History WesternAnimation / TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987

* {{Bowdlerise}}: Over in the UK, Ireland and Germany, "ninja" has until more recently been a banned word, so the series (as well as the franchise as a whole) would be known as ''Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles''. Also, all scenes where Mikey wields his signature nunchuks were cut as much as possible due to the weapon being illegal in real-life. By the later seasons, the series would see Mikey using a grappling-hook weapon instead just to get around these kind of problems.
** Although, the first few seasons of ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' were eventually released uncensored on DVD in the UK.

The first animated series starring the Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles, and the one responsible for the worldwide phenomenon spurred by the franchise. [[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.

** In season 9 one-shot villain Sleazebug was mutated by Dregg but never appeared again.

* AnimationBump: More times than possibly any cartoon in the 80's and 90's. The animation style could go from being horrible to decent, sometimes ''in a single episode.'' The first two seasons each kept with a single animation studio (Toei for Season 1, and A-1 Productions for Season 2), but the seasons grew much longer starting with Season 3, resulting in animation being farmed out to several different studios[[labelnote:*]]These included Toei, Creator/WangFilmProductions, Creator/PacificRimAnimation, Creator/LukFilm, Creator/KyungKang, Creator/IslandAnimation, Creator/VargaStudio, Creator/StudioCockpit and Creator/HanhoHeungUp. With several episodes by an unknown Japanese studio, none of them credited[[/labelnote]]. This continued until the "Red Sky" era, where the seasons got cut down to eight episodes each and a single studio (this time Creator/DaiWon Animation[[note]]and Creator/MorningSun for season nine[[/note]]) became sufficient to handle all the show's animation again.

** And again in season 5's ''Enter Mutagen Man:''

* {{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.

** The season 3 episode “Michellangello’s Birthday.”

** The turtles themselves undergo this during the Red Sky episodes. The form Michelangelo takes in the first episode of season 10 is particularly distorted, with mouth-like orifices in his arms that shoot energy weapons, distended limbs, craggy plates thrusting from his shell, bulging muscles and drooping, half-melted flesh.
* BoundAndGagged: April gets tied up and gagged so often that eventually the Turtles can recognize her muffled voice even from a communicator/telephone. And this being a 80's cartoon that lasted to the 90's means that the even the Turtles are given this treatment occasionally too. Everybody gets their fair share.

* 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 show 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.

* DragonInChief: The Shredder sometimes falls into this starting in season 2, though the relationship between him and Krang is basically a BigBadDuumvirate since the plan seems to be for both of them to rule the world.

** In the first episode of season 2, ''Return of the Shredder,'' Baxter is able to kidnap Splinter from the Turtles' lair without issue. Soon after, simply ''finding'' the Turtles home would become a major goal of Shredder's, treated as being nearly impossible due to the complex sewer system.

* IKnowMaddenKombat: Casey Jones attacked villains with various sports equipment like baseball bats and hockey sticks. [[spoiler: In season eight, he gets a sword and faces off against Shredder, [[FridgeBrilliance which could be a fencing reference.]]]]

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

* LightningCanDoAnything: When Baxter died in season 2, the next season revealed that he was actually [[{{Intangibility}} intangible]]. He touched a lightning rod that was hit by lightning and was restored to fully tangible.

** Several season 3 episodes, as well as the first half of season four were animated in Dublin. Fans generally consider these episodes to be among the poorest in regards to the show's animation, due to how choppy everything moves and sloppy everything looks.

** More than that, several episodes, (especially in season 4 and the vacation arc) don't make sense in their original airing order, and even have some continuity errors. "Tower of Power", the premier of the vacation arc, shows the Turtles leaving for Europe, and foiling one of Shredder's plans in Paris, but its the *next* episode "Rust Never Sleeps" that shows Shredder actually learning of the Turtles trip to Europe. In another example, "The Dimension X Story" which aired 3/4ths of the way through season 4, has the characters surprised that Shredder has found a way to return to Earth, even though its been happening all season. It also shows the turtles' dimensional portal blowing up, an event that was mentioned specifically in the episode that aired *before* it.
** The episode "Leonardo is Missing" which aired 3/4ths of the way through season 6, is obviously a displaced season 5 episode, as the technodrome is still stuck in the arctic, rather than being at the bottom of the sea.
** The VHS of "Cowabunga Shredhead" (a season 3 episode) includes "New York's Shiniest" (a season 2 episode).

* RecurringExtra: The first season had a couple. First was April's newscrew, who was seen working with her and Vernon in the first and fifth episodes. Next was the rest of Rocksteady and Bebop's gang, who were also shown to be mutated by the Shredder and were last seen locked up in the Technodrome's brig. [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome Sadly, none of them made any reappearances after season one ended]].

** Even more so with Splinter, he sounds and acts like a very old man, but in his human form he can't be above early 40's.

* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Lord Dregg, initially. That is until the Turtles unmasked him to the people at the end of season 9.

** "I never bluff!" [[spoiler: The line Shredder says before he destroys the Channel 6 news building in the first episode of season eight.]]

* WhamEpisode: The first episode of season eight ''Get Shredder'' mainly because of the ending [[spoiler: where Shredder destroys the Channel 6 news building.]]

