History WesternAnimation / TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987

** The Triceratons tend to be recurring antagonists in the Ninja Turtles franchise. In this show, they only make one appearance in ''Night of the Dark Turtle''.

** What did their theme song sound like? [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiKASXvHOhQ This]].

* ThoseTwoBadGuys: Bebop and Rocksteady.

** "The Old Switcheroo", During a fight against one another and getting hit by a machine, Splinter and Shredder minds were accidentally swapped. Although, due to their personalties, Splinter in Shredder's body tried not to give himself away because of his kind demeanor to the mutants with Krang, even fooling them when a brain-scan machine was used on him by controlling his brain waves, while Shredder in Splinter's body made the Turtles realize right away that something was wrong as they and April decided to look for answers as to what was going on. While looking for answers, the Turtles with April were confronted by Bebop, Rocksteady and Splinter, who decided to go to them for help in getting back to his real body. After taking care of Bebop and Rocksteady, the Turtles surround what they believe was "Shredder" as Splinter tried to get them to listen to him and understand that he's not really their enemy but they don't believe him. However, Splinter got the Turtles to listen to him as he was able to convinced him that it's really him but trapped inside Shredder's body. After learning the truth, the Turtles help Splinter and Shredder get back to their real bodies, which they succeeded even though they had some interferences from Bebop and Rocksteady.

** "The Old Switcheroo", During a fight against one another and getting hit by a machine, Splinter and Shredder minds were accidentally swapped. Despite having their real voices in thought, they had the opposite voice when speaking out loud, which makes their respective groups unaware about them switching bodies. Due to their personalties, Splinter in Shredder's body tried not to give himself away because of his kind demeanor to the mutants with Krang, even fooling them when a brain-scan machine was used on him by controlling his brain waves, while Shredder in Splinter's body made the Turtles realize right away that something was wrong as they and April decided to look for answers as to what was going on. However, their quest for answers has led a conformation with Bebop, Rocksteady and Splinter, who decided to go to them for help in getting back to his real body. After taking care of Bebop and Rocksteady, the Turtles surround what they believe was "Shredder" as Splinter tried to get them to listen to him but to no avail. Although, Splinter tried to get the Turtles to understand it's him and not Shredder but they still didn't believe him. However, Splinter got the Turtles to listen to him as he was able to convinced him that it's really him but trapped inside Shredder's body. After learning the truth, the Turtles help Splinter and Shredder get back to their real bodies, which they succeeded even though they had some interferences from Bebop and Rocksteady.

** Subverted in "Cowabunga Shredhead" with Shredder believing himself to be Michelangelo. The entire episode is a SugarWiki/{{Funny Moment|s}}.

** In "The Old Switcheroo": Splinter and Shredder accidentally switched bodies when they were hit by a mind transfer machine during a fight against one another. After being almost discovered by Krang when he brain scanned him, Splinter in Shredder's body decided to go to the Turtles for help in getting back to his real body. Although they knew something wasn't right with their master, the Turtles weren't convinced when Splinter in Shredder's body arrived as they believed he was really their enemy. Splinter tried to get the Turtles to understand that he's trapped inside Shredder's body but they still didn't believe him. However, hearing their master wise wisdom and seeing that he wasn't willing to fight them, the Turtles realized that Splinter was telling the truth about being trapped inside Shredder's body.

** "The Old Switcheroo" has Splinter and the Shredder swapping brains. It features Splinter-in-Shredder's-body fooling Krang's brain-scanning machine by thinking, "I am Shredder. I am Shredder."

* CassandraTruth: Donatello in "Too Hot to Handle".

** Splinter's real name, Hamato Yoshi, is itself an example of this, as the surname doesn't exist in real Japanese. The Japanese dub of the 1987 cartoon [[DubNameChange called him]] "Yoshihama Takeshi" instead.

* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: A subtle running gag was for Splinter's [[{{Kiai}} hot-blooded (supposedly) Japanese kung-fu noises]] to actually be the names of famous indigenous Americans. Listen closely in a few episodes, and you can clearly hear him saying "Hiawatha" and "Sacagawea" while fighting. There's also the similarly absurd "Kur-Li Maneuver" from the episode "Blast From the Past" - a supposedly great and ancient, vaguely Asian-sounding martial arts technique which turns out to be an impression of Curly Howard from ''Film/TheThreeStooges''.

* {{Adorkable}}: A lot of characters, but Donatello, Baxter, Mikey, and Irma have the most moments.

