In 1993, one of the biggest sensations in Saturday morning history hit the airwaves with an emphasis on “hit!” Mightly Morphin Power Rangers was a phenomenon with very little precedent. It was like a mix of Beatlemania and the Cabbage Patch Kids craze of the early 80s with a healthy dose of Pixie Sticks. But this was no overnight sensation. There had been over a decade-long struggle to bring this to U.S. TV screens.
In the late 70s, the Toei Company and Marvel Productions struck a deal for Toei to create Japanese live-action shows based on Marvel Comics properties. There was only one result, the Japanese Spider-Man series, which is… mind-blowing. But that’s a subject for another day. Stan Lee was heavily involved with this deal and as part of that, he viewed Toei’s series Super Sentai and had the idea of bringing it to the U.S. Also part of this mix was Margaret Loesch who was president of Marvel Productions at that time.
In the early 90s, Loesch became president of FOX Kids. The FOX network had just launched in 1986 in a limited capacity, originally just offering programming on Sunday nights, before expanding to primetime every night. In 1990, FOX jumped into the Saturday morning fray with FOX Kids.
But prior to that, in the early 80s, Haim Saban, founder, and president of Saban Productions took a business trip to Japan where he caught an episode of Super Sentai and also came up with the idea of bringing it to the U.S.
His idea was rejected by multiple outlets until, in 1992, he met with Loesch, who was already familiar with Super Sentai. It was synergy made in heaven and soon enough, the wheels were set into motion to bring an adaptation to FOX Kids.
What would become Mighty Morphin Power Rangers borrowed the action footage from Super Sentai but mixed it with new footage featuring American actors when they were not in costume. (It helped that the Super Sentai costumes completely covered the actors and stuntpeople underneath, so literally anyone could be inside them.)
To clarify, just like Power Rangers, Super Sentai is a franchise, not one single show. Specifically, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers adapted Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger. It should also be pointed out that Mighty Morphin is a completely different concept from the original. In Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger, five ancient warriors who were evolved from dinosaurs are revived in the present day to battle the evil Witch Bandora from Planet Nemesis.
In Mighty Morphin, Zordon, a disembodied head, trapped in a timewarp must assemble a group of “teenagers with attitude” to battle the same witch, renamed Rita Repulsa, who was set free from a container on the moon.
These wind up being Jason Lee Scott (Austin St. John), the athletic leader who becomes the Red Ranger; Billy Cranston (David Yost), the Blue Ranger, a stereotypical nerd who was originally clumsy and not good at fighting; Kimberly Hart (Amy Jo Johnson), the Pink Ranger, a Valley Girl-type; Trini Kwan (Thuy Trang), the Yellow Ranger, who is depicted as almost as smart as Billy, but not as awkward; and Zach Taylor (Walter E. Jones), the Black Ranger, a hip skate boarder who winds up fusing martial arts with dancing in a form called Hip Hip Kido.
In the show’s pilot, Trini was played by Audri Dubois.
Many noted that the Pink Ranger’s costume had a skirt while the Yellow Ranger’s didn’t. That’s because, in Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger, the Yellow Ranger was male.
Mighty Morphin was set in the fictitious and always sunny Angel Grove, California. Many scenes took place at Ernie’s Youth Center and Juice Bar. Richard Genelle portrayed Ernie. The Youth Center was used as a replacement for a bowling alley which was the hang out of choice in the pilot.
In addition to gaining martial arts expertise, the Power Rangers are given weapons that can function as guns or daggers, as well as individual weapons and command of giant mechanical Dinozords, which can combine into the towering Megazord mecha.
The Red Ranger was bestowed with the Power Sword and piloted the Tyrannosaurus Dinozord. The Blue Ranger drove the Triceratops Dinozord and wielded the Power Lance. The Pink Ranger carried the Power Bow and flew the Pterodactyl Dinozord. The Yellow Ranger commanded the Sabertooth Tiger Dinozord and fought while using the Power Daggers. Finally, the Black Ranger carried the Power Ax and drove the Mastodon Dinozord. Of course, neither the sabretooth tiger nor mastodon are dinosaurs, but… let’s just move on. Like the Zords, the Rangers’ individual weapons could also be combined into a super cannon.
Rita regularly pits them against her Putty Patrol, generic henchmen who can slightly shapeshift — some are shown with swords or clubs for hands. Once they had been beaten, she would send down one of her main henchmen or a new monster created for that episode. After fighting the Rangers to a standstill, Rita would turn the monster into a giant.
That’s generally where Megazord came into play, in footage that resembled the low-budget Godzilla movies in which two regular-sized stunt people in rubbery costumes slugged it out in a cardboard city.
In addition to the fight footage, Mighty Morphin reused footage of Rita Repulsa from the Japanese version, so Machiko Soga starred, while Barbara Goodson dubbed her voice. From Season 2 onward, her visual performance was provided by Carla Perez.
The American cast also included David Fielding as Zordon. His assistant, the robot Alpha-5 was physically performed by Sandi Sellner while his voice was provided by Richard Steven Horvitz. For comic relief, the Rangers were frequently harassed by bumbling bullies Bulk, played by Paul Schrier, and Skull, played by Jason Narvy. Perhaps surprisingly, Schrier has appeared in more episodes of all versions of Power Rangers than any actor.
Mighty Morphin was an instant smash when it debuted on August 28, 1993. Kids were captivated by the characters’ brightly-colored costumes, the fast-paced martial arts, and gymnastics, the humor of Bulk and Skull, and the telegenic cast.
