Episodes where the Turtles are hunted by humans as fugitives
 

There were 3 episodes in the original toon where the Turtles were hunted as fugitives or because they were mutants.

- The first was in, "Invasion of the Punk Frogs" where that anti-mutant task force came after both them and the Punk Frogs. They froze the Frogs on ice and almost did the same to the Turtles. After some skirmishes with Shredder we never see them again.

- Next was in, "Dirk Savage, Mutant Hunter," when Dirk Savage set out to capture all the mutants in NYC. And the Turtles were hunted along with Mondo Gecko, the frogs and Rahzar/Tokka.

- The second to last one was in, "State of Shock" during Season 8, where the "Dark Water" human group hunts the turtles for being criminals.

And then finally in Season 9, Lord Dregg smears the Turtles image in NYC to the point where there are wanted criminal signs of them put up in NYC.


Did anyone else really like the concept of the Turtles being hunted by humans? It really proved that the Turtles couldn't walk around NYC freely without disguises as sooner or later some bounty hunter or anti-mutant group would go after them. Reminds me of arcs in Batman or Spiderman when the police come after them. Or the similar hate-crimes in X-men.

There was also The Great Boldini in which the MacGuffin emerald got stolen. The police immediately assumed the Turtles stole it once their cover was blown. The Turtles commandeer the Channel 6 news van and get chased by the police in hot pursuit.

As for the Punk Frogs introductory episode, how could anybody mistake mutant frogs for mutant turtles? Which of course Leo felt insulted about and brought it up but was never mentioned again. Along with the Anti-Turtle Squad. It looked as if they would be recurring threats to the Turtles similar to the Quarrymen in Gargoyles but were never seen again. What a shame.

It also happened in Turtles On Trial when that Clayton Kellerman guy did the show spreading rumors about the turtles and then an angry mob was after them.

Also in Slash The Evil Turtle From Dimension X when the turtles got blamed for all the destruction Slash caused and an angry mob was also after them.

In season 9, I was surprised that everyone believed Dregg that he was good and the turtles were bad after Dregg was being bad in front of a large crowd of humans in his first episode The Unknown Ninja.

I watched that scene in "Unknown Ninja" a few times and I think Dregg's ship landed in front of everyone but he was only addressing Carter and the Turtles. It wasn't until "Dregg of the Earth" that he showed himself to the public and used his molecular converter to turn polluted water normal.

Its wonderful that the writers didn't treat the Turtles only as heroes in the old toon. It was realistic to have people still fear and want to capture them.

One of the things I've noticed as an adult is that there was a huge misstep in how the OT utilized it's characters. The Anti Mutant Squad were a great threat threat were never fully realized which is too bad because they had potential. You could even have Dirk Savage as their leader. It's a shame that such a great idea was only used as a plot device for one episode.

I don't think the writers wanted to have the turtles constantly hunted for walking outside on the streets. It showing up just every so often was a smarter move.