Since the creation of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles back in 1984 by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, the “Heroes in a Half-shell” have been featured in numerous comic book series, TV shows, video games and four previous feature films before the upcoming Michael Bay produced reboot. At a time when creator owned comics were still in their infancy, Eastman and Laird struck gold with a comic that openly parodied Daredevil, The New Mutants, Cerebus and Frank Miller’s Ronin.
For years, the Hollywood success of TMNT eclipsed even the best efforts of Marvel and DC’s more established superheroes. The Turtles are so ubiquitous that almost everyone knows that the four Turtles are named Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello and Michelangelo even if they can’t name the four Renaissance artists who inspired those names.
Because of its long life span, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has experienced several declines in popularity as well as significant resurgences. The franchise made both Eastman and Laird into millionaires, but their partnership didn’t survive their success. And now the future of the TMNT belongs to Viacom and Paramount.
Related: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Review: Extra Cheese
The new Jonathan Liebesman directed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles feature film is being pushed as Paramount’s latest flagship franchise. And according to early box office tracking numbers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has a chance to upset Guardians of the Galaxy and take the number one slot at this weekend’s box office. If that happens, you’d better believe that more Turtles movies are coming soon.
In honor of the 30 year history of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, CraveOnline has assembled a list of the 20 most important events in TMNT’s lifespan. But if you feel that we left anything important out, feel free to let us know in the comment section below!
The History of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
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1984 - The Debut of Mirage Studios’ Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Eastman and Laird’s original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic was initially produced as a one-off issue with a short print run. However, the duo proved to be very adept at selling and promoting the book. First printings of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles quickly became highly prized collectors items and Eastman and Laird’s Mirage Studios reprinted the issue several times and launched an ongoing series.
Almost everything from the TMNT series came from the original run, including the four Ninja-trained Turtles; April O’Neil, their human sidekick, Splinter, the Turtles' sensei and a humanoid rat; their enemies Shredder and the Foot Clan as well as Casey Jones, a human vigilante who became close to the Turtles and April.
Unlike almost every TMNT incarnation that came after it, the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was very dark and violent. To achieve breakout success, the franchise was significantly toned down in subsequent adaptations.
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1987 - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Animated Series
Like most animated TV series in the ‘80s, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” was created as a way to sell toys. Unlike most cartoons, the first “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” animated series was a breakout hit that ran for ten seasons. More than anything else, this TV show created the foundation of the TMNT franchise. And it didn’t seem to have any problem getting kids to buy the TMNT action figures from Playmates.
“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” had a significantly lighter tone than the comic book and it had a heavier emphasis on humor. It also had a very memorable theme song that was written by Chuck Lorre, a writer who has gone on to produce several hit comedy series for CBS.
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1988 - Archie Comics Picks Up Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
While “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” was on the air, the original comic book series wasn’t sufficiently kid friendly. Archie Comics filled that gap by producing a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic based on the animated series.
What separates Archie’s TMNT from other adaptations is that the creative team was given the freedom to veer away from the cartoon storylines and come up with new material. This allowed them to turn April O’Neil into a Ninja trained heroine and they even developed Shredder into something more than just a standard villain.
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1989 - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game
Taking its cue from the TMNT animated series, Konami released a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles video game into the arcade market and it quickly became extremely popular.
One of the fun touches of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was that it allowed up to four players to pick their favorite Turtles and fight almost all of the major villains from the animated series. This wasn’t the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles video game, but it is still one of the best. Although the arcade sequel, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles :Turtles In Time was also very good.
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1990 - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Becomes a Live-Action Film
Looking back, it was inevitable that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles would make the leap to live action films. In 1990, it finally happened when director Steve Barron adapted the origin story of Leonardo (Brian Tochi), Michelangelo (Robbie Rist), Donatello (Corey Feldman) and Raphael (Josh Pais). Also in tow for this film were Judith Hoag as April O'Neil, Elias Koteas as Casey Jones and James Saito as The Shredder, with David McCharen supplying his Shredder’s voice.
