Season 1
26 episodes Sep 28, 2012 7.4
The first season of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles aired on Nickelodeon from September 29, 2012 to August 8, 2013. The season introduces four turtles, Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael and Michelangelo.
Overview
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are back in an all-new animated series on Nickelodeon! Surfacing topside for the first time on their fifteenth birthday, the titular turtles, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael and Donatello, find that life out of the sewers isn't exactly what they thought it would be. Now the turtles must work together as a team to take on new enemies that arise to take over New York City.
Seasons
5 listed- Status
- Ended
- Seasons
- 5 seasons
- Episodes
- 124 episodes
- First aired
- Sep 28, 2012
- Last aired
- Nov 12, 2017
- Episode length
- 22m
- Networks
- Nickelodeon, Nicktoons
Latest episode: S5 E20 The Big Blow Out (Nov 12, 2017)
Season 2
26 episodes Oct 12, 2013 2.8
Season 3
26 episodes Oct 3, 2014 2.6
Season 4
26 episodes Oct 25, 2015 5.6The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are back in an all-new animated series on Nickelodeon! Surfacing topside for the first time on their fifteenth birthday, the titular turtles, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael and Donatello, find that life out of the sewers isn't exactly what they thought it would be. Now the turtles must work together as a team to take on new enemies that arise to take over New York City.
Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
20 episodes Mar 19, 2017 7.7
Cast
8 people
Seth Green
Leonardo (voice)
Rob Paulsen
Donatello (voice)
Sean Astin
Raphael (voice)
Greg Cipes
Michelangelo (voice)
Reviews
5 min readA Sewer, a City, and the Problem of Growing Up
I’ve always thought the best Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles stories begin with a joke that’s secretly a wound. Four boys in masks, living under New York, latestnetflix.com argues, trained for combat by a rat who talks like a philosopher and worries like a father. On paper, that’s absurd.
In practice, it’s one of the cleaner metaphors American pop culture has ever invented for adolescence: you’re hidden, you’re loud, you’re trying to figure out how to move through a world that hasn’t quite decided whether to laugh at you or arrest you.
Nickelodeon’s 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles understands that better than most revivals do. It isn’t content to rinse the brand and hand it back shiny. The series takes the old premise and gives it new plasticity — sharper comic timing, leaner action, and a look that’s somewhere between Saturday-morning warmth and comic-book menace.
Because it’s a reboot, of course, but it also feels like an argument with the versions that came before it. This one wants to be fast, funny, and emotionally legible to kids who may never have seen the 1987 cartoon, while still leaving room for the long shadow of the 1990s films and the original Mirage comics. That’s a tricky balance.
Sometimes it wobbles. More often, it snaps into place with the confidence of a show that knows exactly how silly its premise is and exactly how seriously to take its characters.
What I keep coming back to is the show’s texture. Nickelodeon clearly didn’t want a nostalgia museum. They wanted motion.
The characters are rounded and elastic, but the animation is never lazy about weight. When Raphael lunges, you feel the strain in his shoulders. When Donatello talks, his whole body seems to organize itself around the sentence he’s building.
Michelangelo’s movement has the least discipline and the most charm, which is exactly right. There’s a small, persistent pleasure in the way the series lets each turtle’s silhouette do a little dramatic work before anyone says a word. Even the fights have personality: not just punches and kicks, but a language of impulses.
Leo is line and precision. Raph is friction. Donatello is calculation.
Mikey is chaos with sneakers on.
The show’s real cultural conversation, if you can call it that, has always been about whether it should be taken seriously at all. That’s a boring question in some ways, but also unavoidable. Any property with this kind of name risks becoming a brand exercise.
Buzz & Rumors
Public reportsThe Voice Behind the Mask: Behind-the-Scenes Drama in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012)
latestnetflix.com's view is that the 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series brought the pizza-loving heroes in a half-shell back to TV with a fresh animated take, but behind the scenes, the production wasn’t without its share of turbulence—especially when it came to the iconic voice of Leonardo.
Leonardo’s Voice Change: A Mid-Series Shake-Up
One of the biggest behind-the-scenes stories from the 2012 series was the abrupt replacement of Jason Biggs, who originally voiced Leonardo. Biggs, best known for his role in American Pie, had been the Turtle leader’s voice since the show’s debut in 2012. However, by the third season, he was out—replaced by Seth Green, the actor and comedian famous for Robot Chicken and Family Guy 
.
The reason for the switch? Biggs confirmed in a 2018 interview that he was let go due to offensive tweets he had posted years earlier. While he didn’t specify the exact content, he acknowledged that the jokes were deemed unacceptable, leading to his exit from the series . The timing aligned with the show’s third season, where Green took over the role of Leonardo—and even added another character to his plate, voicing the medieval knight Sir George .
Green’s tenure as Leonardo lasted through the series finale in the fifth season, bringing a different energy to the character. Fans noted the shift in tone, with Green’s comedic background adding a lighter, more sarcastic edge to the usually stoic Turtle leader .
A Cast of Familiar Voices
While Leonardo’s voice change was the most talked-about casting shift, the rest of the main cast remained consistent throughout the series. Rob Paulsen, a veteran voice actor known for Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain, voiced Donatello—a role he had previously played in the 1987 TMNT series. The rest of the Turtles were rounded out by Greg Cipes as Michelangelo, Sean Astin as Raphael, and Mae Whitman as April O’Neil 
.
The series also featured Josh Peck as Casey Jones, Kelly Hu as Karai, and Gwendoline Yeo as the villainous Shinigami, among others. The voice cast was a mix of seasoned veterans and rising stars, helping to give the show its distinct blend of humor and action .
A Revitalized Franchise
Critics and fans praised the 2012 series for striking a balance between nostalgia and innovation. The show honored the Turtles’ comic book roots while introducing new elements to appeal to a modern audience, such as a darker tone in later seasons and deeper character development . The animation style, developed by Ciro Nieli, Joshua Sternin, and Jennifer Ventimilia, also set it apart from previous iterations, giving the Turtles a sleeker, more dynamic look .
Despite the behind-the-scenes drama, the series ran for five seasons, wrapping up in 2017. While Leonardo’s voice change was a notable hiccup, the show’s success proved that the Turtles could evolve while staying true to their core appeal.
Entertainment rumors and trivia aggregated from public reporting. Treat speculation as unverified unless a cited source confirms it.
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