Your Top 5 Things About/That Came From/In the OT
 

I'm doing an article for the next Cereal:Geek and want to know what your top five favorite things about the OT were/are. It could be anything, the figures, the characters, particular stories, the fact that it changed TMNT 2, the legacy, ANYTHING!! I want to know! Lay it out right here...

The characters
 

The characters. The plots are often based on silly science fiction movies from the 1950's and 1960's.

I loved the vast list of creative and yes some times corny characters they had on the show, it was almost always something new and exciting.

Can you both give me a top five and a quick why? And if it is characters, are there ones that stand out more than others, or is it an overall cast thing?

1. The way they handled the series with new episodes almost at a super human rate for any animated series, creating brand new stories something even the new series didn't do very often and wasn't met with the same acceptance of fans that the original series did with all of it's wacky characters.
2. How Raphael was handled, he was a smart @ss but super funny, allot of his jokes went over my head as a kid.
3. They weren't afraid to do different things like making the show go in a different direction with the Red Sky episodes, and the destruction of Channel 6 was epic and left a lasting memory on my 14 year old mind forever.
4. The voice work, and chemistry between actors is amazing.
5. Taking toys and making them work in the show and be believable.

That work for ya Trist?

Perfectly V! Exactly what I was after!

If everyone else could use this as an example, I'd be super appreciative!

I'll be doing this Letterman style.


5. Setting the groundwork for some of entertainment's most beloved anthropomorphic hero icons of yesteryear, such as C.O.W.Boys of Moo Mesa, Street Sharks, and Battletoads (the game, not the one-shot cartoon episode. Yuck).
4. Nine years of solid entertainment
3. Spawned the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures comic series
2. Legendary voice actors
1. Introduced me to the world of the Turtles, a world which has help shaped my own.

1. The other mutants. Aboslutely my favorite aspect of the old toon/TMNT Adventures. There were a ton of really fun characters that came from the mutant idea, and their ties to the toy line made them all the more interesting to me as a kid. If there's any aspect that I feel could really work in a more serious medium, it'd be the other mutants as well. People transformed into half-animal monsters? That's actually pretty sick.

2. The humor/tone. This show really went in its own direction. It wasn't a total camp-fest like the '60s Batman, and it wasn't like other '80s cartoons like He-Man, Transformers, and G.I. Joe. It was something of a mix, and I don't think it's been reproduced since.

3. The rogues gallery. This marks first and last time the Turtles had a diverse and interesting cadre of recurring super villains. Krang, Baxter, the Rat King, Leatherhead, Slash, Groundchuck, Dirtbag, etc. They could've been used more often, but we haven't seen as strong a collection of villains in any other version.

4. The voices. I'm still in awe of how any human can make the sounds Fraley's Krang made.

5. The toy line. It was such a huge part of my childhood, and I think having such a large cast of characters to play with really fostered some creativity. I still get nostalgic when I have a "spot the toy moment" watching the old episodes.

Honorable mention goes to April being a reporter, since it opened up so many possibilities (and conflicts with having to keep secrets for a bunch of news-worthy mutants.)

5. Took the Eastman and Laird comic to the main stream. If it weren't for the OT, how big would this forum be? Heck, what would it be called?

4. It gave us, not sure if this is a good thing, the bandanna color code, that would still be used to this day. The Turtles were gone for what 8 years, and when they were brought back they had the same bandanna scheme as the OT...ok...this is the weak entry in my list. "So sue me!"

3. Developed the Turtles personas. I'm not sure how developed the TMNT's individual personalities were in the 3 years from their creation to the OT, but the OT drew the archetypes that would be the TMNT (and even other cartoon series): The Leader, The Brain, The Cynic, and The Joker.

2. The wacky characters. They came up with some totally off the wall characters, but it worked in this crazy, knew-it's-own-cheese-factor, show. Wacky characters played well into the humor of the show, which often broke the 4th wall.

1. (for me any way) The cast! My god what a talented cast. Pat Fraley, Cam Clark, Townsend Coleman, Barry Gordon, Peter Reneday, Renae Jacobs, Jim Cummings, and my biggest idol, the reason I to this day love Raphael, Rob Paulsen. This cast to me is iconic. I can hear them in almost anything they do. They are the ones who made me consider Voice Acting as a career, now if I could only figure out how to live that dream!

the voice cast! It was the best thing of the series! Every one meshed so well together.

