History WesternAnimation / TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987

%%* InterspeciesRomance: On several occasions.

* GenreDeconstruction: 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 parting ways with the station offscreen for defending the Turtles, and both within the first season of the "Red Sky" era, to boot!

* ShortRunInPeru: The "Vacation in Europe" episodes aired in Ireland in 1990, three years before the U.S.

* OutOfOrder: Episodes 3 and 4 were shown the other way around on VHS, so kids who didn't see them when they first aired on TV (stations didn't re-air the earliest episodes often) would often wind up confused about who this [[BuffySpeak Baxter Stockman fellow]] was.
** Also, a lot of the episodes on DVD are out of order too.
** 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).

*** PeterLaird said in an [[http://thedailycrosshatch.com/2009/02/09/interview-peter-laird/ interview]] that, faced with the reality of needing to water down his creation for a younger audience, he largely let the show's staff do it for him. This may have been a wise choice on his part, as had he tried to do a more comic-acurate version in the face of the rigid censorship of TheEighties, it quite possibly ''would'' have come off as a total bastardization of the comics. As it was, it came off as an extremely loose adaptation but very entertaining when taken as its own entity.

* GenreDeconstruction: 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!

** In Zach and the Alien Invaders: after reading comic books about alien invaders, Zach believed that there was one going on as he saw one for real. However, Zach wasn't able to convince the citizen, the Turtles and his family about seeing real alien invaders. After being sent to a military school, Zach notice that the school is where the alien invaders were headquarter then called the Turtles for help. Although they weren't entirely convinced, the Turtles do get the feeling that something was wrong as Michelangelo and Donatello went to the military school Zach is in so they can investigate. However, while there, Michelangelo and Donatello realized that Zach was right about alien invaders being on Earth. While heading over to the military school on the Turtle blimp, Leonardo and Raphael see the space ship, after the alien were defeated by the kids at the school, Zach, Michelangelo and Donatello, as they realized that their friend was telling the truth about the whole thing. After that, Zach was given an apology from everyone for not believing him about being alien invaders.

** The Channel 6 team was much less exaggerated in Season 1 compared to the rest of the series. Burne's obessive hatred for the turtles was not established yet, and Vernon's cowardice and pettiness was much more downplayed in Season 1, even willing to help April get her scoop in the Season 1 finale. Irma was also completley absent in Season 1.

* EpisodeTitleCard: For the first 3 and a half seasons.

* TheAllegedCar: The Technodrome. It is a legitimately deadly war machine, when it works. Unfortunately for the bad guys that's almost never. Many a scheme was hatched just to get the darn thing running and it would remain trapped inoperable for entire seasons at a time. You could actually tell which season of the show you were watching by the location of the Technodrome. First, it was under New York, then it was in Dimension X, then it was in the center of the Earth, then it was trapped on aparticular asteroid in Dimension X, it returned to Earth but was trapped in the Arctic, then it was at the bottom of the ocean, until finally it was sent back to Dimension X, but without Shredder and Krang.

** ''Bebop and Rocksteady Conquer The Universe'' is one episode that gives focus to Bebop and Rocksteady
** Irma too, in episodes like ''Turtle Terminator'', ''Attack of The 50 Foot Irma'', and ''Super Irma''.

** Wingnut and Screwloose, who originated as allies in the Archie Comics series ''ComicBook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesAdventures'', appeared as one-shot villains in the episode ''Zach and the Alien Invaders''.

%%** Also the episode ''Case Of The Killer Pizzas''.

** Synapse in the Red Sky episode ''H.A.V.O.C. In The Streets''. Donatello defeats the electric mutant created by Titanus by [[spoiler: sending him through a ham radio, leaving him permanently trapped on the radio airwaves forever.]]
** Implied to be Baxter's final fate in ''Revenge of The Fly!'' when he's trapped in another dimension forever.

%%* ApologizesALot: [[CuteClumsyGirl Irma]] in ''The Turtle Terminator''

** In ''New York's Shiniest'', Rex-1 saves April from being arrested by security guards. And these are the charges he recites:

** This was also used during the end of the episode ''The Maltese Hamster''.

* ArtisticLicenseEngineering: In ''The Big Zipp Attack'', Shredder and co. try to steal the top of a metal spike from the roof of a building. If the spike's top is removed, the entire building will fall over, as the construction of the building is somehow completely dependent on the top of the spike staying in place (even though the spike itself more or less resembles an antenna mast sticking out of a flat rooftop).