The show became even more popular with the introduction of Tommy the Green Ranger (Jason David Frank). Originally, he was a spy sent to infiltrate the team by Rita, but he eventually overcame her influence and became the sixth Ranger, although he was more of an ally than an official member of the team.
Tommy commanded the Dragon Zord, which he summoned using the Dragon Dagger. He is also distinguished because his uniform included a gold armored harness.
In 1994, the main cast made a personal appearance at Universal Studios, and tickets sold out so fast, that their appearance was extended to six shows. The 101 Freeway in Los Angeles was shut down for approximately 8-10 miles as families flocked to the event.
The toys by Bandai sold out before they could even hit shelves. Like the Cabbage Patch Kids craze, parents went nuts trying to score these action figures and Zords for their kids. While most of the toys were reissues of Japanese items, the most popular ended up being the newly-created “quick change” figures which featured two heads, one helmeted and one that resembled the American actors.
Season 2 saw the introduction of a new antagonist, Lord Zedd, created just for the U.S. series, however, Rita stuck around and the duo formed something of a “power couple.” Ed Neil provided the physical performance for Lord Zedd, although he was uncredited. Robert Axelrod provided his voice.
After the first 20 episodes of Season 2 had been filmed, Austin St. John, Thuy Trang, and Walter Emanuel Jones left the series due to contract disputes. They and their characters were replaced by Steve Cardenas as the new Red Ranger, Rocky DeSantos; Karan Ashley as Aisha Campbell, the new Yellow Ranger; and Johnny Yong Bosch as Adam Park, the new Black Ranger.
Another major change was the evolution of Tommy from the outlier Green Ranger into the new leader of the team, the White Ranger. The White Ranger commanded the White Tiger Zord and carried Saba a talking sword.
Ever since the show debuted and proved to be such a massive success, there had been talk of a theatrical movie. That finally came to fruition in 1995. The majority of the core cast traveled to Australia to film it, although some of the peripheral characters were recast. Nicholas Bell portrayed Zordon with a voice by Robert L. Manahan, and Peta-Maree Rixon depicted Alpha 5. Mark Ginther played Lord Zedd, with Julia Cortez as Rita Repulsa, however, their voices were provided by the same TV actors, Robert Axelrod and Barbara Goodson, respectively.
The Rangers were aided by the mystical Dulcea, played by Gabrielle Fitzpatrick, although Marishka Hargitay, now best known for playing Olivia Benson on Law & Order: SVU, spent months filming in the role before being let go.
The film pitted the heroes against a new foe — Ivan Ooze, played by the esteemed Paul Freeman (Raiders of the Lost Ark).
The movie is notable for bestowing upon each Ranger a new spirit animal and accompanying Zord. Tommy gains the power and Zord of the Falcon, while Adam’s new Zord is the Frog (leading to a humorous bit of dialogue), Aisha’s is the Bear, Billy’s is the Wolf, Kimberly’s is the Crane, and Rocky’s is the Ape.
Unfortunately, the movie received mixed reviews and it appears that the Power Rangers craze had faded significantly, as it made only $66.4 million at the box office.
The cast returned for a third and final season of Mighty Morphin. As Saban was running out of Japanese footage, the team was given new “Ninjetti” outfits so new action footage was shot by the U.S. unit. The third season also introduced a new baddie, Rita’s brother, Rito Revolto, who was embodied by Kenichi Endō and Danny Wayne Stallcup and voiced by Bob Papenbrook.
During the third season, the Rangers were once again given new Zords: Adam – Lion, Aisha – Griffen, Billy – Unicorn, Kimberly – Firebird, and Rocky – Red Dragon.
There were only 50 episodes of Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger, but Saban was able to stretch that footage out to make 145 episodes of Mighty Morphin. But as stated, Super Sentai was a series, so Saban began adapting other seasons, which featured different costumes, Zords, and characters.
But before that, there was one last major cast change, as Amy Jo Johnson left the series. She was replaced by Catherine Sutherland as Katherine “Kat” Hillard.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was replaced by Power Rangers Zeo, which adapted the series Chouriki Sentai Ohranger. The entire cast including Catherine Sutherland carried over to that version, although Karan Ashley left early on and was replaced by Nakia Burrise as Tanya Sloan. Billy also stopped acting as a Ranger and instead served as their technical advisor. Despite his contract dispute in S2, Austin St. John’s Jason return in Zeo as the Gold Ranger. Zeo ran for one season in 1996.
Some version of Power Rangers has run ever since, although it has bounced around to different outlets including ABC, ABC Family, Disney Channel, and Toon Disney. The latest incarnations have aired on Nickelodeon.
Typically, with each theme change, a new cast was introduced, although Jason David Frank was so popular with viewers that he returned in subsequent series.
I *may* write about the later series, although to be honest, I tuned out after Zeo. But if you want to read more, leave a comment below.
The Mighty Morphin version of Power Rangers was recently revived by Lionsgate in a live-action theatrical movie in 2017, but it flopped. Lionsgate had hoped to turn this into a new franchise, but the underperformance of the first movie squashed those plans.
But Power Rangers is still going strong. Saban sold the entire franchise to Hasbro in 2018, and the toy company plans to bring the franchise back to the big screen, but in the meantime, the TV shows continue.
One thing is for sure, while there have been massively successful Saturday morning shows, none have matched the frenzy created by the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, a show so successful its brand is still going strong almost 30 years later!
Every season of Power Rangers can be streamed on Netflix. If you are interested in comparing them, Super Sentai is available to stream on Tubi, which is 100% free!
Are you a Power Rangers fan? How does Mighty Morphin Power Rangers stack up against the later series? Leave a comment below!
