Super Bebop & Mighty Rocksteady (episode)

“Super Bebop & Mighty Rocksteady”
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987 Cartoon) episode
Season Code:	03
Episode:	27
Original airdate	October 11, 1989
Written by	David Carren J. Larry Carroll
Producers:	–
Episode chronology ← Previous Next → "Pizza by the Shred" "Beware the Lotus"

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

Super Bebop & Mighty Rocksteady is a season 3 episode of the 1987 TV series.

Appearing in Super Bebop & Mighty Rocksteady (episode)

Major characters

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

Minor characters

• Handsome Anchorman (Tony Pope)
• Vinnie's Pizzeria Waitress (Jennifer Darling)

Species

• Disembodied alien brain
• Human
• Mutant rhinoceros
• Mutant rat
• Mutant turtle
• Mutant warthog
• Robot

Objects and vehicles

• Mesmerizer
• Schematics Disk
• Super Mutant Remote Device
• Transport Modules
• Turtle Van

Locations

• Channel 6 Building
• Technodrome
• Turtle Lair
• Vinnie's Pizzeria

Plot

Bebop and Rocksteady are climbing the tower atop the Channel 6 News building in the middle of a thunderstorm. Rocksteady is carrying Krang's newest creation: the Mesmerizer, a device that will hypnotically enslave everyone in New York City to serve Krang and the Shredder. The two are successful in setting up the Mesmerizer, and shortly afterwards the people at Channel 6 News (April, Irma, Vernon, Burne and an anchorman) are put under its control. This causes a great deal of confusion for the Turtles and Splinter, since mutants are unaffected by the Mesmerizer's rays. They quickly deduce that Krang and the Shredder are behind the news crew's behavior.

Shortly after setting up the Mesmerizer however, a bolt of lightning frightens Bebop, and he, Rocksteady, and the still-active Mesmerizer crash through the roof of the building, exposing Shredder's plan to the Turtles, who quickly spring into action. By the time the Turtles arrive, the mutants have awoken and have realized the power the Mesmerizer gives them. Bebop and Rocksteady try to use the hypnotized news cast to protect themselves, but when the plan backfires, the Mesmerizer is broken in the scuffle. With the device disabled, the crew snaps out of their hypnosis and Bebop and Rocksteady make a quick escape, with Burne quick to blame the Turtles for the commotion.

Fed up with the constant failures of Bebop and Rocksteady, Krang has them both cloned into robotic doppelgängers known as "Super Rocksteady and Mighty Bebop." Ten times stronger and smarter than the originals, Super Rocksteady and Mighty Bebop quickly dispose of their fleshy counterparts, which impresses Shredder. Krang orders Shredder to the surface, but Shredder retorts that he’s a human and will fall victim to the Mesmerizer. Krang remarks that he thought of that and gives Shredder an amulet that will shield him from the Mesmerizer's rays. The real Rocksteady and Bebop remain behind, sulking.

Meanwhile the Turtles take refuge at a local pizzeria, keeping a close eye on April and the Channel 6 building. So far there is no trouble, as all seems OK. However, as the Turtles are eating, Shredder and the robot clones make it into the lobby, and Shredder leaves Super Rocksteady and Mighty Bebop to guard the entrance while he goes off to setup the Mesmerizer himself.

However the broken Mesmerizer's effects quickly begin to show. Rather than enslave the population, the victims mentally regress to their childhood and their spoiled behavior makes them impossible for Shredder to control. The Turtles make their way into the Channel 6 building, but they are confronted by Super Rocksteady and Mighty Bebop. The robot mutants swiftly overpower the Turtles and drive them from the building. They attempt to scale the building's exterior, but are knocked down by the robots as well.

Krang learns of the Mesmerizer's damaged effects and thus is forced to send the real Rocksteady and Bebop to assist Shredder by bringing him a schematic disk. The Turtles manage to steal the disk from them and find that it is capable of disabling Super Rocksteady and Mighty Bebop. As the real mutants are left to "fix" the Mesmerizer without the disk, they damage it even further, causing its victims to starts acting like dogs and later monkeys, much to Shredder's annoyance. The Turtles return to face Super Rocksteady and Mighty Bebop once again, but thanks to the information on the disk, the Turtles are able to override the control over the robots and instead, use them against Shredder.

