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Here's some interesting ranger facts I picked up on Wikipedia:

*In the original Zyuranger series from which most of the action scenes were recycled, Rita was known as Bandora, Goldar was known as Gryffidor, and Scorpina was known as Laimie. Bandora blamed the rangers for the death of her son and tried to take revenge by selling her soul to Great Satan (Lokar the floating head). Gryffidor and Laimie were married, and at the end of the series Laimie gave birth to their child.

*The actors who played Zordon, Trini and the original Rita Repulsa are all dead. The actor who played Zordon died of a heart attack in 2000, Thuy Trang (Trini) was killed in a car accident in 2001, and Machkiko Soga, who played Bandora among many other sentai villans, died of pancreatic cancer in 2006.

*The Green Ranger was never supposed to return after losing his powers the first time; instead, Jason David Frank was intended to star in VR Troopers.

*An alternate version of the first season finale was shot, which had the rangers sealing Rita and the others back up in the space dumpster, in case the show did not catch on. This would have mirrored the Zyuranger finale (Unlike American shows which try to stay on for as long as possible, super sentai shows are only intended to last a couple of seasons and then start over again).

*The first two major super sentai series, back in the seventies, were loosely based on the marvel superheroes Spiderman and Captain America, respectively (while spiderman, for the most part, resembled Stan Lee's creation, Captain America was changed to a team of five different superheroes, each representing a different country). Both series followed the "one monster a week/giant robot" formula.

*The actor who voiced Lord Zedd, Ed Neill, is actually better known for his role as the crazed hitchhiker in the original "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (1974).

*The Yellow Ranger (in case it wasnt obvious enough) in the Zyuranger series was male; this is why Trini's costume did not include a skirt like Kim's and why her breasts seemed to disappear after she morphed.

OK...big confession time. I...sob...used to watch the Power Rangers in the early 90's all the time...in fact...I am the reason my little(at the time) sons got hooked on them! As Lou Costello once sed-" I'm a baaaad man." The first Power Ranger movie is STILL hiding away in my collection! There! I sed it! Ahh..I feel better now!

I loathed the Power Rangers.  I mean in the early 90's there was a renaissance of sorts in kids shows.  Animaniacs, Batman: The Animated Series, etc.   My sister and I used to watch those shows religiously.  Then this cheezy-a$$ show came along called Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.  We watched the first episode and were blown away by several things.  The bad dubbing and horrible voice of the main villain.  The actors were clearly not the same actors doing the martial arts action stuff.  "Morphing" was (at the time) a cool, new special computer effect (see: Michael Jackson's "Black or White" video).  At no time did the characters "morph".  (Plus I saw the show as a live action Voltron rip-off...which it is)

I thought the show was so bad, it wouldn't last long.  Much to my chagrin, it took off and the rest as you know is history.  I think Fox (in my area) used to show two Batman episodes back-to-back.  Then when the freakin' Power Rangers came along.  It was two episodes of that garbage and one Batman show.   :hatred:

Mind you, I have a brother 10 years younger than me.  And around the early 90's he was around 6 or 7. When he first saw Power Rangers, that was it.  What's worse than having to watch 30 minutes of crappy acting and crappy "fighting" from the Megazord, is the bombardment of that same sh!t from your little brother.  Jumping around and yelling like a kid off Ritalin.  The kid even made weapons to look like those of the show.  And dragged me to see both movies.  The first was ok; the only thing that saved it was the effects.  The second was straight garbage.  I'm so glad he grew out of that crap.  That show NEEDS to be canceled, please!  Let's start a petition,  or steal their tapes something.



You have no soul, Merchant.

I never watched this show. It just looked beyond idiotic, but then again I'm sure adults thought the same of the imported shows I watched as a kid: Spectreman, Johnny Sokko, Space Giants and the like.

Back before the first Power Rangers movie came out, I went to see some film in the theater. I forget what it was, but there were a lot of kids in the audience. Before the movie they showed a teaser trailer for the Power Rangers and you could hear the collective gasp of awe and excitement that sounded from all those kids.

There was one other thing I heard, but I think this one was a rumor.  When it first came out on tv, it was believed that the casting for the show (particurly the teenager/rangers themselves) was kind of racist or it kind of profiled them.  Here's how it was broken down:

Red Ranger = Redneck (white)
Yellow Ranger = Asian
Black Ranger = Afro-American
Pink Ranger = a female (basically)
Blue Ranger = Blue eyed devil (also white)

Wasn't there some thing about one of the Power Rangers being in porn, and another up for murder charges?  I forget these things though...

The one good thing about the Power Rangers movie is that it was filmed in Australia, and I've met the guys who did special effects/stunts for it [the explosions etc] and they were really nice, really fun group of people [who most also worked on Farscape as well]

There's a rumor that Amy Jo Johnson (Pink Ranger) did a soft-porn movie, but I've never actually seen it.

If I remember correctly, a minor actor on the show was involved in a double murder and theft of a luxury yacht.  After going to sea with the owners, they (two or three people were involved in the murder) subdued the owners and then strapped them to an anchor and tossed them overboard.

I only found this, but think he was convicted:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article556250.ece

Jason David Frank, the original Green Ranger, was in a porn film. (Amy Jo Jonson did star in a b-movie called Infested, with Zach Gallihan, and I think there was some nudity in that) There was, however, a controversy over some internet fan fiction, in which Lord Zedd and a new monster capture and repeatedly rape the Pink Ranger. The graphic story caused major debate about internet censorship.


