Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (initially known as Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles in some European countries due to controversy at the time, and retroactively also known as TMNT 1987 or just TMNT ’87) is an American animated television series produced by the studio Murakami-Wolf-Swenson and the French company IDDH. The pilot was shown during the week of December 28, 1987 in syndication as a five-part miniseries (launching on 84 stations and being played twice a day) and the show began its official run on October 1, 1988. Since then the show and franchise has become a worldwide phenomenon. The series featured the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles characters, created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. The property was changed considerably from the darker-toned comic, to make it more suitable for children and the family.

The initial motivation behind the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series was that, upon being approached to create a toy line, Playmates Toys was uneasy with the comic-book characters’ small cult following. They requested that a television deal be acquired first, and after the initial five-episode series debuted, the California toy company released their first series of Ninja Turtles action figures in the summer of 1988. The two media would correspond in marketing style and popularity for many years to come.

David Wise and Patti Howeth wrote the screenplay for the first five-part miniseries. When the series continued in the second season, comic artist Jack Mendelsohn joined the show as the executive story editor. Wise went on to write over seventy episodes of the series, and was executive story editor for four later seasons as well. Wise left the series partway through the ninth season, and Jeffrey Scott took over as the story editor and chief writer for the rest of the show’s run.

The show was in Saturday morning syndication from October 1, 1988 to September 9, 1989, and became an instant hit. The show was expanded to five days a week and aired weekday afternoons in syndication in most markets from September 25, 1989 to September 17, 1993. Starting on September 8, 1990 (with a different opening sequence), the show began its secondary run on CBS’s Saturday morning lineup, beginning as a 60-minute block from 1990 to 1993, initially airing a couple of Saturday exclusive episodes back to back. There would also be a brief “Turtle Tips” segment in between the two episodes which served as public service announcements about the environment or other issues. There were at least 20 “Turtle Tips” segments that were produced and aired. Beginning in 1994, the show began airing as a 30-minute block until the series ended. The series ran until November 2, 1996, when it aired its final episode.

The show helped launch the characters into mainstream popularity and became one of the most popular animated series in television history. Breakfast cereals, plush toys, and all manner of products featuring the characters appeared on the market during the late-1980s and early-1990s. A successful Archie Comics comic book based on the animated show instead of the original black-and-white comics was published throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s. Action figures were top-sellers around the world. By 1990, the cartoon series was being shown daily on more than 125 television stations, and the comic books sold 125,000 copies a month.

The origins story in the 1987 television series deviates significantly from the original Mirage Studios comics. In this version, Splinter was formerly human, an honorable ninja master named Hamato Yoshi who studied art history as a hobby. He was banished from the Foot Clan (a Japanese dynasty of ninjas founded by one of his distant ancestors) after one of his students, the power-hungry and seditious Oroku Saki (who resented Yoshi’s leadership within the clan and aspired to usurp him), set him up for an offense against a visiting master sensei. One day, Saki pinned Yoshi’s dogi to the wall with a knife, preventing him from kneeling before the sensei, which was seen as an insult. When Yoshi removed the knife, the sensei was again insulted, believing that Yoshi was drawing the blade in an attempt to kill him. Disgraced, Yoshi left his native Japan and relocated to New York City without a penny to his name. Now homeless, he was forced to live in the sewers with the rats as his only friends. Meanwhile, Saki is given command of the Foot Clan, which he corrupts and transforms into a criminal organization.

Some time later, Yoshi adopted four turtles after they were accidentally dropped into the sewer system by an unnamed boy, who had recently bought them from a pet store. He returns from his explorations around New York City one day to find the turtles covered with a strange glowing ooze. This substance caused the turtles, who were most recently exposed to Yoshi, to become humanoid, while Yoshi, who was most recently exposed to sewer rats, became a humanoid rat, and was given the name “Splinter” by the turtles. This, and the following Archie TMNT Adventures comics (which is loosely based on the 1987 cartoon series), is the only origin story in the TMNT franchise in which the Turtles come to Yoshi before being exposed to the mutagen. The television series also differs in that Yoshi himself becomes a rat, whereas in most other versions, Splinter is Yoshi’s pet rat and becomes humanoid after being exposed to mutagen. This is also the only version in which the Turtles become fully grown immediately after exposure to the mutagen, whereas Splinter raises them from infancy in other versions.

Yoshi raises the four turtles as his sons and trains them in the art of ninjitsu. He names them after his favorite Italian renaissance artists: Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi (Donatello), Leonardo da Vinci (Leonardo), Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (Michelangelo), and Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (Raphael). In most versions, the Turtles tend to go by nicknames Don/Donnie, Leo, Mikey/Mike and Raph, but in this version they are always addressed by their full names. Each Turtle wears a mask over his eyes with a distinctive color (whereas in the original Mirage comics, they all had red masks): blue for Leonardo, purple for Donatello, red for Raphael, and orange for Michelangelo; and they are each trained in the art of a distinct weapon, with Leonardo wielding katanas, Donatello wielding a bo staff, Raphael wielding sais, and Michelangelo wielding nunchuks (which were later replaced with a grappling hook, although the nunchuks still appeared on occasion).

