- This article is about the episode "Donatello's Degree". For the VHS, go to Donatello's Degree (home video).
| “Donatello's Degree” | |||||||
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| Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987 Cartoon) episode | |||||||
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| Season Code: | 04 | ||||||
| Episode: | 31 | ||||||
| Original airdate | September 8, 1990 | ||||||
| Written by | Jack Mendelsohn | ||||||
| Supervising Producer | Fred Wolf | ||||||
| Producers: | Walt Kubiak | ||||||
| Supervising Director | Bill Wolf | ||||||
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Donatello's Degree is a season 4 episode of the 1987 TV series.
Appearing in Donatello's Degree[]
Major characters[]
- Leonardo (Cam Clarke)
- Raphael (Rob Paulsen)
- Michaelangelo (Townsend Coleman)
- Donatello (Barry Gordon)
- Splinter (Peter Renaday)
- April O'Neil (Renae Jacobs)
- Irma (Jennifer Darling)
- Burne Thompson (Pat Fraley)
- Professor Filo Sopho (Rob Paulsen) (debut)
Minor characters[]
- Vernon Fenwick (Peter Renaday)
- Gray Glasses Musclebound Scientist (Cam Clarke)
- Green Glasses Musclebound Scientist (Pat Fraley)
Species[]
Objects and vehicles[]
- Channel 6 newsvan
- Sopho University Limousine
- Turtle Van
Locations[]
- Channel 6
- Irma's apartment
- Sewer system
- Sopho University
- Train Station
- Turtle Lair
Plot[]
Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael are all doing spring cleaning, but Donatello is finishing up the exams for his by-mail college degree. He anxiously waits for the next few weeks before receiving the news that he's graduated with the highest honors, and will be given his degree in person by Professor Filo Sopho himself.
Unfortunately, Sopho is under the impression that Donatello is actually a woman named Donna Tello. Refusing to forget about the honor, Donatello goes to Irma's apartment and is rewarded with a frying pan to the head before she recognizes him. He begs her to accept his degree in person, and after some initial reluctance, she agrees.
The two of them travel to the university (Donatello inside a trunk) and are picked up by drivers that bring them to Sopho's castle-like university. Professor Sopho flatters Irma and shows her around the university, but Donatello becomes suspicious of the hexadecimal transducer and the thuggish assistants that soon try to kill him.
Meanwhile, April O'Neil is told to investigate fish overflowing in a lake. Vernon Fenwick is sent with her, but only brought fishing equipment.
While the other Turtles recover from spring cleaning, Michelangelo's fish Max is acting oddly. Eventually he flops out into the sewer, where hundreds of other fish are furiously migrating. Michelangelo chases him, and Raphael and Leonardo chase Michelangelo.
While spying on Sopho and Irma, Donatello falls into the lake nearby and finds it overflowing with fish. He figures out why when he spots an oscilloscope in the basement of the university, which can change the molecular vibrations of the Earth's core. Sopho is planning to speed up the Earth and spin off everything on it. But before he can find Irma, he's grabbed by a vicious robot guard and barely escapes.
That night, at a banquet for the graduating class, Donatello has to masquerade as a waiter as he tries to figure out a way to contact Irma. He tries to pass her a note in a sandwich, but she ends up eating it.
The other three Turtles meet up with April after following the fishes to the lake, when Burne Thompson informs them that Sopho has called on the media for a big announcement.
Irma refuses to believe that Sopho could be a "crackpot," having let the flattery of Donatello's intellect go to her head. Before Donatello can do anything further, he's captured by Sopho's two goons.
Sopho announces that "Miss Donna Tello" is his partner in a massive scientific achievement, and whisks Irma off to his underground bunker. Irma realizes that he's a nutcase after all, and breaks the elevator through the roof. Unfortunately, the oscilloscope is already going strong, and Donatello is tied to it. Night and day have already sped up to a duration of mere seconds.
The other Turtles arrive and hack Donatello free of his chains, allowing him to root around inside the oscilloscope. He spots a hairpin on Irma's head and uses it as a tool to slow down the oscilloscope until it shuts down completely.
At home, Donatello rejoices that he's finally earned his degree. Michelangelo believes his pet fish Max is back to normal, but Max decides to drive him crazy.
See also[]
Notes and errors[]
- The ties on Raphael's belt are missing when Leonardo tells April to get out of the university.
- Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo have no weapons when they jump into the sewer water to look for Maxwell, but they have them when they arrive at the lake.
- When Donatello is attacked by the robot, there is clearly only one in the room... and then suddenly there are two, and then one again.
- When Michelangelo was scrubbing the floor with his feet, he was wearing headphones while listening to his Walkman. But when he knocked over a bucket of water and it landed on his head, he mistakenly appear to be wearing his headphones outside the bucket on his head.
Trivia[]
- First appearance of Professor Filo Sopho. He will appear again for the second and final time in "Too Hot to Handle".
- Professor Sopho's name is a pun on the word "philosophy".
- Donatello breaks the fourth wall by responding to Michelangelo’s statement about “hanging out at the library,” despite not being there to hear it.
- Filo Sopho's scientist henchmen would reappear years later as a comics cameo in "Shiny and Chrome!".
Home media releases[]
VHS[]
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Donatello's Degree
LaserDisc[]
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Donatello's Degree/Raphael Meets His Match
DVD[]
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Season 4
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Complete Classic Series Collection