Rocksteady and Bebop - 1987 Cartoon

1987 Cartoon

Bebop and Rocksteady were originally human, part of a street gang in New York City that was employed by Shredder. Rocksteady was originally a short and stocky blond Caucasian man (who sported army camouflage pants that would be replaced with simple beige cargo pants later while also occasionally sporting a strong Army helmet on his head in his mutated form). Bebop was a taller African American man with a purple Mohawk. With the other members of their gang, they were sent out to stop a Channel 6 reporter named April O'Neil from doing a report about crime in the city. April ran down into the sewers while being chased by the street gang and met the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, who then defeated the gang in a fight.

After this humiliating setback, The Shredder developed a plan to defeat the Turtles by mutating members of the street gang, so that they would have abilities parallel to the Turtles'. Rocksteady and Bebop both volunteered to undergo the procedure (though neither was particularly aware of what it would entail) with the promise that it would allow them to exact revenge on the Turtles. Bebop was mutated into a human warthog and Rocksteady into a rhinoceros. However, though the transformation did make them larger and stronger, they remained incompetent simpletons and were completely inept at stopping the Turtles or carrying out Shredder's plans. For example, in "Enter the Shredder" they charged at the Turtles, who jumped, and crashed into each other. Donatello commented that their mutations didn't "up their IQ's any." For most of the series they were employed for purposes however, the Turtles certainly consider them to be formidable (despite their stupidity) in combat due to their great strength and endurance, and as such, often use their intelligence to outwit them rather than fighting them in a straightforward manner. But their attempts at the turtles seem to regularly fail due to their incompetence and goofing behavior, which all leads to them being abused both physically and verbally by Shredder and Krang. In one episode of the series, Bebop was shown to have kept a pet turtle, which got mutated into the evil turtle Slash.

However, in season eight, Bebop along with Rocksteady seemed to have some form of intelligence, but talked and joked around less. Rocksteady and Bebop's last appearance is in the season 8 finale Turtle Trek. In that episode, the Turtles destroy the Technodrome's engines, trapping it and its inhabitants in Dimension X for good. While their bosses Krang and Shredder returned in the 10th and final season Bebop and Rocksteady did not. Their whereabouts after being trapped in Dimension X were not explained.

They made a reappearance in the made-for-TV movie 'Turtles Forever'. In the flashback describing how the Turtles crossed dimensions, they said to their Turtle counterparts that they were facing off against Shredder and the Technodrome, meaning that he got the machine out of Dimension X (as well as Rocksteady and Bebop). Their incompetence is still shown, although it ended up saving the 2003 Shredder when Rocksteady accidentally tripped over and unplugged a laser that was about to destroy him, although Bebop ended up obliterating the 2003 Shredder anyway when he replugged the same laser device all the while thinking he would be pleased that they "fixed" his machine. All this happened just as the Utrom Shredder was unleashing a plan that would wipe out Ninja Turtles of all planes of existence (even if it meant destroying himself since he was still linked to them), so ironically... Bebop and Rocksteady saved all of Turtle existence.