I never had access to the comics as a kid, so the cartoon was my first exposure to the Turtles. I do like the comics, and would love to have some originals, some day.
I watched one episode of the new Nickelodeon TMNT, my wife was flipping through the guide and stopped on it because she knows I'm a fan of the original. I was just about to explain that to her, and funny enough, it was a cross-dimensional episode where they'd jump into different Turtles universe, one was the original comic, and the other two was the 80's and 90's cartoon.