Turtle Tracks (1987 TV series)

Turtle Tracks is the first episode of the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon series. This episode of the show is part of the Heroes in a Half Shell series. It was produced by Kara Vallow. It was written by David Wise and Patti Howeth. It was directed by Yoshikatsu Kasai. It originally aired on December 10, 1987, in syndication. It is available on DVD on the single-disc set released on April 20, 2004.

Plot synopsis
As the dusk arrives in New York City, news reporter April O'Neil is broadcasting for Channel 6 News about crimes. She has an assignment to deliver a news report on mysterious thefts of high-tech scientific equipment from various laboratories across the city. During the investigation, she learns that the thieves are ninjas. She goes with her film crew to stake out a scientific laboratory that she believes to be the site of a potential destination ... only to be seized by a street gang. April's film crew panics and exits the scene. April O'Neal makes a run for the canister and slips it into the sewers and is chased by the thug mob under the streets of New York City through an intricate maze of sewer tunnels.

Down in the sewers, the street gang members prepare to attack April, when four big talking turtles arrive and help April by defeating the street gang members.

The turtles bring April back to sewer their lair where she meets a giant talking rat, who tell April who they are:

"In Japan, there was a ninja clan known as the Foot Clan, led by a man named Hamato Yoshi. Hamato Yoshi liked art. One of his pupils, Oroku Saki, planned to take over the leadership of the Foot Clan. One day, a sensei visited the Foot Clan's dojo. The Foot Clan members sat near a wall to bow for the sensei, when Oroku Saki put a knife to attach Hamato Yoshi's clothes in the wall. To bow for the sensei, Hamato Yoshi now first had to remove the knife. This caused the others who were in the dojo that time to think that Hamato Yoshi tried to kill the sensei. Hamato Yoshi was banned from the Foot Clan. Hamato Yoshi fled to the USA, where he was an illegal immigrant. Hamato Yoshi lived in the New York City sewer system. His only friends became the rats. One day, a small child was walking on a street with a bowl with four turtles. The boy accidentally tripped and fell, causing the bowl to crash on the street and the turtles to fall into a sewers. Hamato Yoshi made the turtles his new friends.

Meanwhile, back in Japan, the Foot Clan became a criminal gang led by Oroku Saki.

Back in the USA, Hamato Yoshi one day found the turtles covered with in "goo", which was a "mutagen" that "caused whoever touched it to take on the form of whatever animal they most recently had been in contact with." The turtles become humanized turtles, because of their recent contact with Hamato Yoshi who tried to clean them up. Hamato Yoshi was transformed into a rat because of his recent contact with the rats. When the rat says this, April realizes that the rat is Hamato Yoshi.

Hamato Yoshi tells April how they got their names. The turtles gave Hamato Yoshi the nickname "Splinter" because of his "martial artistry", and Splinter gave the turtles names of four favorite Renaissance painters: Donatello, Leonardo, Michaelangelo and Raphael. Together, the turtles called themselves the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT).

In a world where many people fear the different, Splinter trained the turtles in the ancient art of ninjutsu and they decided to find the person responsible for Splinters "mutation" and force the responsible person to turn Splinter back into human again.

For a short while, April believes that the TMNT are not the thieves. However, the TMNT and April strike a deal. The TMNT will help April find the real thieves and get her story, while April to help them find the source of the "mutagen" and don't tell the world about the turtles.

The TMNT and April walk up on the city streets with a matchbook that was left behind at the fight between the turtles and the street gang members. When everyone notices the TMNT, April goes to a clothes store and buy trenchcoats and fedoras so the TMNT can disguish themselves as humans. Then they go to a "Ninja Pizzeria", in hope to learn more about the thefts. While the TMNT eat pizza, April scouts the neighborhood and finds a building with a sign attached to it that says "Manhattan Security Services". April enters the lobby and hears the receptionist dispatch a "security team" to another scientific equipment lab that is "just waiting to be cleaned out". April goes to a nearby telephone booth and calls Channel 6 to tell that she found the thieves, only to be abducted.

Meanwhile, the TMNT begin to worry for April and go out in search for her. They find her wallet and her press pass. They also see her purse hanging on the roof of an abandoned tenement building. The TMNT rush towards the top of the building, where April is tied to a chair. The TMNT are attacked by a group of "ninjas", but they soon lern that the "ninjas" are robots.

Oroku Saki, who watches the scene via remote controlled cameras, recognizes the fighting style of the TMNT, which is the Foot Clan's techniqes. Oroku Saki wonders if Hamato Yoshi is still alive.

The TMNT destroy the robots, save April and chase the robots from the roof of the building over to the roof of the nearby building, which is Manhattan Security Services. The robots escape, and April and the TMNT are watched by Oroku Saki via his closed circuit camera system. Now, more than ever, he is convinced that the TMNT have been trained by Hamato Yoshi. Oroku Saki calls back his "Foot Soldiers" to retreat to the Technodrome, but first they flood the building by activating the fire sprinkler. April and the TMNT run to the rooftop of the building as the water inside the building goes higher and higher. They escape from the rooftop just before the building explodes from the water pressure.

Back down in the TMNT's sewer lair, Splinter watches the uniform of one of the robotic ninjas. After studying it, Splinter is convinced that it is the uniform of the Foot Clan and that his old enemy, Oroku Saki, is still alive and also nearby.

Turtle Tracks (TMNT 1987)