The Making of Metalhead

“The Making of Metalhead”
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) episode
Season Code:	03
Episode:	35
Original airdate	November 10, 1989
Written by	Michael Reaves
Producers:
Episode chronology ← Previous Next → "Usagi Come Home" "Leatherhead Meets the Rat King"

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

"The Making of Metalhead" is an episode of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon series.

Appearing in The Making of Metalhead

Major characters

• Leonardo (Cam Clarke)
• Donatello (Barry Gordon)
• Raphael (Rob Paulsen)
• Michelangelo (Townsend Coleman)
• Splinter (Peter Renaday)
• April O'Neil (Renae Jacobs)
• Shredder (Dorian Harewood)
• Krang (Pat Fraley)
• Bebop (Barry Gordon)
• Rocksteady (Cam Clarke)
• Metalhead (Cam Clarke, Barry Gordon, Rob Paulsen, Townsend Coleman, Pat Fraley, Renae Jacobs, Dorian Harewood) (debut)

Minor characters

• Vernon Fenwick (Peter Renaday)
• Burne Thompson (Pat Fraley)

Species

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

Objects and vehicles

• Channel 6 newsvan
• Cheapskates
• Comlink
• Footskis
• Transport Module
• Turtlecom

Locations

• Channel 6 building
• Construction site
• Sewer system
• Technodrome
• Turtle Lair

Plot

The Turtles are laying in the living room showing flu like symptoms. Meanwhile April O'Neil is checking out to see if the Turtles are okay and Splinter explains that the Turtles had come down with the Turtlepox, a rare disease that affects only mutant Turtles. As a result the Turtles are feverish, sniffling, sneezing, feeling weak and total discomfort. April and Splinter are taking care of them.

Meanwhile, in another attempt to destroy the Turtles, Krang has built Metalhead, a turtle robot with advanced weaponry, and capable of mimicking the Turtles' fighting skills. To finish the job, he needs brainwave scans of all four Turtles.

Shredder, Bebop and Rocksteady arrive on the surface and start staging robberies in an effort to draw out the Turtles. April meanwhile wakes the Turtles up. Leonardo encourages the Turtles that they can still do this sick or not. They managed to stagger up to the surface, where Shredder records their brainwave patterns before fleeing. The Turtles are confused because Bebop and Rocksteady never back away from a fight. Michelangelo wonders if they’re sick too.

Metalhead proves himself an effective fighter against Bebop and Rocksteady, so Krang orders it to seek and destroy the Turtles. It surfaces in Splinter's room and easily shrugs off the ninja master's attack, before tying him and April up. When the Turtles show up to investigate the noise, they find themselves easily outmatched by Metalhead.

As they're dragged away by the robot, Donatello uses a Turtle Com to short-circuit Metalhead's mechanical brain. They drag it back to the lair to be reprogrammed, where they find that it sounds and acts like ALL of them in turn. With all four personalities, it's become rather schizophrenic.

Fortunately, Metalhead does warn them that Shredder is approaching the lair, and the Turtles are able to lead him away. Metalhead joins the battle, firing on Shredder and his mutants as they chase the Turtles. Bebop fires on Metalhead as they emerge onto the street, causing the old programming to conflict with the new. Now he wants to blast everything, including the Turtles.

April smuggles Donatello into the Channel 6 building so he can utilize a transmitter to stop Metalhead. Just as he's about to kill the other Turtles, Donatello manages to switch his newer programming into gear, causing him to only attack Bebop and Rocksteady. Shredder accidentally crashes into a cement truck and ends up covered in it.

The Turtles retreat back to the sewer and to the couch. April had to go back to Channel 6 and much to the Turtles‘ dismay, "Nurse Metalhead" will be taking care of them. Meanwhile, Bebop and Rocksteady return to the Technodrome with a cement encased Shredder, and ask Krang if he got a chisel to chip Shredder out.

See also

• The Making of Metalhead/Gallery
• The Making of Metalhead/Transcript

Notes and errors

• Bebop's comlink is a rectangular shape when Shredder contacted him during the lab break-in.
• When Bebop and Rocksteady attack Metalhead, the glass lid containing him raises up. But after he tosses them across the room and after the commercial break, the lid is down.
• April is shown sitting in a purple armchair near the beginning. Yet when a wide shot of the living room is shown, the chair is empty.
• When Bebop and Rocksteady exit the bank, their arms are full of money bags. After the Turtles are zapped, their arms are empty and the bags are nowhere to be seen.
• Bebop's stun laser rife is colored dark grey instead of white when he blasts Metalhead.

Trivia

• First appearance of Metalhead (not to be confused with Metal Head, the Justice Force superhero!).
• Dorian Harewood voices Shredder.

Home media releases

DVD

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