Ninja Turtles (1987) Missing Episode 76?
 

The production order has episode 76 skipped. #75 is "Name That Toon" then jumps to #77 with "Meance Maestro,Please". I have questioned this for years. All Dan Berger knew was it was just a production error and MMP is #76 out of educated guess. While I agree that could be the case there may be another reason. Was there an episode that was hault before completion like "Nightmares Recycled" was in the 2003 cartoon? If not a lost episode is there another explaination other than a production goof? Thanks for the input and Happy 2012.

Probably that infamous "Shredder in Love" episode that they found a title and writer for.

If that "missing episode 76" had Howie in it, then I'm glad it never saw the light of day! :lol:

Nah, I'm exaggerating a little. I actually think "Name that Toon" is a pretty good episode in spite of Howie's inclusion. "Menace Maestro, Please," however is another matter.:trolleye:

Back in 2004 when I intially asked Dan he probably gave me the logical answer,but after all this time the episode number jump by one bugs me. What do you mean "Shredder In Love". As long as I have be apart of the TMTN circle and the ring of Green I don't remember any lost episode with such a title. Shredder falling in love,really? With who? I am even more curious now.:tlol:

There are five skipped production #s in syndicated Season 4. Pick one.
Fixed that for you. :)

I wonder if the Shredder in Love episode was another love potion episode like in "Green with jealousy."

Either that or Shredder fell in love with some sort of ninja lady or an alien put him under his spell. Seems like your average old toon plots.

I played around with an idea for a fan fic for a "Shredder in Love" story and had brain stormed some concepts that involving an ancient ghost of a japanese noble woman that becomes infatuated with Shredder after he steals an artifact (that was supposed to belong to her) in a genric plot of him trying to gain power. However it never got past the outline phase because of school work and other time retraints.

I understand. I am currently trying to rework some old episodes I wrote between school work and work myself. Your plot borrows a little from "Farwell,Lotus Blossom" while still unique in itself. I have done some research after reading the replies and I only came up with the writer's name that was given that was a voice actor on Aqua Teen Hunger Force. The "Shredder In Love" episode title only came up in search with this very thread and an older one that was linked. I don't know about the production numbers but going by the master list compiled by Molly Bode in and around 1998 that seems to be deifinitive episode #76 is jumped over. I don't know about five as Gobo said but just going by Mrs. Bode's list there is one missing. I thought it might have been haulted and left incomplete or as Dan told me ages ago that it was a simple oversight when they numbered episodes which would not be out of the question because of the often sketchy animation the series recieved. Thanks for your input everyone.

I have this inkling that "Shredder in Love" might have been a reference to his affinity for Japanese porcelain.:tcool:

Man, I can just think of James Avery playing a lovesick Shredder. The episode probably would have been hilarious.

Technically, it's just a goof. It's not really an "official" episode guide anyway. It was made by someone named Molly Bode I believe and went through several changes. My understanding is some episodes were re-ordered a few times and after the final cut they had no episode to put in the episode 76 slot. So yeah, just ignore it.

Do you know how many years this silly hole has bothered me? :tlol: What you say would make sense due to the continuity of Howie's character being in the two consecutive episodes ignoring the "missing 76th". So I guess someone in production goofed with the ordering of the episodes.

Molly was an employee at Mirage and ran ninjaturtles.com from its inception in 1996 to sometime into the year 2000 in which Dan Berger took over. If memory serves she was fired but I could be wrong. Her husband was one of the Mirage staff for a time. Dan stood by the episode guide and only broke up the episodes between Doomquest and Return of Dregg as it should be. She had it as one 16 episode season instead of 8. Since any site uses her guide as the definitive one I consider it that myself.

:o So, we're missing a Howie ep? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! :tcry:

Kidding, folks... :P The Howie eps weren't even scripted until after the Euro-cruise eps (which the five skipped production #s surround).
Whoa... Lotsa stuff I never knew... Thanks! ^_^ I always imagined it was Mark's sister for some reason. :P Also, I blame her for giving everyone the idea that Euro-cruise season came out in '93. :roll: It was a marathon on USA Networks early Nov '92! I remember channel-surfing and stumbling upon it that Sunday afternoon.

I went the way of the way back machine and she was co-operator with Dan until January 2000. I was thinking it was a few months later. She was "let go". Who knows why. I looked her up during the Spring of the 25th anniversary out of curiosity. There is nothing on her except I confirmed what I thought in that she was married to Mark Bode and her name goes down in history as the person who put together the definitive episode guide for the orginial TMNT cartoon. It must be if all Dan did was move Return of Dregg through Divide and Conquer into the 1996 season like it was. No one else has ever challenged it only copied it. It appears she was Mirage's archivist putting together the episode guide and comic inventory and responder to the TMNT letters while Dan took care of daily updates, his comic strips contest and other sections like the cahracter profile and origin.

As for the vacation in Europe episodes they aired after "Snakes Alive" if I am not mistaken so it was aired before "Night of The Dark Turtle" so it fits as far as when it aired. My favorite anything TMNT is seasons 7 & 8 of the original cartoon so I like where it was placed as its apart of what I like so much. I am just not crazy over the lesser Atlantis episode and Northern Lights Out otherwise the onl complaint is where the heck was Rob Paulsen and James Avery?

My understanding was that the European Vacation season never even aired on the main network. From what I've heard it only aired on the USA network edited for time in the US. Though it may have aired prior but it was technically still season 6 since they all say copyright 1992 at the end of the credits. Also, the official site's so called "order" I've always wondered about. Whether it's supposed to be what order they were produced or aired. It's fairly obvious to me at this point that there wasn't any consistency in airings across the country though. Several people on this site have original airings of TMNT episodes when they first aired in the areas and it's never in the same order. Though one consistent thing I've heard is the episode that aired after Beneath These Streets in season 3 was actually Sky Turtles, not Turtles on Trial. So yeah, makes me curious.

If you mean "on whichever broadcast network as part of the syndicated package", you'd be correct. It was a cable exclusive.

I'd rather have lost a Shredder/Krang episode than one that introduced a new mutant or other recurring character. The episode name doesn't make me feel too bad that we lost it, I mean sure i'd rather not have lost any episode but if one had to go that one is a perfect candidate. I feel kind of similar with 2k3 with the last garbage man episode, god what a worthless character, I'm not sure if this would have redeemed the character or not but a convoluted story with Hun didn't sound appealing. I'd like it if the new show in tribute to the two previous shows also skipped a production number.

Either that or an episode that debuted Wyrm...as his design was used for the toy commercial.