Do you think Nick will buy the OT?
 

I remember reading when Nick bought the turtles that they "were looking into" buying the OT as well. Now that was just a comment when asked about the OT I think. Do you think it could actually happen?

On one hand its an old show that finished its run long ago, it doesn't have much profitability likely besides media releases. Then again they did buy the 2k3 show which also finished its run and wasn't a show that set the world on fire, it IS more recent though. With them airing Turtles Forever which includes a team up of a team of turtles they can't re-run who knows, especially if the 2k3 show proves to give them decent ratings, then again Nick also has a big catalog of classic shows they refuse to air. It would be nice to have everything under one roof. Well It'd be missing The Next Mutation but Disney doesn't like to sell and I really doubt Nick would try to try to buy it, theres also the movies which basically have 0 chance of them getting the rights.

Who's Nick? Some REALLY crazy fanboy? He'd have to be crazy, and wealthy to buy the whole TMNT franchize. Like, WOW! :o

Y-you're kidding, right? :P

Anyway, I sort of hope they do get ahold of it. Then maybe they would have a Turtletoon block!

Lolol, nice!

I hope not. I get the feeling they've never release the series on DVD>.

If they are then I would think that it was a sign that they are really planning to go at this series with all barrels loaded. I would think. Maybe they just have money to waste.

I hope so. They can air it as part of a classic block. It is a hilarious show after all.

Prob would be cool if they did buy the OT but lets just hope Nick doesn't get Next Mutation as well that Turtle series should stay in the vault never to be seen again.

Ok got a question have they even hinted about purchasing the OT or is this pure fan speculation?

either way lets not get our hopes up.

Would be cool but no they prob wont.

An article announcing the buyout had said that Viacom was looking to buy that series too. But, that could likely have been a case of miscommunication. Hardly unprecedented...

one can always hope

We probably will see The Next Mutation on Nick, when they air the Power Rangers In Space episode "Shell Shocked".

yeah that's about it

The only thing I wish for Nick to do right now, is to bring back those darn turtle Popsicles. Nick makes sponge bob and some other ones, so I am hoping for turtle Popsicles sooner or later.

Of course, they own everything under the name of TMNT.

I mean… I get why they would want to own that specific version but like… Is it actually going to be profitable? Maybe there is a reason Lionsgate "never did anything with it".

Well, it's nearly 200 episodes of nostalgic material that, so far, has been completely unavailable on streaming platforms. Easy way to gain some Paramount+ subs.

I hope it didn't cost them very much money.

This is some of the best news I've read all day! :tgrin:

I'm really surprised Lionsgate/Fred Wolf sold the rights? I guess they felt they made as much money off the DVDs as possible.

Speaking of that I wonder if we'll get a better DVD set of the show, although I'm not really holding my breath. Good for it to be added to streaming and its channels on TV though

They can sell it indefinitely on streaming, itunes, HD, maybe new DVD releases, who knows

I mean they could have done that any time even before owning the show. They brought all the VA's back for the Nick crossovers already. They could have done an animated movie around then too but didn't.

Now I fear one of the old VA's might die so if that happens like Kevin Conroy there would be no point in revisiting it.

A waste of money in my opinion.

Firstly they own all the characters and likenesses of the '87 TMNT to use in all their merchandise, action figures, comics and video games which they have been doing since they bought the IP. If they wanted to they could make a follow up with all of voice actors...I mean they done that with all the various crossovers between the 2012 and '87 shows.

Secondly I don't agree that this is the only popular version out there. It wasn't even the only popular version while the show was airing. Pound for pound the 1990 movie was just as important to the success of the franchise. Think of all of the elements that are considered intrinsic to TMNT such as Casey Jones being a central character, Raphael being the angry loner, the idea of the the turtles being brothers and Splinter their father among other things. None of these things were part of the Fred Wolf show but had their genesis in the Mirage comics and popularised by the movie. Heck, we've just had everyone whining about April no longer being a red head and that was something that was started by the movie. It shows to me that the movie leaves just as much (if not more) of a cultural foot print the animated series.

The 2003 series was a ratings hit for most of it's run and for two years running had the #1 toyline for two years running as well as quite a slew of other merchandise. It may not have been Turtlemania but it was a substantial hit. The 2012 series was also a fairly big hit and both were quite distinct from the 80s show.

