1987 Fred Wolf Miniseries Review

If I’m going to be writing a blog about TMNT, the obvious place to start would be at the beginning of the Mirage series, but I’ll get to that later. I’d rather start with where TMNT was introduced to me and to most other people. The 1987 Fred Wolf cartoon.

A quick background on the series: The basic jist is Playmates was only interested in creating a line of Turtles toys if there was a television series to go along with it. The Mirage series was fairly small and unknown at the time, so why bother? This led into us getting essentially a ten year toy commercial. A damn effective ten year toy commercial that rocketed Ninja Turtles into pop culture and ruled my childhood.

The series was produced by Fred Wolf and adapted by David Wise. These two recycled more stories and pumped out more toy-centric episodes featuring the monster of the week than practically anyone else in history. And given that 80s and 90s cartoon were little more than a means to pump out toys, that’s saying a lot.

To be fair, they had to be doing something right, because I fucking loved this series. I loved the characters, the show, the toys, and that annoyingly catchy theme song. Watching this series as an adult can be painful. The majority of the show is bloated and shitty, mostly due to being pumped out for the sake of syndication. However, I can’t watch it and not feel much else besides nostalgia. For as bland and predictable every aspect of the show became, I still love it.

The high point of the show was the first season. At the time, it wasn’t really a season, but a miniseries to test the waters to see if Playmates could sell toys. Turns out they could. The first season has everything the later seasons don't. It has a concise narrative, has fewer useless characters, has threatening villains, and oh yeah, violence. Actual cartoon violence where the used their weapons instead of trashcans.

One of the fun facts that I think most people are aware of, is the title in Europe. Due to the extreme, deadly, violent, and graphic nature of the word “Ninja”, the series was called Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles. There were also censorship problems in the use of nunchucks. The word ninja, I can at least understand. It’s stupid, but I at least get the reasoning. Censoring nunchucks is something I don’t get. Stabbing robots, plants, mutants, and whatever else with a sword was fine, but better not give the kids ideas about using a tool to thresh rice to hit things! This is still a censorship issue today. Go watch the 2007 TMNT again and watch how Michelangelo uses his weapons, he uses them but he never actually uses them.

The first season starts out with “Turtle Tracks”. This might be my favorite episode of the series. With the exception of Krang (who would be introduced in the next episode), this episode brought in everything that would become part of the Turtles mythos. At the time, the Mirage comics were being put out at a snails place since it was a small independent company. By 1987, the Turtles were still really lacking in the personality department. They kicked ass, but they didn’t have individualized traits at the time. The 1987 series solidified who the Turtles would become in every incarnation.

More than just personalities, this season did a lot of things that became essential for the Turtles universe. Shredder is a prime example. Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman were determined to not have villains come back from the dead or be long running threats. The original Shredder was killed in the first issue of the comics, supposedly to never be seen again. Fail. The Fred Wolf series kept bringing him back, episode after episode. This made Shredder the main antagonist. This forced Eastman and Laird to bring him back into the continuity of the Mirage series, and that was for the best. In my opinion, Leonardo #1, issue #10, and the Return to New York arc are the highlights of any Turtles storytelling. Thanks David Wise, for being such an uncreative hack!

The Turtles also got their distinct bandannas  Some Mirage purists hate this, but I think it’s essential. Unless the Turtles had their weapons, especially in the early personality free stories, I had no idea who was who in the Mirage series. It’s almost like playing a guessing game trying to figure out who the hell was talking. Don’t get me wrong, my favorite art style for the Turtles was the black and white Turtles, especially when Eastman and Laird were working together, but in any other medium, color bandannas are needed.

The animated in the first season is also the best. Some like the animation in the “Red Sky” seasons better, but to me the early character designs are classic. Since this season was only five episodes, instead of a ridiculous forty-seven, the animators were not as rushed and it shows. Yeah, there are still little flubs here and there, mostly in the chameleon bandannas  but oh well. The animation simply flows better. The animation in the middle years of the show was so rushed everything just feels flat and lifeless. Too bad quality over quantity is not the way of syndicated television. For the most part anyway. Good work Next Generation.

Some of the characters are unbearably annoying. Mostly I’m thinking of the suddenly white Baxter Stockman and the Neutrinos. Speaking of Stockman, why the hell does the mouser story keep getting retold? The Fred Wolf series, 4Kids, Nickelodeon, practically all the Konami games, and the IDW series? The mousers showed up in one issue! And not even that great of an issue compared to a lot of other classic Mirage stories. I don’t get it. The Neutrinos are considered useless characters to the majority of fans. I probably would have liked the Krang War arc more in IDW if they had used something other than Neutrinos as the race Krang was at war with. And making Honeycutt a Neutrino does not sit well with me. I’m getting off track. But I guess that’s part of why I love this first season. You can’t talk about it without connecting it to so many other parts of the TMNT franchise.

The season ends with an epic battle in the Techndrome. Pretty much, the Death Star on wheels. The influence of Star Wars isn’t remotely hidden. We’re bashed over the head with it, and for the next few season finales too. I do really like a lot of the pop culture references in the 1987 show. The scene where Krang gets his new body is lifted straight out of the 1931 Frankenstein film, and it’s just awesome. This scene helps build up the anticipation to the final epic battle, and it all comes together nicely.

I make no secret about Vol 1. of the Mirage comics to be my favorite part of Turtles history, so what about the changes? I get that it’s a kid’s show, and I’m fine with a lot of it. Changing the history of Splinter from being just a rat, to a guy that turns into a rat is understandable. Yoshi’s back story was so dark and violent, it would be hard to properly adapt to a series that came out in the late 80s. As an adult, the change that I find the most annoying and distracting is Donatello. He’s nothing but a convenient device used to wrap up a ton of plot points. Anything science or technology related he can fix, destroy, or create. Donatello doesn’t do machines, Donatello creates new toy lines and makes conclusions simpler for lazy writers. Other parts of the show are overused to the point of making the viewer cringe. Too many lame pizza jokes and a vomit inducing number of times Michelangelo spouts "Cowabunga".

Something that I find funny about this show in relation to the comics, is that the majority of Mirage writers are fairly oblivious to the show. I was at a panel once where fans were asking questions, and when asked about the Fred Wold series, most of them didn't know what people were talking about. They had seen the first season, and some other episodes, but it was weird listening to fans explain what "Red Sky" meant.

The season isn’t perfect, but it’s what made Ninja Turtles what it is today. This season is well worth watching and picking up for the $5 it sells for. Feel free to stop watching the show after this season.
4/5 (Through nostalgic lenses)