That One Time I Wrote Scripts for Animated TV Shows

Everyone talks about the Golden Era of television we are currently experiencing. It’s true that there have been more than a handful of great dramas and comedies being produced. Between all the streaming giants taking some brilliant risks that have paid off basic cable has been upping their game. What surprises me is how often critics overlook/dismiss animated series. I’m not talking adult oriented animation (i.e. Bojack Horesman, Rick and Morty), but in fact children’s television. Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, and Disney XD all have been toiling hard to make sure they’ve been making some quality productions. I can not recommend Gravity Falls highly enough. A few years back I wrote spec scripts for two animated series: Ultimate Spider-Man and the 2012 iteration of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I know a writer who worked on them and naively hoped I could get my foot in the door. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. I’ll explain more as to why down the line. I recently was sifting through some of my old pieces of writing and re-read both of them. I may be biased, but I really liked what I had crafted. Today I wanted to discuss why I chose these series, how I prepped to write, what I wrote, and where they went. (NOTE: I’m only going to discuss my TMNT script. I’m still hoping I can someday take my Ultimate Spider-Man story and tell it.)

-Why-

Well basically it was for two reasons: 1.) Like I stated I knew someone who had written for both of these series. I figured there was a chance that if I wrote something that made a big enough impression that maybe it would be my ticket to a work for hire gig. 2.) I knew and loved both of the universes. Growing up two of my favorite animated series were the 80’s/90’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the 90’s Spider-Man cartoons. At that age I didn’t have access to comics. The nearest comic book shop was over 80 miles from where I lived and I didn’t have much money to spend on comics. These shows (along with Batman: The Animated Series and X-Men) were my first introductions to their respective worlds. After watching hours upon hours of these shows I grew to know and love the characters, who they were, and what they stood for. I wanted to take my knowledge of these characters and leave my own personal stamp on their legacy. I assume it’s the same reason almost every writer has ever wanted to work on a comic series or animated show.

-How-

In spite of all the knowledge you can have on a character every series has it’s own specific take on them. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had all the typical characteristics for Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael. But this series played it differently from what I grew up on. And to be honest, the original TMNT animated series hasn’t exactly aged all that well. So I made it my mission to delve into the new series and understand their tone. The first two seasons and half of the third were out and I binge-watched every episode. What really surprised me was how you could tell the writers weren’t just fans of the Turtles, but of all of pop culture. My favorite portion was the first half of season three. The were so many great references to a lot of my favorite horror films. I can not wait for the kids who grew up on this show to re-visit it and catch all these little Easter eggs. It was my crash course in TMNT 101 and I enjoyed every episode.

-What-

When I wrote my story I wanted to throw in as many homages to every facet of Turtles I knew. The bones of my script came from the ’87 series episode New York’s Shiniest featuring the robotic officer Rex-1. Part of this was because I wanted to dig up a forgotten character. I was also well versed in this episode since it was on videotape I owned as a child.

In a nutshell here is the plot of the script. Due to the fact that the Rex-1 prototype cost too much money the company that built him used salvaged Kraang technology to build the rest of the Rex robots. This leads to Baxter Stockman hijacking the Rex robots and having his own private army. The Turtles, April O’Neil, and Rex-1 all team up to stop him. But as I said this series loved packing in Easter eggs, so I’ll break a few of the fun tid bits I sprinkled into my script.

I opened with Leonardo watch his favorite Sci-Fi series Space Heroes with this line.

While not a reference to Star Trek it’s callback to The Twilight Zone episode “Terror at 20,000 feet” starring Captain Kirk himself William Shatner.

The scientist who created Rex-1 is named after the writer and his original creator Richard Merwin. Also, Wise Industries was a wink to David Wise. The main creator of the ’87 series.

Metalhead’s line of dialogue comes from a typo left in the Super Nintendo game Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time.

At the beginning of the script I had Michelangelo doing laundry, but Raphael refuses to let him wash his bandannas. In the end Mikey doesn’t get laundry done and all the Turtles have to wear Raph’s red bandannas. This was my callback to the original comics where the Turtles all wear red instead of their distinct colors.

Yep, I wrote a reference to Vanilla Ice’s song Ninja Rap from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II. Don’t care, I love that film!

And of course my final moment of the episode was for a possible follow-up. I had the Neutrinos coming through an inter-dimensional portal. Aside from a possible hook for another story I just wanted to leave fans with a fun wink to the Turtle lore.

-Where-

So as you’ve probably guessed already this script never got made. So we know where it went, but… why? After finishing the script on one friend’s suggestion I contacted my friend who wrote for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He responded by telling me that in spite of working on the show he wasn’t a permanent staff member. Not only could he not read my work, but he couldn’t get it into the hands of anyone on the writing staff. I have to admit that it was a huge letdown. On the plus side I did get experience and had fun in the process. And like I said, I still hold out hope that my Spider-Man story may still see the light of day.

These are my thoughts, actually they’re not thoughts but you know how this part of the article goes. Did you enjoy either Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Ultimate Spider-Man? Have you ever tried writing stories based off characters you love? Is there any animated children’s show from the past few years you enjoy? Let me know! Depending if there’s any interest I might upload the full version of this TMNT script. I’ll keep you posted. Remember you can follow me on Twitter and Instagram @sdfilmthoughts. As always, thanks for reading. Booyakasha!