Welcome back to the Randomizer!
Erm........POWER RANGERS!
On August 28th 1993, the world was introduced to
a new form of children's programming. The opening showed the infamous Rita
Repulsa declaring: "After ten thousand years I'm free! It's time to
conquer Earth!". But not if the trapped wizard Zordon had anything to say,
for he recruited five teenagers with attitude who were subsequently lifted to
the Command Centre, given power in the form of the Power Morphers and became
Earth's new heroes: The Power Rangers!
Hey, August 28th. That's only 10 days away!
And it is the 20th Anniversary of the Power Rangers. 20 years of
destroying the monster of the week, of introducing new members halfway through
the season, and of finding new weapons and armour to destroy the bad guys and
send them away from the earth once and for all!
There have been quite a number of celebrations taking part
through the year. The new Power Rangers show Megaforce, is planning to feature
the return of historic rangers from times past. The Internet comedian Doug
Walker aka The Nostalgia Critic made a review of Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie
(and that is the only mention of that). Remakes of the original toys are being
released. And most importantly....Amy Jo Johnson is still hot.
So with all the different stuff happening, I wondered what
the hell could I do to promote the 20th Anniversary of a show that
has over 700 episodes to its name?
Well as a writer, I thought it would be nice to show 20
interesting facts about the Power Rangers. Not only including what's counted in
the show, but some of the backstage news and some interesting translation stuff
from international markets. Some bits you might know off the bat, Some bits you
might not have fully noticed, and some bits might make you go 'what the flying
fuck?'. Hopefully for me, most of your reactions will be in the third part. And
yes, the 20/20 thing is on purpose.
I'm going to throw the possible racism part out now because it's
been mentioned by everyone over and over again. The original black and yellow
rangers Zack and Trini, were played first by a African-American man and a Asian
girl. You may scream now. Apparently the producers did not realise the not very
PC move until later on and didn't do a thing until the actors left the show and
then an Asian guy and African-American girl were put in the suits. Nothing's
been fully proven yet, but make up your own minds for now.
So divided into three different sections, here are 20
interesting facts about Power Rangers!
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This first section will cover cultural aspects of the show, like where it originally came from:
1)
The show is originally Japanese
When you were a kid, did you ever notice a change in the
footage, specifically grain, colour and location? Maybe the question should be,
did you actually care? To be fair, I didn't either. Not until at least in
college, when I found out specifically why the footage changed in fight scenes
and the zord battles. Because they were Japanese.
As some of you may know, Power Rangers isn't wholly an
American creation. The fight scenes used had been adapted and edited from the
Japanese show Zyuranger, part of its own franchise known as Super Sentai. Then
it was spliced in with the new American footage for a smoothing transition as
best it can. So pretty much cheaper considering the costs it would have been to
make 5 teens with attitude fighting an evil bad guy. Or just use your own video
camera, splice footage with any evil dictator, make the costumes and do it that
way.
This has become the standard practice for all Power Ranger
series, utilizing footage from Super Sentai from 1992 all the way up to the
present day. And nowadays it's a little harder to tell when the Japanese
footage is used because of the different production values but not impossible. There
are, or should be, some video on Youtube showing some of these comparisons and
you do get some interesting back-stories on the original Japanese characters.
Some of which I will come to in this article.
And do I even need to mention the lip synching of Rita
Repulsa?
It was an offense to mankind.
R.I.P Machiko Soga.
2)
Confused Gender Yellow Ranger
We all remember Trini don't we? The girl who translated
Billy's technobabble, do all she could for environmentalism and was turned into
a boy for the fight scenes. Oh, did you just read that in your mind? Oops. At
the start of Power Rangers, Trini and Kimberly were chosen to be the Yellow and
Pink Rangers respectively (ahemforcedahem). The difference in their costumes
however was odd. Kimberly's had a skirt. Trini's didn't. Why was that?
Aside from the possibility of being a tom-boy, Trini's
Japanese counterpart in Zyuranger was in fact a boy. Not much else you can say
about that, just a show long continuity error. At least in the original series
that is. They never even bothered with a skirt for her replacement Aisha when
Trini was written out for her non-returning peace conference. Anyone else
remember that? It included Zack and Jason as well, which the latter did return
from.
I'm sure some of us at that age would have picked up that
fact that Trini wasn't wearing a skirt. But
I have since discovered that in the Sentai series Gokaiger, they did add the
skirt to the Tiger Ranger costume because of the Yellow Ranger at that point
was female. Didn't take that long did it?
And it would be disrespectful if I didn't mention this. Thuy
Trang, the actress who played Trini, sadly passed away in 2001 in a car crash.
R.I.P
3)
Little Boy White Ranger
After using up all the footage for Zyuranger, the production
started to use the next Super Sentai series Dairanger as their primary source.
The Dinozords would morph into the Thunderzords and become the new Thunder-Megazord.
Except for breakout star number 287, Tommy.
Because new footage was being used, Tommy being the Green Ranger
couldn't really interact with the new footage and thus had to disappear. But he
gets new ranger powers created specifically and becomes the White Tiger Ranger,
allowing him to re-join the team and become part of the stock footage again.