* TheXOfY: A few examples; probably the most well-known is the Eye of Sarnath, an alien artefact that formed a StoryArc for the first half of season two.

** Krang also did this to Berserko, as explained by the eight season opener.
** Dregg does this to his number one man Hi-Tech in the tenth seasons premiere, by launching him into space. He later does it in the series finale to Mung by leaving him at the mercy of his nanobots.

* BodySwap:
** ''The Old Switcheroo'', with Splinter and Shredder.
** Also ''Raphael Drives Them Wild'', with Raphael and Oscar the cab driver.

* DatingCatwoman: Leonardo and Lotus Blossom, and Raphael and Mona Lisa.

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

** "Raphael Drives 'Em Wild", had Raphael switch with a ''taxi driver''. An unusual one, it reverses most of the sub-tropes, in that everybody ''else'' knows that they've switched bodies, but Raphael and the taxi driver are unable to acknowledge this fact. Also the body's retained their muscle memories, so Raphael could no longer do ninjutsu but could drive insanely well.

-->'''Leonardo:''' What is it, a threatening note?/
-->'''Raphael:''' Worse than that... it's the check!/

* RememberTheNewGuy: Antrax and Scumbug in "Night of the Rogues".

* RealityEnsues: A hallmark of the "Red Sky" episodes, with specific examples including the Turtles becoming Public Enemy Number One thanks to the destruction of the Channel 6 building and April being demoted and eventually fired offscreen for defending the Turtles, and both within the first season of the "Red Sky" era, to boot!

[[caption-width-right:350:You forgot the [[TradeMarkFavoriteFood pizza]].]]

* ThemeTuneRollCall

---) '''SPLINTER:''' I believe it is called "slapstick."

%%[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/crew%5B1%5D.gif]]
%%[[caption-width-right:350:You forgot the [[TradeMarkFavoriteFood pizza]].]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/crew%5B1%5D.gif]]
[[caption-width-right:350:You forgot the [[TradeMarkFavoriteFood pizza]].]]

* PieInTheFace: A variant, in the intro Rafael throws a pizza right at the "camera". As pizza is actually just the Italian word for pie, this doubles as a (probably unintentional) BilingualBonus.

*** The first season is only six episodes long, telling a relatively tight narrative that sets up the status quo for the following seasons.

* TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou: Shredder's attitude towards Splinter and the Turtles, so much so that they taunt him with it over the interstellar radio from a slave camp on Dimension X. His twisted code of ninja ethics forces him to bring them back to Earth...where they proceed to defeat Krang's bid for global domination.

* TheAhnold: Hanz and Fitz in "Planet Of The Turtles" and Wally Airhead, along with his gang in "Leonardo Cuts Loose".
* TheLavaCavesOfNewYork: Trope Codifier. For something often surrounded by lava, the turtles don't have to walk very far underground in order to find the Technodrome. In fact, a few times, lava lakes apparently existed just below the sewers (if not in them)

%%* EveryoneLovesBlondes:

** ** In “Leonardo vs. Tempestra,” after Leonardo and April make it through a roller coaster track in the news van, we get this exchange:

* WasntThatFun: One of the episodes in the final season sees the Turtles go off a waterfall, which then sees Mikey saying "let's do it again!"

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Many examples:
** When the Turtles point at something, they use their middle finger (it doesn't help that they only have three fingers on each hand).
** In one episode, Shredder said, "Let me give you a hand... or better yet, a finger!"
** When April is taken hostage alongside the Turtles in one episode and is asked on any last words, she says, "I can think of a few, but they're not appropriate for television."
** The end of the first act of "The Lost Queen Of Atlantis" has a freeze frame of Shredder taking a magic amulet off of April while she's being restrained, which from the angle of the shot looks like he's [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar grabbing April's breast]] [[EvilLaugh and maniacally laughing]] at the same time.
** Raphael once said "Come on, chipheads!" "Chipheads" sounds oddly like "shitheads".
** As the group confronts Krang's body in one episode, Raph says, "Hurry up! We can't hold this bucking bag of bolts much longer!"
** Rocksteady once called Irma a "floozy". Sure, Irma may be a desperate and clingy girl, [[BeAWhoreToGetYourMan but she's certainly not a hoe or anything]].
** [[ItsAWonderfulPlot In a world where the Turtles never existed]] April and Irma are Bebop and Rocksteady's scantily-clad servant girls. The word "harem" is even used.
** In "Return Of The Shredder", there's a rather dodgy scene where April asks Burne what he and his girlfriend were doing at the Channel 6 building after hours. Burne's girlfriend drapes her arms over him, giving him a rather seductive sounding, "Tell her, shnookums..." before a babbling Burne quickly lets April off the hook and runs back in his room with his date. Makes you wonder...

* FiveManBand: The Turtles including their allies
** TheLeader: Leonardo
** TheLancer: Michelangelo
** TheSmartGuy: Donatello
** TheBigGuy: Raphael
** TheChick: April O'Neil
** {{Mentor|s}}: Splinter
** SixthRanger: Zach & Casey Jones (only a few episodes)

** April. Though she is more of a redhead.

*** The shading and overall drawing quality of the Japanese-animated episodes tend to be a little better than the other episodes as well.