Season 10 Question
 

Who's idea was it to bring Shredder and Krang back for Season 10?
Was it CBS, the writers, or someone else?

They probably knew from the start that Season 10 would be the shows final season so obviously they wanted to bring back Shredder/Krang one last time before the show ended.

It was probably considered by everyone who worked on the show at the time.

^ What that guy said.

Jeffery Scott, the script writer is the one who brought Shredder and Krang back minus Bebop and Rocksteady though it was not known at the time the scripts were turned in that it would be the last episodes.

Technodrome
 

What rocks the most is showing the Technodrome again in "Divide & Conquer", damaged and echoing back to the war machine of "Turtle Tracks".

I find it ironic they didn't bother to bring back Bebop and Rocksteady, yet Barry and Cam could've provided those voices at any time.

According to the Jeffery Scott interview ninjaturtles.com had up for the last 10 years, he said he was told to avoid them.

I did notice that while they were still dumb and whatever, there weren't any moments of them dropping things or jokes centered around how incompetent they were come Red Sky. Kinda interesting and goes to show you have henchmen that are dumb, but not flat out brain dead.

They actually got ride of the turtles and effectively beat them in Wrath of The Rat King. So it surprises me Scott was told Shredder and KRang are okay while Bebop and Rocksteady are not. They could be wildcards to put an end to Dregg's scheme after doing what they did with Aplha 1 and much later Chr'ell. An example that their being remembered as slapstick and ineffective enemies for laughs is only a mental blockage of what was yesterday with the ability to toughen them up and a little blood on thier hands will help. Bebop already has Chr'ells'!:D

But why?
 

But why was he told to do that?

What I'm most interested in was what the final "nail in the coffin" that stopped the OT at the 10th Season?

The viewership of TMNT must have already been suffering at Season 8 if they only had 8 episodes for each season during Season 8-10, but what finally gave the OT the axe at Season 10? Some have suggested it was the Children's Television Act of 1990 that was finally enforced in 1996-1997 (mandating educational programming on Saturday mornings) that did it, which is why CBS transformed their programming to news to still fit within the educational regulations of that Act.

Still would love to know what specifically caused it to cease in 1996, if going back to syndication was too risky, and why the ideas proposed for its future (i.e. a OT cartoon movie according to Renae Jacobs; who played the voice of April) never worked out?

See her interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9LR_dewQtA
(She reveals that the infamous OT lost episode "Shredder in Love" WAS actually recorded. If it will see the light of day is a whole other story...)

The show ran for 10 years, it was time for it to end. What did you expect?

There was also Cartoon Network becoming popular by this time, but the staff just didn't seem too interested in renewal, probably due to a decline in popularity. But if the series was still popular, it may have continued on Cartoon Network. It would have never worked on Nickelodeon at the time as TMNT wouldn't have been viewed as "Nickelodeon enough" at the time. Sadly, USA stopped airing cartoons in September 1996 (they picked up the syndicated rights and still had them until 1999) since they wanted to focus more on crime shows and movies. Topped with declining toy sales for years, there was little reason to produce a new run of episodes.

Power Rangers is obviously what killed TMNT more than anything. If TMNT had continued it would have been completely destroyed by Pokemon in 1998 anyway.

To CyberCubed,

Any cartoon running that long...of course you would expect it to end soon. The original series was an anomaly running that long, but as I stated beforehand that they only had 8 episodes since Season 8, but yet for some reason or someone decide to continue sticking with the cartoon for another 2 years. I guess miraculously hoping for interest to peak up again.

To pannoni1,
Thank you for your input. I appreciate it.

Act?
 

So, the USA uses laws to say what private TV and radio are to broadcast and not on special times.

Inside a prison in the USA, talking between two open cell doors who the gurd forgot to close, both of them:
*Person A: I'm here for robbing a bank and shooting the cashier. The police captured me, I and I was sentenced to prison.
*Person B: And I ran a TV station. We didn't air educational TV on Saturday morning.

:)

Can't imagine it working that way, just a react on such a law.

LOL, well not necessarily prison time, but more like FCC monetary fines.

See more about it on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childre...Television_Act
You'll see that 1996 was around the time when the rules were strictly enforced from the 1990 law. (Before 1996 networks were claiming that action cartoons, like TMNT, were educational because they taught "right from wrong" [remember the "Turtle Tips" PSAs that showed up in 1990?? The same year that law was passed] rather than more legit educational shows like "The Magic School Bus" and "Beakman's World". After 1996-1997, that BS reasoning was out the window and didn't count in the eyes of the FCC.)

You can tell that after the 1996-1997 programming schedule, things changed dramatically on CBS.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996%E2...day_morning%29

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997%E2...day_morning%29

If you are interested in the HUGE decline in network Saturday cartoons, check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturday_morning_cartoon
If you grew up on cable television, you probably wouldn't have known such a difference growing up though.

I guess the only thing that will satisfy my logic is if there is a Nielsen ratings list of the cartoon throughout the years. Interestingly if anyone bought the new 1988 TMNT action figures, it says on the back of the packaging that the OT was #1 for an unprecedented 5 years with Saturday morning cartoons. Oh well....I was always wondering why end at season 10 rather than 8, 9, or if it happened...11 or 12 if things were already getting bleaker with only 8 episodes per season?

It seemed that the enforcement Children's Television Act at 1996-1997 seemed less of a coincidence for both.

Update:
-According to TMNT Wikia, (you can judge it's how accurate it is or not) it says that the show was cancelled because of these new FCC regulations within the Children's Television Act.
See: tmnt.wikia.com/wiki/Teenage_Mutant_Ninja_Turtles_(1987_TV_series)

- Also pannoni1! lol, I thought you said the show suffered from a lack of popularity.
Hmm, I guess this post will have to change: http://forums.thetechnodrome.com/sho...&postcount=194
Especially this part: "1. Series finale. The reason for the series' end is not due to sagging ratings or poor merchandise sales but due to network television Educational and Informational (E/I) requirement, in which TMNT does not provide enough of."

Hmmm, more things to stir the pot as to what was the final nail in the coffin. Interesting...