Oroku Saki eventually leaves Japan and tracks Yoshi to New York City, where he intends to destroy him once and for all. It is also around this time that he begins working with Krang, a disembodied alien brain from Dimension X who ruled his native realm with an iron fist until he was stripped of his body and banished to Earth. Saki takes on a new pseudonym, “The Shredder”, donning a suit covered with razor spikes, and complemented by a long cape, a metal samurai helmet, and a metal mask over his mouth. Since leaving Japan, his ambitions have grown from usurping leadership of the Foot Clan, to world domination. To this end, Krang provides the Shredder with a vast array of powerful technology from Dimension X, including the Technodrome, and funds most of his schemes throughout the series (in exchange for building Krang a powerful new android body, which he eventually does by the end of season 1).

It becomes clear early on in the series that the mutagen which transformed the Turtles and Splinter into their new forms was dumped into the sewers by Shredder in an effort to murder Yoshi, as he had mistakenly believed it to be a deadly poison rather than a transformative agent. After several years of training under Splinter, the Turtles set out to find whoever is responsible for their transformation, and upon learning that Shredder was behind it, they vow to put an end to his ongoing criminal career and restore Splinter back to his human form, despite the risk that they themselves could be de-mutated and changed back into ordinary turtles, thus losing all of their humanoid abilities. Along the way, they befriend Channel 6 news reporter April O’Neil after rescuing her from a gang of street punks (among them were Bebop and Rocksteady in their pre-mutated forms) who had chased her into the sewers. The Turtles, who had rarely left the sewers prior to meeting April, also began to take on the role of semi-vigilante crime fighters, operating outside of the jurisdiction of law enforcement, much like Casey Jones. Despite this, they frequently have to deal with citizens misunderstanding them, which is due in no small part to the efforts of Burne Thompson, April’s employer, and Vernon Fenwick, a Channel 6 cameraman, who distrust the Turtles and frequently blame them for the trouble that Shredder and Krang cause. As a result, they mainly have to rely on April (either via Turtle-com, or Channel 6 news reports) to inform them of crimes in the city, and to counteract Burne and Vernon’s smear campaigns against them with her own news coverage of the Turtles, portraying them as a force for good, although doing so frequently lands her in trouble with her employers and various criminals throughout the city. Reluctant to expose themselves to the outside world, the Turtles usually wear disguises whenever they leave the sewers, although this is slowly relaxed as the series progresses and they gain the trust of the broader populace, whom they have saved from Shredder and other villains on many occasions. Even at Channel 6, the Turtles befriend secretary Irma from the second season onwards.

Shredder, Krang, Bebop & Rocksteady (two street thugs who were mutated into a humanoid warthog and rhinoceros respectively, after being exposed to Shredder’s mutagen and the aforementioned animals, which were stolen from the zoo), Baxter Stockman (an inventor who is briefly employed by Shredder until he is sent into Dimension X, where he is accidentally transformed into a mutant fly by Krang, who had intended to execute him; ever since then, he has sought revenge against both the Turtles and Shredder/Krang for his transformation and for attempting to kill him), and their legions of Foot soldiers repeatedly try to destroy the Turtles and take over the world. Much of their quest for world domination hinges on repowering the Technodrome (Krang’s mobile fortress, and their base of operations) and bringing it to the Earth’s surface, as it was either buried deep under New York City (season 1), stuck in Dimension X (seasons 2 and 4), embedded in the Earth’s core (season 3), stranded in the Arctic (season 5), or at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean (seasons 6 and 7). However, their plans always fail, often landing the villains in humorous predicaments. Some episodes feature other, usually minor villains, such as the Rat King (a homeless man living in the sewers who has control over rats and believes that he is one himself; he considers all other species inferior and aspires to establish a rat-controlled government above ground), Leatherhead (a mutated Florida crocodile who speaks with a Cajun accent), Slash (a savage, humanoid mutant turtle with brute strength and low intelligence; he was Bebop’s pet turtle before he was exposed to mutagen), General Traag and Granitor (two high ranking Rock Warriors who are loyal to Krang and command a vast army in Dimension X, which Krang often tries to bring to the Earth in order to conquer it), and many others. Some episodes also involve the TMNT getting themselves and the city out of a mess that one of the Turtles (usually Michelangelo or Donatello) inadvertently cause.

Through most of the series, the episodes featured a recurring background music which reflected the mood of the situation, as well as ID music for settings such as the Technodrome, the New York City sewers, Channel 6, etc.. The soundtrack was composed by Dennis Challen Brown (credited as “D.C. Brown” and later as “Dennis C. Brown”) and Chuck Lorre. Lorre recorded the theme song (and performed the spoken parts) and became a successful television producer. The performer of the song was James Mandell (aka Miles Doppler). To date the soundtrack has never been released for retail.

The Channel 6 News theme music also appeared in the Turtles in Time video game.

Casting for the show took place in Los Angeles. During recording of the voice acting, all the main cast recorded together. According to Renae Jacobs, voice-actress of the reporter April O’Neil, working together “was great for camaraderie and relationships. We played off each other…there was a lot of ad libbing.”

Also according to Jacobs, the actors frequently undermined the efforts of the show’s creators to make the show grittier and more serious, instead embracing silliness and jokes for both children and adults.

They [the Turtle voice actors] were kind of like the Marx Brothers, The Stooges, Laurel & Hardy, Burns and Allen and all of those wonderful, fabulous old radio personalities and early movie personalities all rolled up into one. Those guys put the heart and soul into those turtles and came up with those personalities.

— Renae Jacobs, Interview