In the of 1993 a new TV series graced american mornings on FOX kids, this fresh product was titled Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. This franchise was produced by Haim Saban and Shuki Levy. This new show was the first of its kind in the USA but in Japan it had been around since the 70's under the label Super Sentai.
Super Sentai stands for Super task force (or Squadron pending on the interpretation), this Japanese TV series that consisted a five person team team of colourful superheroes fighting against evil forces that threaten mankind, each episode consisted of the team fighting a monster with powers that have either technological or magical origins.
The first known incarnation of the Super Sentai series was Himitsu Sentai Goranger and it was produced by Toei Co., and directed by Shotaro Ishinomori who was well known for his work with Marvel Comics and the 70's Spider man TV show.
To this day the Super Sentai franchise has been continuing for over 38 different seasons introducing vehicles and giant mechanical machines that could form together to fight giant monsters, this of course created large amounts of merchandise for children (and hardcore nerds) and became a huge part of Japanese pop culture.
When Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger the thirteenth Super Sentai series was aired in Japan, a US TV production studio owned by Haim Saban saw how effective the series had been in Japan and want to replicate that in the West. Saban basically worked a deal with Toei Co. that allowed him to use footage and likeness from Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger and accompany it with american actors and original sets and locations, and he incorporated the Japanese Super Sentai footage to display the fighting and explosions and titled it the Might Morphin Power Rangers.
What Saban did was successfully create a TV show for kids that had fighting, violence, monsters, explosions, giant robots. The show appealed to every type of child audience thanks to it varied style and cast. Like Japan the Power Rangers franchise created huge amounts of merchandise, this included toy Zords that you could put together to make a Megazord, kids costumes, handheld morphers and Marvel Comics even published a comic series to promote the show.
The Power Rangers programme was going so well they were able to increase their budget and actually buy the original costumes from the Super Sentai and use them in scenes featuring the american actors. Like all successful products it was heavily criticised for its casting choice, it was well known that the Black Power Ranger was of African descent and the Yellow Power Ranger was of Asian descent. This ethnic issued was a simply casting accident and was never meant to be stereotypical, either way this issue was resolved after the Yellow, Black and Red Power Rangers were recast in the third season, and soon after Thuy Trang who played the Yellow Power Ranger died in a car accident.
Power Ranger was infamous for basic story writing, the whole concept was far fetched but at the end of the day the show was targeted towards children. The series follows five teenagers (more like five twenty year old martial art experts) that have been bestowed powers from a spectral being called Zordon who is assisted by a robot called Alpha 5, these powers came from what is known the Power Ranger universe as the Morphing Grid, a sub reality which contains infinite source power and only power morphers can draw power from it.
With this limitless power they can transform into an elite fighting force, utilise specialised weaponry and call upon the mighty robots called Zords (usually they're animal themed, pending on the series). They use these powers to fight Rita Repulsa a witch that became so powerful she had to buried on the moon to keep the earth safe. Each episode followed a similar pattern, everything starts normal then Repulsa creates a monster that disrupts the normality and then the power rangers fight the monster and defeat it, and learn a valuable lesson in the end.
It wasn't until they wrote in an evil sixth ranger that a sub plot would begin to form, this new ranger was the Green Power Ranger that commanded the power of the Dragon zord, he became the first real threat to the Power Rangers. This new plot would develop in a five episode special titled Green with evil, so far we had never seen the rangers actually lose but the green ranger single handedly defeats them all. As the plot progressed it was revealed that the Green Power Ranger is originally good person but has been manipulated by Rita Repulsa and her dark magic, as soon as the hold Repulsa had on the Green Ranger is destroyed, he became a force for good again and joined the other rangers in the war to defeat Repulsa.
The Green with evil story arc would propel Jason David Frank, the actor of the green ranger into being one of the core members of the Power Rangers and basically the most popular of the rangers in and out of the show. JDF would go on to become the White Power Ranger for the Mighty Morphin series, two of the Red Rangers for the Zeo series and Turbo series and the Black Power Ranger for the Dino Thunder series. Jason David Frank is one of the few Power Ranger actors that embraced the role and is proud of it, he now own his own martial art dojo and competes in Mixed Martial Arts. JDF basically has the right to say he made the Power Rangers cool to watch, others argue he's just sponging off the fame of the show and the other actors. Either way you look at it Jason David Frank was a huge contribution to the shows popularity.
After the Power Rangers in Space series, non of the original cast would appear regularly every again. The last Power Ranger series to be made by Saban before it was bought by Disney was Power Rangers: Time Force. This series was special to me simply because it was the first and last Power Ranger series that would have a strong storyline and characters that had depth and they could actually act.