** Spoofed in the episode ''Super Rocksteady and Mighty Bebop'':

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

** ''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). While "attack" is stretching it, upon being giant, Irma's clumsiness gets the better of her. Eventually, the Turtles manage to shrink her back to her normal size.

* BadFuture: Inverted in ''Once Upon A Time Machine'', where the future is bright, clean and peaceful, because the Turtles did away with Shredder, Krang and their forces. Even the former members of the same gang as Bebop and Rocksteady took to living a life without crime. That is, until Bebop and Rocksteady get their former gang into the future, where there seems no law enforcement (or need thereof). The turtles, though, see themselves as not having aged well at all.
** Played straight in ''Carter The Enforcer''. in which a pair of time travelers bring the Turtles forward to see what their twenty-years-later future is like: a dark dystopian world dominated by the alien warlord Dregg, where the Turtles are long dead. [[spoiler: Fortunately the Turtles are able to avert this future by changing the timeline.]]

* BellyDancer: April and Irma are dressed like this in the episode ''Shredderville''

*** Heck, Irma ''easily'' dropped four {{Zerg Rush}}ing Foot Soldiers (on board the freaking '''''Technodrome''''', no less) in ''Super Irma.'' When properly motivated, she [[TookALevelInBadass takes a level in badass]].

* CampStraight: Vernon. He's extremely wimpy and effeminate but he develops a crush on Irma in ''Super Irma''.

** Antrax and Scumbug in ''Night of the Rogues''. They are originally from the Archie Comics TMNT Adventures.
** Tokka and Rahzar from the second live-action film appeared in the episode ''Dirk Savage: Mutant Hunter''.

** After Shredder and Krang are defeated at the end of ''Turtle Trek'', they simply stop appearing in the show. Even in the show's final episode, when the Turtles explore the Technodrome's ruins, Shredder and Krang are nowhere to be found.

* CryingWolf: Played with in ''Zach and the Alien Invaders''. Zach wasn't purposely lying when making false alarms about alien invaders as he truly believed it was happening. When real aliens come and take over the military school he was shipped off to, he tries to warn the Turtles, but they think he was just misinterpreting things again. They get suspicious, however, when the phone gets disconnected on Zach's side and decide to investigate, proving what Zach claimed is true.

** The episode ''Bebop and Rocksteady Conquer The Universe'' features this.

** Krang's robotic body actually makes grunting noises in its first appearance. It's completely silent in all future appearances with the sole exception of ''Krangenstein Lives'', although in that case it had a video game program inserted into it by mistake which explained why it talked there.

* ForHalloweenIAmGoingAsMyself: At the beginning of ''Super Irma'', the Turtles don't know what they should wear to the Channel 6 Halloween party. Splinter suggests that they go as themselves, and they do.
** In ''Raphael Meets His Match'', this is how Raphael pulls off going to a costume party on a ship that he wins. Hilariously, one of the other guests is also there dressed as a ninja turtle and complains about a lack of originality some people have with costume ideas.

* FishPeople: Mona Lisa from ''Raphael Meets His Match''. She's a former human mutated into a half-fish, half-reptile MixAndMatchCritter.
** Also Alim "Merdude" Coelacanth from the episode ''Atlantis Awakes''

** Rocksteady and Bebop were originally humans transformed into their current forms by Shredder. In the first episode of Season 4, Shredder uses a device to temporarily de-mutate them so that they can infiltrate Channel 6, and the two are disgusted at the sight of their original forms. In ''Landlord of the Flies'', though, [[NegativeContinuity the two want to help Baxter Stockman because he was promised to be returned to normal if he defeated the turtles, and they figured that Krang would do the same for them]].

* GrandFinale: ''Divide and Conquer'' ended with the Turtles finally defeating Lord Dregg for good, though it was left open-ended in case more episodes were ordered.

* GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe: Medusa in ''The Wrath of Medusa''.

** And even '''BEFORE''' the Red Sky era, Clayton Kellerman was stirring up trouble for the Turtles in the episode, '''Turtles On Trial'''.

