Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987 series): the Thirtieth Anniversary

The Blind Eternities forum

Posted on Jan. 19, 2017, 10:46 p.m. by DemonDragonJ

This year is the thirtieth anniversary of the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles television series, the first televised adaption of the franchise. Although TMNT had originated three years earlier as a graphic novel series, it remained a relatively obscure franchise until the first television series helped it achieve mainstream popularity. The television series deviated from the original comics in numerous ways, but helped it to reach general audiences across the western world, and is still the series that people most often picture when they think of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Among the most significant aspects of this series are the characters and locations that it introduced, including Rocksteady, Bebop, Krang, the Technodrome, and Dimension X, all of which have become staples of the franchise to this day (except in the 2003 series, which deliberately avoided references to the 1987 series and was closer to the original comics).

I remember following this show zealously when I was young, watching it whenever I could and enjoying every moment of it, and I also recall that TMNT was a huge craze during the late 1980's and early 1990's; there was TMNT merchandise and media everywhere, and virtually every child and adolescent would have at least one piece of merchandise and some knowledge of the franchise in order to appear "cool."

The cultural influence of this series is immense, as well; although animated television series with serious plots (for the time) existed before it, such as Thundarr the Barbarian, He-Man, and Thundercats, this series helped to make such series popular and also started the "anthopomorphic superheroes" trend that was very prevalent during the 80's and 90's; there were many series that were inspired by TMNT, too many to list, here, and I followed many of those series, as well.

Therefore, I am making this thread to commemorate this momentous milestone, and open the topic to discussion to everyone in this forum. What are your thoughts and opinions on the thirtieth anniversary of this series?

LittleBlueHero says... #2

Im a huge Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fan. For me the anniversary means a whole lot more than "I'm getting old." Its awesome to see the Turtles resurgence on Nickelodeon and even on the big screen.

The new movies may not be my perfect vision for them but i'm glad they are there none the less. And to anyone who hasn't checked out the new cartoon, seriously give it a go when you can. The humor is well balanced with the action and the animation style lends itself perfectly to the shows needs.

The Nick version has also done a slick job of bringing in characters and storylines from all over the Turtles multiverse. All your favorites are here, even if they were never on the original show but had an action figure, they may show up!

But far and a way the best version of the turtles to date (IMO) has got to be the new comic series from IDW Comics. Somehow the writers and artists are able to bring back the adult tone of the original comic and blend it almost seamlessly with characters and humor that we have all come to know and love the foursome for. And, just like the Nick cartoon, no character or action figure or iteration of any kind is off limits!

Not to mention the awesome crossovers they have done with Ghostbusters and Transformers and Batman!!

January 20, 2017 10:09 a.m.