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The sixth season of the 2003 TMNT cartoon marked a distinct change from the earlier series; a lighter tone, aimed at a lower aged audience (over use of catch phrases, stating the obvious etc), and with a marked change of character (not caring about destroying Cody's items in training, overly proud characters, and Splinter not being his usual wise self).

I've checked on wikipedia and there seems to be no change in the productions team, nor can I see any where online a reason for this change.

What happened?

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    Personally, I found no production notes or press releases that could help your question(this is apart from Wikipedia and the sources it cites). So your best bet may be this - but to try to increase interest in the series which I'm sure you've already read on Wikipedia. Aug 16, 2013 at 13:52

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Apparently there is confusion over which season is which, because the original Season 5 (Ninja Tribunal) was not aired after season 4, but instead was aired much later and then only in part. The reasons included trying to increase interest in the series and reduce violence. From Wikipedia's article on Season 5:

The "Ninja Tribunal" arc (13 episodes) was originally intended to be season five of the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series, but the schedule was changed to try to increase interest in the series and "Fast Forward" became the fifth season to air on commercial TV. After the scheduling change was made, Mirage and its partners decided to finish production on the "Ninja Tribunal" episodes and release them directly to DVD. 4Kids Entertainment later signed a deal with Comcast and this season began airing on Comcast-On-Demand in August 2006. Mass confusion ensued regarding which season was officially season five and which was season six. However after airing five episodes Comcast stopped airing the episodes.

The "Ninja Tribunal" episodes were scheduled to be released on DVD sometime in early 2007, but 4Kids Entertainment later removed them from their release schedule. 4Kids started showing the episodes starting on February 9, 2008. Although the title doesn't appear in the show itself, the season was promoted in commercials as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Lost Episodes. The DVD set was released on May 20, 2008.

The "Nightmares Recycled" episode was never completed. The script was finished and some animation had begun when 4Kids pulled the plug because it was deemed too controversial and violent for a children's program (Hun and the Garbageman were conjoined twins that were surgically separated at birth by a back-alley surgeon with the Garbageman being discarded as 'garbage'). Since there was no chance of it airing, it was shelved in the early stages of production.

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    the question was over the marked change in the show's content and not schedules. Also you quote that reducing violence was a reason, whereas wikipedia clearly does not say anything like that - The season was originally going to air a year later, but to try to increase interest in the series, 4Kids and Fox started airing this season a year earlier instead of the "Ninja Tribunal" arc. and The season is lighter in tone and less violent than previous ones, with a greater emphasis on jokes are the correctly quoted phases from your link to Wikipedia article. Aug 16, 2013 at 13:46
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    Plus, the guy clearly mentioned, "he's read wikipedia." Aug 16, 2013 at 13:49
  • The point of this answer is that the marked change came because the series was shown out of order, so the continuity was affected. The OP indicated reading Wikipedia, but there are MANY articles on Wikipedia, and it is possible he/she missed this particular article. I spent hours searching for other sources, but found none. The quote is accurate as the Wikipedia page stood at the time of posting, but it has been edited multiple times since.
    – MJ6
    Aug 19, 2013 at 17:18
  • @MaryJoFinch Could you highlight some of those points in your answer? Are you stating the change in theme was soley sue to the affected continuity? Or the marked change in plot? Aug 20, 2013 at 15:37

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