Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987 series)/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Accidental Innuendo: "Donatello does machines!"
  • Adaptation Displacement: This is the version most people remember when they think about the Turtles (or at least most people of around age 20 and up).
  • Alternate Character Interpretation: Shredder's teasing of April. Is he just trying to piss her off or does he have a Villainous Crush on her?
  • Ambiguously Gay: Vernon Fenwick and Krang.
  • Ambiguously Jewish: Irma Langinstein.
    • Venron Fenwick has some (stereotypical) Jewish features.
  • Base Breaker: Bebop and Rocksteady are seen as either funny or annoying.
    • Leonardo is either awesome or boring and unneeded.
    • Irma is either hilarious and Moe or an obvious sign of the writers' sexism.
  • Broken Base: Were the "Red Sky seasons" (8, 9, and 10) any good?
    • Similar issues come up with the "Vacation in Europe" Story Arc.
    • Season 4 was either the funniest season or full of pointless Filler.
  • Canon Sue: Carter has a level of fighting skill on par with the Turtles, a strategic mind similar to Leonardo, scientific knowledge that it's implied is even greater than that of Donatello, and April even seems attracted to him in his first couple of appearances. (This is probably the reason why he's not very well liked.)
    • Leonardo in a lot of episodes. It's even lampshaded.
  • Cargo Ship: Mikey X Pizza. Almost canon.
  • Cliché Storm: Appears as one to modern audiences due to Seinfeld Is Unfunny.
  • Complete Monster: Lord Dregg, the show's final Big Bad, was just thoroughly malicious and repulsive.
  • Crack Ship: There is Baxter and April Rule 34. Yeah.
  • Crazy Awesome: THE TECHNODROME.
    • The Turtle Van and Turtle Blimp too.
  • Crowning Music of Awesome: The opening theme.
  • Designated Villain: Baxer Stockman's worst crime (before turning into a fly) was helping out Shredder, but the way the Turtles treat him you'd think he killed their mom or something.
  • Draco in Leather Pants: Shredder. Doesn't help that he's sometimes more entertaining to watch than the good guys.
  • Ear Worm: The original theme.
    • "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, heroes in a half shell, Turtle Power!"
      • Bummer, it's stuck in my head now.
      • That's a fact, Jack!
    • The Italian theme song.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Main villains Shredder, Krang, Bebop, and Rocksteady along with the Rat King. Mona Lisa only appeared in one episode, but she has a huge fan base as a result.
  • Evil Is Sexy: Tempestra.
    • And Shreeka to some
    • Shredder according to some female fans.
  • Fan Nickname: The show's Shredder is sometimes referred to as "Uncle Phil", thanks to voice actor James Avery's most famous role.
  • Fan-Preferred Couple: If fanart is any indication, Shredder X April, Raphael X Monalisa, Mikey X Kala, Donatello X Irma, and Leonardo X Lotus.
  • Fanon Discontinuity: Seasons 8, 9 and 10, the "Red Sky" seasons. (Possibly Canon Discontinuity, since Turtles Forever chose to ignore those seasons completely.)
  • Follow the Leader:
  • Growing the Beard: Season Three, arguably, when compared to the somewhat lackluster Season Two. It wasn't consistently good, but contains the most fan favourites.
    • Season Seven, the last "normal" season, is considered to be the best of all, due to some surprisingly well-written and enjoyable episodes. "Night of The Dark Turtle" and "Legend of Koji" are believed to be the best episodes in the entire series.
  • Harsher in Hindsight: "Enter The Fly!" has Baxter and Shredder plotting evil on top of the Twin Towers. Yikes.
  • Hate Dumb: Of the "OMG IT'S NOT EXACTLY LIKE THE COMICS" and "OMG IT'S NOT SERIOUS" variety.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • In one episode, a news reporter suggests the Turtles might be aliens. "What an airhead!" exclaims Michelangelo. Years later, "airhead" would be a nice word for what the fans thought of the creators of the 2014 movie, who originally intended the Turtles to be aliens.
    • Lotus Blossom was introduced in the cartoon before Karai in the comics.
    • In another episode, the heroes go to watch a movie, and Michelangelo suggests turning their Turtle-Coms off, devices April uses to call them in case of an emergency. The point is to view Mikey as a careless jerk for doing something that proves irresponsible and dangerous, but when mobile phones became popular, not turning them off in a movie theater quickly became regarded as rude and discourteous.
  • Ho Yay: You have to admit, the way Shredder and Krang would bicker throughout the series made them look like an old married couple.
    • Bebop and Rocksteady very rarely leave each other's side. If Rocksteady didn't have his gigantic crush on April there would be a lot more Ho Yay going on from the fans' point of view.
    • Baxter Stockman and his gender-neutral (but still male-sounding) alien computer, Zee. Watch an episode with them in it and see for yourself.
  • Ink Stain Adaptation
  • In Name Only: A rare case of Tropes Are Not Bad.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Baxter Stockman. He's one of the least evil villains on the show but the only one with a (heavily implied) canon death.
  • Memetic Mutation: "Cowabunga!" and "It's Pizza Time!"
    • The theme song.
    • The Technodrome will definetly be one of the first things to come up in your mind when you think about this show.
    • Recently, posting weird and Off-Model screenshots from the show has become popular on 4chan.
  • Memetic Outfit:
    • April's yellow jumpsuit.
    • The Turtles' masks and Shredder's outfit.
    • Krang's android body, due to how freaking weird it looks.
  • Memetic Sex God: April O' Neil, so very much.
    • Mona Lisa also qualifies for this.
    • And Irma too.
  • Moe: Irma.
  • Nausea Fuel: The Turtles' ...interesting'..' tastes in pizza.
