How long was the in-universe span of the show?
 

In the 2k3 forum we're discussing how long the turtles were "active" here and I wanted to have the same discussion for the OT.

Basically how many years happened between the first episode and the last. Do we know how old the turtles are?, I'd like it if the ten seasons happened and the turtles could still be teenagers, I'm guessing that might not be much of a problem. I think the entire show could have happened over the span of 4/5 years? Thats plausible it could have happened even before.

The main problem is the shows "present time" in the first season would technically be 88 or 87 (the turtles are called 88 in Turtles Forever). The technology/fashion/etc all reek of the late 80s, however the last few seasons are clearly taking place in the mid 90s. I guess the show could start in the very early 90s since those early years was still transitioning from that stench of the 80s (:p) and that way the timeline could work better but i don't like messing with the fact that they technically started in 88.

I think it took place over 10 years. The Turtles might have been 25 years old in Season 10.

The last few seasons don't have to be in the mid 90's... they're fictional universe could have just had internet before ours did.

Internet
 

Internet was around in the 1980's-early 1990's, but not the Internet as we know it today. Internet statrted in the USA in 1969, it's just the modern Internet that came during the second half of the 1990's.

The season 5 episode "Once Upon a Time Machine" actually establishes the year as 1991 with two explicit references, one on Krang's computer as he explains time travel and the other when Leonardo says that it took them "45 Years" to learn their lesson. Since the turtles had an adventure in the year 2036, the 45 years reference puts the episode's date in 1991.

Also, in the Season 3 (I think episode) "Invasion of the Turtle Snatchers," April celebrates her 1-year anniversary working for Channel 6 News, suggesting that not much time had passed between the first 3 seasons.

But... it is a cartoon. So... who know how many days were in a year in the Fred Wolf universe anyway?:P

There's some snow episodes, but I'm pretty sure none of them actually take place in the winter. Thinking about it makes me mad all over again about them not making a Christmas episode...

I'm not exactly sure but I do have some clues to offer. Maybe they'll help:

In "It Came From Beneath The Sewers", one of the kids at the carnival who April tried to get the crystal from said "Three dollars won't buy you didley these days. We're children of the 80's".

In "Once Upon A Time Machine" and "Elementary My Dear Turtle", it is claimed that it is the year 1991. They both sorta took place in the same season. Even though the Europe episodes are from season 7, they actually took place when the Technodrome was on the volanic asteroid, which was seasons 4 and 5.

In "Get Shredder", when Shredder and Krang found out about the Hall of Science from 1964, Krang claims it was abandoned for almost 30 years, meaning this has to be 1993 or 1994.

In "Enter Krakus", Krakus claims he's from the year 2066, then Raphael says that's 70 years later. This must be the year 1996.

Season 10 happened 2 years later than season 8. In "A Turtle In Time", Landore and Merrick time traveled to Turtle Trek and brought the turtles of that time to the current episode. They claim Turtle Trek happened 2 years and 15 days ago.

Based on these facts, the show definitely took place in the 80's and 90's.

Even if they mention "children of the 80s" that doesn't mean its taking place in the 80s, a teenager in the early 90s would have been a kid in the 80s therefore that sentence still makes sense. So after reading some posts I guess it makes more sense to place the show in the early 90s. And I don't like the idea that the turtles are 25 at the end of the show, besides don't they make constant references that they are teenage mutant turtles?

Well when you get to stuff like that you can also say that a year isn't the same since its a fictional universe, a year is actually 600 days etc.

The thing that really blows my mind is that in "Donatello's Degree" there was a banner that read "Class of 1994" (or something like that), even though the episode was from the 1990 season! What were the background artists thinking?

This makes the seemingly non-sensical joke in the second Prof. Sofo ep make a bit more sense. Why did Mikey say he must have missed that episode? Because it still wasn't 2004 yet. :P
Four-year college, of course... :P

They jst forgot how smart Donny was!, was able skip a few years...:P

I think that a generic timeline in the series is present that you can pick up on this through little hints and throw away comments made by the characters. In the first season when Tragg used a weather altering device to make it snow causeing April comment on how it could snow in the middle of june, so the turtles met April and the Shredder somtime in June. Fast foward to season three the episode Michelangelo's birthday. On the calender on the wall at the start of the episode it shows a summery looking picture with a specific day circled. Now we can all suspend belief that the boys actually somehow have seprete birthdays, but it is clearly summer time in Michelangelo's birthday we just don't know if it's july or August. Which would mean between the events of season one and season three only a month or two has past.

Also in season three April celebrates her first year anniversary at channel six. I don't think this means the turtles have known her for an entire year since the start of the series, but it could mean that when she met them turtles she had been at channel six for almost an entire year. Maybe her aniversary was in september or october. If we fast foward to season four to the episode the tortoise and the hare where they meet Hokum hare it is Easter which makes it April. Which makes the time line in season four just shy of a year from season one. Which is alot of stuff to have happened in just one year but, hey I guess it could happen. But if you think about it that one hectic year the turtles went through. Kind of makes you wonder how they aren't nervous wrecks by that easter episode.

If everything between season one and four is encompassed in one year than I guess it's not unreasonalable to say that entire series happened in the span of two years or so.

Is there anything that indicates a passage of time or time line between that That I may have missed? Or anything after?

Nice job Sage! It's totally reasonable to think that they could have a super-busy year like that, I could imagine the OT Turtles going on an adventure several times a week easily lol.

In every other post-S3 syndicated ep and Euro-cruise ep, they said it was '91.

thats our time line I'm talking about the passage of time in the OT universe.

Yeah, but if you find any other evidence of which year it was in a particular episode, that helps determine how much time has passed too.

Oh yeah, and I remember Raph stating that it's "the middle of July" in Take Me To Your Leader.

And Super Irma from season 6 takes place on Halloween.

I do notice how at least in the first eps, their adventures took place within an actual week... maybe Monday through Friday as aired? I mean each episode seemed to end at night and the next one would start off with the next morning with references to the day/episode before.

Given the nature of Shredder and Krang's plots and whatnot, I wouldn't be surprised if they fought the turtles 3 or even 4 times a week. I don't even remember any episode taking place over a day (within the episode).

Leonardo vs. Tempestra comes to mind. I think that one actually took place over a couple of days. There were a handful that went from day to night.

Whacky and wild as the OT universe is, I'm sure some "daytime" episodes could take place on the same day as certain "nighttime" episodes.

Not possible! Wake up and smell the sewage. When it goes from day to night, a century has obviously passed. :roll: Any two-day-old can tell you that.