The Shows TMNT Inspired
 

Not positive if this is the right forum for this, but I wanted to share- Located this blog post that credits the TMNT for all of the animal teams and mutant shows that followed:

http://www.retroanimation.blogspot.com/

I remember loving a lot of these! Especially Swamp Thing, Toxic Crusaders and Bucky O'Hare. I don't remember following The Wild West C.O.W.Boys of Moo Mesa. But the connection to TMNT is interesting nevertheless.

Most of those i think predate TMNT. The only one that may have a tenuous connection to TMNT is WWCBoMM, which was created by Mirage's own Ryan Brown.

I don't believe the point was the age of the material so much as how the market changed after TMNT proved what was possible (because Swamp Thing alone was born in 1971) and there's a reference to Bucky O'Hare being born in 1978 or something like that.

More that the world was scrambling to put out shows with mutants and anthropomorphic teams out there once the market responded to our favorite green guys. It was a great era for sure! I miss a lot of this stuff.

There were also many dinosaur shows in the late '80s before Extreme Dinosaurs arrived, which I feel arose from those shows and Street Sharks. Its a good list, and remember that its based upon when these franchises became popular in the wake of TMNT's rise in 1988. This list is pretty good, but I'm surprised Battletoads missed the list due to its video games.

While Sentai had been around for many years in Japan, the American title "Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers" was clearly inspired by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

I bet Zyuranger likely would have seen an American adaptation even without the existence of the TMNT. It had dinosaurs in it, which is another things kids love.

How's that?

Saban had been trying to adapt Sentai since the 80s with Bioman (which pre-dated TMNT) being considered. It was going to happen eventually, even without TMNT.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers

Both are four words, with two adjectives (in Power Rangers' case it's an adjective and a verb) before the team name that make the title kind of wacky. I don't think the similar naming strategy is coincidental.

Why not? Things can have four words without being somehow connected to something else.

TMNT was the most popular kids franchise at the time, and Saban was trying to market a new kids show featuring a superhero team. I'm pretty sure the similarity was intentional. Kids liked one thing with a strange name, so lets give this new show a strange name too.