Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (initially known as Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles in some European countries at the time) is an American animated television series produced by the studio Murakami-Wolf-Swenson and the French company IDDH. The pilot was shown during the week of December 28, 1987 in syndication as a five-part miniseries and the show began its official run on October 1, 1988. Since then the show and franchise has become a world-wide phenomenon. The series featured the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles characters created in comic book form by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. The property was changed considerably from the darker-toned comic, to make it more suitable for children and the family. The initial motivation behind the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series was that, upon be