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The Turtles!
Following up on the regular series of classic television shows of our childhood...
It is now the turn of one of the greatest ever fearsome fighting teams:
TEENAGE MUTANT HERO TURTLES!!!
No, not the crappy new edition they're showing these days and no, not the Teenage Mutant NINJA Turtles as many seem to think they were called (In actual fact, they were referred to as Hero Turtles on this side of the Atlantic as the term "ninja" was deemed too violent).
The Turtles were the cornerstone of every boy and girl's childhood; I defy you to name one person who has never heard of them. The show was based around the crime-fighting travails of Raphael, he of the red eye mask and forks and Chandler Bing of the group; Michelangelo, the nunchuck-wielding, orange-masked stoner stereotype; Leonardo, the leader of the gang and driest of all the turtles; and finally you had Donatello, the purple-masked, staff brandishing genius.
They were ably led by a rat in silk pyjamas, Master Splinter, and regularly fought the evil might of the bafflingly useless Shredder, the giant brain in a robot, Crang and their two incompetent henchmen, B-Bop and Rock Steady. Dodgy villains aside, there was also the Channel 6 reporter April "If you were real you'd be stunning" O'Neal, who seemed to have a thing for yellow catsuits and white vans.
The Turtles embodied all that was good with early 90's children's TV programming: It was upbeat, it was lively, it was extremely witty and didn't condescend to its' viewers. The characters were well thought out, three dimensional and there was very much something for everyone: Smart-arse kids and practical jokers had the wise-cracking Raphael to look up to; Adrenaline junkies and free spirits had Michelangelo; The bossy, determined kids had Leonardo and the quiet intelligent kids with glasses that took up half their face had Donatello.
All in all, The Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles are part of our social fabric, not to mention for making Italian artists well-known all over again...
HEROES IN A HALF-SHELL: TURTLE POWER!!!
By: Patrick Duffy
The opinions of writers featured on SpunOut.ie do not necessarily reflect the views of the SpunOut.ie team or those of Community Creations. We try to give everyone a chance to have their opinions heard but we are not responsible for inaccuracies contained within these.
