Why did CBS take over TMNT during mid-season 4?
Why did CBS take over the MWS series during mid-season 4? I can understand if it happened during the start of a season, but right in the middle of a season?
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The defined “seasons” for the original TMNT series are very muddy. They were not set on a regular schedule like they are today. Also, while CBS episodes started airing on Saturday mornings, there were still new episodes happening in syndication. Trying to sort them out into one cohesive list was never really going to be possible.
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The way cartoons were handled in the 80's and early 90's are so fundamentally different from now that it's something only the past business execs would know about. TMNT of course being a huge fad at the time was a major exception and why they kept renewing it for so long.
The opening changed in mid-Season 4, so you can pinpoint the time the show was renewed. |
Actually it was kinda different. If you guys recall back then, the same 2 or so seasons of several cartoons were aired weakly on FOX and whatnot, while the newer episodes with higher animation quality and new intros were aired Saturday mornings.
If I recall, 2 main examples were the Smurfs and The Chipmunks. The Smurfs had the same batch of episodes running weekly, but the ones aired on Saturday were newer episodes and newer characters (I forgot their names, there was like a little girl Smurf and a grandpa Smurf added later on, and I don't mean Papa Smurf and Smurfette). The Chipmunks had the same batch running weekly, but the Saturday morning version had a different intro and the designs were improved, making them look like they did in the Chipmunk adventure and their cameo appearance in the Cartoon All-Stars to the rescue. The Turtles was the very rare example in which they had the first 3 seasons running weekly, with CBS running newer episodes with a new intro and a slightly different art style and in an hour long 2 episode format, with one episode being the usual Shredder stuff and the second episode mostly focusing on one Turtle and the villain being scientists and mobsters. The difference with the Turtles and all the other cartoons like Smurfs, Beetlejuice, The Chipmunks and Muppet Babies... was that occasionally there would be new episodes appearing in the weekly format, still with the classic intro. Offhand I can remember the Rondo episode, the Howie episodes, that giant Don VS giant ape, Shredder's mom and the two Hokum Hare episodes were new episodes running in the weekly run at the same time that CBS was still airing their new episodes with the new intro and such. That's why we had two Atlantis episodes, one was weekly, the other was the CBS one. That's also why we have 2 episodes of the bad guys surviving the end of season 3's Big Blow Out, because Plan 6 from Dimension X started new eps for the weekly run while The Dimension X Story was the series premiere for the CBS eps. It was a case of the right hand not knowing what the left hand was doing, and the reason why the episodes are so sloppily out of order on the DVDs. After season 3 and some of 4, it really wasn't a matter of seasons anymore, it was just the weekly eps and the CBS Saturday eps. When trying to make sense of what was a season 4, a season 5 and what-have-you, whenever DVD sets became a thing, well.... I don't envy the guys in charge of having to sort through that mess. It wasn't until Red Sky kept things only on CBS that there was a clear format. |
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During this season, the Technodrome is back in Dimension X, having been launched from Earth through a portal at the conclusion of season 3 .[1] The season premiere, "Plan 6 from Outer Space", aired in syndication, and detailed how the villains' battle fortress crash-landed on an asteroid; in the later episode, "The Dimension X Story" a volcano on the asteroid erupted, immobilizing the Technodrome by surrounding it with molten lava.[2] "The Dimension X Story" was evidently intended to be the first episode of the CBS run, as many other episodes which aired before it from both the syndication and CBS episodes refer to the Technodrome being trapped in lava, but wound up airing very late in the season." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teenage...es)_(season_4) To answer your question it is possible CBS made the deal but didn't have time to finalise it before new episodes were to be aired so the syndicated episodes were made first before the deal was set in stone. Notice also the CBS episodes have a slightly bigger budget for animation. |
I prefer the title sequences instead of the title cards.
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Reruns
When were all those reruns back then? After Christmas and new year? (as most episodes aired between September and early-mid December)
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...ries)_episodes |
So, I didn't grow up in the US, and the CBS/syndicated/weekday thing is confusing. What does that MEAN? Were two shows effectively commissioned, created, and aired simultaneously, with the voice cast working on both? Why would that happen?
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It's also a bit confusing because those European Vacation episodes were also made during Season 4. So Season 4 was one weird as hell scheduled season. Probably why that season has 40 whopping episodes and is the longest season of the show. |
Ok... But why was the animation different? Was it not produced by the same company?
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Plan Six/Dimension X Story/Son of etc. were continuations of the main plot in that order. If you went from Plan Six to Turtles of the Jungle, it wouldn't make sense because they went from a ruined Technodrome with broken portal/equipment to fully functioning again. Especially when you factor in the European episodes.
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For example look at something like Season 5. Episodes like the Muckman ep used a completely different animation studio than the Mutagen Man episode, the latter which was the standard animation studio for the time. |
I used to tape the shows in the order of airing. It would be interesting to compare the order of my tapings to that "official" airdates list...because I do remember that "The Dimension X Story" aired first, not in the middle of the season on CBS. The tapes are long gone now, though.
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