TMNT 87: Questions of a Brit
 

So as a new face in these here parts, I thought long and hard (by which I mean I didn't :tgrin:) about what one of my first topics could be? After all, you only get to make a first impression once! Unless your a time traveller, then I guess you can make multiple firsts. Unfortunately I'm not a scientific genius like Donnie and don't have a super brain in my stomach from another Dimension. Nope, sorry folks this is the best I could do with my small human (think I'm human?) sized brain. Take a deep breath folks, here we go...

So I'm a child of the late 80s/90s. It was a great time as far as Television and movies was concerned (Thundercats, Knight Rider, Masters of the Universe, Conan the Adventure, Keatons Batman) never really cared for school as it just got in the way of watching all that cool stuff:tsad: But I loved Fridays, oh yes! Remember that Friday feeling? Friday meant Saturday was just around the corner, and with it Saturday mornings :tgrin:

Remember when Saturday's were worth getting up for? Because I sure do:tsmile: Here in the UK we had Going Live (BBC 1) and it was within this loud, colourful and somewhat cheesy show that the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles (did I mention I'm British?) burst out of the swears and onto our screens. First episode was Return of the Shredder, and I loved it. But I had questions! Namely where was Shredder returning from? How did he get there? And had I missed an episode? A whole series even? Impossible as it was billed as the UK premier of the Turtles. I occupied myself with these questions for quite some time, until one Christmas it was a Turtle fest :tgrin: We got everything. All the turtles, Shredder, Krang, Swear-system and the Technodrome. Now I could act out my own stories, and the first on my list was to explore where the Shredder came from and how he and Krang got stuck in Dimension X.

Sometime later, we was at a family friends house. Thair son was pretty much the same age as me and was also into TMHT, but had nowhere near the amount of stuff as me:tgrin: However, he had something I didn't! A VHS tape with the title Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles: How it all Began. Can we watch it? I asked. Yes, he said. But I couldn't hear a word as the adults where in the living room talking about boring old adult stuff:x Form here on out I knew what my heart desired. Lucky for me my birthday was just around the corner and as you might expect, I got what I wanted :tgrin:! TMHT: How it all Began was now mine. Trouble is it left me with more questions? Not only did it sill not explain how the Technodrome crew ended up in Dimension X but it actually began with Splinter having lost his memory. WTF? It was like watching a clip show of episodes that had at one point aired but I had never seen:tconfuse:

Then one afternoon (BBC moved Turtles from Saturday mornings to weekday afternoons) an episode aired called Blast from the Past. OMG! Splinter has lost his memory and its an episode of flash backs just like How it all Began. OMG, it is how it all began. As the season came to a close with an epic 3 Parter (Big Rip-off, Big Break in and Big Blow Out) TMHT finished its run. Err... ok! So we are back in Dimension X after still having not explained how we got stuck there the first time? The years past by, and other things took my interest (mostly girls) But I still wanted answers. Then, some 25 years later, I happend upon a DVD titled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: 25th Anniversary Special edition. This consisted of the first 2 seasons of the 87 show. No longer branded Hero Turtles, they where Ninja Turtles. This not only answered all my childhood questions but got me back into the franchise in a big way. Thank god my parents never junked all my toys as immediately got them back down and into the light on display. I also bought a tone of more TMNT stuff including original comics, action figures we didin't have +new ones and the complete original series box set. OMG. This ran for 10 seasons? and we Brits (did I mention I'm British) only had seasons 2-3? I am still making my way through the boxset, midway through season 7, just seen Convicts from Dimension X. I will soon be on to the red sky era and am very excited to see what changes the show underwent. But I still have questions, and maybe you fine people hold the answers? Did season 1 air in the UK a tall? or anywhere in Europe under the TMHT branding? What happened to seasons 4-10? Did they go to another network? Seems foolish of the BBC to have passed on several seasons of a highly rated show?

So there you have it guys and girls. My first post! Sorry if it went on to long. Thanks for at least taking the time to read this and maybe one of you will have the answers. I await your reply's. BTW did I mention I'm British?:twink:

Didn't you manage to catch the Archie adaptations?

Interesting post.

In Ireland, the 1987 series was initially known as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles just like the US version and the intro sequence was unedited when it debuted on RTÉ Two as part of the Irish tv strand The Den with the airing of the second season in September 1990. After the first two episodes were broadcast, the name was changed to the Hero Turtles version and the intro was edited, except for season one. Scenes with Mikey’s nunchucks and the word ‘ninja’ were always edited out in the actual episodes, though. In 2007–2008, episodes were aired in their original US unedited form. All of the 1987 series aired in Ireland and was regularly rerun on RTÉ until 2008.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teenag...987_TV_series)

I didn’t know how the Technodrome ended up in Dimension X for the first time either for a long time, but I was too young to remember the episodes and really care lol. How it All Began did clear up some questions for me too but I still didn’t know the same stuff you didn’t and I thought the Eye of Zarath arc ended with the Mean Machines part. I did read a TMNT book that was an adaptation of season 1 with screenshots taken from the series, but it left out what happened to the villains after the Technodrome was pulled into Dimension X.

