Monday, September 15, 2008

Who Wants To Be A Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle?


A while back I was hit with this idea for a new reality show to celebrate the TMNT's 25th anniversary entitled "So You Want To Be A Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle" (working title). Stupid, right? Well the idea kept nagging at me and with time growing short I fired off a proposal to Mirage. who in turn fired it off to the appropriate parties.

What follows is a portion of said proposal:

This is a reality based television game show where 20 hard-core TMNT fans are
outfitted with a tortoise shell vest, a carapace back with a plastron
front, elbow and knee pads and bandana which they must wear until they
are eliminated. The contestants are isolated in a NYC sewer setting
and compete for cash and prizes by learning martial arts from Master
Splinter, a martial arts expert in rat's clothing. They must live
like the TMNT and endure rigorous activity with, daily training
sessions, the constant odor and filth of the sewer environment, and
can eat nothing but pizza for the duration of their stay. The show
would use progressive elimination, allowing the contestants to battle
each other, both physically and by answering Ninja Turtle trivia,
until only four final contestants remain and must use their combined
strength to defeat an actor portraying the Shredder in a series of
Battle Nexus bouts (of varying mental/physical forms). The final
contestant wins a cash prize in the season finale and the right to
be named "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle."

Other than Murph, no one really shared my enthusiasm. End of story.

22 comments:

Vaughn Michael said...

Aww well it seems these days no one at mirage really cares about being creative and trying new things besides Murph.
funny idea but I don't think I could live on just Pizza, I'd get sick after a day or 2. :(

~ tOkKa said...

-->> Pizza bleehh ..

..it's not stupid at all.

And if it's working for the darn ' SUPER HERO ' show ( which is very silly.. but is the whole damm point and those contestants are like cult celebrities now )why eff' wouldn't something wacky like this work for Turtles ?!


Dammit .. killers that be squashin' a fun idea that could actually work.

>;/

My only issue is .. ::


I'd wanna be one the extras working for the Shredder trying to keep contestants from winning.

Sides lately i've been pretty angry, pent up, cranky and wound up, plus i gotta bad rash .. and i would assume any 'Hyperstone Heist' Saki sent me on or even just robbing a liquor store would actually be good for my mental well being. Bumbling and trying to thwart a' Contestant-atello & a Iwannabeuh-angello from winning a million dollars would be icing on the cake.

Also alotta time i fit the 'Bufoon' role naturally so if shredder's seeking any volunteers well - - - ~~ ~~ **


I ain' kidding either.. >]+]


>v<


..

Steve Lavigne Ryan Brown said...

You can order anything you want on your pizza. Chocolate cake, cherry pie, scrambled eggs, Chop suey, egg roll, hot fudge sundae, grits, shrimp, lobster, chili, hot dogs, egg fu yung, fried chicken,filet mignon, pancakes, waffles etc. etc. etc.!

Steve Lavigne Ryan Brown said...

okay tokka, you can be Tokka and wear the Tokka suit while beating up the contestants.

Roseangelo said...

I'm in, especially now that it involves beating up Tokka. ;)




So... exactly what IS Mirage enthusiastic about these days?

Rachel (a-big-apple) said...

Haha! I would so do that! What a fun idea!

Steve Lavigne Ryan Brown said...

Well Rose, I do know of a few really cool things that are coming for the 25th. Can't mention them though but I think the fans will be psyched about them.

Neil Vitale said...

I think that as the idea is now, it wouldn't fly on a major network and would just be seen as a 30 minute info mercial. No network, let alone a cable network, would pick it up. As it is now.

I THINK that if you added things from comics and comic based movies in general, while still keeping the competition turtle based, you'd have much more of a mass appeal. For isntance, having Sean Schemmel host one day as 'Goku', you'd get all the Dragonball Z fans watching and the word would spread in the anime community about it, etc.

Something like this might not work as a TV show, but it'd be PERFECT for an all day 3 day event for the New York Comic Con... that might be met with more enthusiasm than a full fledged TV show..

Roseangelo said...

I hope you're right, Ryan. I've more or less "quit" and given up on the future of the TMNT at this point in time. I'd welcome something new and exciting, though.

dark turtle said...

Well, slap a bandanna on me and call me Mikey! I think it's a fun idea, and if no one at Mirage is interested in it, you could always take the idea to a comic con, as Neil suggested. Then you can tape the entire contest and broadcast "episodes" via Youtube. I'm sure you'll get more than enough eager wannabe turtles at NYCC or SDCC.

Dinoff said...

Hahaha!

That's an amazing concept!

It's actually pretty original, given the state of reality TV these days....

PL said...

Ryman, for the record, I never saw this proposal. -- PL

Neil Vitale said...

You know what else might be cool? Remember the show 'Dog Eat Dog?' They used to have stunts where people where suspended by wires...jumping real high, performing twists, etc.

IF the 'ninja students' where taught by the martial arts master to do things like ninja flips (with assistance from the wires), ninja jump kicks, and all other types of cool manuvers almost impossible to do by novices...

Toward the end, with the Shredder battle (complete with solid rubber weapons and a movie accurate costume for Shredder), they could be doing jump kicks, sword flip overs, etc. If it turned out good, maybe during the end credits effect guys could edit it together as if it where a real movie battle ;)..

Vaughn Michael said...

Peter,
I bet you don't see allot of things past a certain persons desk(Gary).
Perhaps it's time an inspection was in order and maybe a talking to also.
*50 lashes* lol

Neil Vitale said...

Vaughn: Agreed. How many other cool ideas have been suggested that never reach Peter's ear?

If we can't replace Gary with someone who actually has some talent in the field and can improve company moral, why not a middle ground? How about a 'Head of Licensing Ideas position?

This would be (if memory serves) a Molly Bode or Cheryl Prindle type of personality. A nice, real go getter that cares about the property and knows about it top to bottom. They would cooperate with the artists on ideas and present them to Pete, Gary would put his input on it as far as finance goes and it would be Peter's decision on whether or not it goes ahead..
That way you have level headed thinking from all departments and no one person makes the decision until it's been chewed over top from bottom.

with Peter's latest post, I just can't help but wonder what other cool ideas from business partners never got to see the light of day past Mirage's mail shredder...

Shell Presto said...

Oh, I'd watch that any day!

Great in concept, although i don't think the insurance waver for using NY sewers would make the show cost-effective.

Steve Lavigne Ryan Brown said...

Apologies Pete, I thought you were CCed when Mirage sent it out.

Steve Lavigne Ryan Brown said...

Great suggestions all! Remember though that this was just a short concept proposal to see if Mirage had any interest in it. It would be fully fleshed out for a network pitch, and hopefully then be developed for production.

Glad to see that maybe some of you here would be up for auditioning for the first season? I'd like to see the fans involved after all you're the whole inspiration for show.

Adam Riches said...

That is HILARIOUS! Maybe its just the wording but when you read things like "a man in rat costume" etc. the visuals in my head have this show winning emmys.

Dierna said...

I'd watch it. I mean come on if we can get "Who Wants To Be a Superhero" why not "Who Wants to be a Ninja Turtle"???

Even in Marvel comics there was a version of it...course the reality show ended when Connecticut was blown up... :P

Stan Lee's currently working on a kids version of "Who Wants To Be a Superhero" apperantly....

Adam said...

Why not just make it a web-series hosted off a special 4kids/Mirage website? Surely 4kids would go for it!

Fatty McFat-Fat said...

Where can I sign up for this show? haha That would be amazing. This is a great blog btw, I'm glad I found it. :)