When turtles jumped the shark!!
 

sure the turtles have regained face, animation wise, and have always been awesome... but have there been parts of the TMNT to you that seemed like... oh jeez this is the end...!!

i would say the cartoon jumped the shark
when splinter introduced the "CUR-LEE maneuver"
i mean i was young at the time i had seen it,
and even then i knew it was horrendous. sure it was a children's show
but i felt at the time, the creators of the show took my TMNT and
laid a most heinous dump on them.

and the 2 other tmnt films (2 &3) where the turtles faces progressively became spookier and spookier with their bugged out eyes and freckles... with their most horrendous masks in the concerts they had...
i remember seeing them appear on oprah winfrey, and the lady playing april was explaining the origin of the turtles (in full yellow news reporter outfit mind you) to a stone faced oprah, and u heard groaning and laughter coming from the audience like "i can't believe my kids watch this sh&%!)

but i don't care, those won't ruin the TMNT legacy for me, although, they do make me wince uncomfortably whenever i recollect to them.

When they replaced Shredder with Dregg...

When the CBS ones got too dull...


Third TMNT movie...


Next Mutation

TMNT II and III aren't the ORIGINAL but they are both enjoyable movies. I never worried about the TMNT film career because I figured it wouldn't last all that long.

The show however...

The first big blow is when they "dumbed-down" the show after the mini-series.

The next was when they got rid of Mike's nunchucks.

Then there were a few more that wouldn't kill the series but continued to pick away at its quality (though it was always great a show)

The overuse of mutants.

When the turtles gained their new mutations which made them pretty useless.

When Shredder was replaced by Dregg.

And CBS' horrible scheduling...



On to TNM

The series wasn't a bad idea. It could have been a good revival, but it suffered from poor quality, boring stories, and a level of cheeziness not previously known to Ninja Turtles (and that is saying a lot). That being said I enjoyed most of TNM and I'm sad it only lasted a short while. The Power Rangers crossover will live on forever!

If anything ever hurt their fandom, it would have to be when they replaced Shredder with a new (and irritating) arch-villian, and I'm talking about all the genres here!

I agree with everything here, except I think that the second and third movies and Next Mutations were terrible ideas; and thus shark jumping events as well.

I'd also like to add that the Image comic series hurt the Mirage TMNT as well.

I completely agree with that. I hate Cartner nearly as much as I hate Keno. He didn't have any purpose except to add political correctness (because he's black). The entire mutation storyline was horrible. I'd erase that from TMNT history before TNM or Venus.

In the new show when all turtles say "turtles forever" all at once.

When I saw that I was thinking, "oh man I hope nobody saw this"

I don't think you understand the topic. Jumping the Shark moments are not mere embarrassing moments. They are changes in a television or film series that permenantly change the series for the worse. They are usually manifested by an addition of a new character, a changing of a character's personality, changing the tone of a show, introducing new storylines, etc.

I think the old show had numerous such moments that really snowballed from the second season on. Although it seems that the "Red Sky" eps really began pole vaulting the shark :). Although, they were some of the most action packed eps that the series produced.

There's no question that the second TMNT movie had several JTS moments as well: Keno, lack of weapons, costumes, new April, no Casey, the fuzzy and cuddly Tokka and Rahzar, etc. I won't even mention the 3rd film.

I'd also say that Image comics decision (well Erik Larsen's decision) to mutilate the TMNT was another example of JTS. It didn't work, and watching each character suddenly get disfigured issue after issue was very contrived.

The Next Mutation was a disaster there's no question. I'm not certain the show ever had a JTS moment because it never caught on. Although it can be viewed as JTS moment for TMNT in general. But then again that award will have to go to the "TMNT Band". "We're the Turtles, You can count on us!"