When I was 8/9 and the series was rerun again from the beginning in the summer of 1995, I was then old enough to remember the episodes and realized that How it All Began used scenes from Blast to the Past as well and found out the answers to my other questions. Season 1 was placed between 3 and 4, oddly enough.

I’m surprised that only seasons 2-3 were shown on BBC. The series was very popular in Ireland and was aired a lot on weekday afternoons on RTÉ in the mid 90s.

I know that Sky Channel aired all seasons.

As a fellow Brit (did I mention I'm British?) I can tell you that season 1 and 4 - 10 did air in the UK if you were lucky enough to have Sky back then.

Season 1 aired on Sky 1 in the mornings as part of the DJ Kat Show which was repeated in the afternoons. Seasons 4-7 also aired as part of the same program. The remaining Red Sky seasons aired on the then newly launched Fox Kids.

All of that was under the 'Hero Turtles' branding. The only time the '87 show was ever aired under its Ninja Turtles title is a random Red Sky episode they showed on Bravo in 2000 when they otherwise re-aired Season 3 with 'Hero Turtles' cut.

The did show The Epic Begins (essentially a TV movie that cut together the first season largely missing out A Thing About Rats) under the 'ninja' title. While it allowed the word ninja to be broadcast it did cut out Mike using his nunchuks which led to a weird cut of the title theme which missed out the "Leonardo leads" etc section. Weird. Did I mention I'm British?

This is the British intro

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fujd94i3EYs

I legit thought only three seasons existed because CBBC didn't show any more, I only found out there was more when I skimmed through a TMNT sticker album and found the Technodrome was stuck in the arctic. I didn't get SKY until 1999, by which point the red sky era was being repeated on Bravo, and Fox Kids UK screened a TV movie edit of the first five episodes of season ten.

I was aware there had been a pilot season before I also bought How It All Began on VHS, but I read the Archie adaptation.

Did I mention I'm British?

An interesting thing that I've never seen mentioned is that originally when the two satallite services launched in the UK it was actually BSB that had the rights to new TMHT episodes and it was a big part of their advertising to incentivise people to pick them over Sky. It aired as part of their Kids Club but as I recall it was the only new cartoon they had. Everything else was years old like Hanna Barbara's Shazann and the Fimation New Adventures of Batman and Robin and I vaguely remember seeing Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends.

When BSB flopped hard and they were taken over by SKY TMHT simply swapped over to Sky. I remember getting up one morning expecting to see the Kids Club to be greeted by the SKY logo and DJ Kat and wondering if this meant no more turtles only to be relieved to see them.

Another medium for non-satallite Brit families to know the origin was a series of books that adapted several episodes of the first two seasons of the show complete with screen caps of the episodes. The first season was summarised on three books but strangely they missed out Hot Rodding Teenagers from Dimension-X. I don't know why all these adaptions miss out at least one episode.

Can you please link to one of them?

I don't think I've ever seen them online but if you give me some time I could scan the ones I have.

WOW, thanks for the feedback guys. This has certainly helped answer my questions. Thank you so much! Loving reading your feedback. Out of interest do any of you know why BBC declined to show seasons 4-7? Also curious as to why they never showed season 1 of the origin arc? Wondering if the censorship thing had something to do with it?

Its like MotU movie where Skeletor has already conquered CG before the story begins

I doubt anyone knows but I suspect it was less that they declined to show Seasons 4 on wards but that BSB probably outbid them for new turtles content. Like I said above the fact that they advertised new, never before seen TMHT episodes was a part of their promotion to entice people to sign up for their satellite service.

As I recall after Attack of the Big MACC (I think) they moved the show to Saturday Mornings and aired during Live & Kicking where the started back at the beginning of Season 2 again and ran until The Ninja Sword of Nowhere and then moved again to early evenings were it finished the rest of Season 3. I recall by then Turtlemania was kinda on the wane so they probably decided it wasn't worth trying to get the license for new episodes.

The BBC did re-air Seasons 2 & 3 back 2007 when the cgi animated movie came out under their 'Hero Turtles' cut. It's one of the few times the show has ever been re-run anywhere since it went off air.

Did it air on Nick at some point in the 90s too? Found this on YouTube

http://youtu.be/0JWqolZ9SUQ

^^^

Wow. Had no idea that Nickledeon had it too and I remember watching that station quite a lot in the 90s.

