On December 10, 1987, the first episode of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon, by Murakami-Wolf-Swenson Film Productions Inc. , premiered. It was based on the comic book of the same name created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, although it was changed considerably from the darker-toned comic in order to make it suitable for children. The series was in syndication from 1987 to 1990; on September 8, 1990 it was moved to CBS and ran as a 60-minute block until November 2, 1996. [1]

Storyline

The origin story in the 1987 cartoon series differs greatly from that of the original Mirage Studios comics, evidently to make the often confusing origin easier for children to understand. In this version, Splinter was formerly a human being, an honorable ninja master named Hamato Yoshi. Yoshi was banished from his clan after being deceived by the malicious Oroku Saki, who put a knife into the back of Yoshi's dogi, preventing him from kneeling before their sensei, which was seen as an insult. When Yoshi removed the knife, the sensei was again insulted, believing Yoshi was drawing the blade in opposition to him. Exiled from the ninja clan, Hamato Yoshi moves to New York and lives in the sewers.

In this version, the turtles came to Yoshi before being exposed to the mutagen. Yoshi returned one day from his explorations around New York to find the turtles covered by mutagen. The mutagen caused the turtles- most recently exposed to Yoshi- to become human while Yoshi- most recently exposed to sewer rats- became a humanoid rat.

Each ninja turtle wore a mask over his eyes having a distinctive color, carried and used a distinctive weapon, and had a favorite flavor of pizza. The color of each turtle's mask was the favorite color of each of the turtles, and also to some degree reflects their personalities.

Characters

Main characters

These are the core characters of the series and appear in nearly every episode.

• Leonardo: Turtle with blue mask who wields katana. The unofficial leader of the Turtles, he is closest to Splinter. Voiced by Cam Clarke.
• Donatello: Turtle with purple mask who wields a bo staff. He is the scientist and is constantly tinkering with various inventions. Voiced by Barry Gordon.
• Raphael: Turtle with red mask who wields sai. He is cynical and sardonic. Voiced by Rob Paulsen, except in the final season, when he was replaced by Michael Gough.
• Michaelangelo: Turtle with orange mask who wields Nunchaku. He is the party animal of the group. Voiced by Townsend Coleman .
• Splinter: Born Hamato Yoshi, a strict and wizened sensei, he is the rat-man who relentlessly trained the Turtles in ninjitsu. He was voiced by Peter Renaday .
• April O'Neil: Red-headed Channel 6 TV reporter who discovers the Turtles' home in the sewers. Ally of the TMNT. Voiced by Renae Jacobs .
• The Shredder (or just Shredder): The arch-villain, born Oroku Saki. Shedder wears a suit covered in metal blades, a cape, and a metal helmet and mask. He typically has the bottom half of his face covered. While a rare occurance he has removed the mask and helmet before to reveal his face. Voiced by James Avery (Most notable for playing Uncle Phil on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air) except in the 1995-1996 seasons, when he was replaced by William Martin.
• Krang: A disembodied brain who was a warlord in Dimension X before he was exhiled and had his body taken away. Krang usually "wears" a large robot body and controls it from the a compartment in the torso area, or uses a "bubble walker". He also owns the Technodrome, an enormous mobile fortress used as his and Shredder's headquarters. He also funds and helps plan most of Shedder's schemes. Krang was inspired by the original comics' "Utroms," who were also sentient alien brains, but did good deeds on earth. Voiced by Pat Fraley .
• Bebop and Rocksteady: Formally New York City street gang members, they were mutated by the Shredder to act as his personal henchmen. A warthog and a rhinoceros, respectively, they are clumsy and oafish and almost always totally unsuited for the task of fighting the turtles. The former was voiced by Barry Gordon, the latter by Cam Clarke.
• Foot Soldiers: The ninja clan that Shredder leads. In the 1987 cartoon series they are generally mindless robot drones.
• Irma: A Channel 6 TV associate and April's best friend. Voiced by Jennifer Darling.
• Vern Burke/Vernon Fenwick: An egotistical, self righteous coward who is also a reporter at Channel 6 and is April's cheif rival. He hates the Turtles and generally reports negative stories blaming them for various things in the city.
• Burne Thompson: Channel 6 NEWS producer and April, Vernon, and Irma's boss. He dislikes the Turtles and blames them for everything that goes wrong and encourages his reporters to broadcast negative stories about them, similar to J. J. Jameson from Spiderman.

