In May of 1984, Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird published the first issue of
a comic book in Northampton, Massachusetts about four mutated turtles.
Initially intended as a parody of several other existing comics, this
self-published work eventually drew the eye of Mark Freedman, a licensing
agent who saw commercial promise in this strange, new franchise. Jerry
Sachs of the Sachs-Finley Agency initiated talks with the animaters at
Murakami-Wolf-Swenson, under the direction of Fred Wolf, to produce a
five-episode animated mini-series for the comic, which debuted on December
10, 1987. Subsequent visits to Playmates Toys Inc in 1988 and a successful
second run of the mini-series led to the show being picked up for
syndication. By 1990, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles brand had become a
juggernaut, coercing millions of viewers each Saturday morning to scope out
the totally awesome pizza-laden adventures.
Tonight on The John Zone, we celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of
this phenomenon with scores of interviews, featurettes, trailers, and
anything turtle-related that can be conjured up on this machine of mine. It
goes without saying that this series was a large part of my childhood, which
means that The John Zone will expand to a six-hour format this week to
appropriately commemorate this occasion without frightening off any
potential listeners who did not grow up with the series.
Today also marks the thirty-eighth birthday of South Park co-creator, Matt
Stone, as well as the ninety-second anniversary of the world's
longest-lasting tornado, which began its seven-hour journey in Mattoon,
Illinois on this day in 1917. These additional anniversaries, your
requests, comments, and leftover pizza will be honored this afternoon
beginning at 4PM EDT at http://listen.tbrn.net:8888/tbrn.ogg.
