Did the 1987 series really start airing on Dec. 14, 1987?
 

First let me just state that yes, I understand this probably seems ridiculous to most people. Who would care EXACTLY what date something aired like this? I'm just kind of interested in history and preservation, and saw something that seemed odd.

I've been doing a bit of research on the 1987 animated series and on this Wikipedia page (and others), it states that the first episode, Turtle Tracks, first aired on Monday, December 14, 1987, and there's a citation to this archived ninjaturtles.com webpage. Well, that citation states that the show originally aired on December 28, 1987. Uhh...ok...so is it the 14th or 28th?

So I started digging a little.

I have a subscription to the Detroit Free Press and am able to view old issues. Here's the TV listing for Monday, December 14, 1987. No Ninja Turtles. Here's Monday, December 28, 1987. It shows Ninja Turtles at 7:00 AM and 4:30 PM on WXON TV-20.

I also have a subscription to the New York Times and it's the same thing. Here's their TV Listings for Monday, December 14, 1987. No Ninja Turtles. Here's Monday, December 28, 1987. It shows Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at 9:00 AM on channel 9.

So where is Wikipedia getting December 14, 1987 from? Unless I'm missing something, I can't find any evidence that the show actually started airing on that date. It sounds to me like the show first started airing on December 28. I see that Wikipedia also cites the US Copyright Office, but that doesn't show December 14 either.

I guess it's possible that it was scheduled to air at one date but got moved? If that's the case then one or more of these could mistakenly be based on a source for the scheduled date instead of the actual premiere.

Hard to say, but could be. I remember it aired as a one-time only one week premiere. It was, at the time, see it once or you'll miss it.

Then some time later they did it again. Then they announced new episodes, which would be season 2 every Sunday morning.

28 December 1987
 

I think it was 28 December 1987

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-...302-story.html

Someone posted another link on this community a year or two ago, to linking a similair newspaper article dated 28 December 1987.

Hey thanks for that link. I just updated my original post to show morning on December 28, 1987 for Detroit which shows that Detroit aired it at 7:00 AM too, so I guess they really did tell stations to air it twice a day. New York just chose not to do that though I guess.

Thanks again.

this is a case of the most obvious answer seems to be the most likely as well:

the Wikipedia page is wrong.

-all evidence you've mentioned points to 12/28 and not 12/14
-the second link you provided is an archive of the original, official tmnt site from mirage studios, the most credible source you can ask for

Anyone got the link to the old ninjaturtles.com archived site? I wonder if there's any mention of it on there.

28 December 1987
 

28 December 1987

http://mutantooze.org/ninjaturtles/c...de/cart001.htm

I open that link up in the way back machine in the archive site. It goes as far back as 1996.
https://web.archive.org/web/19961222...jaturtles.com/

The archive here shows when Next Mutation came out at the time.

Wasn't Season 1 shown twice that Christmas? I remember reading it was repeated a week after it was first shown.