This was long before CGI was commonplace in film, so the Turtles were brought to the screen with a combination of suits and puppetry from Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles made over $200 million worldwide, which meant that the franchise was far from finished with the movies... although someone at the studio level certainly did their best to kill it off with a number of bad decisions.
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1991 - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze
Only one year after Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles broke out, a sequel hit theaters. Unfortunately, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze is not a good movie... by any stretch of the imagination. Although Paige Turco was an upgrade as the new April O'Neil.
This movie is known for only two things: the Super-Shredder at the end... and the infamous Ninja Rap by Vanilla Ice, who actually appears in the film as he performs the song!
With only $78 million in domestic box office sales, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze was a big step down from the first film. But there was still room to fall for the third film. -
1993 - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III sends the title characters to Feudal Japan after April (Paige Turco) is accidentally sent back in time. Director Stuart Gillard also had the misfortune of working with a smaller budget than the first TMNT film.
As the popularity of TMNT began to diminish, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III only pulled in $42 million domestically, which effectively killed the film franchise until 2007.
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1993 - April O’Neil Steps Up
Meanwhile, Archie Comics’ continuing adventures of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles proved to be more progressive than its source material. While April O’Neil was a perennial damsel in distress on the cartoon, the comic incarnation of April was trained by Master Splinter to become her own action heroine.
In 1993, Archie gave April her own three issue miniseries, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Present: April O'Neil. And for the first time, April wasn’t dependent upon the Turtles to save her. Not every incarnation of April has been portrayed as a fighter like this one, but this depiction has influenced some of the April O’Neils that came after her.
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1993 - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Volume 2
The original black and white Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic book series at Mirage came to an end with issue # 62 in 1993. A few months later, Mirage relaunched the series in full color as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Volume 2 with Jim Lawson as the writer and the artist.
Over the next two years, 13 issues of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Vol 2 were released, but sales were in deep decline and the series came to an end.
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1996 - The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Move To Image
Image Comics co-founder Erik Larsen was a fan of TMNT and he helped bring the franchise to Image for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Volume 3 by writer Gary Carlson and artist Frank Fosco. This was a significantly more superhero inspired take on the characters that actually placed them in the Image Universe and allowed them to interact with Larsen’s Savage Dragon.
However, TMNT co-creator Peter Laird was reportedly not a fan of this incarnation of the title. When the Image TMNT run came to an end in 1999, it was officially written out of the Turtles' continuity.
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1997 - Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation
Want to make a hardcore TMNT fan angry? Bring up Venus de Milo.
In 1997, Fox attempted to reboot the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in a live action TV series called “Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation.” This show shared some continuity with the first three Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films and it introduced a new female Turtle named Venus.
Fox may have wanted “Ninja Turtles” to build on the success of “Power Rangers,” and there actually was a crossover between the two shows in “Power Rangers In Space.” However, “Ninja Turtles: The Next Generation” was over after only a single season of 26 episodes.
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2000 - Eastman and Laird Split Up
By most accounts, the break up of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird was a long time in coming. But in 2000, the duo made the split official when Eastman sold most of his TMNT rights to Laird.
In the comic industry, Eastman has actually done more than simply co-create the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He was one of the contributors to the Comic Creator’s Bill of Rights and he formed an imprint called Tundra Publishing to further that ideal. Eastman also purchased Heavy Metal Magazine and he kept the European style sci-fi comic magazine in print for years.
Tundra eventually folded and Eastman sold Heavy Metal earlier this year. As for Laird, he remained focused on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the next nine years.
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2001 - TMNT Returns To Mirage
Once Laird refocused on the Turtles, he brought the comic back for its fourth incarnation at Mirage. This time, the title was simply TMNT. Laird and Jim Lawson teamed up on the book which completely ignored the Image incarnation of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and picked up 15 years after the second volume, as the Turtles were in their ‘30s and more openly accepted while April and Casey had married.