But what's interesting is that the original White Tiger
Ranger in Dairanger was actually a little 10 year old kid, who drew out a sword
out of its resting place (Saber if you're curious) and become the Kiba-Ranger. He
was also...erm...a pervert. He liked to touch the Pink Ranger's breasts and
look up her skirt. I'm not even joking, watch some of the Dairanger footage and
you'll see what I mean. He even rides a skateboard! Could Tommy do
that?...Considering his awesomeness, I'm sure he could off his own back.
Awesomeness increased by 10
Now granted this was probably more for comedic purposes in
Japan, and there's no way any of that footage could have been used in the show
because of the cultural differences. But could you really look at that costume
the same way, knowing that in the Japanese series it was once held by a
happy-go-touchy 10 year old? Answers on a postcard please.
Not really much I can add to this. Just don't look at the
White Ranger the right way ever again!
4)
Zyu-2
Speaking of using up footage, there had been a little issue
before Saban opted to use the Dai-Ranger series as their new source. Zyuranger
had 50 episodes in which to use the footage to last them a good while. However
all the footage they had was used in the first 40 episodes, leaving a bit of a
gap for the American audiences to cry over. Saban made quite a clever choice,
though possibly expensive way: They contacted Toei Studios and asked them if
they could make more Sentai footage for Saban to use in Power Rangers only.
Toei accepted and thus created more monsters and zord
footage for Saban to splice in appropriately. Not only that but according to
some sources, Toei acknowledged some requests that Saban asked in terms of
characterization and different themes. Examples of that include having more of
the Green Ranger involved because he could still interact with the Power
Rangers, use of the Ultrazord (combination of every zord) because the Rangers
had obtained them already, and changes of personality to the Blue and Yellow
Rangers.
When it came to using the Dai-Ranger footage finally, the
Zyu-2 stuff had not all been used up yet. And it proved difficult for the
inevitable cross-over to Dai-Ranger. The
production made the edits to make the Zyu-2 monsters appear in conjunction with
the Thunder Megazords, which didn't work half the time as sometimes the
monsters could make physical contact with the old Megazord in shot.
Eventually the new footage was all used up and Saban went on
to complete Season 2 using the Dai-Ranger footage, new zords and all. Overall,
it is a clever idea for the production team to achieve, though the transition
to Dai-Ranger wasn't brilliant. A good idea, could have been edited better.
5)
Hi. I'm Power Rangers Turbo. I like changing
everything.
Now we come to a point that most of the fanbase might
consider to be one of the worst series of Power Rangers: Turbo.
This was the season that changed everything, and by that I
mean EVERYTHING. I'm not talking the new footage specifically because that's a
given, but most in the Power Rangers Turbo Movie and the series itself.
At the beginning, Zordon and Alpha 5 were virtually cut out
of the series to be replaced by a mystical woman named Dimitria (who asks a
fuckload of questions) and Alpha 6, whom I would call Brooklyn Alpha because
it's so obvious he has that kind of accent.
The new villain is a space pirate called Divatox who...I'm
not sure really has a good reason to conquer the Earth. Then again neither did
Rita Repulsa who just played Planet Russian Roulette. But Rita was popular.
Divatox and her minion Elgar were just plain annoying, especially Elgar who
I've heard as a very weak villain.
(Little tangent here; Elgar died in the Power Rangers Turbo
Movie, yet he was still in the Turbo series............HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?!?!?!....I
can't digress on this. Apparently he just survived. Bullshit! If you have a
little kid questioning something like that, you know you've screwed up as an
writer!!! )
There's no good given reason for the switch out to the Turbo
Rangers powers as evidenced in the Turbo movie. The Zeo Ranger powers were
still perfectly capable of being used apparently though.
And there's Justin the new Blue Ranger, who was a kid as
well. People really hated this character and it didn't help the ratings after Power
Rangers Zeo. Also there's the point of the major cast changes in the show.
David Yost who played Billy left the show for reasons I will go into later. Jason
David Frank (Tommy) and the pink ranger Catherine Sutherland were interested in
leaving the series, so the entire cast was dropped in favour of new members.
Granted, the viewership did rise a little bit enough to
warrant one more series to wrap up Power Rangers finally but not by much. The
damage had been done in the first half of the show and there was hardly much to
salvage it.
The series becomes especially ironic when you know about
what happened in Japan. Two years beforehand, the show was screening Ohranger
(that show would be used for Power Rangers Zeo) in 1995, more darker and mature
than its predecessor.
Unfortunately that same year had many horrible events to
happen in Japan. First came the Kobe Earthquake in January, where over 6,000 people
lost their lives in total. Then over a week after the show premiered, The Sarin
Gas Attacks happened when terrorists hit the Tokyo subway with sarin gas,
killing 13 people in all and leaving over 5,000 injured as a result. Because of
the darker tone, the series suffered from a big loss of ratings. Even rewrites
couldn't help the series overall and it was on the verge on cancellation, saved
only by the toys because they were popular.
