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

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

September to November 2021 mark the 25th anniversary of the final season of the Fred Wolf Studios cartoon. Consisting of 8 episodes, it acted as a miniseries and originally aired over CBS between 14 September and 2 November 1996.

In this season, we saw

Spoiler:

Dregg returning to Earth, this time with Hi-Tech instead of Mung, and the Turtles curing their unstable mutations. We also saw a short comeback of Shredder and Krang and finally, the Turtles defeating Dregg and sending him to Dimension X. Splinter finally told the Turtles they were now full-trained ninjas

By the mid 1990's, CBS had began phasing out its Saturday morning cartoons and so, the series came to and end after almost nine years, as the series debuted in syndication in December 1987.

[Leo656]

I was rather confused by this point, as it both Was and Wasn't the show I grew up watching. I did respect some of the changes - I thought going in a more serious direction was the right way to go, and I liked how they put clips from the first movie in the intro - but to be honest, I never cared much for the new villains and did often wish for a bit more of the old supporting cast and villains. And while the "secondary mutation" thing was intriguing I didn't much care for how that was handled, either, and it felt sort of crammed in. I also don't think I saw every episode of this Season (or the preceding ones); I know that for various reasons my viewing of the show wasn't very consistent anymore after the Red Sky stuff started.

I honestly don't even remember if I missed an entire Season during that time, or what, but I remember it sure felt like I did. I'd stopped watching for a bit, when it still had the old Saturday morning music and intro, and then the next time I saw it there was the whole new intro, aesthetic, new characters, everything; that was pretty jarring. For all I know, I didn't miss as much as I feel like I did, but I recall that it FELT like it must've been a long time with so many things being different all of a sudden. "When did they have time to change all of this stuff?! I must've been checked out even longer than I thought!"

Ten Seasons was honestly more than enough but one more Season with Shredder as the bad guy just for old times' sake would've been nice, too. Ah well.

I remember acutely feeling the show's loss when it was over, despite the fact I wasn't as obsessed with it as I once was. It definitely felt as if a "chapter" of my life was over with. In a way, that was true; I was probably never AS big of a TMNT fan again, and probably never will be.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

My ranking of the Red Sky Seasons

1. Season 8 (1994. No unstable mutations.)
2. Season 10 (1996. Unstable mutations cured.)
3. Season 9 (1995 Season dominated by unstable mutations.)

[Leo656]

Care to extrapolate on that a little bit, hoss?

[Sumac]

Red Sky seasons sucked, IMO.
Everything that made FW series great was traded to make it similar to the Batman TAS or X-Men TAS. Except the show and writers were not ready to commit themselves to it and it led to heap of episodes with nonsense plots (some of which were abandoned half way) and boring villains.

And if in the past seasons plots were not forcing people to take themselves seriously, RSS tried to sell all this crap with a straight face.

From season to season writing declined and season 10 was barely coherent. it didn't help that Dregg was as engaging as a dry wall.

[CyberCubed]

There was a lot of good continuity by the last season and I always wondered what they would have done if the show continued on. I wish they would use some more old characters like we got in Season 8

[Leo656]

I mean, it could've been a more graceful transition but trying to get into Batman or X-Men territory wasn't just smart, it was all but necessary if they wanted to maintain any relevance by that point. Audiences had moved on and their standards had changed; it's only obvious that, when your show is losing its audience, you start to try and borrow things from the show(s) you're losing them too. That's how any business works. I can't fault them for that. "Silly" action cartoon were pretty much being phased out by that point. They needed to go there, or just stop entirely.

But it definitely didn't feel like a smooth transition, I'll admit. As I said, I might've missed a few episodes, how many if any I don't know, but when I came back it was a very different show, and it made me feel like I'd missed a whole year or two. I adjusted, but I never did find any of the Red Sky season's episodes to be particularly memorable, although I'm sure not seeing them as many times as the older ones didn't help that case.

I supported some of the changes in theory, but in execution it was not very smooth. It was more like the TMNT I wanted to see at that point, but it also did lose some of what I liked from earlier seasons. I think it could've worked, if maybe they did like a mini-series or something to better shift things tonally over a period of episodes due to something story-based, and if more of the classic characters were used. By 1994-ish people might have had some issues with the original cartoon's more silly and dated humor, and the art style was due for a spit-shine, but I don't think anyone was complaining about the cast of characters, villainous or otherwise.

They added some good and necessary things but they also may have given up too much. And it all kinda happened at once. I think the whole tonal shift could've worked out better, but not the specific way they did it. I also don't think it would have kept the show on much longer, if at all, had it been done more successfully; there was already a strong "Is THAT still on TV?" vibe going around by the time Red Sky started. If anything they managed to squeeze out a little more of it by doing what they did, but either way I don't see there even being enough interest in a Season 11 to even be plausible by then.

I don't think anything could've "saved" the show. I think what they tried to do was necessary to some degree, and even a little bit successful in a way, but I don't think the show could've gone on any longer regardless of what they did or didn't change.

[Cyndaquilfan123]

I like the scene at the end where Splinter declares the turtles as his equals. I think it actually might be one of my favorite TMNT moments.

[ABrown]

I'm one of the few that prefers the red sky style to seasons 1-7. I just wish that Rob Paulsen would have voiced Raphael during the final season.

[Icebot]

I like the micro bots. Seeing their capability throughout season 10, I wish I could have seen them rebuild the technodrome, something they could very easily do.

I also wonder what happened to Bebop and Rocksteady.

[Sumac]

IMO, they should've wrapped FR series and made a RSS a new series all together, instead of making this mess.

