Why are the seasons 3 and 4 of the FW series so huge?

[Prowler]

They're like 40+ episodes each. Nearly half of the show's episodes are in these seasons.

I know that Turtlemania peaked in 1989-1990, but still, those 2 massive seasons are what make people less likely to marathon the FW series. Especially since a lot of the worst episodes are in the 4th season. Hell, the European Vacation episodes are technically part of it, but for some reason they didn't air until 1993, thus being erroneously considered part of season 7 by many. So basically, season 4 is 50+ episodes long. That's pretty crazy for a cartoon. Especially an episodic and formulaic cartoon series like 1987 TMNT.

[Leo656]

I think that was the peak of the after-school syndication run, with new episodes airing daily. It wasn't altogether uncommon back then for shows that aired daily to have very large episode orders. For example, the Filmation He-Man cartoon had 130 episodes split between only two Seasons. It felt like there were more Seasons because the show remained in syndicated reruns for nearly 5 years, but no, only two large Seasons.

I'd guess the TMNT situation was simply a mix between the rise in the Turtles' popularity combined with the fact of that's just how popular shows were made back then. I can see why the first two Seasons were smaller orders but once Turtlemania took off I can see why they'd want more episodes produced. Once the "fad" part cooled off, the Seasons went back to a more manageable size, especially once it became Saturday morning-exclusive later on.

[CyberCubed]

Season 3 in particular brought the episode count up to 65, which was the standard episode length for kids cartoons back then. 65 episodes is where it would have ended had it not been a huge hit.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Originally Posted by Leo656

For example, the Filmation He-Man cartoon had 130 episodes split between only two Seasons. It felt like there were more Seasons because the show remained in syndicated reruns for nearly 5 years, but no, only two large Seasons.

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe was followed up by She-Ra: Princess of Power. Then, there was a break until The New-Adventures of He-Man. That may explain why many people think "He-Man was always on the air with new episodes from September 1983 until December 1990".

[neatoman]

Well there is an easy answer for why season 3 is as long as it is, syndication. At the time there was a push to make as many cartoons at least 65 episodes long as quickly as possible, this is because you can air 5 episodes per week for exactly 13 weeks, which is more or less three months. Normally a show aims for 100 episodes to achieve syndication but 65 is enough and more typical for animation. It is why:

• Batman: The Brave and the Bold
• Pepper Ann
• Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog
• Ed, Edd n Eddy
• Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers
• Lilo & Stitch: The Series
• Peter Pan & the Pirates
• Teen Titans
• Spider-Man: The Animated Series

And many more have exactly 65 episodes.

As for season 4? Who really knows? Maybe they decided to go for 100 and overshot it a bit? Maybe they initially intended to have a season that would air one episode per week for exactly a year? Maybe they weren't sure of how many episodes they had and wanted to be sure they had enough? Maybe they were afraid Mirage would license the property to someone else if they didn't have back up episodes they could air (which to be fair, kind of happened)?

[FredWolfLeonardo]

I'm glad that season 3 was as large as it was, gave us plenty of fantastic episodes and characters like Leatherhead, Rat King, Casey Jones, Usagi etc. It was by far the most iconic season of the whole show.

Season 4 was even bigger but of lower quality overall, though there were still alot of good episodes scattered throughout. As for why they're so big, it definetly seems obvious that the reason was to profit from the show as much as possible.

[CyberCubed]

You can definitely tell the show peaked in popularity around 1989-1990 when Seasons 3 and 4 aired.

Season 5 had a much shorter episode count in 1991, and Season 6 was the same in 1992. Then Season 7 only had 13 episodes which is a standard season length in 1993...followed by the 8 episodes seasons of Seasons 8-10.

Looking back it's surprising the show got renewed as long as it did. It could have ended right after Season 3, or 4, or 5-7. It went right up to 1996 where it was well after Batman: TAS debuted in 1992, and Spider-man and X-men were on FoxKids at the time.

Ironically enough TMNT ended 1 year before Pokemon came out in Japan in 1997. It's weird when you stop to realize how close all these kids cartoons aired in relation to each other when they they feel ancient by comparison.

[neatoman]

While I may be the guy who dares to say season 1 was bad and people really should be more critical of it, I do think it is the strongest season ("strong" being relative here of course, there was never really a point where the show was good) and being the shortest probably has a lot to do with that. Seasons 3 and 4 are arguably the absolute weakest ones in the entire show and being the longest may have something to do with that as well.

Despite having a story that hinges on contradictions and contrivances, as well as generally not being all that impressive to look at, season 1 still manages to make it so that each episode didn't feel pointless and there are a few moments in which it has good animation. While still just a sloppy mess when it comes down to it, needing only five episodes meant nobody had to struggle coming up with dozens of plots that were not allowed to be important and the budget could be spent where it could shine.

[MrPliggins]

Season 4 might be as large as it is because the show was still airing in syndication while on Saturday morning, and some new episodes were aired in syndication while most of them aired on Saturdays. The episodes with the original opening theme like "Once Upon a Time Machine" premiered in syndication, while the episodes with the 2nd theme like "The Dimension X Story" premiered on on CBS Saturdays. These episodes also never crossed over..the syndication episodes never aired on CBS Saturdays and vice versa. The only time they cross-aired was on USA network.

[neatoman]

Originally Posted by MrPliggins

Season 4 might be as large as it is because the show was still airing in syndication while on Saturday morning, and some new episodes were aired in syndication while most of them aired on Saturdays. The episodes with the original opening theme like "Once Upon a Time Machine" premiered in syndication, while the episodes with the 2nd theme like "The Dimension X Story" premiered on on CBS Saturdays. These episodes also never crossed over..the syndication episodes never aired on CBS Saturdays and vice versa. The only time they cross-aired was on USA network.

But they had their 65 episodes, so why not just scale back?