20,000 Leaks Under the City

This article is about the episode "20,000 Leaks Under the City". For the VHS, go to 20,000 Leaks Under the City (home media release).

“20,000 Leaks Under the City”
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) episode
Season Code:	03
Episode:	14
Original airdate	October 12, 1989
Written by	Bob Schooley Mark McCorkle
Producers:	Kara Vallow
Episode chronology ← Previous Next → "The Ninja Sword of Nowhere" "Take Me to Your Leader"

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1989 Season September 25, 1989 - Feburary 9, 1990 List of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles episodes

Episodes: "Beneath These Streets" "Turtles on Trial" "Attack of the 50-Foot Irma" "The Maltese Hamster" "Sky Turtles" "The Old Switcheroo" "Burne's Blues" "The Fifth Turtle" "Enter the Rat King" "Turtles at the Earth's Core" "April Fool" "Attack of Big MACC" "The Ninja Sword of Nowhere" "20,000 Leaks Under the City" "Take Me to Your Leader" "Four Musketurtles" "Turtles, Turtles Everywhere" "Cowabunga Shredhead" "Invasion of the Turtle Snatchers" "Camera Bugged" "Green With Jealousy" "Return of the Fly" "Casey Jones - Outlaw Hero" "Mutagen Monster" "Corporate Raiders from Dimension X" "Pizza by the Shred" "Super Bebop & Mighty Rocksteady" "Beware the Lotus" "Blast from the Past" "Leatherhead: Terror of the Swamp" "Michelangelo's Birthday" "Usagi Yojimbo" "Case of the Hot Kimono" "Usagi Come Home" "The Making of Metalhead" "Leatherhead Meets the Rat King" "The Turtle Terminator" "The Great Boldini" "The Missing Map" "The Gang's All Here" "The Grybyx" "Mister Ogg Goes to Town" "Shredderville" "Bye, Bye, Fly" "The Big Rip-Off" "The Big Break In" "The Big Blow Out" 1987 Season – 1988 Season – 1989 Season – 1990 Season - 1991 Season – 1992 Season – 1992-1993 Vacation in Europe sideseason – 1993 Season – 1994 Season – 1995 Season – 1996 Season

"20,000 Leaks Under the City" is an episode from season 3 (1989) of the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon series.

Appearing in 20,000 Leaks Under the City

Major characters

• Leonardo (Cam Clarke)
• Donatello (Greg Berg)
• Michelangelo (Townsend Coleman)
• Raphael (Rob Paulsen)
• Splinter (Peter Renaday)
• April O'Neil (Renae Jacobs)
• Vernon Fenwick (Peter Renaday)
• Irma (Jennifer Darling)
• Shredder (James Avery)
• Bebop (Greg Berg)
• Rocksteady (Cam Clarke)
• Krang (Pat Fraley)

Minor characters

• Burne Thompson (Pat Fraley)
• Tiffany (Jennifer Darling)

Species

• Human
• Mutant rat
• Mutant rhinoceros
• Mutant turtle
• Mutant warthog

Objects and vehicles

• Turtle Van
• Sewer Party Tube (two seated version)
• Shredder's speedboat

Locations

• Turtle Lair
• Technodrome
• City Sewer System
• Channel 6 building
• New York City streets
• Seafood Restaurant

Plot

Krang drills a massive hose up into the ocean, which he reveals to Shredder is part of his Super Pump. He plans to use it to drain water from the ocean and flood the New York sewers with it, presumably killing the Turtles in the process. Shredder is oddly dismissive of the idea.

Elsewhere, Donatello is showing Michelangelo the new Turtle Tube he's created, a motorized raft with fireable suction cups. Later on, he discovers seismic activity from the Earth's core, meaning that Shredder and Krang are up to something.

At Channel 6, Burne Thompson is lamenting his hatred for birthdays, partly because he is turning fifty (or "thirtysomething" as he claims to his girlfriend). Despite his protestations, April, Vernon and Irma drag him to a salad and seafood restaurant across the street.

On the surface, Shredder is awaiting Rocksteady and Bebop's arrival with a stolen boat. Krang asks Shredder what is taking them so long. Shredder tells Krang to be patient because they are not exactly rocket scientists. Rocksteady and Bebop try to think of which boat they should swipe. Bebop makes the decision to take the red boat because red was his favorite color. Rocksteady agrees with the idea and they start to push but their usual clumsiness causes the boat to go out of control when it takes Bebop on a a wild ride. Rocksteady and Bebop ride the boat uncontrollably down the streets and immediately crash into a hot dog stand, a fruit stand, and then hit a garbage truck and then knock Shredder into a mud puddle in which he ask’s “What happened to you idiots?” Rocksteady says that they hit some traffic along the way. Krang tells Shredder that his mutants could use a bath and then activates the Super Pump, which is in critical danger of overloading if not used immediately.

