The "Ninja Tribunal" arc (13 episodes) was originally intended to be season five of the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series, but the schedule was changed to try to increase interest in the series and "Fast Forward" became the fifth season to air on commercial TV. After the scheduling change was made, Mirage and its partners decided to finish production on the "Ninja Tribunal" episodes and release them directly to DVD. 4Kids Entertainment later signed a deal with Comcast and this season began airing on Comcast-On-Demand in August 2006. Mass confusion ensued regarding which season was officially season five and which was season six. However after airing five episodes Comcast stopped airing the episodes.
The "Ninja Tribunal" episodes were scheduled to be released on DVD sometime in early 2007, but 4Kids Entertainment later removed them from their release schedule. 4Kids started showing the episodes starting on February 9, 2008. Although the title doesn't appear in the show itself, the season was promoted in commercials as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Lost Episodes. The DVD set was released on May 20, 2008.
The "Nightmares Recycled" episode was never completed. The script was finished and some animation had begun when 4Kids pulled the plug because it was deemed too controversial and violent for a children's program (Hun and the Garbageman were conjoined twins that were surgically separated at birth by a back-alley surgeon with the Garbageman being discarded as 'garbage'). Since there was no chance of it airing, it was shelved in the early stages of production.