The Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers were an incredibly important staple of my childhood. My mum fought crowds to make sure I had the toys for Christmas one year, made my brother and I Halloween costumes of them, and so much more. And I was far from the only kid absolutely obsessed with them. Power Rangers Madness was everywhere in the early 90s. With the latest film reboot in the works, why don't we take a moment to look back at the wild history of these teens with attitude!
1. It's based on a Japanese series called
Super Sentai that began in 1975. The American version we saw was based on the Dinosaur Corps of the Beast Rangers, which was the 16th version of the show.
We were behind the times then, but we're on the 20th Power Rangers series now.
2. The action sequences were almost exclusively from the Japanese version of the show. They synched up their plots to the Japanese sequences.
So the American actors very rarely actually wore the Power Ranger outfits.
3. Haim Saban, on a trip to Japan to meet with animators, discovered the show Super Sentai and decided they had to make use of this property. It took him seven years to make this a reality and sell the idea in America to Fox.
For some reason, no one wanted to take dinosaur robots and people in spandex seriously.
4. The "teenagers with attitude" were found through open casting calls. After being narrowed down from thousands of applicants, they were separated into 6 groups of 5. The actors we know today were all grouped together, and the rest is history.
With one tiny exception that is.
5. The Yellow Ranger was actually played by a different person in the pilot episode, Audri DuBois. The martial artist had impressive skills, but was let go after the pilot after asking for more money.
It does seem a bit bold to ask for a raise after your first shift, but I may be missing context.
6. Amy Jo Johnson had sold all of her possessions and was about to move out of L.A. when she got the part as Kimberly Ann Hart, the Pink Ranger.
It's a good thing she didn't give up on her acting dreams.
7. Bryan Cranston's history with the series began long before he was cast as Zordon in the reboot. He was the voice of two monsters throughout the series.
He was also on good terms with Haim Saban, and inspired the name of the Blue Ranger, Billy Cranston.
8. The original voice actress for Rita in English (they simply dubbed over her Japanese footage) Barbara Goodson, was fired for not giving a 'witchy' enough performance. However, she nailed the audition to find someone to replace her, and so we ended up with the scratchy voice we all love.
Because really, there's nothing quite like her.
9. Tommy, the Green Ranger, as played by Jason David Frank, was only supposed to be around for a few episodes, but was such a massive fan favorite that he became a permanent fixture of the show.
He appeared in a total of 217 episodes between Green and White Ranger appearances.
10. For the fighting sequences the English actors did get to do, they did most of the choreography themselves the day of. Walter Jones, who played Zack, revealed the process was usually something like "do something cool with that bench" and he'd have 30 minutes prep.
It's a good thing all the cast were martial artists and gymnasts.
11. The actors similarly did almost all of their own stunts. Since the show was non-union, they needed to do most of them, while wearing the helmets that had 3 holes in them to breathe.
Apparently after almost suffocating on one occasion, they then got stunt doubles.
12. Despite all of this, and actually again because they were non-union, the actors were actually paid very little despite how huge a success the show was. Amy Jo Johnson revealed in an interview it was as low as $600/week.
This is why half of the cast left and were replaced part way through the series.
13. David Fielding, the actor who played Zordon, was only filmed once. The shimmery giant head was his, but the reason it never truly synched up to his future lines were because they kept reusing the images filmed that first day.
All the rest of his time playing Zordon was via microphone in the recording studio.
14. Ron Wasserman composed the Power Rangers theme song in 2 hours with a rough cut of the credits and his only instructions being to use the word 'Go' because of the great success of the Inspector Gadget theme song.
It is a truly rockin' theme song for the ages, so mission accomplished Ron.
15. The Yellow Ranger was actually a man in the Japanese version of the show. This is why the Pink Ranger's outfit features a skirt, but the Yellow Ranger's does not.
To really send the point home, his name is Boy.
16. The show was originally going to be called, unsurprisingly, Dino Rangers. However, they changed the title to Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers shortly after they began filming.
I definitely feel like this title had much better staying power throughout the ages.
It's Morphin' time!
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