Turbo Teen

Turbo-Teen was an animated 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 during 1984 and 1985. The series was once a rerun on the USA Network's now-defunct USA Cartoon Express 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 scientist named Dr. Chase for a government agent named Cardwell. Man and machine become fused together and as a result, 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 super hero power, Brett and his friends; Patti, (a freelance reporter), mechanic Alex (who calls Brett, "TT"), and Brett's dog Rusty, go on crime-fighting adventures together and solve other mysteries.

A recurring subplot involves Brett, Cardwell, 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 Matthews in order to find the secret behind his abilities. Dark Rider is voiced by Frank Welker and is similar to how he performs the voice of Dr. Claw in the Inspector Gadget series.

Production
The show was produced by Ruby-Spears Productions. It was broadcast during the growing popularity of the Knight Rider television series and mirrors much of it, even down to very similar sounding theme music. 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.

Cast

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

Parodies

 * Turbo Teen was parodied in the Robot Chicken episode "Rabbits on a Roller Coaster" with Brett Matthews voiced by Seth Green, Alex voiced by Tom Root and Pattie voiced by Katee Sackhoff.


 * A webcomic named Teen Boat ran for a short time, with a teenager who could turn into a small yacht.


 * A commercial for The Rotten Tomatoes Show on Current TV in July 2009 includes a man similarly transforming into a red sports car, a Mazda Miata. The man is wearing a wardrobe similar to Brett Matthews' wardrobe.