Do you think the villains were as important to the original cartoons success?
 

While the original series was a success because people fell in love with the Turtles, do you think it would have been as popular if it weren't for the villains?

Shredder, Krang, Bebop and Rocksteady essentially made the show as much as the Turtles themselves. They had a family dynamic of their own, David Wise said they treated Shredder and Krang as a married couple and Bebop/Rocksteady as their children. The humor of the villains playing off one another helped carry the show as much as the Turtles banter with each other was. They all had memorable distinct personalities and balanced each other out well.

There's a reason that to this day, Krang is the second most recognizable TMNT villain after Shredder. Rocksteady and Bebop have also never really declined in popularity either, despite not being in the cartoons/comics for decades.

What do you think?

Dude u pretty much said what I wanted to say

I choosed : Yes, the popularity of the villains certainly helped...

Of course, nice and fun enemies helped our OT TMNT .... :tgrin:

A hero is only as good as his/her villain. And the Turtles had a couple of great villains.

Watching it nowadays, I think the villains are just straight up better and more entertaining characters than the turtles nearly all of the time.

Qft buddy! :tcool:

"Qft"? "Queens For Tuesday"?

Really when you look back, the villains are the primary plot-driving devices; they make their plans to attack the heroes using specific items/supporting villains, kidnapp/destroy things in a particular way, and get destroyed/flee from various acts that the Turtles/Splinter do to them (or in some cases, Rocksteady & Bebop screwing up, which gives bonus points toward the importance of villiams). While there are litearly 10+ variants of the Turtles, Splinter, and April released as action figures, except for Shredder and perhaps Krang, there are many more numerous villians to be found. Then there are some episodes where multiple villains are used to build up the tension. This is why all episodes with Shredder/Krang are the best, with some of those CBS episodes without them a bit lame, focusing more on the heroes (though there were some good ones). The villians also are driving forces to defeat in video games, too.

Well I am happy they didn't put Shredder/Krang in every single episode. It would have gotten much more tiring if they didn't give us a break from them from time to time.

"Quoted for truth" thilly gooth!

I voted yes...Shredder was hilarious.

It's a no-brainer, of course they were vital to the show's success. Didn't all successful action toons have at least one great and memorable villain? Megatron, Cobra Commander, Skeletor etc...

Wow, all the votes so far say yes. I am curious if anyone will vote otherwise.

Absolutely...

Sure.

Shredder, krang, Bebop, and Rocksteady had a certain charm to them in the OT that made them instantly likeable and I agree that their popularity certainly played a factor in TMNT being so popular with kids during that generation. I distinctly remember characters like the Rat King, Baxter Stockman, and Leatherhead being favorites as well.

A pretty good and entertaining rogues gallery for sure.

I don't see how anyone could claim that the show would have been as good or as memorable without the cast of villains. To this day, whenever a new version of TMNT comes out, a comic, a movie, whatever, one of the very first things people want to know is if Shredder, Krang, Bebop and Rocksteady are in it. Identifiable villains with memorable personalities are one of many reasons the old show will always be remembered far more fondly than any other TMNT medium.

every show needs a good rogues gallery.

I couldn't have said that better myself! Shredder is part of what makes the show for me:shredder:

Cybercubed, you're absolutely on target.

Look at it this way.

When it comes to even the most casual of TMNT fans, they all remember the original 4, Splinter, April..... and it kinda trails from there.

But the same can be said on the otherside of the coin.

They all remember Shredder, Krang, Bebop, Rocksteady and Baxter. But while most "out of the sewer" TMNT heroes were more left to the toys and the one shot episode apperance (with the exception of Usagi), people really seem to remember the likes of Slash, Rat King, Leatherhead, General Traag even the Foot Soldiers themselves

absolutely the villains helped- even very very casual fans will message me about the toys- and they may still call "Raph", "Ralph" but they never fail to ask about bebop, rocksteady, shredder and krang!

Of course the villains were important. Heck when I rewatch the old episodes I find myself enjoying the parts with Krang and Shredder going at each other the most. Something about the dynamic of the villains really worked in the old toon.

then you add in the second rate villians as well.The occasional Mad Scientist,mobster,ect.you get the idea.

You know I loved the recurring villains as well, even the minor ones. Every time Big Louie or Pinky Mcfingers returned, it was quite good.

the back and forth between shredder and krang- series wldnt be the same without it, best dialogue in the series

its funny when i was a kid I remember hating the scenes with shredder and krang I just wanted to watch the turtles but now rewatching the series (for the billionth time) as an "adult" i really dig the shredder/krang dynamic.

And since were talking about villains, I was surprised the foot clan had such a limited role in the series. My memories of the show are a little off in that I thought they were featured in every ep, in se4 you pretty much only see them when krang needs something heavy brought into the technodrome (and thats when hes not using rock soldiers)

The Foot Soldiers appear more in Season 6 and they're in most of Season 7. They do disappear for most of Seasons 4-5 though.

I couldn't agree more, and if I could, the world would be sent out of orbit! :tgrin:

Shredder and Krang have a way of bouncing off one another's insults! A sibling of mine watches the show mainly for those two!:twink:

Yes, definitely.

Yep they sure where.

two words: "Bebop," and "Rocksteady"

People watched the series for the turtles. Had the villains been a giant pillow and box of crackers people would have still loved it. It was how they were written that made people love them. Long stretches of episodes lacked the core villains and it hardly stopped the series from doing well. Even during the villain of the week mad scientists era.

Many eps that lacked Shredder still used recurring villains like Rat King, or new one-shot aliens or monsters.

Even the mad scientist episodes occasionally included a mutant, like the Ray episode of Season 4.

Sure but kids wanted to see the turtles. If they wanted to see more villains there'd be more figures of them. There's countless variants for the turtles and while Shredder got a fair bit as well Bebop and Rocksteady weren't always included and Krang never was. In fact as time went on the turtles increased and the villains almost completely vanished.

Well, of course, the turtles were the main reason the viewers kept coming back to their TV sets to see the new episodes each week, but the villains did contribute to it's populatity in some form or fashion.

Spitfire's right. It's not like in the last seasons people complained about the lack of Krang, Shredder, Bebop, and Rocksteady.

Oh...wait...

shredder, bebop & rocksteady each had between 10-15 figure variants... that's not too shabby if you ask me :)

I enjoyed seeing most of the villains in the show. Whenever Shredder/Krang weren't in an episode, I still enjoyed seeing the Turtles take on the other mutants/aliens/robots/mad scientists/gangsters that were in the episode.

Maybe now I don't recall anyone complaining at the time.