The BEST episodes of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles season 3
Every episode of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles season 3, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles season 3!
Distinctly different from the grim, violent, and dark MIRAGE comics from which the Turtles originated, this version of the franchise has remained the longest running, and most memorable, version of all. Four turtles fall into the sewers and are befriended by Hamato Yoshi a Japanese man sent to New York who was forced to live in the sewers. One day he sees a strange green glow which transforms the four turtles into human-like creatures. Hamato (now Master Splinter) changes into a giant rat from the green glow and teaches the turtles the skills of the ninja as they team up with Channel 6 news reporter April O'Neil to battle against Yoshi's arch enemy Shredder and Krang, an alien warlord from Dimension X.
#1 - The Fifth Turtle
Season 3 - Episode 8 - Aired 10/4/1989
Dressed in their human disguises, Donatello and Raphael venture out of their Turtle lair to buy supplies to make pizza. On their way back, via what they believe to be a shortcut, they are "intercepted" by a gang of young street Punks. Suddenly, a young boy wearing a Turtle costume, and who calls himself Zack: "Master Ninja Turtles and the Scourge of Evil Doers", drops in out of nowhere. As he prepares to defend Donatello and Raphael, he falls flat on his face, allowing the real Turtles to dispatch the punks with ease. Afterwords, Zack explains how he wants to help them fight crime -- but Raphael tells him that he is more of a menace than a crime fighter. The kid leaves in a huff, picking up Donatello's Turtle-Com -- which he had lost in the scuffle with the would-be attackers.
#2 - Leatherhead: Terror of the Swamp
Season 3 - Episode 30 - Aired 11/3/1989
While Raphael is reliving the past, via the Turtles' photo album, their Frog friends in the Florida Swamps (Napolean Bonafrog, Genghis Frog, and Rasputin) are being terrorized by a mutant alligator known as Leatherhead, who makes them his slaves. They decide to call the Turtles for help. Meanwhile, Krang's scanner picks up Leatherhead's activities and he sends Shredder, Rocksteady and Bebop to the same Florida Swamp to retrieve the mutant alligator and use him to help defeat the Turtles. But no sooner do the Turtles and April arrive when they are captured by Leatherhead. The Frogs turn the tables and help the Turtles capture Leatherhead. Shredder and company arrive in the Florida Swamp and stumble upon the Turtles and April, the Frogs and Leatherhead. They decide to track them for awhile before charging in and attacking. Sure enough he finds his golden opportunity when he rescues Leatherhead from the quicksand that the Turtles, the Frogs, and Leatherhead have fallen into.
#3 - Beware the Lotus
Season 3 - Episode 28 - Aired 11/1/1989
Krang hires a female Ninja, Lotus, to replace Shredder. It seems that Lotus has agreed to help Krang locate the Turtles in exchange for 100 pounds of gold. To prove her worthiness, and Shredder's unworthiness, Lotus defeats him with her Ninja skills. Shredder, Rocksteady and Bebop leave the Technodrome with their tails between their legs vowing that Krang will someday beg to have them back. Meanwhile, Burne assigns April and Vernon to do a special story on romance. At the Olaf Perfume Factory, April interviews a Monsieur Olaf, who reveals that he has a 'Scent Analyzer' that can 'sniff out' any fragrance. But, while protected by three armed guards, is suddenly stolen by Lotus and in its place, she leaves a lotus flower. A short time later, Lotus visits Aqua Land and steals from Dr Gilman, a marine biologist, his complete file on his study of genetic codes of turtles. Once again she leaves a lotus flower in its place.
#4 - Bye, Bye, Fly
Season 3 - Episode 44 - Aired 11/23/1989
An interdimensional alien spacecraft leads Baxter Stockman to his latest vengeful plot to destroy the Turtles and Shredder.
#5 - The Maltese Hamster
Season 3 - Episode 4 - Aired 9/28/1989
It was a dark and rainy night. The Turtles, wearing their trench coats and fedoras investigate a reign of mob terror. Donatello, in his worst 'Sam Spade' impersonation, narrates this pulp/film nor story of banks all over the city being "taken down by the mob". But, as Donatello tells the viewer, the mob is using sophisticated weaponry -- the kind that could be only supplied by Shredder. And what mobster would be 'gutsy' enough to deal with Shredder?
#6 - Michaelangelo's Birthday
Season 3 - Episode 31 - Aired 11/6/1989
It's Michaelangelo's birthday, but none of his brothers seem to remember, and it frustrates him greatly. Meanwhile, Shredder and Krang discover what is possibly an 'anti-mutagen' that, after testing it on three rock soldiers, can undo mutations. Shredder, Bebop and Rocksteady are sent to use it on the Turtles, and our heroes have a few close calls.
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#7 - Beneath These Streets
Season 3 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/25/1989
The Turtles learn the cost of slacking off when Splinter is badly hurt during a confrontation with Shredder.
