Mighty Morphin' Power Case

In 1992, cartoons ruled children’s Prime time programming. This was especially true at Fox Kids, with shows like Batman: The Animated Series, and Bobby’s World. So, the head of Fox Children’s Network, Margaret Loesch, started looking for something a little sillier, a little campier than the regular toons. She took a meeting with a man named Haim Saban, a cartoon music producer and composer. Saban had an idea for a children’s show that he had been pitching to anyone who would listen for the last eight years. Loesch was the first person to take him seriously.

The show was, “The Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers,” and it would go on to become one of the most popular programs on the network.

Today we are taking a look at the history of The Power Rangers, and the making of the original series that launched the franchise into a phenomenon.

History

Haim Saban first got the idea for the show in 1984, while visiting Japan. While he was in his hotel room, he saw a show about teenagers that fought monsters. The show was “Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger,” and was the 16th installment of the Super Sentai Franchise.
Because the kids wore suits and masks, Saban realized that anyone could be fighting the monsters. He knew that action sequences are normally the most expensive part of shooting a show, and came up with the idea for a program that would use this footage and shoot the rest of the story-line in America
- Saban not only thought that this would be a smart way to make a cheap show, he believed in the project. He knew that the show in Japan was incredibly popular, and that there had never been a similar live-action American show.
  - It must be said however that at the same time in 1984, an animated show had similar visuals and concepts, called Voltron.
- Saban bought the show immediately and brought his concept back to the US to pitch to studios
- As we said in the beginning, eight years went by before the head of Fox Kids, Margaret Loesch, saw something that no one else did.
According to an LA Times Article from 1993, Loesch was the only person at Fox that thought The Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers was a good idea. Her colleagues even asked her what her plan was for damage control once the show would flop.
But, Margaret was struck by the similarities the show had to old-school Godzilla movies.
- Up to that point, everyone that had turned Saban down explained that the show was too cheesy. But this was exactly why Loesch wanted it for Fox. She knew a lot of people loved the old movies with fake-looking monsters, obvious effects, and un-synced lip dubbing. There was something classic about the style that she knew would resonate with audiences and that children would latch onto.
After Saban screened a pilot episode for Loesch, she ordered the first season to premiere in 1993. They immediately started shooting 40 episodes for the first season.
As shooting began in the US for the live-action sequences of the rangers without their helmets, Saban was involved in every part of the process.
- According to Saban, once the show had been produced, the CEO of Fox and its affiliates declared that the show was horrible and they weren’t going to air it.
- So, Loesch decided to air the show in the summer for 8 weeks with 40 episodes (7:30 am time slot).
- The show premiered on August 28, 1993 and it was an instant success.
- By week 2, it was beating Batman for views even though Batman was at the better time slot of 4:30 pm. So she switched it to a better time.
For the 2-11 age group, there was almost no competition from other shows. At its peak, the show reached 4.3 million children, making it as popular at The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Making of

Saban wanted kids that other kids could relate to and see themselves in. They wanted an ethnically diverse group. At the end of all the casting calls, they ended up with two groups: One that was the taller model-esque group and the other which is the group they went with.
- It was also important to Saban that the girls in the show were featured as much as the boys, and just as important character-wise.
- He felt that young girls didn’t have a lot of action characters to look up to, and he was right .
When Fox announced that they were gonna back the show, they didn’t like the original name for the show, which was “Dino Rangers.” So, in 10 minutes, the crew came up with Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers.
Every script had a theme based around the look of the monster in the stock footage for the week. For example when the monster was a big pig monster that would eat everything the episode was about a bake-sale.
They shot about 4 episodes a week, so it was a very rigorous work week for everyone.
The guys would go in about 5 AM but the girls would go in even earlier for hair and makeup.
A lot of time was spent in the ADR (Automated Dialog Replacement) room to redo audio because of wind, planes, etc.
The feel of the show was a Combination of Voltron and Saved by the Bell essentially, which were two of the most popular shows before Power Rangers came around.
The theme song was written by Ronald Aaron Wasserman, who also wrote songs for the series

Popularity

They did mall tours, TV shows, etc for publicity. They did lots of promotional materials and were even DARE ambassadors. This was done in all in different countries too.

They drew a large crowd at Universal Studios filling the studio with about 35,000 people in one day. They were basically the “Beatles” of kids television.

Toys

Bandai America released a series of Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers toys to coincide with the new series. As Mighty Morphin’ was carried over from Zyuranger, the result was a mix of re-purposed items and new items.
The most popular being the 8” figures of the rangers and villains. They were later re-released during season two as “auto-morphin’” figures where the characters head would flip from their face to the helmet with the press of a button.
The multiple Zords were also extremely popular and were by far the largest toys produced for the series. There are versions that are one piece and ones that come as their smaller form but can be combined to create the Megazord.

Synopsis

The LA Times described the show as: a live-action superhero series that bears a distinct kinship to old, low-tech “Godzilla” movies: Cheesy alien costumes, mismatched lip movements and dialogue, and clumsy battles between the monster army of Rita Repulsa, Empress of Evil, and dinosaur robots controlled by the Power Rangers, who are teen-age karate experts in crayon-colored space suits.
Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers is about five average teenagers (with attitude) who were chosen by an inter-dimensional being named Zordon to fight against the evils of the universe. The villainous Rita Repulsa has escaped a space dumpster on the moon, and intends to destroy the Earth with her horde of putty patrollers.
As the show progresses, the rangers pass on their powers to new people, and meet more villains such as Lord Zedd.
In the original show, each ranger had their own “Dino Zord” and together it made up one Megazord.

Starring

Original Rangers:

Thuy (pronounced Twee) Trang (Yellow Ranger)- Trini
- Her family came over to America to escape from the Vietnam war. She died at 27 from a car crash.
David Yost (Blue Ranger) – Billy
- He was 24 at the time he was cast on the show, so he was the oldest ranger.
- Years later he revealed that he was bullied on the set for being gay.
Walter Emanuel Jones (Black Ranger) – Zach
- Originally cast as the Billy the blue ranger.
- He is missing the middle finger on his left hand.
Austin St John (Red Ranger) – Jason
- He was a regular high school student that taught martial arts on the side. Even though he disliked cameras and was uninterested in acting he was bet by a friend for $20 that he would not be wasting his time to try out.
Amy Jo Johnson (Pink Ranger) – Kimberly
- After sharing the pilot with friends they said “Well, you know, your next job will be bigger or better.”
Jason David Frank (Green Ranger that came later) – Tommy
- The green ranger was originally meant to only be a temporary character, but became highly popular with audiences.
- Tommy transitions to be the group leader and Jason David Frank ended up being on the show longer than any other ranger.
- He also became the White Ranger.

Other characters

Paul Schrier as Bulk
Jason Narvy as Skull
David Fielding as Zordon
Richard Horvitz as Alpha 5- He loved playing evil Alpha
Machiko Soga as Rita Repulsa (and voiced by Barbara Goodson)
Ed Neil as a recurring Putty Patroller
Bryan Cranston
- It’s worth noting that Bryan Cranston got a lot of voice work playing villains on Power Rangers before he made it big. This was why he was cast as Zordon in the 2017 reboot film

Sources:

Power Rangers, CartoonsAdam OsburnMarch 5, 2020Haim Saban, Margaret Loesch, Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, Film History, Dino Rangers, Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger, Ronald Aaron Wasserman, Zords, Megazord, Putty Patrollers