Turbo Teen
Turbo Teen is an American animated television series about a teenager with the ability to transform into a sports car. It aired on Saturday morning on the ABC Network for thirteen episodes in 1984.[1]
| Turbo Teen | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Cartoon series, Superheroes, Adventure |
| Created by | Ruby-Spears Productions |
| Developed by | Michael Maurer |
| Voices of | T. K. Carter Pat Fraley Pamela Hayden Michael Mish Frank Welker |
| Composer | Udi Harpaz |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 13 |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | Joe Ruby Ken Spears |
| Running time | 20 mins (excluding commercials) |
| Production company | Ruby-Spears Productions |
| Release | |
| Original network | ABC |
| Original release | September 8 – December 1, 1984 |
The series was rerun on the USA Network's USA Cartoon Express programming block.[2]
Plot
"I'm Brett Matthews, it was a stormy night when a bolt of lightning forced me off the road. My car skidded into a government laboratory where a top secret experiment was under way. I swerved into the path of Dr. Chase's molecular-transfer ray, causing me and my car to become one. The incredible Turbo Teen!"
- opening narration.
Turbo Teen is about a teenager named Brett Matthews who swerves off a road during a thunderstorm and crashes into a secret government laboratory. There, he and his red sports car are accidentally exposed to a molecular beam, invented by a scientist named Dr. Chase for a government agent named Cauldwell. As a result, Brett and his car become fused together. Brett gains the ability to morph into the car when exposed to extreme heat and revert into his human form when exposed to extreme cold. With this new superhero power, Brett, along with his girlfriend Pattie (a freelance reporter), his best friend Alex (a mechanic who calls Brett "TT"), and his dog Rusty go on crime-fighting adventures together and solve other mysteries.[3]
A recurring subplot involves Brett's, Cauldwell's, and Dr. Chase's search for a way to return Brett to normal. Also, a recurring villain is the mysterious, unseen "Dark Rider" who drives a monster truck and seeks to capture Brett in order to find the secret behind his abilities. Dark Rider is voiced by Frank Welker.
Production
The show was produced by Ruby-Spears Productions with animation supplied by Toei Animation and Hanho Heung-Up. It was broadcast during the growing popularity of the Knight Rider television series and mirrors much of it. The car that Brett turns into looks like an amalgam of a Third Generation Chevrolet Camaro and its sister car, the Pontiac Trans Am; the later model Knight Rider's KITT is based on. The Trans Am also had limited edition turbocharger packages in the early 1980's, appearing as an official Indy 500 pace car and featuring in the movie Smokey and the Bandit II.[4]
Cast
- T. K. Carter as Alex
- Pat Fraley as Eddie, Dr. Chase
- Pamela Hayden as Pattie
- Michael Mish as Brett Matthews/Turbo Teen
- Clive Revill as Cardwell
- Frank Welker as Rusty, Dark Rider, Flip
Additional voices
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Episodes
| No. | Title | Story by | Original air date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Turbo Thieves" | Mark Jones | September 8, 1984 | |
| Brett is kidnapped by goons who believe Turbo Teen will make them rich. | ||||
| 2 | "The Dark Rider" | Michael Maurer | September 15, 1984 | |
| Brett and Turbo Teen are featured in an exhibition while a mysterious man known as Dark Rider pursues him. | ||||
| 3 | "Mystery of Fantasy Park" | Matt Uitz | September 22, 1984 | |
| Brett and his friends are asked by Agent Cauldwell to investigate a local amusement park. | ||||
| 4 | "No Show UFO" | Evelyn A.R. Gabai | September 29, 1984 | |
| Brett and his friends are tasked, again by Cauldwell, to investigate UFO sightings in the area. | ||||
| 5 | "Micro-Teen" | Dennis Marks | October 6, 1984 | |
| Although Dr. Chase's team cannot 'fix' Brett's condition, apparently they have created a ray that shrinks the crew for an infiltration mission into a mansion where something of value is hidden behind various defenses and its owners. | ||||
