Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987–1996: 25th Anniversary of Season 10

[Leo656]

Originally Posted by Sumac

Considering that RSS feels like a different series, anyway, I'd be OK with that.


I disagree - they pretty much got rid of everything that made FW show memorable and itself. Yes, its time has gone by the beginning of the 90s, like time of all others cartoons from the 80s, but butchering into something darker and even less coherent than most of the early episodes didn't help anyone.

I don't think a lot of people liked whatever seasons 9-10 did and its characters. And I doubt they've helped to sell a lot of toys.
Yes, show was around for three more years, but was it? It was unrecognizable, with only 8 episodes per season, no memorable characters or stories, arcs that were constantly introduced and aborted for no reason and rather boring new artstyle.

It was more of a life support than full-fleshed existence at this point an d it was fairly pointless, considering that majority of the people barely acknowledge RSS.

What's the alternative? Cancel everything outright?

Again, we're not talking "creative" decisions, we're talking "How do you try to sustain a billion-dollar franchise for just a little longer" decisions. You never leave money on the table, you squeeze the tit until it's bleeding.

I don't have the toy sales numbers in front of me, but at that point, if they sold any significant numbers at all, I'm sure they were more than happy to take it. Even one dollar coming in from a franchise that by rights should've been dead by 1993 was a victory. And I'm sure it was more than that, while still far from what they made in 1990. But again, I don't think anyone at all was expecting 1990 levels of "success" in 1993.

The attempt to retrofit FW into a Batman: TAS or X-Men: TAS clone was haphazard but it was a success by the standards of which they were going for. That being, "Let's just try and keep it going a little longer since it's been such a huge money-maker for us." It worked, by any objective measure.

It "helped" plenty of people. Such as, the fans who were still just happy the toys and show still existed at all, and most importantly, the people making money off the brand, who got to keep making money for an extra two-plus years.

It's like, I hate the "Back to the Sewers" seasons of the 4Kids show a whole bunch. They "ruined" the show for me the way Red Sky "ruined" FW for a lot of people. BUT, they succeeded at what they attempted to do - keep the show on the air a little longer and keep selling more toys, long after the show had run out of steam creatively. Same exact thing, same exact results. Right down to a lot of existing fans not liking it. Definitely wasn't what I wanted to see, but it worked for what 4Kids and Playmates wanted it to do.

"Red Sky", same thing.