With the Mesmerizer off the tower once again. Super Rocksteady and Mighty Bebop explode. However the Shredder manages to grab the Mesmerizer. With the distraction, Donatello notices the amulet protecting him from the Mesmerizer's influence and quickly manages to swipe it off of him. Now no longer protected, Shredder falls victim to the Mesmerizer, forcing Bebop and Rocksteady to try to bring it back by climbing up Channel 6's tower after him, since Shredder now believes himself to be an ape. Ultimately, their combined weight is too much for the tower to handle and both Shredder and the mutants plunge off the building's rooftop and onto a Pizza Stand, much to the Turtles' horror. Fortunately, the Mesmerizer is also destroyed by the fall.

With Shredder's latest plot stopped, The Turtles, April and Irma celebrate by eating pizza. When they see Vernon acting like a monkey, they worry if they failed to disable to Mesmerizer. April laughs saying Vernon has made a joke with himself to treat the damaged office like a playground, and all is well.

See also

• Super Bebop & Mighty Rocksteady (episode)/Gallery
• Super Bebop & Mighty Rocksteady (episode)/Transcript

Quotes

Shredder: But what choice do I have? Only mutants are immune to the Mesmerizer's beam! Humans like myself can't be near it when they set it off!

Krang: You don't have to explain it to me, I invented it, remember?

Shredder: I wasn't explaining it to you....(turns to camera and points) ....I was explaining it to them.

Notes and errors

Animation errors

• Once he installs the Mesmerizer on the tower, Shredder's skin turns a lighter shade of tan, and his vest turns a darker shade of grey for some reason.
• When Krang wonders aloud if his Mesmerizer's been damaged, his brain-body expands and fills the robot body's cockpit, and he's drawn with less detail than usual in the shot.
• Burne seems a lot shorter than usual in some shots. He's about the size of a midget when Shredder contacts Krang to complain.
• Krang's eyes are white when he's responding to Shredder's complaint about the Mesmerizer. It's supposed to be lilac.
• When Bebop and Rocksteady step out of the Tunneler once it crashes into a dumpster, they are drawn way too small. If you compared them to the size of the dumpster as is, they'd barely reach it in height.
• The disk Rocksteady holds up once the Turtles capture them is a rectangle instead of a square.
• There is one scene where Donatello analyses the disk and the animation turns rather cartoonish, even more so as usual. For example, in that scene, Donatello seems to be moving a lot more fluidly than usual, gains wider eyes, and is wearing a rather goofy grin on his face that you'd only see in a Disney cartoon. After that scene ends, the animation reverts to normal.
• When Donatello says, "Here goes!" his bandana is tied differently, making it look almost like rabbit ears.
• When Burne falls off of the hanging light, his body gets bigger and bigger as he falls. He's absolutely humongous when he finally lands.
• When Donatello used the remote control to take over the Super Mutants, his teeth were colored red.
• Michelangelo's belt is colored the same as his plastron and the bottom of the plastron is colored green when Donatello analyses the Mesmerizer's schematics in the Turtlevan.
• When Leonardo and Donatello are outside the Channel 6 building patrolling, Leonardo is seen with four fingers when he's holding his turtle com.
• When Raphael pulls out his sais to trap Rocksteady and Bebop in the Channel 6 doors, he pulls his sais from the back of his belt instead of the front.

Continuity errors

• There's a scene where the reprogrammed super clones are dancing, and Super Bebop grabs Shredder to dance. Later on, Shredder is seen turning around, the super clones enter the scene dancing, and the animation is re-used again.

Trivia

• While the episode is titled Super Bebop & Mighty Rocksteady, the clones are called Super Rocksteady and Mighty Bebop.
• More so than any other episode so far, this episode is rather blatant with the fourth wall-breaking. Shredder, Irma, Krang and the Turtles all face the camera when delivering dialogue at some point or the other in this episode, in some cases, asking questions that sound as if they're directed at the audience watching them.
• For an episode named after them, Super Bebop and Mighty Rocksteady don't really do much of anything, do they?
• Bebop is scared of lightning. As would anybody be when climbing a tall, metal structure in a thunderstorm, really.
• According to his own dialogue, Rocksteady hasn't taken a bath in a month. As least we now know why Shredder wears a mask inside of the Technodrome, and Krang's probably thanking his lucky stars the animators never gave him a nose.
• When Krang introduces the robotic versions of Bebop and Rocksteady, the German subtitles refer to Super Bebop as "Wonder-Bebop".
• Shredder's movements after he becomes hypnotized suggest that he thinks he's a gorilla.

Home media releases

VHS

• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Super Rocksteady and Mighty Bebop
• Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles: Super Bebop and Mighty Rocksteady

LaserDisc

• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Super Rocksteady and Mighty Bebop/Heroes in a Half Shell

DVD

• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Volume 5
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Season 3
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Complete Classic Series Collection