10 Great TV Shows Made From STUPID Ideas
3. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987)
This applies squarely to the original 80's cartoon instead of the later revivals, because the '03 and '12 shows at least knew it was a sure thing. God bless them for the leap of faith, but who in their right mind looked at the title "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" and thought "yes, let's make 10 seasons of this"?
You couldn't even chock it up to the comics being successful, they were pretty obscure indie fare until the cartoon came along. So this show seemed destined to crash and burn like the majority of other toy based shows being churned out throughout the 80's.
Of course, that didn't happen. Something about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles just straight up clicked with kids around the world. Probably due to its legit funny (for the time and audience) writing, and how like Adventure Time, it fully committed to the weirdness of its premise.
Sure, later renditions on the premise would be far superior products (the 2012 show and IDW comics in particular are the best versions of TMNT out there) but they wouldn't even exist if not for the 80's cartoon.