The entire first season of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series is now streaming on YouTube, free of charge.
Nickelodeon recently uploaded Season 1 of the beloved 1987 cartoon to the official Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles YouTube channel as a single, 106-minute video. It was just under two weeks ago at San Diego Comic-Con that Nickelodeon — the current owner of the TMNT franchise — announced that it had acquired the rights to the original ’80s television show. Furthermore, Season 1 was uploaded to YouTube just days before the theatrical release of Nickelodeon and Paramount’s new animated feature film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.
Watch the complete first season of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) below:
TMNT ’87 Season 1 is a five-part origin story
The first season of the original TMNT animated series is the shortest, coming in at five episodes — “Turtle Tracks,” “Enter The Shredder,” “A Thing About Rats,” “Hot Rodding Teenagers from Dimension X,” and “Shredder & Splintered.” These episodes are known collectively as the five-part pilot, “Heroes in a Half Shell.” They originally aired on first-run syndication from Dec. 14, 1987 to Dec. 19, 1987. The series went on to run for a total of 10 seasons through 1996. As part of the new deal, Nickelodeon has access to all 193 episodes that were produced.
“We just found out today — this is breaking news — Nickelodeon and Paramount have secured the rights to broadcast the original cartoon series,” TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman said at SDCC. “[It was] the beginning. The first time those characters came to life with voices and movement, and Chuck Lorre wrote an amazing theme song for us back in the day before he was Chuck Lorre. It’s so fantastic. We’re so excited to announce this, so congratulations to all of us. We get to see it again!”
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is playing in theaters now.