The Turtles are finishing a meal when their lair is flooded, sweeping them all out into the tunnels outside. Splinter is nearly sent over a high waterfall, but is saved at the last minute by Michelangelo on a surfboard. The Turtles safely make it out of the sewers. Leonardo knew that this was what Shredder was cooking up.

Unfortunately Krang's Super Pump is malfunctioning, and he's unable to stop it from sucking in the entire ocean and flooding the city. In a matter of minutes the streets are flooded in several feet of water. April rows a boat-shaped salad bar out of the restaurant in search of a story but is surrounded by a huge shark. Donatello rushes out the newly-amphibious Turtle Van to help out with the situation.

After rescuing April from a shark attack, the Turtles encounter Shredder, who orders Rocksteady to throw a grenade at them. Fortunately, Donatello sends the grenade back at them on the salad bar and it explodes which angered Shredder.

Down in the ocean, a giant squid makes its way into the Super Pump. Krang is horrified by the ongoing malfunctions, but decides to put the squid to good use when he learns that the Turtles are still alive. It erupts from the sewers and attacks Rocksteady, but Shredder uses a Brain Wave Neutralizer to put the creature under his control.

A massive tidal wave sweeps the Turtles over to where Shredder and the squid are. As the Turtles are preparing to attack, they catch sight of the squid, which grabs them off the Turtle Van and starts juggling them in the air.

April rams Shredder's boat with the Turtle van, causing him to lose the remote control for the squid. Donatello catches it and uses the device to make the squid put them down safely, then to attack Shredder, Bebop and Rocksteady. Unfortunately, Michelangelo twiddles with the buttons, releasing the villains. Donatello frees the squid by knocking off the mind-control device, and the squid immediately swims back to the ocean.

Meanwhile, the Super Pump gets stuck in reverse, and drains water from the flooded city, flooding the Technodrome instead.

Back at Channel 6, Vernon's head is stuck in a diving helmet, and April gives Burne a birthday present: the story on tape. Splinter, meanwhile, has made a squid dish, much to the horror of the Turtles.

See also

• 20,000 Leaks Under the City/Gallery
• 20,000 Leaks Under the City/Transcript

Quotes

Raphael: Telephone call for Mr. Jaws!

Notes and errors

• Donatello's bo staff disappears from his belt when he turns the sewer tube around to return to the lair.
• After the giant squid picks up Rocksteady, Rocksteady replaces Bebop and is still seen in the boat.
• The top of the head of Krang's Android Body is colored dark grey in the first shot at the beginning of the episode.
• April is missing her back hip pack in one shot when Burne tries to avoid going to his birthday lunch.
• When Raphael jumps in the water and swims to the phone booth, Donatello has Leonardo's colors.
• In several scenes featuring the squid, the mind control device is absent from its head.
• When the squid is juggling the Turtles, their weapons are all initially in their hands. But in the shots where they are talking, Leonardo's swords and Donatello's bo are on their backs.
• When Vernon is lowered into the water, his air hose suddenly vanishes.
• When the boat rolls away at first, it's dragging Bebop behind it, and Rocksteady is running some distance behind. In the next scene involving those two, it's still running out of control, but suddenly both mutants are riding inside.
• When the water floods the Turtles' lair, Splinter goes down over a waterfall, but after the commercial break, he's still in the water above and never goes down the waterfall, allowing Michelangelo to rescue him.

Trivia

• Greg Berg voices Donatello and Bebop instead of Barry Gordon in this episode.
• Although it isn't specifically named, this episode has the debut of the Sewer Party Tube. It's kind of hard to tell based on the straight black tube but the searchlights give it away.
• The episode derives its name from the 1954 film 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
• On the back cover of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Volume 4, as well as the digital release, the title card has been renamed 20,000 Leaks Under the Sea.

Home media releases

VHS

• Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles: 20,000 Leaks Under the City
• The Very Best of the Turtles
• The Biggest Ever Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles Video
• Turtle Video 6

DVD

• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Volume 4
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Season 3
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Complete Classic Series Collection
• Turtle DVD 6