The concept of Power Rangers: Time Force like the name implies involves time travel and some Back to the Future thrown in their. The series starts out in the future and the power rangers are peace keeping force that works for the current government, they're are dispatched to transport a mutant super criminal called Ransik to a cryo prison but he escapes with help from his daughter. This event leads the Time Force Red ranger to fight Ransik in single combat and for the first time ever the red ranger is killed in action. Seeing a ranger beaten in battle is bad enough but to actually kill one off was unheard of at this point in the Power Rangers universe, to make things worse this all took place in the first episode (that's one traumatic morning). The second episode of the series involved Ransik plotting to go back in time to find and kill the original Time Force ranger and thus the rangers would seas to exist in the future and the Time Force would never be formed, the rest of the Power Rangers decide they will follow Ransik and stop him, but with a red ranger they needed to find a new one in the past.
In the past which was present day for the viewers, they meet Wesley Collins the beginning of the Time Force red ranger bloodline and draft him into becoming their new leader, this created a perfect reluctant hero storyline that they played out well for while until he became a leading character whilst also hinting a romantic angle with the pink ranger. Half way through the series was its discovered that Ransik was actually a normal man who was experimented on by the Government that the Time Force worked for, this actually showed that Ransik's hatred towards the Time Force is actually justified and it was Wesley's father who would create the new corrupt
government.
Like all Power rangers series they introduced a sixth ranger, this ranger was called the Quantum Ranger, unlike the other rangers he didn't want to arrest Ransik but instead wanted to straight up kill him, this led to the Red Ranger fighting the Quantum ranger. In this series the Quantum Ranger never became a regular member of the team, he cropped occasion but this was down to budget cuts and lack of Japanese Super Sentai footage, even though it wasn't intentional the lack of sixth ranger added more mystique to the character and made his appearances that more special, they even had an entire episode dedicated to the sixth ranger, where he went one on one with a mutant.
They ended the series with Ransik trying to kill Wesley's father and launch a mass assault on the city he lives in, the Rangers obviously plan intervene but they're recalled back their time leaving Red Ranger to fight an army but the Quantum ranger comes to his aid. The rangers in the future find out they were recalled because they Government feared they would change the future so they weren't in control, the future rangers escape and go back to the past to have one last battle against Ransik. They obviously win the fight and arrest Ransik but they promise to give him a fair trial in the future and they will plead against the government with him. The last episode ends with the future rangers going back to their time leaving the Red ranger and Quantum ranger to make sure the corrupt Government is never formed and a just Time Force can be created.
Power Rangers: Time Force was the first series that showed the colourful heroes in a more serious atmosphere, it was the first real step in the right direction for Saban's Power Rangers but unfortunately Disney bought the rights to the franchise and used the same old formula, watered down story lines, bad CGI for the Zords and they focused completely on merchandise. Disney would produce eight seasons of Power Rangers until 2010 when Saban finally bought the right back, but sadly the damage was done so far all they been able to do is homage and try to recreate the magic the original seasons had.
Its amazing how far the Power Rangers franchise has gone, let alone the success with the Super Sentai franchise in Japan. The show has been going for more than 30 years and the Super Sentai has been running for 50 years, this celebrated in a special episode called the Legendary War, this featured every Power Ranger in the entire universe fighting alongside the current team of Rangers.
Anyone can argue that the power rangers is just for children but there were time when the TV series showed signs of becoming a legitimate series, the same could be said for Godzilla and Pacific Rim, they were being perceived as cheesy and childish but they ended up being smash hits and with talk of a Power Rangers movie reboot the franchise might get the boost it needs and with the right director and film studio it might just happen.
Super Sentai stands for Super task force (or Squadron pending on the interpretation), this Japanese TV series that consisted a five person team team of colourful superheroes fighting against evil forces that threaten mankind, each episode consisted of the team fighting a monster with powers that have either technological or magical origins. The first known incarnation of the Super Sentai series was Himitsu Sentai Goranger and it was produced by Toei Co., and directed by Shotaro Ishinomori who was well known for his work with Marvel Comics and the 70's Spider man TV show.
To this day the Super Sentai franchise has been continuing for over 38 different seasons introducing vehicles and giant mechanical machines that could form together to fight giant monsters, this of course created large amounts of merchandise for children (and hardcore nerds) and became a huge part of Japanese pop culture.
When Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger the thirteenth Super Sentai series was aired in Japan, a US TV production studio owned by Haim Saban saw how effective the series had been in Japan and want to replicate that in the West. Saban basically worked a deal with Toei Co. that allowed him to use footage and likeness from Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger and accompany it with american actors and original sets and locations, and he incorporated the Japanese Super Sentai footage to display the fighting and explosions and titled it the Might Morphin Power Rangers.
