No they really didn't. You are simply looking at the 80's series with rose colored glasses. It literally was that cheesy. They pretty much nailed April and the characters tongue in cheek 4th wall breaking dialogue.
Actually, they really, REALLY did. At first I agreed with you, but, after popping in the DVD's this morning to watch a few episodes before getting to my days work... I have to say, while it is cheesy sometimes, in the early episodes at least it's actually way more compelling and character driven than the 2k3 series, which just depresses me.
And really, the old series was far more serious than people remember, fourth wall breaking or not. I'm watching April as we speak and she is no where near as ditsy or crazy as in Turtles Forever. They weren't running around going "WHOO HOO! COWABUNGA! YEA-HA!!!" "We save April
everyday." And old Mikey is actually way less obnoxious than new Mikey whom I just watched last night bragging about his Battle Nexus championship, over, and over, and over. These aren't nostalgia glasses as I don't really remember anything about the series I was younger than 1 year old when it came out and watched it until I was like 5 or something.
The sad thing is, when the 80's TV show was cheesy, it meant to be cheesy. When the 2k3 series is cheesy, which it is more often than not, it is not intending to be, which comes off as incredibly pathetic.
With that said I don't really care
. Turtles Forever looks
hilarious. And since I have a sense of humor I have no problem with Laird using this opportunity to hate on the old Turtles as long as it entertains me, which it definitely was. Besides, even if they overexaggerated the 80's Turtles it just made me love them all the more, as Octoberist said, they do seem all the more enduring when compared to the new Turtles.