The next series Carranger, was a parody of the Super Sentai
series. And it was extremely popular, managing a huge swing back into the arms
of the fans. It was lighter, comedic and apparently a good lot of fun! Thus the
Super Sentai series was saved with apparently more growing popularity in
subsequent shows after that. And what was Carranger in America?......the Mighty
Morphin Power Rangers Movie of course!...nah it's Turbo obviously.
So Carranger saved the Super Sentai, Turbo nearly killed
Power Rangers. What a neat circle.
Despite the failure of Turbo, the production went all out in
Power Ranges in Space and saved the franchise epically, with the emphasis going
on the writing, drama, and pretty good characters. As I remember. And the
series continued as best it could. But of course in some fans eyes, Turbo will
continue to bear the brunt of being the franchise's bitch.
6)
The Titanium Ranger
If you were watching Power Rangers: Lightspeed Rescue, you
might be remember this guy.
The Titanium Ranger was a bad guy originally on the side of
the generic evil demon monsters #56, wanting to destroy the rangers, and by
extension his father for apparently deserting him to the evil leader Diabolico.
But it's obviously bull because the villain's are evil and always have a
penchant for manipulating kids to believe your original family are dicks and
refuse to give you chocolate. So yeah, he turns to the good side and remains
with them until the end of the season.
Here's an interesting fact: He is the first true Power
Ranger. American wise.
The original Sentai series, GoGo5, did not have a sixth
ranger hanging around the town to help out at all, so has with most seasons of
Power Rangers the production team included a completely new character for the
show. Therefore, he has no comparative partner in the Sentai franchise and is
then the first real Power Ranger. If you get what I mean.
The budget couldn't fit in both the footage used for
Lightspeed Rescue and completely new footage for the six Rangers to appear all
over the season. So the character was kept unmorphed for most of the season as
he went around trying to figure out a way to destroy the bad guys. At times
though, the character did have his own megazord to fight with, called the
Solar-Max Megazord. But in the Sentai, it was sentient on its own accord and
just helped to kick ass whenever it was called on. Cheap and easy, checked (as
it says in the Ten Commandments of Power Rangers).
This kind of development is carried on for future seasons such
as in Power Rangers: SPD which I will come to in a minute, and in Power Rangers
Jungle Fury which I won't come to. What a shame (not really). But it is
interesting to see how it took a while for them to actually make a proper Power
Rangers creation without falling back on any of the past Sentai series to do
so. As far as I know it hasn't happened again recently but perhaps it could be
done again.
Anyway, your first real power ranger folks. The Titanium
Ranger.
Excuse me?
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Now we come onto the second section: The In-show stuff and
the strange bits you might not have noticed.
7)
The Dragonzord LIVES!!!
At the beginning of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 3,
The Power Rangers had the Thunder-Megazord and White Tiger Zord to call on when
the monster of the week got big. Unfortunately the Sentai footage for
Dai-Ranger had other ideas and ran out into thin air. So the production team
did the only decent thing and destroyed the zords to give the kids
post-traumatic stress disorder. Bearing in mind the Thunder Zords were upgrades
of the Dinozords, so...yeah that just makes things worse........except you'll
be happy to know that the Dragonzord is still alive!
Unlike the other Dinozords, the Dragonzord still roams free
and mighty even after not being seen properly in the show for over 19 years.
And really, there's no reason for this at all. But that doesn't bother me and
hopefully shouldn't bother anyone, because Dragonzord is awesome!
It's final ever appearance in Power Rangers was the
three-parter 'Return of the Green Ranger', where Tommy has to fight an evil
clone of himself created by an evil wizard. Voldemort presumably. Anyway, Evil
Clone Tommy has his hands on the Power Dagger and summons the Dragonzord to
destroy the Thunder-Megazord. When broken from the spell and turning good
apparently, Evil Clone Tommy sends the Dragonzord back home into the ocean. And
it has remained there ever since in eternal slumber.....and spared the fate of
the other zords. Because the production team were silly.
Yes, they never bothered following-up the Dragonzord for
future appearances, instead letting it just lie in Tokyo bay....ahem I mean
Angel Grove. And throughout the run of different Power Rangers series, it has
never been brought up again. Not once. Sooooo if the production team of
Megaforce come across this blog....hint hint. I could care less if you broke
the laws of time and space to do this act, but just bring the Dragonzord back! Imagine
the different combinations you could do with one of the other zords or
something. It might take a while to work, but pleeeeassseee bring it back!
I'll take up the flute if needs be but pretty please?
8)
Masked Rider anyone?.......No?......ok
Yeah how many of you guys remember this?
Masked Rider was
another show made by Saban, using footage from another Japanese show Kamen
Rider Black RX. It was aired around the same time as Power Rangers Season 3,
and lasted a year before being stopped. I had read ages ago that this was due
to the show's original creator, Shotaro Ishinomori, was shocked by how his
series had been edited and refused to give Saban anymore footage. Mind you,
this is just a rumour so far. So if anyone actually has any information
regarding this rumour, please contact me and give up the goods. Only then, will
you get a chocolate bar for your help.