| 6 | "The Sinister Souped-Up Seven" | Matt Uitz | October 13, 1984 | |
| Turbo and his friends evade the Dark Rider in the American southwest. After dropping them off, he crashes into a cave wall, getting amnesia, to be woken up by reservation natives. His friends find them and try to help him regain his memory, while thwarting the plans of villains who want to destroy a mission on the reservation. | ||||
| 7 | "Video Venger" | Michael Brown | October 20, 1984 | |
| Various war machines from an arcade game come to life when Brett and his friends discover the game is a training program for a real planned invasion of Washington D.C. | ||||
| 8 | "Dark Rider and the Wolves of Doom" | Michael Maurer | October 27, 1984 | |
| Dark Rider captures Monique's father Dr. Fabro and his formula that can cause dogs to regress to their primitive state in his latest plan to capture Brett Matthews. | ||||
| 9 | "The Curse of the Twisted Claw" | Matt Uitz, Michael Maurer | November 3, 1984 | |
| Twin items of rare historical antiquity near Bombay, and it is up to Brett and his friends to recover it before those who may use them unjustly can do the same. | ||||
| 10 | "Daredevil Run" | Cliff Ruby, Elana Lesser | November 10, 1984 | |
| Brett, Alex, and Pattie enter a cross-country race as cover while escorting a girl named Paula to court so that she can testify against a jewel thief called "The Dragon." | ||||
| 11 | "The Amazon Adventure" | Ted Pedersen | November 17, 1984 | |
| Brett and friends are visiting Brazil with Brett's father when they become entangled with a local ruffian. | ||||
| 12 | "Fright Friday" | Matt Uitz | November 24, 1984 | |
| While camping, a story about a local legend of masked men in the woods comes true and Brett and the others must save their friends. | ||||
| 13 | "The Mystery of Dark Rider" | Michael Maurer | December 1, 1984 | |
| After a Turbo Teen clone robs a local bank, Brett must clear his name while working to uncover the identity of Dark Rider once and for all. | ||||
Crew
- Alan Dinehart - Voice Director
- Howard Morris - Voice Director
- Michael Maurer - Story Editor
- John Kimball - Director
- Jack Kirby - Production Design
Reception
In The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows, David Perlmutter writes, "This is perhaps the most absurd concept developed for television animation in the genre's history. Despite a basis in somewhat-plausible science, it was not produced competently enough to make its premise anywhere near believable."[5]
Parodies
- Turbo Teen was parodied in the Robot Chicken episode "Rabbits on a Roller Coaster" with Brett Matthews voiced by Seth Green, Alex voiced by Tom Root and Pattie voiced by Katee Sackhoff.
- A webcomic named Teen Boat ran for a short time, with a teenager who could turn into a small yacht. It was later released as a graphic novel.
- A commercial for The Rotten Tomatoes Show on Current TV in July 2009 includes a man similarly transforming into a red sports car, a Mazda Miata. The man is wearing a wardrobe similar to Brett Matthews' wardrobe.
- The Rick and Morty episode "The Ricks Must Be Crazy" parodies Turbo Teen, revealing that Morty can also transform into a car (and ultimately does, in a similar-looking fashion).
- In the Simpsons Comics story "Con-nukah!", a toy called "Turbo Poochie Teen" appears on Bart's wishlist.
- In the Futurama episode "The Honking", Bender turns into a were-car. The transformation sequence is the same as in Turbo Teen.
- The 2-part Teen Titans Go! episode "Teen Titans Vroom!" parodies Turbo Teen, when the Teen Titans suddenly turn into cars.
References
- Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. p. 875. ISBN 978-1476665993.
- Terrace, Vincent (10 January 2014). Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010, 2d ed. McFarland. ISBN 9780786486410. Retrieved 4 October 2018 – via Google Books.
- TV.com. "Turbo Teen". TV.com. Retrieved 4 October 2018.
- Gold, Aaron (Jul 28, 2020). "That Time Pontiac Turbocharged the Trans Am". MotorTrend. Retrieved September 18, 2022.
- Perlmutter, David (2018). The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 664–665. ISBN 978-1538103739.
External links
- Turbo Teen at IMDb
- Episode guide at the Big Cartoon DataBase