When the convention ends, the adventure continues at Broward Center and The Parker, sponsor of this article.

When it comes to cartoon theme songs, it doesn’t get more epic than the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme. The lyrics may have been simple, but it was a catchy tune that let every kid know that a half hour of Turtle Power was about to begin. The theme song, which is still stuck in our heads almost 40 years later, was written by Chuck Lorre, who went on to co-create many famous sitcoms including Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory.

It’s hard to imagine the 1987 Turtles cartoon with any other theme song, which is why it’s so mind-blowing to learn there’s another version out there that was almost used instead.

“In the early days of development on the cartoon, one of the things I think about is they sent us two versions of the Turtles theme song,” TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman says during a panel at Florida Supercon. “Chuck Lorre did both. One of them was the one that became the theme for the show. The other one was like a version of Rawhide.”

Eastman briefly sang a few bars, which sounded like a slowed down version of the more familiar theme. “I have a tape of it. It’s like, ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.’ I have it.”

Eastman told the audience that he would look for it and play it next year if someone organizes a panel for the cartoon’s 40^th anniversary. I hope someone does, because the world deserves to hear the original theme.

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