Maybe they can do another re-release of the DVDs but I imagine who most people whe are inclined to buy the full series in that format already do. Stick on of their streaming services or even air on their traditional tv channel but I doubt there is much money to be made in that. They fixation with trying to recreate the 80s show cost them a lot with the last movie and possibly even the upcoming and yet they still seem intent on pushing this as the only version with everything else as an afterthought.

I don’t have all the DVDs so this means they’ll probably do their own collection. Hopefully in HD.

I’ll definitely watch it on TV. Haven’t seen the entire run in decades. I don’t think I finished it the first time. I don’t really remember the later seasons.

They might as well own it. They own the rest.

They can literally get money indefinitely by always having it up for purchase on any streaming site, licensing it out to other companies to air, airing on TV, potential new DVD releases, etc.

Plus it's good to have all the TMNT cartoons owned under one roof. The only thing they don't own is Next Mutation but I guess they don't care much.

https://variety.com/2023/film/news/t...on-1235675090/

It made sense, it's the only global cultural hit the TMNT have ever gotten. Turtlemania was gigantic and now they Viacom owns it. As much as I hate that the 87 Cartoon is always going to be in every incarnation, I'm happy that the show is with them as lionsgate never did anything with the show.

Perhaps they'll even think of making a new season or a direct to TV movie.

Hasbro owns The Next Mutation, who knows if they'd sell it but since it's not one of their to brands, they are not going to promote the competition so TNM is never going to be on a streaming platform ever again or released on any media. Not looking good TNM bros.

Fredwolf clearly didn't care about the TMNT, they mostly seemed to care to license it as if it was an old whore they could just send to get money from time to time. They kept relesing the same 12 episodes per disc in their box sets. Even without a remaster if the new reruns/streaming episodes are just normal quality they'll look better. I'm not sure how much they paid for it but likely viacom didn't pay too much for it but I'm sure it's a substantial amount as well. How much did 4Kids get for the 2003 show? They probably got a similar figure, I do remember that 4kids also had merchandising rights which is what they bought so that was probably the main reason viacom even bought 2003 not so much the show but the merch rights.

I'm guessing this includes rights to the theme song, that alone probably made it worth it for viacom counting how iconic it is. we'll know for sure if they start using the theme song later, or imagine a patch where Shredder's Revenge and cowabunga collection can now use the song!

we also don't know when this deal was made, perhaps the reason idw could make the saturday morning adventures was because of this deal getting done. At the end of the day I guess viacom saw that all the merchandise that was being sold was based on the original show so they wanted to own it. I don't think it's out of the question that we could get a new season, I mean if 90s X-Men got it after being a popular stream on Disney+ then perhaps this could too. I'm not counting on it but I feel it's more likely now than it's ever been.

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2003/2012 were barely popular, they had relevance like 2-3 years but nowhere a worldwide phenomenom like the 87 show. Yeah it could've been done before but it was an awkward situation, "inspired by the original show" or whatever now it can be an official sequel. Nick has seen when it comes to merchandise new kids aren't getting into the turtles as they'd hope but boomers buy the old cartoon stuff like candy. I'm sure these all factored into the decision. They didn't just do it for reruns or to stream it exclusively.

Years ago I would've never said a new show was likely but yeah now shows are revived as long as there's nostalgia so I can see it happening. I'm not saying it will just that it's more likely than it's ever been. The show had a nice ending so I wouldn't like to have that messed up so I'm ok if nothing ever happens but i'd also be ok if it did.

Garfield was an odd acquisition, I guess Jim Davis was just interested in selling and viacom threw a number and he said yes. There's a new movie coming out soon but that was a licensing deal before they bought garfield. perhaps they're waiting for that to air to see what they do. Do people even care about garfield?
The comics are more of a meme online, you had 80s kids that liked the specials and 90s kids that liked G&Friends but the new garfield show didnt seem particularly popular despite getting a few seasons.
Garfield doesn't really need a cartoon though, his merchandise just sells for whatever reason.

I would keep my paramount+ subscription indefinitely if they can get 1987 on there

I doubt we'll get any new animation for the series (especially with the aging voice actors), but it's nice to have everything owned by the same company.

