The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, as a parent

The turtles have made a comeback in recent years thanks to several reboots and the involvement of Nickelodeon.  So much so, that my now 3-year-old son is nuttier about the Turtle-y Teens than I ever was.

So I’m rewatching all the old cartoons with him (he has two DVDs full of the old episodes).  The first thing I noticed was the songwriting credit on the theme song.  One of two writers is listed as Chuck Lorre.  This is the same Chuck Lorre that went on to create Two and a Half Men, Big Bang Theory and several other television shows (although those are his two most successful).

The music is nothing special, the lyrics likewise aren’t but given their provenance, it was kind of funny to take a look at them.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Heroes in a half-shell
Turtle power!

They’re the world’s most fearsome fighting team (We’re really hip!)
They’re heroes in a half-shell and they’re green (Hey – get a grip!)
When the evil Shredder attacks
These Turtle boys don’t cut him no slack!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Splinter taught them to be ninja teens (He’s a radical rat!)
Leonardo leads, Donatello does machines (That’s a fact, Jack!)
Raphael is cool but crude (Gimme a break!)
Michaelangelo is a party dude (Party!)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Heroes in a half shell
Turtle power!

So essentially you have a four person team: One is the leader, Leonardo.  A second, Donatello, does the technical work with machines (this was pre-internet).  The third is cool but crude and the fourth is a party dude.  This means half of the team’s strong suits are how they drag the team down.  Coolness, Crudeness, and Party-dudeness are not exactly traits you are going to list on your Linked In profile.

Oh, and the voice of the Shredder is Uncle Phil from The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.  I’ve spent the last five hours of cartoon watching waiting for the Shredder to tell Will to get a job or Jazz to get out of his house.

~ by chrismcdevitt on January 4, 2015.