Turbo Teen

Turbo Teen is an American animated television series about a teenager with the ability to transform into a sports car. It aired on Saturday morning on the ABC Network for thirteen episodes in 1984.
The series was rerun on the USA Network's USA Cartoon Express programming block.

Plot

Turbo Teen is about a teenager named Brett Matthews who swerves off a road during a thunderstorm and crashes into a secret government laboratory. There, he and his red sports car are accidentally exposed to a molecular beam, invented by a mad scientist named Dr. Chase for a government agent named Cauldwell. As a result, Brett and his car become fused together. Brett gains the ability to morph into the car when exposed to extreme heat and revert into his human form when exposed to extreme cold. With this new superhero power, Brett, along with his girlfriend Pattie, his best friend Alex, and his dog Rusty go on crime-fighting adventures together and solve other mysteries.
A recurring subplot involves Brett, Cauldwell, and Dr. Chase's search for a way to return Brett to normal. Also, a recurring villain is the mysterious, unseen "Dark Rider" who drives a monster truck and seeks to capture Brett in order to find the secret behind his abilities. In addition, Brett and his friends deal with the shenanigans of their classmates Eddie and Flip.

Cast

T. K. Carter as Alex
Pat Fraley as Dr. Chase, Eddie
Pamela Hayden as Pattie
Michael Mish as Brett Matthews/Turbo Teen
Clive Revill as Cardwell
Frank Welker as Rusty, Dark Rider, Flip

Additional voices

Crew

Alan Dinehart – Voice Director
Howard Morris – Voice Director
Michael Maurer – Story Editor
John Kimball – Director
Jack Kirby – Production Design

Production

The show was produced by Ruby-Spears Productions with animation supplied by Toei Animation and Hanho Heung-Up. It was broadcast during the growing popularity of the Knight Rider television series and mirrors much of it. The car that Brett turns into looks like an amalgam of a Third Generation Chevrolet Camaro and its sister car, the Pontiac Trans Am; the later model Knight Rider's KITT is based on. The Trans Am also had limited edition turbocharger packages in the early 1980s, appearing as an official Indy 500 pace car and featuring in the movie Smokey and the Bandit II.

Reception

In The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows, David Perlmutter writes "This is perhaps the most absurd concept developed for television animation in the genre's history. Despite a basis in somewhat-plausible science, it was not produced competently enough to make its premise anywhere near believable."