Also if some other company buys TMNT from Nick sometime in the far future, they'll get everything in one bundle which is good rather than having things fall into licensing rights with other companies.

From my understanding, WB owns the rights to the 90s films (since WB bought Cinema Line), TMNT, and Batman vs TMNT so those are some things Nick doesn't own from the property. In fact, they released all 5 of these as part of their 100th anniversary DVD lineup.

I wonder if their plan is to use this version of TMNT (1987) as the featured TMNT product/series/etc. moving forward after Mutant Mayhem hype fizzles out. Didn't they say that they were going to start showing it next year?

If that is the case - and there isn't a new animated series in the works - will this version of TMNT be what they put out there and support for years to come? Will Playmates make new figures/toys/merch from this version of the cartoon to support it?

If so, do we think that it would have the same impact it had in the past, or is it's style so consigned to the 80s that it doesn't really take off?

I guess what I'm really asking is, is Nickelodeon's intention to re-introduce 87 Turtles to the world, or to give us old shellheads something to chew on between newer projects?

Hopefully now they can put the entire series on HD Blu Ray. Also if they re-release DVDs again or Blu Ray, maybe now they can use the actual old school artwork from the VHS, or does FHE own that artwork? Would be cool to see it re-used. It also says Playmates Toys on the back of the VHS. Wonder who owns the old VHS artwork.

So the first 2 DVDs of the OT Volumes 1 and 2 were by FHE, then volume 3 and on was Lionsgate. Is this why they couldn’t use the actual theme song on the first Arcade1up and Cowabunga Collection, because Lions Gate wouldn’t allow it?

I haven’t got Cowabunga Collection yet but hopefully they can restore the original theme song into the arcade game now that they have the rights. But then the NES version still can’t have the Pizza Hut logo? Or maybe they can use it now that they bought the OT? So confusing.

I think the main reason they did it was for... Cohesion? I guess? Nickelodeon has done a lot of merchandising around this show and it might a bit awkward if they couldn't distribute the show itself. If they believe it will be a ratings/subscriber draw, that might be true but I doubt it's going to be in the long run.

As for the potential of them essentially making season 11 and/or specials, maybe but I think even they understand that making season 11 of a children's show that ended 27 years ago is a bad idea when they could just endlessly reboot.

Seems a bit more likely they'll make something like SGCTC than a continuation.

I fully agree with this.

Plus Nick might as well spend money and buy the rights to Garfield and Friends, The Garfield Show, and those live action movies with them owning the rights to his future. Garfield and Friends on Paramount + is a no brainer.

Still amazes me that they're doing absolutely nothing with Garfield.

We live in a world where Netflix produced a continuation of the original MOTU cartoon and where Disney are reviving the 1990s X-Men animated series

Reviving FW TMNT is as inevitable as it gets.



I live for whinge like this :lol:

And what did both shows end with? Crossovers with the FW TMNT. Hell 2012 basically became nothing more than a dumping ground for FW TMNT concepts when it ran out of it's own ideas (which was very quickly)

And when you think of TMNT 2003, you think of four seasons and one 'lost' one, not the last three years of the show which were just as campy, gimmicky and lightweight as FW was at it's peak.

Barry Gordon (Donatello's OT voice actor, as well as Bebop's), is 74 years old. He's the oldest of the original TMNT cast. I doubt they're going to do anything new with them (besides maybe another one-off special or crossover?) because once one of the original cast dies there's no point in doing this. And I doubt the other 3 VA's would want to voice an OT thing if one of them passes away.

Has there been any merchandise of him since the purchase though?

I wish them the best on streaming platform.


Maybe give a proper HD upscale treatment too? The ones on iTunes could look better since I think it’s dvd quality only. A complete series package would be sweet too.

I'm not sure that better-than-480p versions of Fred Wolf have ever existed. The best they could do would be to run an AI filter on it to upscale it to pseudo 1080p, probably.

Ever since it was announced that Nick bought the franchise back in 2009, I always wondered if they would ever show the 1987 series. Now, 14 years later, they will be. Pretty cool, I must say. I think this will be the first time the 1987 series was shown in the US since 1997?