Welcome to Saturday Morning Superstars! This week, I’ll be looking at possibly the strangest cartoon to ever appear on Saturday mornings– Turbo Teen. This series was built around an average teenage boy, Brett Matthews, who, in the show’s opening credits, is driving his red sportscar down a desolate road during a thunderstorm. He loses control and goes crashing into a top-secret government laboratory where he and his car are zapped with a mysterious ray, fusing them together.
From that night onward, Brett would transform into his car when exposed to heat, and convert back into a human when exposed to cold. When in car mode, Brett retained his consciousness and could “drive” unmanned. (There are multiple scenes where his sheepdog, Rusty is shown in the driver’s seat for “comedic” effect.)
How absurd was it? This is Brett’s transformation sequence which was repeated numerous times in each episode:
Yep. That was a real show that someone came up with, got approved, produced, and aired. The most insane part of the transformation is his face and teeth stretching out into the grill. Also, the promo art at the top of this page is really inaccurate as Brett’s hands are visible, when, as you can see, his hands clearly turn into the front tires when he is a car. (That art comes from a licensing package by The Taft Merchandising Group. For another example, look below.)
Turbo Teen was produced by Ruby-Spears Productions and broadcast on ABC during the 1984-85 season. Michael Maurer is credited as developing the series. Comic book legend Jack Kirby worked on production designs. Apparently, Turbo Teen was concocted as a reaction to the popularity of Knight Rider, which had debuted in prime time in 1982, except on Turbo Teen, Michael Knight and K.I.T.T. were merged into one. Not surprisingly, this bizarre entry only lasted for one 13-episode season, although it was later rerun as part of the USA Cartoon Express.
The device that accidentally fuses Brett and his car was invented by Dr. Chase. A running theme is Dr. Chase and government agent Cardwell working to return Brett to normal. But in the meantime, Brett, Rusty, Brett’s girlfriend Pattie, a freelance reporter, and his best friend Alex, a mechanic who calls Brett “TT”, go on adventures. Many of these exploits find Brett as the target of the mysterious villain the Dark Rider, who drives a monster truck and is determined to learn the secrets of Brett’s transformation powers.
Michael Mish provided Brett’s voice. Legendary voice actor Frank Welker voiced Rusty and the Dark Rider. The latter’s voice was essentially the same as the voice Welker later used for Dr. Claw on Inspector Gadget. The rest of the cast consisted of T. K. Carter as Alex, Pat Fraley as Dr. Chase, Pamela Hayden as Pattie, and Clive Revill as Cardwell.
Despite its brief existence, Turbo Teen spawned a few pieces of merchandising including a coloring book and a transforming model kit.
Despite its brief run, but perhaps because of its absurdity, Turbo Teen has endured in pop culture, having been parodied on Robot Chicken, Rick and Morty, Futurama, and Teen Titans Go! among others.
Unfortunately, Turbo Teen has never been released commercially and isn’t available to stream. But the rights belong to Warner Bros. so it could resurface at some point. (Plus, I mean… you can find it elsewhere…)
Do you remember Turbo Teen? Is it the most bizarre American cartoon ever? Or is there one you think is weirder?
