What made the OT so popular during its run?

[TurtleTitan97]

Just wondering what some of our long time fans who watched the OT during its prime thought about this. In your opinion, what do you think made the OT TMNT stand out from the other cartoons of 80's and become one of the most popular animated series to have existed?

[MikeandRaph87]

The dialouge was well done. It was always refreshing and witty. That was layered by great characterization. I love Mike because of the leveled head athlete yet fun loving teen he was and the hotheaded sarcasm of Raph. Its all thanks to well put together perosnalities for the time brought to life by the VAs.

The characters were unique in concept and portrayed well. It was a great design on the surface to draw us in and the concept of various players big and small were done well even with all the hiccups from Krang somehow losing his andriod body while stuck on Earth to the constant voice and mask switch to a bizzarre and repeated plot.All that was there but could easily be overlooked or forgiven. The concepts were carefully thought out to the point the characters no matter how small were memorable and in some cases quite likeable. How else could a oneoff character like Mona Lisa or Armaggon(Archie), or Beserko who was actually overshadowed still all fondly remembered by those who watched the show and STILL want to see again with no nostalgia in play.

Talented voice acting.Yes,it was like 8 people doing 100 characters and it was done for production cost more than anything,but it had the most talented group assembled to date as demonstrated by the cast many characters juggled throught the run or in many cases a single episode. Even as a kid I recoginized the different voices while it proved annoying with replacement VAs it was fun guessing which VA was doing the minor character's voice.

A number of the toys made it into the show and what is cooler than owning something that appeared in a cartoon especially if it has a cool design?

So in conclusion masterful marketing of designs and products along with a talent script writer given leeway and a stellar voice cast brought on Turtle-Mania!

[CyberCubed]

Its actually simply due to the concept itself that had never been done before, same reason the Mirage comics made Peter/Kevin millionaires.

A bunch of mutant turtles who know martial arts who fight a band of evil ninja's? And then there's an evil brain, a female news reporter, a rat sensei, and a whole bunch of other mutants and aliens?

Back in 1987 this stuff was all new and exciting. You have to also realize what 80's cartoons were like, the original cartoon broke a lot of new ground by having main characters talk back to one another and villains not always get along. I think TMNT was the first action cartoon of its time where the main characters didn't all agree with each other on everything and had distinct personalities and talked back to one another. It made them all relatable.

[The Sewer Lord]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

Its actually simply due to the concept itself that had never been done before, same reason the Mirage comics made Peter/Kevin millionaires.

A bunch of mutant turtles who know martial arts who fight a band of evil ninja's? And then there's an evil brain, a female news reporter, a rat sensei, and a whole bunch of other mutants and aliens?

Back in 1987 this stuff was all new and exciting. You have to also realize what 80's cartoons were like, the original cartoon broke a lot of new ground by having main characters talk back to one another and villains not always get along. I think TMNT was the first action cartoon of its time where the main characters didn't all agree with each other on everything and had distinct personalities and talked back to one another. It made them all relatable.

This is correct.




However, personally I didn't like what came after the end of season 3. Red Sky filled in that gap, though.

The characters weren't as serious as they used to be. In fact, they were exactly like Turtles Forever. They were all bumbling idiots, not the witty comedians with skills and a serious take on life. ESPECIALLY Krang and Shredder. Their relationship was relatable in the first three seasons, and fun. Then they turned in a wife and a husband. Yuck.

April got kidnapped in every episode. She was rarely kidnapped in the first three seasons, and actually of some kind of help. There were even episodes where the turtles couldn't have done it without April. When she fell in trouble, she was interesting and not completely helpless. She was the danger sometimes too, like in "The Catwoman from Channel 6".

The storylines and the plot were idiotic, they weren't entertaining (the humor was what even kept me slightly entertained), and frankly, contradicted themselves. What, Donatello builds a time controling machine in one episode, but can't fix a light balb in another? Give me a break.

There were no action scenes. Just goofin' off, jokes (mos of 'em horrible), laughing etc. Some of the action scenes in the first three seasons were actually often great.

Leonardo's new voice wasn't his first, prefect voice. Also, Mikey with grapling hook? Couldn't they have found him a Japanese samurai/ninja weapon? From the feudalistic middle century?

So:

1. First season - great.
2. Second season - great.
3. Third season - great.
4. Fourth season - horrible.
5. Fifth season - horrible.
6. Sixth season - horrible.
7. Seventh season - great.
8. Red Sky - great.
9. Ninth season - Lord Dregg was horrible, and the plot ridiculous. Horrible.
10. Tenth season - same as above.

Originally Posted by MikeandRaph87

The dialouge was well done. It was always refreshing and witty. That was layered by great characterization. I love Mike because of the leveled head athlete yet fun loving teen he was and the hotheaded sarcasm of Raph. Its all thanks to well put together perosnalities for the time brought to life by the VAs.

