turtles Network?

Vegita-san used to run it. In addition to awesome art and 3D concept designs, he did include a rotating batch of episodes on the site. Unfortunately, hosting said episodes consumed more bandwidth then he was expecting, so he didn't keep it up for too long. He only managed Seasons 1-3 and 6-10 on a rotating basis.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Well YouTube made sure to get rid that option now. :ohwell:

There are many other similair services, like Dailymotion and Vimeo.

[pferreira]

There are many other similair services, like Dailymotion and Vimeo.And thank goodness. :)

[Vintage]

Now you all got me hyped up. Are all these episodes available for free on you tube right now?

[pferreira]

Now you all got me hyped up. Are all these episodes available for free on you tube right now?Read the comments above in this thread. We make mention of YouTube and where to watch episodes these days. :)