#8 - Burne's Blues
Season 3 - Episode 7 - Aired 10/3/1989
In the middle of a summer heat wave, the Turtles cool down by having pizza at Plink's, home to the world famous chef: Wolfgang Plink. Suddenly, three Punks storm into the restaurant and try to hold the place up. Only they did not count on the Turtles, who dispatch them with ease. Back at Channel Six News, April, Vernon, Irma, and Mr. Thompson finish watching a tape of April's broadcast. Mr. Thompson is upset because there was no footage of the Turtles. April tries to explain that she promised not to include it in her report. Mr. Thompson is furious. In his day, he goes on to explain, a good reporter let nothing stand in his way of getting the news. Vernon chimes in by suggesting that if Mr. Thompson were not so old and fat, he would be out on the streets now searching for the Turtles. The insulted Mr. Thompson thinks that this is a great idea and volunteers Vernon to go with him, leaving April to cover a story on why the air conditioners all over the city are on the blink.
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#9 - Cowabunga Shredhead
Season 3 - Episode 18 - Aired 10/18/1989
Shredder has an accident and ends up acting like Michaelangelo. The episode has the Turtles dealing with him switching between his evil personality and Michaelangelo, to hilarious consequences.
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#10 - Attack of the 50-Foot Irma
Season 3 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/27/1989
While preparing for Irma's birthday party, Michaelangelo realizes he has forgotten to invite the guest of honor. He contacts April, who is in the midst of interviewing Professor Von Zifflein about the discovery of a meteorite that "just crashed in the area." The professor claims that this is a very unusual meteorite with a core composed of an extremely rare isotope known as 'Exaporon'. The Turtles turn on their TV to watch their favorite journalist as she interviews the professor. Suddenly a noxious gas fills the room and someone steals the meteorite. Before the thief can escape, he stops in front of the news camera, revealing himself to be Shredder.
#11 - Sky Turtles
Season 3 - Episode 5 - Aired 9/29/1989
The Turtles go flying when the Shredder invents a gravity-altering device.
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#12 - Turtles on Trial
Season 3 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/26/1989
Leonardo, Donatello and Raphael are enjoying an episode of professional wrestling when Michaelangelo enters the room and turns the channel to 'ON TRIAL' hosted by Clayton Kellerman, a Morton Downey-like rabble rouser who suggests that a clear and present danger is lurking in the sewers: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The Turtles are aghast and can't understand why people would hate them. April has her make-up department make human masks so the Turtles could move more freely in the streets. Meanwhile, Shredder is sweating from the heat, as Krang "chews him out" for his failure to retrieve the necessary components to repair the refrigeration units. Shredder has had enough and suggests that Krang go up on the Earth's surface and get what he needs and eliminate the Turtles himself. Krang considers this a good idea.
#13 - The Old Switcheroo
Season 3 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/2/1989
Mr. Thompson orders April into his office to assign her a news story. It seems that the nightwatchman at Cybertech Laboratories spotted "some weird character hanging around" -- Mr. Thompson is convinced that he must be a friend of 'April's Turtles'. She assures him that he is not and heads off to Cybertech Lab with mini-cam in hand. Meanwhile, down in the Turtles' Lair, Donatello is displaying his new Super Pizza Maker. The other Turtles are impressed with its ability to make pizza in a matter of seconds, but when it is switched into high gear -- the machine overloads and explodes, causing loose parts to scatter across the room. One of these 'loose screws' hits Leonardo, causing "just a bruise". Suddenly, April contacts them from Cybertech Labs, via the Turtle Com, to inform them that Shredder, Rocksteady and Bebop are up to no good. While she waits for the Turtles to arrive (including Splinter, who is concerned about Leonardo's injury,) April begins to videotape Shredder and his goon.
#14 - Blast from the Past
Season 3 - Episode 29 - Aired 11/2/1989
Krang and Shredder are going stir crazy. They have been defeated once too often by the Turtles, so Shredder has decided to do something about it. He takes Rocksteady and Bebop up to the Earth's surface and to the Asian-American Cultural Center where the burial urn of an ancient noble warrior and founder of the Foot Clan, Shibana-Sama, is on display. Meanwhile, April is doing a live broadcast from the same Asian-American Cultural Center. Splinter suggests that he and the Turtles should hurry there at once for fear that Shredder may be on his way. But they are too late. Shredder knocks the Turtles out with a ninja smoke bomb and releases the spirit of Shibana-Sama. Shredder requests that the Warrior Spirit teach Rocksteady and Bebop the secret ways of the ninja and make them invincible. Shibana-Sama replies that only the true leader of the Foot Clan can make such a request.
#15 - Turtles at the Earth's Core
Season 3 - Episode 10 - Aired 10/6/1989
After witnessing a living dinosaur wander in the city and disappear abruptly, the Turtles follow its tracks into a large hole, where they discover a shocking revelation: A cave where dinosaurs still roam. Meanwhile, Shredder and his mutant goons, Bebop and Rocksteady, are also there, but to collect a crystal needed by Krang to recharge the power cells of the Technodrome. The Turtles discover that the crystal is the source for all lifeforms inside the cave, and must get it back before they are all destroyed.