The characters were unique in concept and portrayed well. It was a great design on the surface to draw us in and the concept of various players big and small were done well even with all the hiccups from Krang somehow losing his andriod body while stuck on Earth to the constant voice and mask switch to a bizzarre and repeated plot.All that was there but could easily be overlooked or forgiven. The concepts were carefully thought out to the point the characters no matter how small were memorable and in some cases quite likeable. How else could a oneoff character like Mona Lisa or Armaggon(Archie), or Beserko who was actually overshadowed still all fondly remembered by those who watched the show and STILL want to see again with no nostalgia in play.

Talented voice acting.Yes,it was like 8 people doing 100 characters and it was done for production cost more than anything,but it had the most talented group assembled to date as demonstrated by the cast many characters juggled throught the run or in many cases a single episode. Even as a kid I recoginized the different voices while it proved annoying with replacement VAs it was fun guessing which VA was doing the minor character's voice.

A number of the toys made it into the show and what is cooler than owning something that appeared in a cartoon especially if it has a cool design?

So in conclusion masterful marketing of designs and products along with a talent script writer given leeway and a stellar voice cast brought on Turtle-Mania!

I also agree with this.

[Nameless]

It had the Technodrome...

and if that wasn't enough it had comedy and action. Shredder and Krang trying new devious plots and the turtles having to discover them and defeat them. plus Bebop and Rocksteady adding huge comedy notes by being so incompetent that they almost help the turtles, and in some cases they actually do.

[CyberCubed]

Originally Posted by The Sewer Lord

1. First season - great.
2. Second season - great.
3. Third season - great.
4. Fourth season - horrible.
5. Fifth season - horrible.
6. Sixth season - horrible.
7. Seventh season - horrible.
8. Red Sky - great.
9. Ninth season - Lord Dregg was horrible, and the plot ridiculous. Horrible.
10. Tenth season - same as above.

Hahahhaha....no.

Season 7 was one of the best seasons of the show and Seasons 4-6 have their share of great episodes too.

[The Sewer Lord]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

Hahahhaha....no.

Season 7 was one of the best seasons of the show and Seasons 4-6 have their share of great episodes too.

Fixed the seventh season, made a mistake.
Not 1-3 good.

[Pterobat]

I'm reminded of that little Martian hologram from Invader Zim: "Because it's cooooollll."

I think the popularity of the OT has more to do with the popularity of the TMNT concept as a marketable thing, above the special qualities the cartoon had. I mean, the cartoon was amazing fun, but I think what drew people to it was not only the quirkiness of the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" concept, but the fact that the franchise presents a universe where just about anything can happen: science fiction and fantasy mix freely, characters are mostly cool and freaky, and nothing quite looks like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise.

I haven't been a kid for a long time, so I don't know if kids at the time distinguished between the tongue-in-cheek tone of the OT and the more earnest action of other series. I can see FW Raphael's sassiness getting some attention, and the physical slapstick making kids laugh, but at the same time you've got the silly nostalgianauts who insist the OT was a dark and serious action show, and you think its nature might have gone over kids' heads.

As for any notion of "seasonal rot", I'm pretty neutral about the pre-Red Sky seasons and searching for any sort of degeneration doesn't interest me. I have episodes I like, and ones I don't. I can see that season one was more serious, but it wasn't perfect and a long way from purely serious, and I don't consider it the ideal direction for the cartoon.

The "Red Sky" seasons were pretty pathetic, because they were so obviously done to try to rescue a dying series but extend the smallest amount of effort in doing it. Nothing much really changed--just enough to make it boring.

[Shreddhead]

[HeroTurtlesFan]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

You have to also realize what 80's cartoons were like, the original cartoon broke a lot of new ground by having main characters talk back to one another and villains not always get along. I think TMNT was the first action cartoon of its time where the main characters didn't all agree with each other on everything and had distinct personalities and talked back to one another. It made them all relatable.

Um, no way. "Transformers" had most of those things in abundance years before - definitely the main characters talking back to one another, villains not always getting along (e.g. Megs and Starscream), main characters not agreeing with each other all the time...

Only thing it struggled with, and this was due to such a large cast, was making all the 'bots have distinct personalities from each other. But if you focused on what is arguably the core cast of TF - Prime, Bumblebee et al - then I say it meets that criteria as well.

"Thundercats" also had villains who were always plotting against each other - primarily Mumm-Ra and the Mutants, but Vultureman would also go off on his own every now and again against even the other Mutants.

Not slamming TMNT, of course, but not quite as revolutionary or groundbreaking as you have suggested!

On the question of why it was so popular - it was a media blitz. Let's not pretend the cartoon was out there in isolation. The Turtles were everywhere - toys, comics, cartoons, lunch boxes, cereal, trading cards, bed sheets - and it was this saturation of the market that made the cartoon as popular as it was.

