Monday, December 8, 2008

Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

This week I will address Power Rangers for two reasons. One, I did NOT realize that this show was still on! And two, because with the holiday season upon us, I am reminded of the year where the Power Rangers action figures were the hot item. Everyone was sold out, and there were tramplings at the local Toys R Us. My brother received two from an unknown source - they just showed up wrapped on our doorstep (with other toys we probably received from being underprivileged or something similar). While I was old enough to not get captured by the pop culture hit, both my brother and sister were big fans of the show, and definitely ended up with a ton of merchandise from Saban/Bandai. When my sister was four or five, my mother made her a spectacular Pink Power Ranger costume. She cut up my pink parachute pants and windbreaker to make it, but it was much better than the crappy plastic suits that were being sold at Wal*Mart at the time.

Anyway, the show began in August 1993, with movies in 1995 and 1997. The characters are mostly known by the color of his or her costume, which often dominated his or her wardrobe, as well. Red (Jason, T-Rex), Blue (Billy, Triceratops), Yellow (Trini, Saber-Toothed Tiger), Pink (Kimberly, Pterodactyl), and Black (Zack, Mastadon) were the basics. Tommy, the Green Ranger, with a Dragonzord, entered in a 5-episode arc during the first season (and later became the White Ranger). They can't use their powers for personal gain and can't reveal their identities to the general public. If you break the rules, you lose your powers. Zordon and Alpha 5 were the good guys, and Rita Repulsa and Lord Zedd were the bad guys. The actors came and went like it was nothing, although a few have remained much longer than the others.

The show is based on the Japanese Super Sentai series, and many of the fight sequences have been dubbed. Because of this, the writers of the American series had to write storylines to fit those scenes. Over the course of 15 seasons, there have actually been 13 separate series! However, if you missed the in-between seasons (like I did), there's not much hope of seeing them on television... reruns are rare because the show does not meet FCC regulations on educational content in Children's Shows.

Kimberly was probably my favorite, mostly for her gymnastic prowess. The actress has been in several other things, and is now a singer. My brother was a Tommy fan, and my sister flipped her allegiance on and off from Kimberly to Trini. What is of note is that my next-door neighbor was really into martial arts, and pretty much had the kids in the hood convinced that he was the green/white power ranger. Haha, it stil makes me laugh to think about.

It won't let me embed today's clip, but here you can see a great visual history of the first three seasons. It shows the bad guys, the characters, the morphing process, and how the Dinozoids change and form the Megazoid.
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1 comment:

Rains said...

I like this show because of its characters & its storyline. All characters are very good & they perform very well in all episodes. I Watch Power Rangers Episodes online for free with full length & now I have a great collection of all episodes!!!