  • Nightmare Fuel: After Baxter Stockman has failed Krang one too many times, he's tossed into a disintegration chamber. He is frantically pleading for his life, and his screaming skeleton doesn't make it any easier to watch. (Un)Fortunately, there was a fly in the chamber as well, and he's morphed into a giant mutant fly-man.
  • Replacement Scrappy: Dregg wasn't really a bad villain by his own terms, but the mere fact that he wasn't Shredder ensured he never became popular. It didn't help that Shredder had become genuinely threatening again during his last season before being replaced by Dregg. Not even being talentedly voiced by Tony Jay could save Dregg from the Scrappy Heap.
    • Carter, considering he sort of replaced April in season nine (though she would take the role back in season ten).
  • The Scrappy: Zach, Howie and Carter.
    • Carter has a few fans, but most of them agree that he doesn't really belong on a show like TMNT.
    • Burne and Vernon aren't well liked either. Especially for being huge selfish jerks and constantly bad mouthing the turtles, even when they saved their lives.
  • Seasonal Rot: Alot of people agree that this happened during Season Eight, when the sky was permanently red, and everything was trying too hard to be Darker and Edgier as opposed to the light-hearted show people grew to love over the years.
    • Having said that, Season Eight isn't entirely without its fans; a few consider it to have struck a good balance between the show's original tone and that of the comic book. In addition, Shredder became a serious threat again for the first time since the very beginning of the show. However, far fewer people are willing to defend Seasons Nine and Ten, when Lord Dregg replaced Shredder and Krang, and the Executive Meddling started to get out of control.
    • A good chunk of Season Four (and some of Five) is considered this by some fans (though following seasons improved), due to Flanderization and Villain Decay, extremely goofy/borderline nonsensical plots (not to mention a steep decrease in writing quality), bad/inconsistent animation, terrible one-shot bad guys, and lack of action scenes. Proof that The Same but More isn't always a good thing.
    • Only a few episodes of the "Vacation in Europe" side-season are considered watchable.
  • Seinfeld Is Unfunny: This probably started most modern-day cartoon cliches.
  • So Bad It's Good: Even the worst episodes are strangely enjoyable. This is probably the show's greatest strength.
  • So Cool Its Awesome: Generally agreed to be the best mainstream American cartoon of the eighties, and has a devoted fanbase.
  • So Okay It's Average: Season Two is widely considered this: not as good as the short first season preceding it or the long third season following it, but perfectly watchable regardless. The "Eye of Zarnov" Story Arc is considered its highlight.
    • Most fans' problems with it seem to be the clunky animation, awkward continuity, and plot points that never went anywhere.
  • Squick: Those goddamn pizza toppings.
    • Baxter's mutation into a fly.
    • The turtles' mutation in season 9.
    • The sewers.
  • The Woobie: Michaelangelo has his moment of this when he thinks everyone forgot his birthday.
    • Also Splinter in "Splinter No More".
    • Leonardo in "Take Me To Your Leader". Even this Leonardo-neutral fangirl wanted to hug him.
    • Baxter Stockman, even when he was a Jerkass. Some scenes where he's abused are actually pretty uncomfortable to watch.
  • They Just Didn't Care and Off-Model: The animation in some mid-series episodes looks downright HIDEOUS (especially almost half of season 4).
    • Even worse, some episodes don't have any action.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Mona Lisa.
    • Howie, despite being The Scrappy, had some cute scenes with Irma, and the idea of her having a steady boyfriend is admittely interesting. Too bad everything else about him was so annoying.
    • Lotus Blossom. Her second and final appearance is considered Fanon Discontinuity due to being such a disappointing farwell to her.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: "Night Of The Living Rogues". Fed up with Bebop and Rocksteady's incompetence, Shredder gathers a large group of the Turtle's previous enemies to defeat them once and for all. The Turtles are completely helpless against the assembled baddies. So will this cause the the Turtles to call on all of their allies, like The Mutant Frogs, Usagi, Mondo Gecko and Mona Lisa leading to a huge brawl between the groups? Nnnnnope. Instead, the Turtles just call on Casey Jones and Zach the "fifth turtle" for back up, and the villains run away at the end when it's pointed out that they're outnumbered. Keep in mind that one of those people is a kid, and the other two are April and Irma.
    • The subplot of "Krangenstein Lives!!" Shredder loses his memory. Pretty interesting right? You'd think they'd go for something different but.... he's still evil, he just can't remember his name. Good job, writers.
  • Ugly Cute: Baxter's half-fly form. D'awww. Strange, considering he was an apparently middle aged man beforehand.
      • Some actually find his human self to be adorable, strangely enough.
    • The Shredder as a fly. His voice is freaking adorable.
  • Unintentionally Sympathetic: Baxter Stockman seemed to be more concerned with becoming human again than being genuinely evil.
  • Villain Decay: Shredder and his cohorts. A rare case of Tropes Are Not Bad, as they became a lot more funny and unique.
  • What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made on Drugs?

2003 Raphael: Was that a mutant... banana?!
2003 Michelangelo: This dimension is seriously messed up.

  • Wolverine Publicity: Michaelangelo
  • Uncanny Valley: Some episodes had a very rubbery, contstantly-changing art style which more often than not resulted in some really creepy faces and expressions.
    • Krang himself, if you think about how he would look in real life.
      • His first appearance in "Enter The Shredder", where he's slimy and pulsating.
    • Some of the Red Sky-era villains/mutants. One of the most memorable is Doomquest, a giant-like conquerer of worlds with very small eyes.
    • The turtles' mutant forms in Season 9.
    • The rubber face-masks the turtles use for some of their disguises.
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