Pop Culture Retrospective Podcast #50 - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Episode #50 - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the TMNT club, here’s a bit of a remix for you, I hope you like it.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Heroes in a half-shell

Turtle power!

They're the world's most fearsome fighting team (We're really hip!)

They're heroes in a half-shell and they're green (Hey - get a grip!)

When the evil Shredder attacks

These Turtle boys don't cut him no slack!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Splinter taught them to be ninja teens (He's a radical rat!)

Leonardo leads, Donatello does machines (That's a fact, Jack!)

Raphael is cool but crude (Gimme a break!)

Michaelangelo is a party dude (Party!)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Heroes in a half shell

Turtle power!

Okay, I put wayyyy too much effort into putting together that intro, but what can I say?  The TMNT became an intricate part of my childhood and millions of other children, all over the world.  What started as a simple sketch one night evolved into comic books, then toys, then a television show and so much more.  That is what we will be discussing today- the history and current status of the most famous group of reptiles - the TMNT.  So, grab your pizza, your weapon of choice and your ninja skills, here we go!

Hello and thank you so very much for tuning in to the Pop Culture Retrospective Podcast, a show inspired by, and in memory of, my big sister Rebecca and her love for all things pop-culture, especially the people, places and things of the 80s, 90s and early 00s.  My name is Amy Lewis and I am your captain aboard the ninja turtle van.  Get it?  You are tuning in to episode #50, that’s right episode #50.  Feels like yesterday I was just starting the show and now here we are.  Whenever I hear the word 50 all I can think of is that older SNL sketch where Molly Shannon plays a character named Sally O’Malley who likes to tell everyone that she is 50, 50 years old.  SOUND CLIP HERE.  

Anyways, today’s show was suggested by a friend and former colleague, Shari.  She and I worked together really well for many years and I imagine a lot of that could be tied to our mutual love of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. 

On that note, back to the show.  The creation of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is all thanks to two artists named Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman.  One evening in 1983 in North Hampton, MA, the two men were sitting around and brainstorming different things to draw, different concepts and so on and so forth.  Eastman drew a turtle that was standing up like a human.  The turtle was wearing a mask and was carrying a weapon - a blade of some sort like a machete or katana. They both had a good laugh to themselves when they envisioned the normally slow turtle suddenly being able to fight at a fast pace, with a weapon no less.  After several hours had passed, the two artists had created 4 different turtles.  They dubbed the group the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  The turtles were named Michaelangelo, Donatello, Raphael and Leonardo. The also drew out sketches for Shredder, the villain.  His costume was inspired by a metal cheese grater of all things. The concept eventually evolved into a comic book, which was self published by Laird and Eastman who had managed to scrape together a few thousand dollars. The first comic book was incredibly successful, after 3,000 initial copies were sold, more were requested by vendors.  The first comic book cost just $1.50 at the time, if you were to buy that now it would cost you several thousand dollars.  The premise of the story behind the TMNT is that a group of baby turtles had accidentally been dropped into a sewer.  A truck drove by, it was carrying toxic chemicals, and the chemicals spilled out from the truck, draining into the sewer where the turtles were.  The turtles mutated into human-like turtles who could stand and who were super strong.  A rat named Splinter was also in the sewer, he sort of took them under his wing and trained the 4 turtles to be ninjas.  They would soon be fighting against an evil villain named Shredder and his crew of his own ninjas, the Footclan.  The initial comic book stories were much more intense than what most people likely remember about the TMNT from the toys and cartoon tv series.  In the comics, the turtles were a lot more violent and aggressive and had potty mouths,  

Noting the popularity of the comic book about the TMNT, a businessman  and licensing agent named Mark Friedman approached the two creators and offered them a deal to create toys and a television series. In the 1980s, many children’s action figures were created by corporations like Matel and Hasbro.  He-Man and GI Joe were both created by corporations. Laird and Eastman agreed to a deal and soon, the TMNT would expand beyond local comic book stores. 