Though given general quality of RSS, I 'd say it wouldn't helped.

[Leo656]

I don't think it would've made a difference, the fandom would've still moved on. They were already moving on, thus the need to revamp in the first place.

Canceling one show and starting over from scratch would've been a lot more work and money than was necessary, just to squeeze two more years (at best) out of the show. MMPR still would've killed the brand off anyway, and if they didn't kill it and TMNT somehow lasted until 1998 or so, then Pokemon would've killed them for good. I don't see any way TMNT stays popular and has a cartoon on the air past 1996, no matter WHAT they did. It was over, there was no rescuing it.

If they'd kept FW the same as it had been up through Season 7 for Season 8, there's probably no Season 9.

If they cancelled FW after Season 7 to start over completely, they'd need at least a year and probably more to develop a whole new show, which means that any new cartoon wouldn't have been on the air any sooner than 1996... right when Saturday morning cartoons were coming to an end and CBS was getting rid of them entirely. Which means any prospective new cartoon probably never even makes it to the air, at least not in the lucrative Saturday Morning slot TMNT had always had. And I bet anything that it wouldn't have lasted beyond one Season, anyways, because kids didn't like TMNT anymore and the show had no audience to support it.

What they did - keep the show like 70-75% the same but tack a shiny new coat of paint on it - was the easiest and least-disruptive thing for everyone. They squeezed three more Seasons out of a dying franchise and kept the toys on shelves a little bit longer too. There was really no other logical option; there was no "second wind" for the brand at that time, there was no big comeback in the works where they'd compete with MMPR, the entire point was just to try and keep it going a little longer before the wheels inevitably fell off. And they did that.

I'll always agree that the writing of the show itself for those last three Seasons wasn't the best or most satisfying content the show ever put out, but that's kind of irrelevant. They managed to keep the show on the air three years past its "Sell-By" date and retain at least some of the audience, sell a few more action figures. They avoided cancellation for a while at a time the show logically should've been cancelled. So, they succeeded in doing what they set out to do, bottom line.

Frankly, I've never had a huge issue with Red Sky being "meh" because that show had no purity to lose by then, anyway. I like it more than a lot of people here do, despite how often I rag on it. But collectively, half of that entire series is great fun and half is sh*t from a sick dog's ass, even before you factor Red Sky in. I don't think those Seasons did much to hurt anything, honestly.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Originally Posted by Leo656

And I bet anything that it wouldn't have lasted beyond one Season, anyways, because kids didn't like TMNT anymore and the show had no audience to support it.

If TMNT had been cancelled in 1993 and re-launched in 1996, the producers would have to take even more inspirations from Power Rangers in the 1996 reboot. Even as it turned out, we already had the TMNT Adventures–Power Raiders crossover, and the Next Mutation–Power Rangers crossovers.

[Jephael]

I enjoyed the final season, but I remember even before I knew the voice cast's names I knew something was up with Raphael (which has happened to both him and Donatello in previous seasons) and it always bothered me a little that his voice was different in those final episodes, especially the time travel 3-parter where they bring a second set of Ninja Turtles from the past.

[Wesley]

Seasons 8 and 10 were good for their time. I don’t care much for 9, as a lot of changes were abruptly introduced into the series. Split-Second was a standout episode, though. Dregg was great in 10. He was very cunning being one step ahead often. The Day The Earth Disappeared is my favourite episode of the last season.

[Leo656]

Originally Posted by Original TMNT Cartoon Fan

Even as it turned out, we already had the TMNT Adventures–Power Raiders crossover, and the Next Mutation–Power Rangers crossovers.

I do my best to block those things out.

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by Sumac

Red Sky seasons sucked, IMO.
Everything that made FW series great was traded to make it similar to the Batman TAS or X-Men TAS. Except the show and writers were not ready to commit themselves to it and it led to heap of episodes with nonsense plots (some of which were abandoned half way) and boring villains.

And if in the past seasons plots were not forcing people to take themselves seriously, RSS tried to sell all this crap with a straight face.

From season to season writing declined and season 10 was barely coherent. it didn't help that Dregg was as engaging as a dry wall.

I've been watching the Red Sky seasons here over the last few days while I work on hanging some new displays. I didn't see them when they aired - for whatever reason I was done with the show by then. And although I've seen them piecemeal on DVD, this was the first time I just power watched the three seasons. And yeah. They are pretty terrible.

I suppose I will say that it's cool that they did some actual "weapon fighting" in those seasons. Leonardo crosses swords with Shredder in his few appearances for example, so that's cool. They also raise the stakes with the destruction of Channel 6 for example. So it's crazy that they bring the show up a notch into "PG Cartoon" territory (for that era) yet it sucks so bad.

[CyberCubed]

I like all the final seasons as much as the middle seasons, only Season 9 isn't as good as the others.

[cammy85]

Originally Posted by Wesley

Seasons 8 and 10 were good for their time. I don’t care much for 9, as a lot of changes were abruptly introduced into the series. Split-Second was a standout episode, though. Dregg was great in 10. He was very cunning being one step ahead often. The Day The Earth Disappeared is my favourite episode of the last season.

Absolutely agreed!! I feel bad for those who had to go through Season 9 week to week until getting to the final three which were all awesome.

[AquaParade]

Did you all know that the complete series on DVD is $25 on Amazon right now.

I almost bit. I haven't watched past the first season in at least a decade. It could be nostalgic fun.

https://www.amazon.com/Tmnt-Complete...s%2C136&sr=8-2