April as a reporter, really that was the best thing they ever did for her character in this series, and they really used it well with the plots.

The characters! These character wheren't the least bit flat or monotoned and just crackled with chemistry.

The Multi colored bandannas! its funny how the colors matched their personalites.

Donatello, he had an edge to him most brainic characters didn't have in cartoons those days. Instead of being just a straight up geek he was written to have a cynical almost disdainful view of humanity, while still appearing to be the quirky mad inventor!

Jester said it so well, I'm not going to try and rehash it. Instead, I'll list a few other aspects I appreciate:

1) Theme song. By far the pick of the litter. As a kid, the opening music was my and my brothers' cue to start jumping around like idiots and throw random karate punches/kicks. Ninjas count it off? Back, back to the sewer? Puh-leeze.

2) The gadgets. Took the awesomeness of Bond and applied it to a kid-friendly medium. Turtle Van™, Turtle Blimp™, Turtle Comm™, Cheap Skates™, Shredder's modules, and, of course, The Technodrome™!

3) April O'Neil. Sure, she was kidnapped a lot and used as bait. But she was a strong female character who pursued her passion of journalism (albeit to an occasionally hazardous degree); watch Season 1 for examples of hard-as-nails determination. She was a role model for me as a kid.

4) Pizza. Yes, the OT Turtles' obsession with the pizza pie is legendary. Perhaps it was detrimental, overall. But it was such a hoot to see what oddball combinations would turn up next. It inspired me to try peanut butter pizza, and to this day my innermost secret desire is to open a pizzeria by the name of Ninja Pizza, where the employees would be dressed up as ninja, the decor would be Japanese, and TVs would show TMNT as well as other martial arts shows/movies 24/7. And yes, you could order a peanut butter pizza there. ^_^

5) Ok, it's already been stated several times, but the voice actors from the OT were AMAZING. They are the ones who really made the show. Rob Paulsen is my hero. :tthumbsu:

1. April O'Neil as a reporter. Yes, it was like April was the "Lois Lane" of TMNT back then. She was a reporter who always found out what the criminals or Shredder were doing and informed the Turtles about them.

2. Raph being sarcastic. Old toon Raphael is the most unique incarnation of him of any of the others, I loved how sarcastic and cynical he was all the time. While he didn't have as much rage as other Raph's did, he had his own turmoil and attitude that really made him stand out.

3. Krang, Bebop and Rocksteady. Yes, you can't leave them out. Three of the best villains the franchise ever had originated with the old toon.

4. The funny/silly plots. The writers went wacky with the old toon but for that time it actually worked. Rings that could shoot fire, parallel dimensions, mutants, aliens, it was all awesome.

5. The PIZZA. Cowabunga!

I'll stick to the contributions to the TMNT mythos:

1. The association of TMNT with pizza. It was the perfect power-up for video games and it automatically identified most every kid with the TMNT.
2. Bebop and Rocksteady. Everybody loves bumbling minions!
3. The Technodrome. Because it's awesome to drive Shea Stadium around under NYC.
4. Colored bandanas. Come on, would we really have been able to tell the TMNT apart without the different colors?
5. April as reporter. The yellow jumpsuit was the iconic look that fit perfectlly with the Turtles' various colors.

There should really be a means for U.S. residents to sample some of Cereal Geek's articles.

Count me in as an investor.....

Background music
 

And the background music of the 1987 TMNT cartoon rocks.

1) Krang
2) Krang
3) Krang
4) Krang
and 5) Krang with Bebop and Rocksteady.

Shea Stadium
 

Like the Shea Stadium? Have you seen this?: http://forums.thetechnodrome.com/showthread.php?t=25046

C'mon mate, don't stick to things! Just give me your top five, no matter what it is :)!

Also, there are plenty of previews around, you just gotta look around a bit...

like here for example.

J, could you please give me a top 5? I was kinda specific about that, and you've really only piped up with two things, one of which doesn't really tell me anything about why you liked it.

5
 

*Action - Especially during the first seasons (sadly it was toned down during later seasons)
*Background music - identical for each location (TMNT lair, Channel 6, Technodrome) and also for incidents
*Bandanas of many colors - This is how almost everybody today mainly know the TMNT
*Characters - Funny to watch (Krang and Shredder arguing, Michelangelo's jokes, Irma as a girl looking for a romance)
*Vehicles - Many cool vehicles (Cheapskate, Technodrome, Turtle Van)