Moving on, you will be surprised to know that this character
actually made an appearance in Power Rangers before getting his own spin-off.
Saban seemed to be wanting to get its own Sentai-Universe going by bringing in
a new franchise to work with, and developing something akin to what comic books
have like with Justice League and the Avengers. However with the Power Ranger's
ratings declining slowly, references to the Power Rangers were dropped from
Masked Rider because Saban reformatted the series.
The episodes that the Masked Rider appears in is 'A Friend
in Need'. Lord Zedd sees that an old rival of his, Count Dregon is attempting
to conquer the planet Edenoi. The Power Rangers go there to stop him (for some
reason) and find themselves involved in the attack, including a little fight
with the Masked Rider. The crossover buddies eventually help each other hold
off the invasion of Edenoi and the Power Rangers go home to defeat another
monster and have a nice beverage at the juice bar. Wonder if they have
cranberry juice there? I'm getting quite obsessed with it. But I digress.
I really don't remember this three-parter opening at all as
a little kid. The first I actually heard of it was watching ThatGuyWithTheGlasses's
reviewer Linkara and his web series History of Power Rangers (If you fancy an
nostalgic trip, or looking up where the series has gone, watch his series. It
is very good and provides some interesting insight into the backstage stuff
behind Power Rangers. I might consider watching the episodes just to see what
they're like and move on from there.
But that will be another time. Right now we have stuff to
talk about!
9)
Cowabunga Dudes!!
If only I was joking. This is the equivalent of The Mighty
Boosh crossing over with Fawlty Towers. And probably would've worked on the
same level. Badly. I assume.
In 1997 to 98, Saban aired Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation,
somewhat departing from their regular format of splicing. This show really,
really, really, really, REALLY departed a lot from the original source material
of TMNT. There was no April O'Neil around, No Casey Jones, and their archnemesis
The Shredder was replaced as the main bad guy with.....a Dragon lord aptly
named Dragonlord. But probably the main thing everyone remembers from watching
this show (it had a little audience), was the addition of a fifth turtle, Venus
de Milo. She wasn't very popular so she was sent back to the Musee Louve in
France. Apparently her expressions were stiff. (Do-dum-tish)
Moving on swiftly before I get burned and pitch-forked,
since Saban owned both shows they decided a crossover was a good idea. So how
come I don't remember it?
The villain of the season Astronema brainwashes the turtles
into helping her destroy the In Space Rangers. Though apparently the Turtles
think the Power Rangers are comic book characters....well you never know. If
the Twilight Saga is real, that gives a lot of people a good excuse to KILL
THEM ALLL!!!!! Anyway, the brainwashed Turtles trick the Rangers to let them on
the ship, they take it over, brainwashing gets undone, they become a team,
blah, blah, blah, blah.
Like with the Masked Rider Episodes, I didn't really see
this one episode from In Space at all. And after watching a few clips, I don't
think I would want to either. It's just surreal, predictable and bad. Quite
bad. I'm starting to have an idea why I
didn't see these episodes. Perhaps the UK broadcaster Fox Kids thought they
were bad in the first place and really had no place in Power Rangers in the
first place, so they just didn't show them. Just an idea though, not fully
theorised.
Just avoid this one guys, your brain would probably fall out
to start with.
Let's forge an unholy alliance
10)
One of the Rangers actually dies in the series
You know the drill with kid shows. Good guys are good. Bad
guys are bad. One-off characters appear and never appear again. Bad guys are
eventually defeated in some manner, Good guys get pissed on a night out because
they'll never have an adventure again. That night out takes place in Newcastle.
If you're wondering. I really didn't make that up on the side.
But Power Rangers is a little different sometimes that it
can introduce the concept of death in the line of duty. And I mean sometimes.
Once in a while, you'll see a character who will get major injuries and take a
while to recover before coming back to the front. The first time a Power
Rangers main character actually dies is quite a leap for the show to make, and
does kind of work from a production standpoint.
In Power Rangers Lost Galaxy, an old enemy of the In Space
Rangers appears called the Psycho Rangers and attempt to defeat the Lost Galaxy
Rangers. But In Space help them out and destroy 4 of the Psychos, with Psycho
Pink surviving. She goes on the rampage, finding the Savage Sword and smashing
In Space Pink's morpher to create an energy tornado and energise herself,
turning her into her monster form. Despite Psycho Pink being destroyed
eventually, Lost Galaxy Pink Ranger Kendrix dives into the eye of the storm and
destroys the sword, but loses her own life in the process. I definitely
remember seeing this as a kid, seeing her spirit fly away and leaving everyone
depressed in the process.
She died for your sins....
Behind the scenes, the actress playing Kendrix was sadly
diagnosed with leukemia and had to leave to start chemotherapy. The therapy was
happily successful and now leukemia free. Kendrix comes back at the end of the
series. ....Somehow, don't question it it's Power Rangers, not Game of Thrones.
If George RR Martin did Power Rangers, you'd see a dead ranger every episode.
