#One missing data point is that we've arguably only gotten one real incarnation of Gargoyles

[mimeparadox]

Well, not really, but also kinda.

Like, they're certainly part of the same premise niche (genre kitchen sinks featuring super-hero-adjacent anthro families) of which the original TMNT cartoon is the most visible and successful example. That the original TMNT exists and was extremely successful almost certainly made Gargoyles' existence more likely. And Greg Weisman has explicitly stated that the theme naming for the Gargoyles was inspired by the turtles' naming convention.

That said "was inspired by" is not the same thing as "ripped off": you could never confuse the two shows, and even if you were to argue that TMNT and Gargoyles are comparable in quality, you could not, realistically, expect everyone who liked one to like the other. Ultimately, the original TMNT cartoon makes up only about 45% of Gargoyles' DNA. Just as important is Batman: The Animated Series, whose tone and storytelling set the stage for Gargoyles (comparative) sophistication, and helped it stand out within the genre.

Now, where it gets really interesting is when you get to 2003, and the second TMNT series, which, with its darker (compared to the original) tone and serialized storytelling, ends up having a lot of Gargoyles in its DNA*--enough that I ended up having an entire blog dedicated to that fact. And while part of this is coincidental--a lot of its approach is informed by attempting to be faithful to the original comic books--the similarities in concepts can't be avoided when they're both telling similar stories in similar ways.

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*It's worth noting that there's a fair amount of writer crossover between the two TMNT series and Gargoyles. the Notably, two particular writers, Erik Luke, and Marty Isenberg, worked regularly in both Gargoyles and TMNT (2003), while two others, Michael Reaves and Brynne Stephens, wrote for the original TMNT before working on Gargoyles.

Is Gargoyles a TMNT knock off?