Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Aired: 1987 - 1996
Show Type: Animated
Country of Origin: US

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” is a commercially reconstructed “cartoon” of a popular underground “graph-vel” of the same name. The story kicks off with a headstrong television journalist named April O’Neil investigating the goings-on of a recent warehouse break-in. A gang of bruts chases her into the labyrinthian sewers of New York City (or Manhattan) where she is rescued by four mysterious figures.

She discovers that they are actually masked anthropomorphic turtles. Falling unconscious, they take her to their secret lair. After awakening, their rat sensei Splinter tells her of his coming to America, his students’ mutation, and a ruthless crime lord named Oroku Saki (later proclaiming himself as the Shredder).

From this point forward, a elongated plot surfaces focusing on the turtles and the friends they meet along the way foiling the Shredder and his “brainy” associate Krang’s plans for total domination of Earth. A few reasons this show was so popular is because of its creativity and comedic integrity. It would often reinforce the fact that it was just a kid’s show--nothing more. I assume this was to educate impressionable and reclusive children who spent too much time imagining they were ninja turtles. In an episode that aired during the early ‘90s, Baxter the Fly (formally Professor Baxter Stockman) transformed the people of Channel 6 into insects with a mixture of Krang’s mutagen and some genetic extractions.

During the episode’s climax, he unwittingly gets caught in a spider’s web spun by Vernon. Right before he could consume Baxter, the turtles free him and say, “…that is not how we get rid of villains on this show.” This was quite refreshing for that particular time. “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” was also the stuff of conformity and unity, a theme that appeared in several other shows during the ‘80s and essentially defined the era. TMNT was the ‘80s.