This is the only time a character that IS a Power Ranger has
actually died properly in Power Rangers at all. It's probably unlikely to
happen again ever in the series, because death is pretty much taboo unless
you're a monster of the week. If it were to happen again, it might make for
good storytelling and how it would affect the characters. But as I've said, it
probably won't happen.
11)
Super Sentai does make an appearance in Power
Rangers
Nope, not making this up either. Super Sentai does make a
one off episode appearance in the Power Rangers, footage not-withstanding.
Specifically it happens in Power Rangers: Dino Thunder, and its sentai counter
Abaranger.
Wow....Japanese porn is so much better. Look at what she's doing with the fish!
In episode 19 , Blue Ranger Ethan and Yellow Ranger Kira
come across a Japanese version of Power Rangers and watch it, rather enjoying
the episode presumably based on their lives. Red Ranger Conner however doesn't
like it at first, claiming it's not good and he doesn't like the character
playing him, but he comes around in the end and enjoys it.
Watching a clip of this online, it's quite weird to see.
It's the original show on the American remake, based off the original show.
Sounds like something Christopher Nolan would sink his teeth into, given the opportunity.
Why this episode was done, I'm not entirely sure. Maybe it was meant to be a
forth wall kind of joke to show younger fans that Power Rangers is in fact an
international show and perhaps show its Japanese roots.
Like with the fight scenes, apparently some of the footage
used from the one episode was cut and replaced with just the Power Ranger trio
just commenting with each other. It was also dubbed into English as well, changing
the original names of characters, the weapons used, the attacks, and changing
the Abaranger name to 'Dino Rangers'. I'm sure it could be worse. 4Kids could
still be alive.
And apparently, fans of the original Sentai were pissed off
from the changes, saying that it mocked the Sentai and made it look as if it
ripped off Power Rangers. Cause that's just the way with Japanese shows! But on
the other side, some people really liked the episode. One person notes that
it's like a nod to a Sentai fan watching Power Rangers for the first time, but
reversed.
In my humble opinion from the one clip, the episode looks
ok, and strange to see Super Sentai even get a mention on Power Rangers. But
other than that, it's an interesting reference to show where the show actually
comes from. If you want to check it out for yourself, be my guest.
12)
Females can lead too!
You know how the female Power Rangers are always stuck with
the usual colour of Pink, Yellow and even sometimes Blue?
In Power Rangers SPD (Space Patrol Delta), there is a degree
of sexism to a point a little bit into the premiere episodes. The guy who would
become the Blue Ranger for the series, Sky is asked by his superior Anubis
'Doggie' Kruger (who is oddly enough related to Freddy): If he was to elect Syd
(The Pink Ranger) as Red Ranger, would he follow her into battle? Sky simply
says: "She's a girl", and revealing himself to be a Guardian of the
Revolution. Silly sausage.
The two eventually become B-Squad Rangers, the second
defence underneath the A-Squad. But A-Squad disappear for the majority of the
season, and B-Squad take up the reigns. Right at the end, they re-appear quite conveniently
and A-Squad Red Ranger reveals to be a woman. Woo!
A-Squad Red Ranger Charlie
This is the first season to actually have a female Red Ranger
in Power Rangers, which does beg the question why there hasn't been anymore
female Red Rangers in other series. It's possible that there is limitations
with the original Sentai since they usually have males as the Red Ranger. According
to one created wiki, The producer of that series Bruce Kalish (who is either
famous or infamous depending on your own opinions) wanted to originally make
the B-Squad Red Ranger a girl. Disney flat out refused and were uneasy about
making A-Squad Red Ranger a girl, but relented. So became the first female Red Ranger in the
show. I won't spoil what happens in the series finale, but you'll be in for a
bit of a surprise.
Believe it or not, this has been done again in Power Rangers
Samurai. In a twist of the plot adapted from its sentai counterpart Shinkenger,
The male Red Ranger Jayden is actually not the person to truly hold the Red
Ranger powers. That falls to his older sister Lauren, who has learned some
spells to trap the big bad guy and takes over command of the Rangers. But one
problem stems from this: the season was following Jayden's story and how he
becomes the de facto leader overall. The other rangers were more used to him,
not someone who just waltzes in and takes command, even if she is a girl. After
failing to trap the bad guy, she passes the leadership back to Jayden, but
still sticks around until the end of the season. She bids him farewell saying
she'll see him again at some point in the future.
Having a female Red Ranger is a good touch to have,
considering the overwhelming number of Red Rangers they have. But I don't know
if the characters hold enough strongly to leave them as good in the eyes of the
audience. Admittedly I have not seen a full episode of either SPD or Samurai,
but I have read about the characters and in my eyes so far, they're not a good
representation of having a female Red Ranger. If the production team of not
just Power Rangers, but also Super Sentai do it again, they should have the
character from the off and develop them properly into the leader, instead of
just coming in and taking over. In the case of SPD, spoilers.
13)
Beating Science with a wrench
"Power Rangers takes science and beats it with an aluminium
bat" (Linkara). I think it sums up pretty much what is said next.
The Moon has a breathable atmosphere. And has the same
gravity as Earth. In Power Rangers logic. Yeaaa.