Even Splinter was still around as the defacto “grandfather” to Shadow, the daughter of April and Casey. Technically, this series is still going, as Laird still has the rights to produce a certain amount of Turtles related comics per year. But the most recent issue came out in May 2014, almost four years after the previous issue was released.
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2003 - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Get a New Animated Series
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles owes most of its success to the original animated series, so its no surprise that the franchise returned to animation in 2003. This time, Mirage Studios had a larger stake in the show and more creative control. This meant that the new “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” animated series was closer in tone to the original comic series.
While this series didn’t quite match the output of the original TMNT cartoon, it still had an impressive seven season run with 155 episodes. It also brought the Turtles into longer story arcs, including the “Fast Forward” season that placed the Turtles in the future.
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2003 - Dreamwave Productions Picks Up The Turtles
In the early 2000s, licensing an ‘80s animated cartoon series as a comic was very lucrative. Dreamwave Productions had a lot of success with the Transformers comics in 2002. By 2003, Dreamwave was looking to continue that success with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Veteran comic book writer Peter David was brought in to headline the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic alongside artist LeSean Thomas. This series was largely inspired by the 2003 Turtles animated series, but it only ran for seven issues.
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2007 - TMNT: The Animated Movie
Fourteen years after Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III, the franchise returned to theaters with an all new CGI animated movie produced by Laird with Kevin Monroe as the writer and director. TMNT was a complete break from the previous four films and it featured a stellar voice cast that included Chris Evans, Nolan North, James Arnold Taylor, Mikey Kelley, Mitchell Whitfield, Mako, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Chris Evans, Patrick Stewart, Ziyi Zhang and Laurence Fishburne.
TMNT was a modest hit that brought in $95 million from the domestic and international box office. The franchise still had some support, but it was nowhere near the height of its popularity.
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2009 - Peter Laird Sells TMNT To Viacom & Nickelodeon
For nine years, Peter Laird was the sole owner of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. But in 2009, Laird accepted a deal from Viacom and Nickelodeon that was said to be worth $60 million dollars in exchange for ownership of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Because of this deal, Mirage Studios came to an end after 25 years.
Interestingly enough, Laird didn’t completely divorce himself from the franchise. Laird retained the rights to create a certain amount of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics per year... he just hasn’t exercised that right very often. Part of the deal also stipulates that Laird can no longer publish trade paperbacks or hardcovers of his TMNT stories.
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2009 - TMNT: Turtles Forever
In 2009, the 2003 “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” animated series came to an end with a movie event that brought back the Turtles from the 1987 animated series for a team up adventure. Even the original Frank Miller-ish Turtles from the Eastman and Laird comics appeared in this story as the Shredder from the 2003 series attempted to wipe out the Turtles across all realities.
This was a fun tribute to the 25th anniversary of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The only thing that was missing were the original voice actors from the 1987 series, which was reportedly due to the 2003 series operating as a non-union voiceover series.
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2011 - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Find a New Home At IDW
Once Viacom took control of Teenage Mutant NInja Turtles, the comic rights were up for grabs. IDW eventually picked up the license and brought in TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman as the co-writer and co-artist of a brand new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic book series.
IDW is also the current publisher of G.I. Joe, Ghostbusters and Transformers, which means that it has four of the biggest ‘80s properties under its roof. There have even been loose crossovers between the four franchises, which would have been unthinkable just ten years ago.
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2012 - Nickelodeon Premieres The Third Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Animated Series
You don’t spend $60 million on a franchise and then not use it. Nickelodeon must have had plans for a new TMNT animated series when it purchased the rights from Laird in 2009. The completely CGI-animated “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” made its premiere in 2012 and it was recently renewed for a fourth season on Nickelodeon.
For this series, April is much younger than her previous incarnations. But she is also receiving Ninja training from Splinter as she and the Turtles take on Shredder and his alien allies, the Kraang.
