What was the point of the vacation episodes?

[turtlefanforever]

Originally Posted by blindturtle02

I loved these when I was a kid. Wanna say they aired on USA network for the first time in the Fall of 93? So I always wanted these on a series of 5 to 6 VHS tapes like the sewer hero series etc. Now when I rewatch them, the episodes without Shredder and co are a little difficult to sit through. They're not terrible, but I like the Saturday morning CBS run where you had random mad scientists or mobsters better than the villains in the vacation arc. The comedy there felt like it came easier with those writers. The random villains here were a bit odd, I guess. The snooty art loving aliens weren't all that interesting.

Glad to have them all on DVD now. I need to look back at this other thread on these forums where a member tried to organize them by way of travel. If you watch them in the way they were aired, they're sort of going all over the place episode by episode. At least that's the way I remember it. The last time I watched this arc was back in May of 2013. I'm actually stalled in season 6. Just got to doing other things and really need to get back to the OT so I can finish up eventually.

As for the point, that's hard to say. I wonder why they didn't do this arc sooner. I mean, we got informed in the s4 premier that they won the trip but next episode they're fighting a gigantic monkey in New York. At least I think Turtles of The Jungle comes next after Plan 6 From Outer Space. Always wondered if some kid or group of kids wrote a letter to the writers asking to follow through with the idea of a vacation miniseries or something. Does anyone know the story behind the reason why we had to wait so long for this particular batch of episodes back in the 90's?

This season takes place between the first two episodes of season 4