Power Rangers has the point in its universe that space and
any outlying moons about don't upheld to the rules of physics. Yeah, Power
Rangers is a kid's show but shouldn't there be some space logic hiding about
somewhere?
Going to the Moon as an example, this is one satellite that
begs to destroy the laws of space by any means necessary, simply for plot
convenience and cheese. Cheese as in cheesiness and not the moon itself, though
I have heard it tastes of gorgonzola. For some who watched the 10th
anniversary episode of Power Rangers, Forever Red, you may remember that every
one of the Red Rangers can breathe perfectly fine and stay on the ground on the
moon, where they are fighting a remnant of the Machine Empire from Power
Rangers Zeo. Apparently breathing and gravity are made possible due to the
advancement of science and space magic, aka bullshit. There is such a thing as
terraforming guys, why don't you use that?
Another example of space is when in Power Rangers Lost
Galaxy (also I suppose good interpretation of the phrase: the cake is a lie),
the Red Ranger's brother Mike, who has the Magna Defender powers, sacrifices
them to get their ship Terra Venture out of said galaxy. Red Ranger Leo finds
him floating in space, unmorphed, and still alive. You figure that one out.
The way I see this is difficult. Yes, the logic in space is
stupid and can be grating to little kids and insult their own intelligence in a
way because even they might know that no one can breathe in space. But I
suppose in a way, all those problems really shouldn't be taken so seriously.
Power Rangers is for kids or anyone who enjoys the show as a guilty pleasure or
otherwise. It's a fun free-for all to say the least. Unless it's any of the
Power Rangers from Disney in which I might just ignore it.
I has gravity?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And here's the final section of this anniversary blog:
Different events and whatnot from backstage of Power Rangers.
14)
Ninja Ultrazord and Shogun Ultrazord! They won't
know the difference!
Ok, so you remember the original Ultrazord yes? The original
combination of the Megazord, Dragonzord and Titanus (who is probably also not
dead, but there you go) into a massive dinosaur tank. It trundles along like nobody's business,
blows such evil villains in the city centre and leaving them in the dust for
others to clean up.
Don't mind me, just off to the shops
It's worth remembering that Titanus made few comebacks in
Season 3 of Mighty Morphin, and the Rangers combined it with the Ninja Megazord
and the Shogun Megazord, to create both the Ninja Ultrazord and the Shogun
Ultrazord....with horrible special effects and not much taken with it all!
No words
How did they do it? Using dark magic from Rita Repulsa herself,
they put the toys altogether, added the lightning effects themselves and put a
really really bad green screen explosion in the back. You probably didn't see
it as a kid, but if you watch it now I guarantee you will wince in agony from
the sight.
It would be remiss if I didn't mention this. To be fair,
Zyuranger did the same thing. If you watch the Ultrazord formation and look
closely, they do use the toys as well. But the main difference their effects
are WAY better compared to the American version. The practical way they're
achieved is immensely well done, with the explosions good, the lighting good,
everything is good. The Ninja Ultrazord isn't badly done, but blatantly seeing
it's the toys can be distracting.
The Shogun Ultrazord formation is just plain horrible. You
can obviously tell it's the toys because of one little minute detail they
forgot about. In the TV show, the left arm of the Shogun Megazord is white. In
the formation sequence, it is a very bright pink. Whoops. What doesn't help I
think is the sword the toy is holding as well. It hurts the visual aesthetic badly
and shows how little care went into these formations. Boo to you person who
thought this up. Needs more thinking!
15)
From Power Rangers Zeo to Family Guy....
Why that sentence? Well, here's a picture of Queen Machina.
And here's the woman who voiced her.
That is Alex Borstein, the woman who also voices this
character.
Yep, Lois Griffin is the Queen of the Evil Machine Empire in
Power Rangers. I was pretty surprised when I read about this. One of the bigger
surprises for me while compiling this list actually. What can I say about this
really? Well, if someone can dub over some of the Family Guy dialogue over
Power Rangers Zeo and link it me, hope I laugh!
I am not a sideshow attraction, at least not any more....
16)
And the White Ranger is.....that guy from VR
Troopers?
In Mighty Morphin, we saw how Tommy was slowly drained of
the Dragon Ranger Powers, and eventually lost them completely, therefore having
to leave the group. But Zordon and Alpha 5 had a plan up their tubes and
circuitry, making a new costume and forging a new Power Coin for Tommy, turning
him into the new White Tiger Ranger and able to splice him in again with
Japanese stock footage. Huzzah!....except Tommy apparently wasn't supposed to
come back. Why?
Well, there was another show being developed by Saban, and conveniently
also using Japanese stock footage called VR Troopers. This was a show I
followed quite immensely along with Power Rangers, and have some nostalgic
memories of. The story followed two guys and a girl as they used Virtual Reality
powers to defend both Earth and the Virtual world from the usual despot of
evil, Grimlord and his multiple hordes of creatures. Unlike Power Rangers and
Masked Rider, VR Troopers used in its run THREE Japanese series as stock
footage for the action scenes. It's absolutely bonkers when you think about it!