** This is done extremely well with LonelyRichKid Buffy Shellhammer, who goes from a BitchInSheepsClothing to a DefrostingIceQueen and then to a JerkassWoobie all in the course of one half-an-hour episode.
** Also done well with Irma, who went from a generic boy-crazy ditz to an {{Adorkable}} GenkiGirl with a HiddenBadass side.

* BlackBestFriend:
** Technically Bebop is this to Rocksteady, despite their mutations.
** Dr. Jane Goodfellow acts as this for Michelangelo in the episode "What's Michelangelo Good For".
** Also Marik to Landor.

** When the Turtles are seen playing video games, sometimes the sound effects are taken from the ill-fated UsefulNotes/{{Atari 2600}} version of ''VideoGame/Pac-Man''.

The first animated series starring the Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles, and the one responsible for the worldwide turtles phenomenon. [[LongRunners It lasted from 1987 to 1996]]; the first three seasons and for half of season 4 it aired in syndication via Group W/Westinghouse, [[ChannelHop and after that it moved to]] Creator/{{CBS}}' Saturday morning lineup, and ironically, CBS and Westinghouse merged in 1995.

* LighterAndFluffier: Especially in comparison to the original comics, but also the first season compared to most of the ones that followed, and in turn those seasons compared to the "Red Sky" seasons.

** ''Attack of the 50-Foot Irma'' where Irma is accidentally enlarged by an enlarging ray powered by Exaporon, by Krang (who meant to fire the beam at Shredder). Upon being giant, Irma's clumsiness gets the better of her. Eventually, the Turtles manage to shrink her back to her normal size..

-->'''Shredder:''' Only mutants are immune to the Mesmerizer's beam; humans like myself can't be near it when they set it off!
-->'''Krang:''' You don't have to explain it to me; I invented it, remember?
-->'''Shredder:''' I wasn't explaining it to you... ''(points at the camera)'' I was explaining it to ''[[NoFourthWall them]].''

-->'''Krang:''' We must have that mutagen ready before the rocket takes off this afternoon!"
-->'''Shredder:''' I know, I know, you don't have to tell me!
-->'''Krang:''' I'M NOT! (looks at camera) ''I'm telling the audience''.
* {{Atlantis}}: Plays a part in the episodes "The Lost Queen of Atlantis" and "Atlantis Awakes". [[NegativeContinuity While both episodes aired in season 7, Atlantis is portrayed completely differently in each of them]] - first as a villainous cult and later as a friendly lost world.

* BitchInSheepsClothing: Buffy Shellhammer, initially.

* BodyguardCrush: Rex-1 for April.

* BondVillainStupidity: The Shredder proves himself more than a match for the turtles in armed combat, yet on many occasions when confronted he 'escapes', often with the words "another time turtles!" Why another time? Why not now!?
** [[FridgeBrilliance How else do you think they made so many seasons?]]

* CityOfWeirdos: Giant humanoid turtles fighting an army of mooks, flying around town in a giant blimp, and regularly appearing on the local television news doesn't warrant much comment or outrage from the locals.

* AffablyEvil[=/=]FauxAffablyEvil: Shredder, DependingOnTheWriter.

* AlwaysSomeoneBetter[=/=]AlwaysSecondBest:
** Shredder to Splinter.
** Vernon to April.
* AlwaysNeedWhatYouGaveUp:
** The episode with the giant squid.
** Also the episode ''Case Of The Killer Pizzas''.

* AmbiguousGender: Zee.
* AmbiguouslyBrown: Shredder, DependingOnTheArtist.

* AnimeHair: The Neutrinos all have wild and ridiculously colored hair.
* {{Animesque}}: The first season had a very obvious anime influence -- unusually though, it was for reasons of practicality rather than artistic preferences. The show's original character designer, Ira Turek came up with a load of character designs which were butt ugly and nearly impossible to animate well, resulting in him being fired. He was replaced at the last minute by [[WesternAnimation/AeonFlux Peter Chung]], who redesigned the primary characters to have a more Anime-inspired look in order to ensure that the Creator/ToeiAnimation team would be able to work with them. The following seasons largely ditched the animesque character designs.
** Showrunner David Wise spent some time in Japan prior to working on ''TMNT'', and has [[https://www.facebook.com/david.wise.148/posts/10203669062899860 gone on record saying]][[note]]Expand the comments.[[/note]] that April's iconic character design, with a yellow jumpsuit and camcorder, was based on [[{{Anime/LupinIII}} Fujiko Mine]]'s reporter outfit from ''Anime/TheCastleOfCagliostro''.