When Playmates came onto the scene, they wanted to change the turtle’s image a bit.  They made the foursome obsessed with pizza, and replaced their potty mouths with catchphrases like “Cowabunga” and “Turtle Power!”  They also made the story’s villains - Shredder and the Foot Clan less aggressive and more absent-minded.  Further, the turtles were also given their own color scheme which was displayed on a mask as well as elbow and knee pads.  The hope was that by focusing on colors, people wouldn’t focus on their weapons as much.  They also softened the intensity of the turtles and gave them personalities. The hope was to make them more appealing to not only young children, but also their parents.  Leonardo was given a blue mask with blue accents.  He was looked at as sort of the leader of the group, part of that may have had to do with the fact that he was the oldest.  He is very committed and dedicated to the study of martial arts.  His weapon is a sword.  Michelangelo was given orange accents.  He is the light-hearted, addicted to pizza member of the group. He’s a bit immature compared to the other turtles, but he means well.  He likes to read comic books and his weapon is nunchucks.  Raphael was given a red mask and accents.  He is a very serious fighter and loyal brother to the other turtles.  He can be irritable and short-tempered at times. His weapon is a pair of sais which are essentially small swords with 3 sharp points on each.  Donatello has a purple mask and accents.  He is the inventor and creative genius of the group. He is not as quick to fight as others.  His weapon is a bo- which is a large wooden stick.  Between the extensive training they receive from Splinter, coupled with the toxic chemicals they get doused with, the turtles have superhuman strength and skill.  

The cartoon debuted in 1987 and ran for an incredible 10 years. Fun fact, the voice of Shredder on the show was none other than James Avery aka Uncle Phil from the Fresh Prince of BelAir. 

Like so many cartoons at the time (and this probably holds true today) the show was basically a ½ hour commercial for TMNT toys.  And let’s just say - that method was incredibly effective.  In addition to action figures (which I had a ton of and still have several) there was TMNT cereal CLIP HERE, video games, play sets like a sewer hideout for the turtles, video games and live action movies (more on some of that in a minute). You could even purchase TMNT pajamas which I thankfully had a pair of.  They were blue and I loved them.  I believe there are a few photos of me wearing them floating around somewhere.  There were also TMNT trading cards, which I kept protected in a binder and traded with my friends and probably my cousins.  There were also pez dispensers, fanny packs, t-shirts, cups, stickers, lunch boxes, you name it! Anyways, in the first four years of selling TMNT action figures, Playmates sold about 1 billion dollars worth of them.  The company would go on to create over 400 different figures. TMNT fever had officially begun. And the only prescription was more TMNT. 

In 1989, the TMNT video game for the NES was released.  It was one of the most difficult NES games of all time, but also one of the best-selling.  We had that game and I remember playing it all of the time, but never managing to get very far.  The game had some very memorable music which I can still hear in my head when I think about it.  SOUND CLIP HERE.  The TMNT have been featured in dozens of video games since this first release, across all different gaming systems. 

Burger King got in on the fever by releasing 4 different VHS tapes which were compilations of several episodes of the TMNT.  They were titled:  Sky Turtles, The Great Boldini, April Foolish and Invasion of the Turtle Snatchers.  The videos were separate from their kids meals and featured an advertisement for the Burger King kids club at the start.  This incarnation of the kid’s club could be found at your local BK from 1990-1999.  By joining the kids club you got a membership card, a free meal on your birthday and a ton of junk mail.  Or rather, junk food mail.  

The first TMNT live-action movie was released in 1990.  The costumes for the turtles were designed by creative genius, Jim Henson’s creature shop.  Said costumes were technologically advanced.  A puppeteer would wear a headset that had sensors on it which would match the turtle's facial expressions with the puppeteers.  A joystick controlled the eyes and a special glove controlled the opening and closing of the turtle’s mouth.  This would be one of the last projects that Henson would work on before his passing in May of that year.  The film was directed by Steve Barron who was also responsible for directing the music video for Billie Jean by Michael Jackson and one of my all-time favorite music videos, Take on Me by A-ha.  

