The Original 1987 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' Cartoon Is Finally Coming To Nickelodeon

Viacom bought the franchise in 2009, and while the the original animated series iteration had been merchandised, the series itself had not been offered

Paramount is officially fully turtle-powered. The original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series is finally coming to Nickelodeon next year.

Nearly fifteen years after the megacorp bought the franchise from original creator Peter Laird, other co-creator Kevin Eastman (who sold his part of the ownership in 2000) appeared at the San Diego Comic-Con panel for the upcoming latest film iteration Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem to make the announcement. Under the deal, all 193 episodes of the original 1987-1996 megahit series are slated to debut digitally on Nickelodeon later this month in the United States, followed by Nickelodeon-branded channels and digital platforms internationally. This was later clarified to mean Nickelodeon-owned and operated channels such as YouTube, Pluto TV and O&O linear channels.

While it seems it’s all good for linear Nickelodeon, Paramount+ might be out of the question, it’s very likely that it will include Pluto TV’s Totally Turtles channel, which is Nickelodeon-branded. The channel, which launched on the service in 2019 already airs the three subsequent animated series, the 4Kids-produced 2003-2009 series, the first Nickelodeon series which ran from 2012 to 2017, and Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which aired from 2018 to 2020. In January, Nickelodeon refitted its Henry Danger YouTube channel to be one for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and the content can also go to the main Nickelodeon channel or the Nickelodeon Cartoon Universe channel, and probably all three.

The original animated series had not seen legal reruns at least domestically in the entirety of Paramount’s ownership, but did receive a complete series physical release and to digital marketplaces. In fact, the last rerun was on its home network CBS in 1997. The 4Kids series made its Paramount-era debut in 2014 on Nicktoons.

In addition, just because they couldn’t air the original series doesn’t mean the version of these characters didn’t persist. They are still heavily merchandised, present in social media posts for the brand and the network, and are the iterations starring in new video games such as Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, and Nickelodeon Kart Racers 3: Slime Speedway. They also appeared in five episodes of the 2012 series, “Wormquake!”, “Trans-Dimensional Turtles” and “Wanted: Bebop and Rocksteady”, with the latter two being full-blown crossovers with the 2012 iteration, with original voices Rob Paulsen, Cam Clarke, Townsend Coleman, Barry Gordon and Pat Fraley.

Mutant Mayhem is the latest film iteration of the franchise and the second animated one to be theatrical following the 2007 TMNT. The films started with the ‘90s trilogy, followed by 2007’s TMNT, 2009’s Turtles Forever multiverse extravaganza crossing over the original series and the 2003 series, a duology produced by Platinum Dunes released in 2014 and 2016, the latter subtitled Out of the Shadows, the crossover Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and the movie finale for Rise, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie, released last year on Netflix.

Sources: Variety, NintendoLife, The Daily Herald: August 30, 1997, Nickandmore, NickAlive!