* HumanityEnsues: Temporarily occurs to Michelangelo in the episode ''The Gang's All Here''.

* IdenticalStranger: Princess Mallory, to April, in the episode ''April's Fool''.

** Michaelangelo tricks two foot soldiers into invoking this trope on each other in ''Sky Turtles'' in order to steal their anti-gravity boots. Strangely, the liquid remains of the foot soldiers drain away into the boots without so much as scorching them.

* IncredibleShrinkingMan: Twice: once in ''The Incredible Shrinking Turtles'' and again in ''Funny, They Shrunk Michelangelo''.

* IronicEchoCut: In ''Donatello's Degree'', when the other turtles can't locate Don, we get one of these combined with a [[BreakingTheFourthWall Fourth Wall break]]:

* ItWillNeverCatchOn: This was actually Pat Fraley's initial reaction upon hearing the title "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" at his audition for Krang, saying that nobody would watch a cartoon with a stupid title like that.

* MerchandiseDriven: Obviously, being made because Creator/PlaymatesToys wanted a cartoon alongside what became one of the most successful toy lines of the late 80s into the 90s. This also blends with EarlyInstallmentWeirdness as many of the characters and toys were designed before the cartoon:

* ShortRuninPeru: The "Vacation in Europe" episodes aired in Ireland in 1990, three years before the U.S.

* BareYourMidriff: Casey Jones, a rare male example. It doesn't make him any less intimidating though.

** The Channel 6 team was much less exaggerated in Season 1 compared to the rest of the series. Burne's obessive hatred for the turtles was not established yet, and Vern's cowardice and pettiness was much more downplayed in Season 1, even willing to help April get her scoop in the Season 1 finale. Irma was also completley absent in Season 1.

** Although Mona Lisa appeared in just one episode, it was implied her storyline was just beginning.

* PinocchioSyndrome: There's an episode where the Turtles found tainted cookies that would've turned them human. Michelangelo swipes some because he was sick of being treated like a freak by the people of New York. Of course his brothers had to turn him back because the transformation would've eventually killed him.

* BrokenAesop: The episode "Zach And The Alien Invaders". See IdiotPlot.

* CompressedVice: Several episodes have the Turtles develop one of these for the purposes of the episode having a plot. One example is “Leonardo vs. Tempestra,” which has Leonardo, normally the most straight-laced, level-headed turtle, develop an addiction to the titular character’s video game, so much so that he obsesses over the game to the detriment of his ninja practice, and sneaks out of the lair at night to play it more. He’s never shown an obsession like this before, and hasn’t since.

* BalefulPolymorph:
** Baxter Stockman, after his transformation. Splinter to a lesser extent, though by the end of the second season he's come to fully accept his new self.
** Inverted by Rocksteady and Bebop. In the first episode of Season 4, Shredder uses a device to temporarily de-mutate them so that they can infiltrate Channel 6, and the two are disgusted at the sight of their original forms. In ''Landlord of the Flies'', though, [[NegativeContinuity the two want to help Baxter Stockman because he was promised to be returned to normal if he defeated the turtles, and they figured that Krang would do the same for them]].
** The "Mutazoo" ray gun Baxter acquires in one episode turns its victims into this. Shredder is turned into a regular housefly giving Bebop and Rocksteady the chance to boss him around while Michelangelo is transformed into a gerbil.

* CatchPhrase: Several, with "Cowabunga" being far and away the most recognizable.

* ReptilesAreAbhorrent: The main turtles, having sufficient TurtlePower, are depicted with minimal reptilian features. Other characters, like Slash and Leatherhead, may have more pronounced reptilian traits (scales, spikes, claws).

** The Neutrinos take it UpToEleven.

* WreckedWeapon: Donatello's [[SimpleStaff bos]] were constantly getting broken. One wonders why he never upgraded to a steel pole or something a bit sturdier.

** There was also Bug-Man who only showed up in two episodes. He was an insect-themed superhero who curiously [[ComicBook/IncredibleHulk turned into a powerful superhuman when angered.]] In the episode, he had become a pacifist but since Michelangelo needed his help, he tried his best to make him angry so he would turn into his super-powered form.