The premise of the movie is pretty predictable, the TMNT are trying to protect residents of NYC from dangerous ninjas and criminals who are stealing, mugging people, starting fires, etc.  The film had a very dark and ominous tone to it, I believe a lot of the scenes are night scenes if I am remembering correctly.  There is a ton of violent fighting in the movie,innocent people and one of the TMNT gets knocked unconscious and the evil villain Shredder hits Splinter, who is chained to gate by the way, really hard across his fury face and then proceeds to hold one of his spikes on his hand weapon up to Splinter’s chin, threatening to hurt him further.  Sounds like the perfect film for an elementary student, am I right?  Oh, and let’s not forget how Shredder and his despicable crew somehow convince a group of lost teenage boys to commit crimes for them and hang out in their underground hideout which includes video games, a skateboard ramp, live music and access to cigarettes, cigars and the chance to gamble on various games.  What 10 year old doesn’t want to play billiards while smoking a cigar or learn how to create graffiti with spray paint?  That sounds like fun! That Shredder is a pretty cool guy.  Sidenote- I thought this underground hideout looked so awesome, apparently I was a young and impressionable kid as well.  I can’t believe that I was allowed to watch this movie in hindsight, but I imagine my parents thought it was going to be similar to the cartoon on TV which it clearly wasn’t.  It will be a very long time before I let my kids watch this movie, if ever, I’m not kidding.  

And back to the hideout for a second- these segments featuring said hideout were filmed in NC in an abandoned cement factory - the same spot that was used in the film the Crow which we discussed on an earlier episode of the show.  This location was where Top Dollar’s Night Club was.  

The movie starred the 4 turtles of course, but also April, a news reporter who befriends the turtles.  She was played by actress Judith Hoag.  Apparently she was a bit difficult to work with, she reportedly hated the yellow jumpsuit she was supposed to wear like the television character, she struggled with the filming schedule and she was uncomfortable with all of the violence in the movie.  Elias Koteas played Casey Jones.  He too wanted to fight crime and criminals in NYC and does so via sports equipment like baseball bats and golf clubs, while wearing a hockey mask.  Shredder was played by James Saito and Master Tatsu, Shredder’s right hand man was played by Toshishiro Obata.  Regarding the casting of the turtles, in many instances one actor would be doing the movements in the costume while another would provide the voice.  For example Leif Tilden played Donatello while Corey Feldman provided the voice. David Forman played Leonardo, but Brian Tochi provided the voice.  Michelan Sisti played Michaellangelo but he was voiced by Robbie Rist and finally, Kenn Scott who is a martial artist played Raphael who was then voiced by Josh Pais.  Side note- did you know that Shredder was voiced by Kevin Clash? Clash once provided the voice and was the puppeteer for Elmo, arguably one the most famous puppets of all time.  Clash played and voiced Elmo from 1984-2012.  

The film’s budget was 13.5 million dollars and earned over 200 million at the box office.  Despite the film’s incredible success, it was heavily criticized for a number of important reasons, ones that I was completely oblivious to as a kid but now completely agree with as an adult.  First, there has been a lot of criticism for all of the villains being Asian and fulfilling a lot of stereotypes about how Asian people act, dress, etc. Also, in one scene April is approached by the foot clan, she can tell they are up to something suspicious so to break the tension she says:  “What, did I fall behind on my Sony payments?”  Sony being a Japanese company.  Also, as I mentioned the film was incredibly violent, especially for a movie aimed at kids.  Jim Henson really struggled with all of the violence, it felt like it was really pointless and unnecessary.  The film was actually not shown in theaters in Asia because they felt like the movie was making a joke and a mockery out of martial arts.  Finally, Director Steve Barron was fired toward the end of filming due to concerns that the film was becoming too dark.  

Also in 1990, the TMNT turtles did a live stage show tour and performed songs like “Coming Out of Our Shell” and “Pizza Power.”  An album was created from the songs from the show and was released on cassette.  The album went 3x platinum.  I imagine there were a lot of parents who wanted to throw that cassette tape out the window when they were traveling with their kids.  I imagine Pizza Power to the parents of the 90s is the Baby Shark of today.  Apparently the stage show was promoted on the Oprah Winfrey Show.  In addition to the stage show tour, the TMNT also had their own show  at Walt Disney World at MGM Studios (now HS) which ran from 1990-1995.  The show again involved dancing, singing and showing off impressive ninja skills to audiences.  I watched a few clips and I’m amazed at how well the performers could move around with those large, heavy costumes on.  I wonder if any of the performers “turtled?”  Meaning falling on their backs on the shell and not being able to get up? 