* AntiHero: The Dark Turtle, the one-episode SecretIdentity of [[spoiler:Donatello]].
* ApologizesALot: [[CuteClumsyGirl Irma]] in ''The Turtle Terminator''
* ArsonMurderAndAdmiration: Mostly between Shredder and Krang.

* ChildProdigy: The Starchild.

* CoolCar:
** The Turtle Van.
** Also the Neutrinos' cars, the Star Cruisers.
* CoolOldGuy: Master Splinter.
* CoolOldLady:
** April's Aunt Agatha.
** Also Shredder's mom, for being able to put him in his place on numerous occasions.
* CoolPlane: The Turtle Blimp.

* CorruptCorporateExecutive: This show had a few. Shredder was one briefly.

* CuteButCacophonic: Buffy Shellhammer.
* CuteClumsyGirl: Irma, to an amazing degree.

* DaEditor: Burne Thompson, April's boss.
* DamnItFeelsGoodToBeAGangster: Too many examples to list.

* DamselOutOfDistress:
** April and Irma, DependingOnTheWriter, could fall into this.
** Also Mona Lisa.

* [[KilledOffForReal Destroyed For Real]]: [[spoiler: The Channel 6 building by Shredder in the first episode of season eight.]]

-->'''Rocksteady:''' Come to me, my precious!
-->'''April:''' No way, horn head!

** Rocksteady and Bebop were Co-Dragons to The Shredder. Baxter Stockman was Shredder's Dragon for the first half of the second season.

** Also Slash and Leatherhead.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: A relatively mild case -- the show's tone and overall storyline remained pretty much intact from the first few episodes until the "Red Sky" era. The big differences were in the way the first season was animated, with a much more obvious anime/manga influence, but also being prone to moments of sloppiness and OffModel characters. Raphael was also more similar to his comic counterpart initially, to the point where he threatened to ''kill Baxter Stockman'' if he wouldn't tell the turtles where Shredder was.

* EverybodyLaughsEnding: Too many times to count.
* EveryoneLovesBlondes:
** Michaelangelo for Kala.
** Also Zack for Caitlin.
* EvilCounterpart:
** Mondo Gecko to Michaelangelo, [[spoiler: at least until his HeelFaceTurn.]]
** Also Shredder to Splinter.

-->'''Human Rocksteady''': Turtles, huh? We like turtles.
-->'''Michelangelo''': That's a relief.
-->'''Human Bebop''': Yeah. [[PreAssKickingOneLiner We like you for lunch!]]

* FieryRedhead: April O' Neil.

* GeniusBruiser: Donatello.
** Also Wally Airhead.

* GreatGazoo: Mr. Ogg from ''Mr. Ogg Goes To Town''.

* HospitalHottie:
** Dr. Jane Goodfellow
** April acts as this whenever the Turtles or Splinter are sick or injured.
* {{Hot God}}dess: [[spoiler: April wearing a magical amulet]] in the episode "The Lost Queen Of Atlantis".

* ImpossiblyCoolClothes: The Neutrinos.

* InsufferableGenius:
** Krang.
** Also Foster Fenwick.
** And Donatello's duplicate.

-->'''Shredder''': Krang, you are insufferably cruel.
-->'''Krang''': Thank you.

-->'''Krang''': Shredder, you're an insane, power-mad fiend.
-->'''Shredder''': Thank you.
* InterspeciesRomance: On several occasions.

-->'''Mike''': If I know ''that'' dude, he's probably hanging out at the library.
-->[[GilliganCut (Cut to Donatello hanging out of a university window in a completely different town)]]
-->'''Don''': Actually, Michelangelo's right. I ''am'' hanging out at the library.
* {{Irony}}: M.A.C.C., a friendly and peace loving robot from the future is built with some of the most destructive weapons around.
** He's also shown blasting rock soldiers in to gravel, one of the few times in the show where a sentient being is unambiguously killed.

* KidAppealCharacter:
** Zack is this so bad it's not even funny.
** Michaelangelo (indeed was the most loved by young viewers).

** H.A.V.O.C. was this in Season Eight.
* LargeHam: Shredder, Krang, and many of the villains.

-->'''Donatello:''' Hey, great! Now we don't look like mutant turtles.
-->'''Raphael:''' Yeah, we look like mutant turtles wearing people masks.

* TheLoad: Vernon Fenwick.
* LonelyRichKid: Buffy Shellhammer from "Poor Little Rich Turtle".
* LovableNerd: Donatello and Irma.
* MadScientist:
** Baxter Stockman.
** Also Professor Sofo.
** Ditto for Barney Stockman, Baxter's twin brother.
* MarriedToTheJob:
** April O'Neil
** Also Lotus Blossom.