Of course, the cartoon also had much to recommend it alone - such as the great voice acting, sometimes-witty dialogue, and some genuinely unusual plots - but it was the phenomenon as a whole, I think, that helped push the cartoon to the adoration it got.

[CyberCubed]

I think the repetition oddly helped the show. Since there were few continuing plots, almost the whole show could be watched out of order and it didn't make too much difference. So you could jump in at any time and not feel lost for example.

[DVD]

I'm going with the media blitz mentioned above.
It was more than a TV show. It was everywhere. You watched it, read it, wire it, ate, told the time with it...
More than any of the other toons or shws at the time. I enjoyed watching it, and buying all the stuff for my kid. He lived getting the stuff, but I think I had more fun buying it ( and I still am).
Other shows in the day were cool as well. I thought Transformers was OK, and I loved Thudercats. However TMNT (or TMHTas it was in the UK) had the edge.

[The Sewer Lord]

Originally Posted by The Sewer Lord

Fixed the seventh season, made a mistake.
Not 1-3 good.

I also meant overall.

[Zulithe]

The printed underwear looked really cool, so naturally kids had to find out what all that was about. That's my theory.

[The Sewer Lord]

LOL.

[pannoni1]

There was alot that made it popular. First off, competition wasn't quite as stiff as it was earlier in the '80s, since Transformers had just been canceled, GI Joe was in reruns at the time, He-Man/She-Ra was a memory, and Disney hadn't quite found uniform success. The OT's only real competition at the time was The Real Ghostbusters. The OT had many elements that would ensure it to be a great show to watch: one of the best theme songs to draw people into the show, the cool character designs that are easy to identify with given the clear cut differences between them as opposed to looking more similar (a la the Mirage), and of course lots of merchandise to back up the series as first done by Playmates. Also, VHS was finally becoming affordable to the average household as most households now had at least one VCR and many with two, meaning that many (including myself) could watch certain episodes whenever they wanted to at any time. But you do have to give props to Mirage for paving the way for the OT's popularity, given that Eastman, Laird, and Freeman knew what they were doing after the comic became an indie hit. Its similar to the wave at a ballgame, once it becomes clearly obvious, it just keeps building and can last for several revolutions (or in the OT's case, Seasons) where good sharing causes many to be inspired and join.

[1/2Shell]

It wasn't just a kid's show. It had humor for older people to relate to. The artwork has an 'indie/underground/homemade' feel to it. It was unlike anything else that had come before it. The characters were interesting and fun to relate to.

The original 3 seasons aired on prime time television. They could get away with a lot more there than they would on a major network. The only cartoon comparable at the time was Ralph Bakshi's the New Adventures of Mighty Mouse cartoon, which was cancelled due to being too 'extreme' for television.

[Type 97 Chi-ha]

Originally Posted by The Sewer Lord

However, personally I didn't like what came after the end of season 3. Red Sky filled in that gap, though.

The characters weren't as serious as they used to be. In fact, they were exactly like Turtles Forever. They were all bumbling idiots, not the witty comedians with skills and a serious take on life. ESPECIALLY Krang and Shredder. Their relationship was relatable in the first three seasons, and fun. Then they turned in a wife and a husband. Yuck.

April got kidnapped in every episode. She was rarely kidnapped in the first three seasons, and actually of some kind of help. There were even episodes where the turtles couldn't have done it without April. When she fell in trouble, she was interesting and not completely helpless. She was the danger sometimes too, like in "The Catwoman from Channel 6".

The storylines and the plot were idiotic, they weren't entertaining (the humor was what even kept me slightly entertained), and frankly, contradicted themselves. What, Donatello builds a time controling machine in one episode, but can't fix a light balb in another? Give me a break.

There were no action scenes. Just goofin' off, jokes (mos of 'em horrible), laughing etc. Some of the action scenes in the first three seasons were actually often great.

Leonardo's new voice wasn't his first, prefect voice. Also, Mikey with grapling hook? Couldn't they have found him a Japanese samurai/ninja weapon? From the feudalistic middle century?

So:

1. First season - great.
2. Second season - great.
3. Third season - great.
4. Fourth season - horrible.
5. Fifth season - horrible.
6. Sixth season - horrible.
7. Seventh season - great.
8. Red Sky - great.
9. Ninth season - Lord Dregg was horrible, and the plot ridiculous. Horrible.
10. Tenth season - same as above.

I agree with everything you said.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Originally Posted by 1/2Shell

It wasn't just a kid's show..

It makes sense since TMNT, contrary to He-Man and Transformers, weren't originally created for kids.

[ryukenden]

After watching Return of the Shredder which was the very first episode I ever saw, I was hooked instantly. I remembered taping it and watched it over and over. My other friends got hooked instantly just by watching one episode. At the store, there was never a complete set of the Turtles in retail. I remembered seeings pegs of only Raphael, Bebop and the Foot Soldier with all the other pegs empty.