There have been many sequels to the cartoon series and original live action movie based around the TMNT.  There was Secret of the Ooze in 1991 which included a rap performed by Vanilla Ice called Ninja Rap.  In 1993 TMNT III was released.  Both of the sequels did not do nearly as well as the original film. 

I remember when me and my sister were in high school every year our school held some events that tied in with homecoming.  Each class had to come up with some theme for their group to go along with their assigned colors.  I’m probably remembering this incorrectly but when we were in school I think Freshmen were purple, Sophomores orange, Juniors green and Seniors red?  

I cannot remember for the life of me what our class theme was around the color purple but my sister’s class coined themselves the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Juniors” which I think was an incredibly genius theme.  Everyone of course dressed up in green or camouflage and a picture of their class was printed in the local newspaper.  We went to a huge high school so there were hundreds of students in each grade.  On the wooden bleachers sat hundreds of kids from the class of 1999 and one student stood out among the rest - my sister, dressed in green with a purple wig on, it was a bob with bangs and one that she wore on occasion and pulled off quite well I might add.  

Another TMNT live action series ran from 1997-1998 but it was short-lived because it was strongly disliked by the TMNT creators and fans.  Yet another cartoon series ran from 2003-2009 and Nickelodeon ran a CGI TMNT show from 2012-2017. In 2014 another TMNT live action movie was released.  In 2016 yet another TMNT film, entitled Out of the Shadows was released.  From 2018-2020 Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ran on TV. An animated film, Batman vs. TMNT was released in 2019. There continues to be more movies and TV series in the works.  TMNT has been a part of pop culture for over 30 years and they don’t show signs of slowing down anytime soon.

Feeling burnt out after being involved with the development of the TMNT for so many years, Eastman sold his share of the franchise to Laird in the early 1990s/early 2000s, I wasn’t able to figure out the exact numbers on how much he sold his shares for but I don’t think it was for as much as you might expect.  In 2009 however, Laird sold his share to Nickelodeon for 60 million dollars.  You can learn more about Eastman and Lairds incredible story on a netflix documentary entitled “The Toys That Made Us.”  There is an episode specifically devoted to the world's most famous clan of turtles. 

TMNT still has a following with their toys and merchandise.  You can still purchase figurines including re-releases of the first generation - I still have several originals to this day.  You can also find funko pops and sets of one ninja turtle and one character from Kobra Kai.  Which is really random but I guess since both involve martial arts, perhaps someone felt there should be a mash-up toy?  Hard to say.  Who knew that what started as a few sketches, nearly 40 years ago, would evolve into one of the most successful toy and media products of all time?  Apparently those mutant ninjas really do have turtle power! 

I hope you have enjoyed this look back over the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a comic book series, turned toys, turned television show, turned movie and back again through all of those outlets.  The foursome doesn’t look to be slowing down anytime soon and it seems like even more generations of kids will have the opportunity to become fans.  

One of my proudest moments in my professional career came when we were trying to organize our office at a residential treatment program I used to work at.  Since we dealt with so many confidential documents we needed a way to destroy paperwork that was no longer needed.  So behind one of the office doors we had a large box that we could put said documents into so that they could be shredded.  I made sure we had a picture of the shredder on, well, the shredder.  I have never been so proud of myself and I don’t think I’ll ever live up to that accomplishment ever again.  My sister was very supportive of my obsession with TMNT, she definitely watched the live action movie with me more than once and as an adult she gifted me with some TMNT trading cards and some miniature figurines which were on the shelf in my office for years.  

I hope you will join me for my next show where we will be discussing the history of Slime - the green substance that seemingly dropped out of nowhere on many a Nickelodeon show in the 80s and 90s.  Until then, BKBSAHOTYM.