Not true. The japanese versions of both shows were made by the same company (Toei/Bandai) and were made in basically the same way, with the original footage bastardized into an American version. The live action sentai series started back in the 60's, while the animated spinoffs came out in the 80's. (Incidentally, an American release of a live action Voltron movie is due out in 2008).

Dude, I totally watched power rangers as a young'un. Hey, I was born in 86, it was cool for my age in the 90's. Looking back, it makes me want to retch, but there you go.

And I did notice the racist casting. Muahaha. My brother and I and our friend used to play power rangers. They fought over who got to be the Red Ranger (the green didn't exist yet), and I got to be a saber tooth tiger with wings. Wow. Memories.

We stopped watching by the end of like, the second season before going on to play ninja turtles or something else inherently cooler.

Cath!!!  Great avatar!   :bouncegiggle:

"We take our mutilations serious around these parts"  :wink:

HaHa! I've heard that more than once before!  :bouncegiggle:

Dont listen to them, Merchant, they are nonbelievers and will never be able to experience the true glory of the MMPR experience; pity them, its their own loss.

It broke my heart to find out the original Yellow Ranger died.  I was looking for people who I sharde a birthday with on IMDb, and found out she was killed in a car accident.

I used to watch the show back in the day.  I didn't think the show used recycled action scenes at the time.   But now that you mention it, I do remember the voices didn't always sync up with characters.  If all of the action scenes were recycled it must have been hard to work the plot around a preset ending.

There was a very attractive girl that played on the Power Rangers back in the day.  Saw some pictures of her in a bikini but I can't remember what her name was.  She was quite a looker.

I used to watch this when I was younger as well...and I've also seen the original Japanese versions of a lot of the shows.  Even as a 20-something now, I have to say the storyline of the original Zyuranger was much more elaborate than the original Power Rangers...especially when it comes to the Green ranger. 

See, in Zyuranger, all the rangers are representative royalty from different kingdoms, that existed in prehistoric times without leaving evidence they existed (long story).  Geki, the red ranger, is the representative prince of the Yamato Clan.  But he later discovers that he had an older brother, named Burai. 

See, when the kingdoms existed, a warrior called the black knight had offended the king of the Yamato clan, and as punishment, was forced to give up his infant son.  That infant was Geki, who was adopted into the royal family.  The Black Knight relented at the time, but later on rebelled against the king.  This led to the king killing the the knight in front of his eldest son, Burai.  After an emotional goodbye, Burai swears revenge against the Yamato royalty, including Geki, who he refuses to recognize as his brother from then on.  He trained day after day, and eventually found a way to preserve himself for the present day, just like the other rangers.  He also obtained his own powers, becoming the  Dragonranger, or the Green Ranger, as we know him. 

Like in the American version, Burai reconciles with everyone, and becomes part of the team.  But unlike the American version, Burai does not lose his green ranger powers...he dies, sacrificing himself for another.  That's the big thing that separates the Japanese versions of these shows with the American versions.  There's an actual danger of death, and it's happened, more than once on multiple shows.   

I watched Power Rangers for quite a few years.  From it's debut until early 1999.  At about that time, they pretty much finished up 6 years worth of storylines by killing Zordon (the big floating head.)  I still watch it from time to time.

It was a bad show, but that gave it it's appeal.  They tried to use the Japanese footage. 

Getting just slightly off topic...some of you may remember an awful PR copycat show called VR Troopers...I'd forgotten about it, until I discovered one of the shows they took footage from...a series from 1987 called Metalder (They also borrowed from another show called Speilban at the same time.)

Metalder was a unique series in the japanese live action genre.  It only lasted 39 episodes, because kids found it too dark and serious much of the time.  It did find a following among adults in Japan, though. 

Here's one of the fight scenes from Metalder...check out the violent and brutal ways in which the hero takes out this enemy robot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYyIT3Mrow8

LOL!  I remember VR Troopers...but I'll do you one better.  Remember the "Big Bad Beetleborgs"?  That was the crappiest of the Power Ranger clones (not that "Rangers" were any good to begin with).  Bettleborgs was so bad it was sort of good...Or had the twisted appeal of slowing down to check out a car accident on the highway.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXGGT1YuHMI

Dear god, I was trying to forget about the Beetleborgs...thank you for bringing that back to my head, lol.

That one used footage taken from a Japanese series called B-fighter.  In B-fighter, the heroes were all adults, and the female was actually pretty decent looking.  Beetleborgs was an even bigger slap in the face to the original genre than VR Troopers, I think. 

Damn you, Saban!

BeetleBorgs was bad, but not the worst.

The worst copycat of Power Rangers was a little show called "Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters From Beverly Hills' that used to air on USA Network.  It was four teenagers (2 guys, 2 Girls) who would go into the closet of a coffee shop and be transported to their command center.  They would stand on these things and yell out the name of a constellation, like "Taurus" or "Apollo" and would promptly grow to be Godzilla size proportions.

No 'zords' or anything on this show.  Plus the best part was their 'mentor'.  BeetleBorgs had Flabber, Power Rangers had a giant head named Zordon.  On this show, it was a blobby brain thing.  Not even an actor.   Just a ball of slime voiced by Glenn Shadix.