Tuesday
 

12 September 1995 was a Tuesday, not a Monday

Oh wow, thanks for that link. I love seeing old links/promos of TMNT. Cheers buddy. Anymore like that please do post em

https://youtu.be/jDUk21N3f90

Channel 5 Continuity Jan ‘99, with a promo for TMNT 3

Looks like the "Hero Turtles" title had been dropped by 1999.

Dude! I love you:tgrin: I'm obsessed with old links/show promos. I have some TMHT from Going Live/BBC already but could you find some from Sky? Really like to see there advertising for the show. As a side note, the Ninja part was always kept for showings of the films yet they still edited any use of nunchucks. Ridicules

Thankfully, the UK couldn't edit the computer and video games.

Slight correction to the original post - TMHT did NOT premiere on Going Live in September 1990! In fact it was on CBBC afternoons at 4.35pm (Wednesdays until "Beneath these Streets", then Tuesdays) from January 1990. "Return of the Shredder" was indeed the first episode shown, and the run ended with "The Sword of Nowhere" (note, no Ninja in the title!) Mid way through season 3.

My first episode was "Curse of the Evil Eye" in late January. At the same time, issue #1 of the TMHT Adventures comic was in the shops! I picked that up and continued to collect the comic.

The Going Live run in September was a repeat showing...and this time I was there ready with a VHS tape to get all the episodes I had previously missed.

I have fond memories of the Hero Turtles (hence the name!)

Edit:regarding why the BBC didnt get season 4 onward. It was the same reason they only purchased season 1 of Thundercats. Because they screened weekly, circa 60-65 episodes were enough to run over several years (Thundercats screened 30 episodes of the 65 episode season 1 in 1987, then repeated them, and then didnt screen the remainder until 1990... by which point it had been five years since the US showed them!!).

So it was not so much being outbid by Sky (BBC and Sky often purchased American programmes as a joint bid -splitting the terrestrial and satellite rights e.g. Star Trek Next Gen), but rather just wanting to save the money!

Welcome to the forum, looks like we had the same type of upbringing TV wise in the UK.

So to answer your questions yes BBC only showed Seasons 2 and 3. Sky One showed at least Season 1-7 as part of The DJ Kat Show:



and if you had the right channels you would have grown up with this channel:



so if you didn't have Sky or satellite you were screwed. The show was still edited for its first four seasons but at least we got to see all the episodes. I felt so lucky to get new episodes and I felt sorry for all those kids that never got to see after Season 3.

There's also a Planet of the Turtleoids commercial but can't find it.

No, they just created a UK version (which I maintain is still better than the US Amiga one:



I had no idea for years this was the case. I guess I missed the first showings on CBBC. Going Live's Return of the Shredder was my first episode.

That's right although unlike Turtles BBC ended up eventually screening all seven seasons of TNG some years after Sky did.

If anyone is curious this is the version of the intro they used for season 4 on wards. They even kept it for the Red Sky seasons.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FvgNG5ln1I

Thanks for sharing. That was the same version used in Ireland too. I still prefer it to the US one. We were lucky to able to watch all the episodes without having to get Sky.

Yep, I remember that. I always thought the UK logo was better than the US one minus the Hero word.

That's the same as the original intro seasons 4–7 (no idea what the original Vacation in Europe intro was).

^^^

Not quite. They cut out the part were the turtles jump out of the manhole in front of the Channel 6 building that leads into the mutating logo and the end were they throw the pizza at the screen which again morphs into the logo. It's not much but it is different.

The online Internet archive has a VHS rip of the UK VHS for ?Invasion of the Punk Frogs? and ?Case of the Killer Pizzas?. I would link them here, but I?m not sure how the moderators would feel about the legality of this

I am American, and I can never understand Europe's ban on the nun chucks which is a real ancient weapon used during Japan's hey day, and it was ok for Swords and Sai's to not be ban. It really made no sense to me. Historic wise, there is nothing out of the normal of what a Japanese warrior would be using with the 4 turtles. It just made no sense to me. It would be like making a movie about Greece, and say we cant show the Dory its ban in our country. But the Xiphos is ok to show.

It was the United Kingdom. The British politicians had gotten the stupid idea that because nunchucks were common in street gangs, they should be edited out from cartoons.

But knives, ice hockey sticks and baseball bats are probably OK...

If it was a gang issue, than I agree with them removing Baseball bats and knives. They did that right lol. In the US, the mob's main force weapon was a baseball bat. I know the tommy gun gets more media attention and all, but when they wanted money from you, most often it would be a bat to the knees or something like that.

The United Kingdom did not cut any scenes with knives, ice hockey sticks and baseball bats.

So what was Selphie's weapon in Final Fantasy VIII?

https://youtu.be/29byI6Cuq0

Didn’t realise the show aired on FKids too. I assumed that was only the 2003 series


https://youtu.be/29byI6Cuq00