(If you're curious where from, the series in question is Metal Heroes. Look it
up on Wikipedia, it's your best bet to start)
Jason David Frank, who played Tommy in Power Rangers, was
part of a pilot for VR Troopers called Cybertron which used one Japanese series
as footage, and was meant to be his TV vehicle. The man in question to be the next Power
Ranger was Brad Hawkins.
He was the one due to take the White Ranger Powers and
probably become the new leader of the team.
But unfortunately for him, the kid fanbase had other ideas.
They kidnapped Hawkins and went straight to Tommy and begged him to come
back....honest! Nah they didn't, though it would've been funnier. They were
upset to see Tommy leave the series since of course the awesome factor was always
on his side, and the parents called Saban to say that they were disappointed at
him going. So Saban decided to switch the characters around, keeping Jason
David Frank on Power Rangers and Brad Hawkins going off to do VR Troopers.
This was a brilliant move by the production. No offence to
Brad Hawkins, I remember him not being
bad in his role as Ryan. I enjoyed him in VR Troopers a great deal and
thought he did a good job. But Tommy was a popular staple of the series, and
bringing him back seemed the logical choice. Audiences were familiar with him,
kids adored him, he was a good martial artist, he just had the goods. Brad was
an unknown at that point, and bringing him in might not have worked so
brilliantly. It would've been a different series with him running about the
place, atmospherically and nostalgically.
Jason David Frank, a good choice for everything!
17)
What's filmed in New Zealand, doesn't stay in
New Zealand.
In 2001 after eight years of producing Power Rangers, Saban
Entertainment was brought out by Disney. And with it, the Power Rangers
franchise was under new management. It was an end of an era. Power Rangers Wild
Force was the last series to be filmed primarily in California, since
pre-production on it had started in earnest before Disney completed the
buy-out. After the series wrapped up with the aptly named 'The End of the Power
Rangers', Disney moved the production of the franchise very far southwards, all
the way to New Zealand.
Maybe some New Zealand fans of Power Rangers would have been
happy to see production move there. But there was one little snag....Power
Rangers was banned in New Zealand.
Yes we may be fantasy too, but we have so much more credibility!
In 1994, the New Zealand Broadcasting Standards Authority had
calls in from parents complaining that the show was too violent, showing that
apparently the idea of violence is the way forward and kids would have
displayed an increase level of aggressive behaviour from watching the show.
Well that explains why the New Zealand Rugby Union team is good at everything.
They must see their opponents as evil demonic monsters that must be destroyed.
Such influences Power Rangers has on people!
The BSA upheld the complaints and Power Rangers was
effectively cancelled, disappearing from the airwaves and leaving the future generation
of New Zealand Rugby players very angry, using their new found aggression to
good use. Power Rangers was non-existent in any form until production moved and
was started in 2003 for Disney's second series, Ninja Storm. Power Rangers
lasted in the country until it was announced in 2009 that the show would be
cancelled in lieu of re-showing the original series (with the addition the most
ridiculous use of 60s Batman style graphics ever. Seriously, I don't like it. I
hope many older fans agree with me).
In 2011, it has been said that with Power Rangers Samurai
running, the ban has been lifted and the show is being played again. But as
such I cannot find any proper information apart from OMG facts, so that needs
some clarification. If it is running again, I can only hope England can kick
New Zealand's arse in the future during rugby. Come on England!
And speaking of the Disney series.....
18)
Producer likes to change the history books and
destroy the canon.....possibly.
With Disney at the helm of Power Rangers they released at
least eight seasons under their belt: Wild Force, Ninja Storm, Dino Thunder,
SPD, Mystic Force, Operation Overdrive, Jungle Fury and RPM. And that was all
over a period of over eight years. Then for fianancial reasons, the series was
dropped in 2009, in favour of.....what I've just mentioned above. But luckily
for fans, Saban Brands (a rebrand of Saban Entertainment) brought back the
franchise and immediately set about making a new series.
One man who was involved with the series right from the
start is Jonathan Tzachor, who has produced and directed the series from Mighty
Morphin to Wild Force, taking a hiatus from the series when Disney was in
charge, than coming back at the start of Samurai. Apparently he loves the
original Sentai shows so much, he borrows some of the storylines from those
shows and even brought in some of the show's directors to help with Power
Rangers. Mind you, some of the directors don't even speak English which didn't
exactly help.
From 2011, there have been some rumours about Tzachor's
views on the Disney helmed series. From what I can gather, not only possibly
does he dislike the series, but he also considers nothing from those eight
seasons to be part of the official canon.
Now, that is quite odd. I'll admit from what I've watched,
the Disney era isn't great at all. But to just remove them completely from the
official canon, just beggars belief. It's kind of like rebooting a film series
like what I talked in my horror film article. You can ignore the past films all
you want, but they still exist and not going to go away. Especially if they're
on Netflix.
But I think Tzachor has already attempted to do this in
Power Rangers Samurai. In a crossover with the past RPM series, that Red Ranger
crossed over dimensions to enter into the Samurai world, which if we are to
assume Tzachor attempted to change continuity, means that all the Disney era
took place in another time space.
