<Li> Mutant Turtles' 96 (ミュータント ・ タートルズ 96, Myūtanto Tātoruzu Kyūjūroku) is a continuation of the 1995 series when it continued to run through 1996 . </Li> <P> A daily comic strip written and illustrated by Dan Berger began in 1990 . It featured an adventure story Monday through Friday and activity puzzles on weekends (with fan art appearing later). The comic strip was published in syndication until its cancellation in December 1996 . At its highest point in popularity, it was published in over 250 newspapers . </P> <P> When little - known Playmates Toys, Inc. was approached about producing a TMNTs action figure line, they were cautious of the risk and requested that a television deal be acquired first . On December 28, 1987, the TMNT's first cartoon series began, starting as a five - part miniseries and becoming a regular Saturday - morning syndicated series on October 1, 1988, with 13 more episodes . The series was produced by Murakami - Wolf - Swenson Film Productions, Inc. (later Fred Wolf Films). Mirage Studios does not own the rights to this cartoon series . The show places a much stronger emphasis on humor than the comics do . Here, the Ninja Turtles are portrayed as four wise - cracking, pizza - obsessed superheroes that fight the forces of evil from their sewer hideout, and they make their first appearance in masks color - coded to each turtle, where previously they had all worn red . </P> <P> The cast included new and different characters, such as Bebop and Rocksteady and the Neutrinos . Original characters such as Splinter, Shredder, and the Foot Soldiers stayed true to the comics in appearance and alignment only . Instead of being Hamato Yoshi's mutated pet rat, Splinter was a mutated Hamato himself . The Foot Soldiers changed from human ninjas to an endless supply of robotic grunts, allowing large numbers of them to be destroyed without anyone dying (this was a very important decision in terms of the show's child audience; excessive violence would have alienated parents of children, the show's target demographic). Krang, one of the series' most memorable villains, was inspired by the design of the Utrom, a benign alien race from the Mirage comics . The animated Krang, however, was instead an evil warlord from Dimension X . Baxter Stockman, whose race was changed from black to white either due to apprehension toward depicting a villainous African American character in a children's cartoon or that for Shredder to boss around a black Stockman would be perceived as racist . Either way, Stockman was rewritten as a shy and meek lackey to Shredder, later mutating into an anthropomorphic housefly . During the final two seasons of the show, to combat the rising popularity of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, the lead villain switched to Lord Dregg, an evil alien overlord bent on world conquest by trying to distract the public into believing that the Turtles were the enemy instead of himself . </P>

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