#16 - Mutagen Monster
Season 3 - Episode 24 - Aired 10/26/1989
A train accident produces gallons of mutagen that drench nearby cattle. The result is a super bull with a temper!
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#17 - Attack of Big MACC
Season 3 - Episode 12 - Aired 10/10/1989
A robot warrior, known as the Mobile Armored Computerized Combatant (M.A.C.C.), arrives from 400 years in the future in 20th-Century New York. He befriends the Turtles, but Shredder and Krang are looking to bring him to their side, at any means necessary.
#18 - April Fool
Season 3 - Episode 11 - Aired 10/9/1989
Emperor Aleister of Malicuria comes to New York City, bringing along a shard of Lydium 90 to the USA. In order to get the mineral to fuel the Technodrome, Shredder invades the costume party thrown by the Malicurian US Embassy to kidnap Aleister's daughter, princess Mallory, but ends up capturing April in a fancy dress who looks just like Mallory.
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#19 - The Making of Metalhead
Season 3 - Episode 35 - Aired 11/10/1989
While the Turtles are suffering from 'Turtle Pox', a disease that affects only mutant Turtles, Krang has developed a robotic turtle that he calls Metalhead in an effort to destroy the Ninja Ts. But first, in order to program the robot, Krang needs a 'Brainalyzer' scan of the Turtles. Shredder, Rocksteady and Bebop travel up to the surface and force the Turtles out of hiding by breaking into various business establishments throughout the City. Sure enough, the Turtles arrive at the scene of the crime, allowing Shredder to zap them with the Brainalyzer and making good their escape. The Turtles are confused but relieved to be back at home in their beds.
#20 - Turtles, Turtles, Everywhere
Season 3 - Episode 17 - Aired 10/17/1989
April covers the launch of a new system developed by the city to help clean up the city's garbage problems faster than ever: An automated computer, programmed to retrieve all forms of waste material, controls several garbage pick-up trucks from its control center, Shredder sees this computer as an ideal weapon to use against the turtles. Breaking into the lab where the computer is situated, the villain re-programs the c.p.u to capture TURTLES rather than retrieve litter... However, things go awry when all the trucks pick up are any non-mutant turtle they lay their eyes upon..including the last of a soon to be an extinct race of turtles, just about to give birth.. Can the green machine save their 'distant cousins' from this terrapin-taker? Or will Shredder get what he originally wanted after all?
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#21 - Pizza by the Shred
Season 3 - Episode 26 - Aired 10/30/1989
Michaelangelo gets a job as a pizza delivery boy. But who's his new boss?
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#22 - The Great Boldini
Season 3 - Episode 38 - Aired 11/15/1989
The Turtles must clear their names when they are believed to be jewel thieves who stole a priceless emerald during a magic act run by a wizard named Boldini.
#23 - The Turtle Terminator
Season 3 - Episode 37 - Aired 11/14/1989
Rocksteady and Bebop, on Shredder's orders, kidnap Irma, who pleads with them to wait until tomorrow -- it seems that she has a date with a handsome weatherman from Channel Six News. As soon as April discovers Irma has been abducted, she contacts the Turtles. At his secret hideout, the Shredder activates his 'Turtle Terminator' to replicate itself to look just like Irma. He then sends the Irma/Turtle Terminator out on its mission -- to destroy all turtles. Irma/Turtle Terminator returns to Channel Six News and professes that nothing has happened to her nor has she seen Rocksteady and Bebop. April reports to the Turtles that Irma is back and that everything is fine but the Turtles are doubtful. They continue to investigate. However, when Irma/Turtle Terminator overhears Burne Thompson refer to his girlfriend as a 'turtle dove' she fires a laser blast out of her eyes, melting the telephone. April realizes that something is wrong.
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#24 - 20,000 Leaks Under the City
Season 3 - Episode 14 - Aired 10/12/1989
Still searching for a way to destroy the Turtles, Krang develops a Super Pump that he intends to use to flood the sewers and flush out the 'boys in green'. After sending Shredder, Rocksteady and Bebop to make the necessary preparations, Krang begins pumping water out of the ocean and pumping it into the sewers. Meanwhile, in the Turtles lair, Splinter and the Turtles are in the middle of a pizza repast when they are swept away by the sudden onslaught of water. But back down in the Technodrome, something has gone wrong. Krang's pump can not be shut off as more and more water is being sucked from the ocean and "dumped" into the sewer -- which is now overflowing into the streets. Soon, the entire city will be underwater.
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#25 - Enter the Rat King
Season 3 - Episode 9 - Aired 10/5/1989
After an unpleasant encounter with a rat, Mr. Thompson assigns April to research the growing rat infestation. April heads for the sewers and after turning up nothing returns to Channel Six News to meet her deadline. However, she and Irma are forced to return to work on foot after all four tires of the Channel Six News van have been chewed by rats. Suddenly, they are being pursued by an army of rats and escape on a passing city bus. Back at Channel Six News, in the middle of April's editorial, the lights go out. When they come back on April is gone. The Turtles, who were watching April on TV in their secret lair, spring into action to locate their missing friend.