Minor or recurring characters

The series had myriad recurring characters, as well as many others who only appeared once. This far from complete list is limited to characters that appeared in more than one episode of the series.

• Casey Jones: A vigilante of New York, and also an ally of the turtles. Casey wears a hockey goaltender's mask (which is never removed in the series) and carries a wide assortment of unorthodox weapons including golf clubs, baseball bats, and cricket bats. Voiced by Pat Fraley .
• Leatherhead: A mutated anthropomorphic alligator with a Cajun accent who also lives in the sewers of New York. He is generally considered a villian.
• The Rat King: A human inhabitant of the sewers with the abillity to communicate with rats. He sometimes aids the turtles and sometimes acts against them, however his motives always seem questionable.
• Dr. Baxter Stockman: A scrawny Caucasian mad scientist who aided Shredder in the first season before he was changed into an anthropomorphic fly in a disintegrator malfunction. He always blamed and resented Shredder for the accident, and many episodes he appeared desiring revenge against Shredder, or Shredder promising to restore Baxter's humanity in exchange for Baxter completing a task. He spent large portions of the series trapped in a rift between Dimension X and the Turtles' dimension with only his computer as a companion, "Z".
• Neutrinos: 1950s-college-kid type people in flying cars (complete with tailfins), from Dimension X. Their names are Dask, Kala, and Zak (although later they are called Zenter, Gizzla, and Tribble). Friendly to the Turtles, they even once left the Turtles one of their flying cars, but unfortunately neglected to mention it ran on plutonium. Dask was voiced by Thom Pinto, and Kala and Zak were voiced by Tress MacNeille.
• Metalhead: Built by Krang in a plot to destroy the Turtles, Metalhead was a robot Ninja Turtle whose programming consisted of all the Turtles' personalities. Prone to malfunction, he spent most of the series in Donatello's closet but made an occasional appearances.
• Lord Dregg: In the eigth season's last episode, "Turtle Trek", Krang, Shredder, Beebop, and Rocksteady are trapped in Dimension X and the Technodrome is rendered inoperable. In the ninth season Lord Dregg is introduced as the Turtles' main adversary. He is an alien who comes to earth and begins a propaganda campaign against the Turtles, turning everyone in the city against them. He is defeated and sent to Dimension X in the last episode of the series.
• General Traag: General of Krang's army of soldiers made of rock. Many plots involve Krang almost bringing them to Earth, but failing miserably in the end.
• Attilla the Frog, Genghis Frog, Napolean Bonafrog and Rasputin the Mad Frog: The Turtles' frog counterparts. Four anthropomorphized frogs from Florida created by Shredder and trained in martial arts. They were intended for evil but convinced to turn to good by the Turtles, and live out the rest of the series in the swamps of Florida.
• Zack: An adolescent boy who loves the Turtles and wants to be one. The Turtles refer to him affectionately as "The Fifth Turtle". He is occasionally accompanied by his brother Walt.
• Usagi Yojimbo: A Samurai rabbit from another universe's 16th century Edo Period Japan where animals are the dominate species, not humans. Usagi Yojimbo is a comic book series created by Stan Sakai.
• Slash: Bebop's pet turtle who is mutated by Shedder into an anthropomorphic turtle. It is quickly discovered that he is too dumb to be used against the Turtles.
• Donald J. Lofty: A Donald Trump-esque character who owns Lofty Tower.
• Hokum Hare: The hare from "The Tortoise and the Hare" fable. The Turtles meet him in a parallel "fairy tale " dimension.
• Brick Bradley/Bugman: Michaelangelo's comic book hero come to life, Bugman is half man-half insect. Bugman is a parody of Superman and other comic book superheros. He was transformed into a superhero by a laboratory experiment gone awry, has a secret identity, and he has a vulnerabillity to the metal Leestanite.
• Pinky McFingers: Local crime boss.

A considerable number of characters who appeared briefly, once, or never at all in the series were made into action figures. These characters generally went along with the show's theme of anthropomorophic animals.

Table of voice actors of the cartoon shows

See Also

List of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles episodes (1987 series)

External Links

• The Technodrome Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Website - Information about the 1987 cartoon show
• Ninja Rap Page
• Original Theme Song Lyrics
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) at the Big Cartoon DataBase