What should be remembered is that Tzachor has not confirmed
his ideology to be true at all. So we have to take his view with a pinch of
salt. And looking at some pictures for the up-coming Super Megaforce series, it
doesn't help nail down the rumours. In one, you can see some of the Disney era
Rangers in line with the original Saban rangers, and that could either mean
they still part of continuity or Tzachor using another dimension idea. Nothing
is confirmed or proven true yet. If it were to be true, it would be a sad thing
because a good deal of history is just being wiped off for no reason really,
other than this man's dislike for Disney led products. It's probably something that
SHOULDN'T be done.
That's my money and I'm sticking to it.
19)
Power Rangers X-Factor!
I wonder if some random band could do the Power Rangers them
on the X-Factor? That'll probably be the only reason to watch the show. And
Simon Cowell could help them build a career just doing show tunes. Considering
he produced the Power Rangers theme, that could make-wait what? Seriously? No
fucking way! (looks up on internet).....well fuck me.
Believe it or not (it's true), Cowell did produce and
release the theme song in his younger days before he became well known around
the world for releasing the best music ever in the world. I say that of my own
accord, and am most certainly not being held at gunpoint at all. Honest!
Smelling how unbelievably popular the show was, he commissioned a single to be
released. It became a hit, apparently reaching Number 3 in the UK singles
charts (erm...how?) and selling 250,000 units. That last part made sense.
What else can you say about that? Except for the fact that
Simon Cowell had some part in your childhood and now in your adult life too.
He's everywhere!
Yes I am your God. I also made Telebubbies in my sleep.
20)
A.....pretty serious issue
Wow, this is probably going to end on a depressing note. So
unlike Power Rangers, but here we go.
It concerns David Yost, who played the original Blue Ranger
Billy in Mighty Morphin. He was one of the longest serving cast members on the
show, lasting from the very first episode Day of the Dumpster to the middle of
Power Rangers Zeo, where he walked out from the set. The character itself
lasted til the end with use of an old guy and voice-over from someone who
didn't sound a thing like him. So why did Yost walk off the set? At first,
rumours went around that he was becoming difficult to work and holding out for
extra pay. When that didn't happen he walked off.
But in 2010, Yost had an interview with No Pink Spandex and
dropped a pretty big bomb: He was gay, and had been abused by members of the
cast and crew.
I had watched the interview and what Yost says is actually
startling. What he says is that after a good deal of thinking for a week, he
decided to walk off after being called a faggot one too many times. It also
doesn't help that he had heard that some of his co-stars had been called into
producer's offices and questioned about his sexuality. Yost says it was a
humiliating experience. I think I would feel humiliated too, if that happened
to me.
One of the producers had come out saying that Yost had not
left because of the homophobia on set, instead saying it was the pay and that
he was a pain in the ass to work with. But it's just left at that, and Saban
Entertainment have made no comment regarding either man's words. Also it should
be noted that said producer had come onto the series at the start of Zeo. And
the particular interview was on TMZ. Nuff said.
So who is the right party? While there hasn't been an actual
official confirmation, it does highlight the possibility of discrimination in
the workplace. How could such a workplace allow for such abuse of one person's
type of attraction I don't know. And to be humiliated by the producers and
perhaps some of his co-workers must have been hurtful, especially when it's
people you've worked with for quite a while.
I support David Yost in this argument because it's just not
right to be hurt and abused like that in that environment. It must have been a
horrible feeling to be pushed down like that and repeatedly called a faggot
every day until you just simply can't take it anymore.
I won't post the rest of Yost's interview on here because
simply I think you should watch it for yourselves. It's quite heart-aching and
sad to hear the story of what happened to hear about his life after he left the
show. Seriously, watch the interview and see Yost go into a very dark past.
--------------------------------------------------------
So....20 years of Power Rangers. 20 bits of information to
keep you enlightened about what pretty much is an historic landmark. What does
it say about a 20 minute -half an hour toy commercial from your nostalgic days?
It is a huge achievement worldwide, especially for a kids show.
If you think about it, most of those kid shows don't last
very long at all. A year at the least, possibly five years max. But Power Rangers
has survived them all and continues to be popular amongst children and adults
alike. There's just something ridiculously enjoyable for people to like. And I
admit I still have a fondness for the series overall. I don't watch it nowadays
of course, not since Wild Force nearly 11 years ago. But it's something I still
enjoy to an extent, so much that I will admit I had brought a couple of the
original Megazords from the Mighty Morphin days. (Dino Megazord, Dragonzord,
Ninja Megazord and Falconzord in just you're wondering).
I think the old beast still has a bit of fuel in the tank,
considering how the series has lasted with the Super Sentai footage being used.
So I wonder how long Power Rangers can still go on for? Will it reach its own
25th anniversary? And will I do another Randomizer article when it
arrives?
All those questions are best left for the future guys and
girls. For now, let us have a celebratory drink for the 20th year
milestone of Power Rangers.
Power Rangers forever!
------------------------------------------------------
That's it for this week! Til next fortnight, this is the
Randomizer signing out. May the power protect you.
