Oprah's Awkward TMNT Interview Confused Kids And Mortified Parents
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" back in 1990 remains one of the most hilarious and bizarre promotional spots in television history, with children and parents in the audience left confused by the heroes' fever-dream-like interview and performance.
The Turtles joined Oprah to promote their first musical album and live tour. The interview came at a time when TMNT's popularity was exploding, with Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird's creation appearing in many kinds of media and entertainment, from an animated show to video games and all types of merchandising. As popular as they are to this day, you just couldn't escape the Turtles in the early '90s.
The TV segment starts as you might expect, with pre-recorded footage showing Raphael, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Leonardo goofing around throughout Chicago as they make their way to Harpo Studios. However, things quickly turn bizarre when the Turtles finally get the chance to talk live with Oprah and her audience, where they make some head-scratching statements. One strange comment from the Turtles in particular makes the interview memorable for all the wrong reasons when one of the pizza-loving mutants tells viewers they want to be involved romantically with reporter and friend April O'Neil. The comment left the kid-filled audience confused about what to make of what they just heard, and their parents probably weren't too pleased with the remarks, which quickly became borderline inappropriate.
The Turtles said something that will live in infamy
After performing a rendition of "Coming out of Our Shells" from the album and live tour of the same name, the Turtles took questions from children in the audience. After they answer what instruments they play, preach the positive message of playing music over choosing fighting and violence, and show a cartoon, April O'Neil (not the movie's Judith Hoag) joins the crew. Oprah asks April whether there's anything romantic happening between her and one of the mutant teens. As April tries to answer the weird question, Raphael bursts out with, "Oprah, I've been trying to talk her into an interspecies relationship for months now." That's not something anyone in the audience expected to hear.
The response to the inappropriate comment is hilarious. Kids in the crowd look completely confused, while their parents are understandably shocked. One of the Turtles tells Raph to chill, but Michelangelo makes things worse, adding that "the biggest problem is [April] can't hold her breath long enough, y'know?" Bewildered youngsters might not have understood the innuendo, but parents, both in the studio audience and watching at home, had to be mortified by the Turtles' outrageous interview that keeps getting worse the more they spoke. The interview eventually gets back on track, but the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' brazen remarks live in infamy, highlighting what can go wrong on live TV when performers go wildly off-script.