The Power Rangers programme was going so well they were able to increase their budget and actually buy the original costumes from the Super Sentai and use them in scenes featuring the american actors. Like all successful products it was heavily criticised for its casting choice, it was well known that the Black Power Ranger was of African descent and the Yellow Power Ranger was of Asian descent. This ethnic issued was a simply casting accident and was never meant to be stereotypical, either way this issue was resolved after the Yellow, Black and Red Power Rangers were recast in the third season, and soon after Thuy Trang who played the Yellow Power Ranger died in a car accident.
It wasn't until they wrote in an evil sixth ranger that a sub plot would begin to form, this new ranger was the Green Power Ranger that commanded the power of the Dragon zord, he became the first real threat to the Power Rangers. This new plot would develop in a five episode special titled Green with evil, so far we had never seen the rangers actually lose but the green ranger single handedly defeats them all. As the plot progressed it was revealed that the Green Power Ranger is originally good person but has been manipulated by Rita Repulsa and her dark magic, as soon as the hold Repulsa had on the Green Ranger is destroyed, he became a force for good again and joined the other rangers in the war to defeat Repulsa.
The concept of Power Rangers: Time Force like the name implies involves time travel and some Back to the Future thrown in their. The series starts out in the future and the power rangers are peace keeping force that works for the current government, they're are dispatched to transport a mutant super criminal called Ransik to a cryo prison but he escapes with help from his daughter. This event leads the Time Force Red ranger to fight Ransik in single combat and for the first time ever the red ranger is killed in action. Seeing a ranger beaten in battle is bad enough but to actually kill one off was unheard of at this point in the Power Rangers universe, to make things worse this all took place in the first episode (that's one traumatic morning). The second episode of the series involved Ransik plotting to go back in time to find and kill the original Time Force ranger and thus the rangers would seas to exist in the future and the Time Force would never be formed, the rest of the Power Rangers decide they will follow Ransik and stop him, but with a red ranger they needed to find a new one in the past..jpg)
In the past which was present day for the viewers, they meet Wesley Collins the beginning of the Time Force red ranger bloodline and draft him into becoming their new leader, this created a perfect reluctant hero storyline that they played out well for while until he became a leading character whilst also hinting a romantic angle with the pink ranger. Half way through the series was its discovered that Ransik was actually a normal man who was experimented on by the Government that the Time Force worked for, this actually showed that Ransik's hatred towards the Time Force is actually justified and it was Wesley's father who would create the new corrupt government.
Like all Power rangers series they introduced a sixth ranger, this ranger was called the Quantum Ranger, unlike the other rangers he didn't want to arrest Ransik but instead wanted to straight up kill him, this led to the Red Ranger fighting the Quantum ranger. In this series the Quantum Ranger never became a regular member of the team, he cropped occasion but this was down to budget cuts and lack of Japanese Super Sentai footage, even though it wasn't intentional the lack of sixth ranger added more mystique to the character and made his appearances that more special, they even had an entire episode dedicated to the sixth ranger, where he went one on one with a mutant. They ended the series with Ransik trying to kill Wesley's father and launch a mass assault on the city he lives in, the Rangers obviously plan intervene but they're recalled back their time leaving Red Ranger to fight an army but the Quantum ranger comes to his aid. The rangers in the future find out they were recalled because they Government feared they would change the future so they weren't in control, the future rangers escape and go back to the past to have one last battle against Ransik. They obviously win the fight and arrest Ransik but they promise to give him a fair trial in the future and they will plead against the government with him. The last episode ends with the future rangers going back to their time leaving the Red ranger and Quantum ranger to make sure the corrupt Government is never formed and a just Time Force can be created.
Power Rangers: Time Force was the first series that showed the colourful heroes in a more serious atmosphere, it was the first real step in the right direction for Saban's Power Rangers but unfortunately Disney bought the rights to the franchise and used the same old formula, watered down story lines, bad CGI for the Zords and they focused completely on merchandise. Disney would produce eight seasons of Power Rangers until 2010 when Saban finally bought the right back, but sadly the damage was done so far all they been able to do is homage and try to recreate the magic the original seasons had. 
Its amazing how far the Power Rangers franchise has gone, let alone the success with the Super Sentai franchise in Japan. The show has been going for more than 30 years and the Super Sentai has been running for 50 years, this celebrated in a special episode called the Legendary War, this featured every Power Ranger in the entire universe fighting alongside the current team of Rangers.Anyone can argue that the power rangers is just for children but there were time when the TV series showed signs of becoming a legitimate series, the same could be said for Godzilla and Pacific Rim, they were being perceived as cheesy and childish but they ended up being smash hits and with talk of a Power Rangers movie reboot the franchise might get the boost it needs and with the right director and film studio it might just happen.
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