Credit: Paramount PicturesThe Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have been a force to be reckoned with for 38 years. But while they continue to rule over comic book shelves and toy aisles everywhere, it’s their recurring appearances on our television screens that have held them in pop culture infamy.
When most fans think of the Turtles, three things often come to mind: comics, toys, and cartoons. While the half-shell heroes have also dominated movie theaters every few years, there’s no denying that the TV shows are what have kept them alive in the mainstream.
Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael started life in the grungy, underground Mirage comics in 1984. But, in 1987, they were underground no more. Well, they still lived in the sewers, but they were given sunny new adventure in the hugely popular 1987 cartoon.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was a pop culture phenomenon, launching a worldwide craze known as “Turtle-Mania”. The Turtles were everywhere: toy shelves, cereal boxes, lunchboxes — they even made an appearance at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Disneyland.
Now, the 1987 cartoon, which ended in 1996, is a cult classic. Of course, there have been more TMNT series since then: the 2003 series, the 2012 3D-animated series, 2018’s Rise of the TMNT, and Mutant Mayhem spinoff, Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2024).
Outside the realm of cartoons, however, is a forgotten live-action television series: Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation (1997). Produced by Saban Entertainment (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers), the short-lived series aired on the Fox Kids network from 1997 to 1998.
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Adopting a similar style and tone to Saban’s Power Rangers, The Next Mutation features practical suits similar to the original live-action TMNT film that was released in 1990 and its two sequels, The Secret of the Ooze (1991) and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (1993).
It focuses on the Turtles’ ongoing battle against the Foot Clan while introducing the first female Ninja Turtle, Venus de Milo. The series wasn’t received well by fans and ran for just one season, and it remains the first and only live-action small-screen entry in the franchise.
But is this show a hidden gem waiting to be appreciated by a new generation of TMNT fans? Well, no. While some are bound to enjoy the show on a purely nostalgic level, it’s still pretty bad and ultimately feels like a Turtles rip-off. But, if you like your half-shell heroes with a lot of cheese (and we do mean a lot), there might be something in this half-baked pie for you.
Whether we’ll ever get another live-action TMNT television series remains to be seen. But should Nickelodeon ever decide to take that route, let’s hope they give us a dark, gritty, and violent reboot more akin to Marvel’s ongoing Daredevil series than The Next Mutation.
In fact, the time is ripe for such a project as the franchise appears to be enjoying something of a second heyday. Though still not a patch on Turtle-Mania, the IP is churning out comic books, video games, new toy lines, cartoons, and movies left and right.
Fortunately, though, we are getting an R-rated live-action theatrical reboot with The Last Ronin, adapted from the comic of the same name. The film is being produced by the former head of DC Films Walter Hamada with a script by Tyler Burton Smith (2019’s Child’s Play).
Meanwhile, TMNT fans can also enjoy the darker side of the Turtles in the ongoing IDW comic series, which also has multiple spinoffs running in tandem with the flagship story.
There’s no release date for The Last Ronin film.
Have you ever watched Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation? Let us know your thoughts in the comments down below!