* MasqueradeBall: In ''April's Fool''.

* MechaMooks: Krang's Foot Soldiers.
* MediumAwareness: A regular feature of the series.
* {{Meganekko}}: Irma.

* MoralDissonance: [[AlasPoorVillain Poor]] [[AndIMustScream Baxter Stockman]].

* TheNapoleon: Krang and Splinter.

* NeverSayDie: ''Technically'' played straight initially although averted later on starting with the second season considering that characters and monsters (mostly the latter) actually die pretty often.
** Often played with, as a RunningGag often features the turtles getting cornered by the MonsterOfTheWeek and one of them would often say they've run into a dead end. Another turtle would then ask "[[LampshadeHanging Did you have to use the "D" word?]]"
** Although the show has no problems with the word "kill".

* NonLethalWarfare

* NothingIsTheSameAnymore: The Red Sky episodes.

* OrientExpress: "Turtles on the OrientExpress"

* PluckyGirl: April.

* PurpleIsPowerful: The Starchild.

* RhinoRampage: Rocksteady.
* RichBitch: Buffy Shellhammer, until she [[TookALevelInKindness takes a level in kindness.]]

* TheRival: Vernon for April, DependingOnTheWriter.
* RoboticReveal: "Did you just say 'clang'?"

* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: Buffy Shellhammer, at first.
* ScrewTheRulesIHaveSupernaturalPowers: Mr. Ogg.

* DarkerAndEdgier: The final three seasons, also known as the "red sky" seasons are this compared to the first 7 seasons, for various reasons, including, but not limited to, the humor being greatly reduced (fourth wall humor is still there, but not as prominent as in earlier seasons), Shredder becoming more of a threat again, after years of VillainDecay, the more comic relief characters like Bebop & Rocksteady, and Vernon and Irma are [[ShooOutTheClowns phased out]] by the end of Season 8, the more [[HeavyMetal metal]]-oriented theme song, the color of the sky being changed to [[RedSkyTakeWarning dark red]] (hence the nickname "red sky" seasons), bright and vibrant colors are not as prominent as in earlier seasons, the Turtles no longer waste their time eating pizza, the Turtles skin tone is changed from lighter green to darker green (along with having bigger eye holes in their masks to how some skin around their eyes) and last, but not least, starting with Season 9, we are introduced to Lord Dregg, easily the show's most dangerous villain.

* DarkerAndEdgier: The final three seasons, also known as the "red sky" seasons are this compared to the first 7 seasons, for various reasons, including, but not limited to, the humor being greatly reduced (fourth wall humor is still there, but not as prominent as in earlier seasons), Shredder becoming more of a threat again, after years of VillainDecay, the more comic relief characters like Bebop & Rocksteady, and Vernon and Irma are [[ShooOutTheClowns phased out]] by the end of Season 8, the more [[HeavyMetal metal]]-oriented theme song, the color of the sky being changed to [[RedSkyTakeWarning dark red]] (hence the nickname "red sky" seasons), bright and vibrant colors are not as prominent as in earlier seasons, the Turtles no longer waste their time eating pizza, the Turtles skin is changed from lighter green to darker green (along with having bigger eye holes in their masks to how some skin around their eyes) and last, but not least, starting with Season 9, we are introduced to Lord Dregg, easily the show's most dangerous villain.

* DarkerAndEdgier: The final three seasons, also known as the "red sky" seasons are this compared to the first 7 seasons, for various reasons, including, but not limited to, the humor being greatly reduced (fourth wall humor is still there, but not as prominent as in earlier seasons), Shredder becoming more of a threat again, after years of VillainDecay, the more comic relief characters like Bebop & Rocksteady, and Vernon and Irma are [[ShooOutTheClowns phased out]] by the end of Season 8, the more [[HeavyMetal metal]]-oriented theme song, the color of the sky being changed to [[RedSkyTakeWarning dark red]] (hence the nickname "red sky" seasons), bright and vibrant colors are not as prominent as in earlier seasons, the Turtles no longer waste their time eating pizza, the Turtles skin is changed from lighter green to darker green (along with having bigger eye holes in their masks) and last, but not least, starting with Season 9, we are introduced to Lord Dregg, easily the show's most dangerous villain.

* DarkerAndEdgier: The Red Sky Episodes were more serious in tone and had Shredder become a more competent villain.