The Oral History of the "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers"

The cast and crew of the most badass children's show ever discuss the history of the pop culture phenomenon.

Waking up for Saturday morning television is a pastime passed on from one generation of children to the next, with each generation defined by its particular lineup of shows. Children of the '90s had a lot to choose from but one show stood out from its peers: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

Based on Japan's Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger series, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers became a success with kids across America after debuting on August 28, 1993, on Fox Kids. The series, created by Haim Saban, starred Austin St. John as Jason Lee Scott, the Red Ranger; Walter Jones as Zack Taylor, the Black Ranger; David Yost as Billy Cranston, the Blue Ranger; Thuy Trang as Trini Kwan, the Yellow Ranger; Amy Jo Johnson as Kimberly Ann Hart, the Pink Ranger; and Jason David Frank as Tommy Oliver, the Green/White Ranger. Supporting cast included Paul Schrier and Jason Narvy as school bullies Bulk and Skull; Carla Perez/Barbara Goodson as the evil Rita Repulsa; Ed Neil/Robert Axelrod as Lord Zedd; David Fielding/Robert Manahan as the Rangers' leader Zordon; and Richard Steven Horvitz as Zordon's sidekick Alpha 5.

Mere months after the premiere, MMPR had captured the highest Nielson ratings at the time for a network children’s TV show, receiving a 12.5 rating with children between the ages of two and 11. By 1994, the Power Rangers’s share of the market for action figures had jumped from four to 40 percent in little more than a year, earning approximately $1 billion. The perfect storm of show, toys, and other merchandise made it so that even when the show's 22 minutes were up, a kid could recreate what had just happened, or imagine a new adventure, with ease.

Over-the-top explosions, larger-than-life robots and monsters, teenagers with incredible super powers, and a theme song like an adrenaline shot to the chest—MMPR had everything. It was a for-kids, live-action drama that combined the slapstick comedy of Looney Tunes with the never-ending destruction of Godzilla

Twenty years later and most of us who grew up with MMPR are in our '20s and early 30s. Revisiting the series now may not have the same hypnotizing effect, but it's still hard to turn away from a screen showing Rita Repulsa freeing herself from a space dumpster, or the Rangers combining their Dinozords to create the one Megazord.

In celebration of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers turning 20 this year we spoke to several people involved with the show, including some of the Rangers, villains, allies, and producers. Some of the responses may surprise you as we discuss everything from the challenges of making a Japanese show into an American one to the allegations of racist casting. Pour yourself some cereal and milk and put on that theme song—it's time to revisit one of the most iconic kids shows of all time.

The Players, in alphabetical order: 

David Fielding - Zordon

Jason David Frank - Tommy Oliver, the White/Green Ranger

Barbara Goodson - voice of Rita Repulsa

Amy Jo Johnson - Kimberly Ann Hart, the Pink Ranger

Shuki Levy - director, writer, and executive producer 

Ron Wasserman - theme song composer

Note: David Yost, who played Billy Cranston, and Walter Jones, who played Zack Taylor, could not be reached to comment.

As told to Elijah Watson (@EliW92) and Tara Aquino (@t_akino)

RELATED: 25 Teen TV Couples You Idolized Growing Up 

RELATED: 25 Things Every '90s Kid Wished They Could Do  

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Teenagers With Attitude (and Spandex): Behind the Scenes of the "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers"

Waking up for Saturday morning television is a pastime passed on from one generation of children to the next, with each generation defined by its particular lineup of shows. Children of the '90s had a lot to choose from but one show stood out from its peers: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

Based on Japan's Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger series, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers became a success with kids across America after debuting on August 28, 1993, on Fox Kids. The series, created by Haim Saban, starred Austin St. John as Jason Lee Scott, the Red Ranger; Walter Jones as Zack Taylor, the Black Ranger; David Yost as Billy Cranston, the Blue Ranger; Thuy Trang as Trini Kwan, the Yellow Ranger; Amy Jo Johnson as Kimberly Ann Hart, the Pink Ranger; and Jason David Frank as Tommy Oliver, the Green/White Ranger. Supporting cast included Paul Schrier and Jason Narvy as school bullies Bulk and Skull; Carla Perez/Barbara Goodson as the evil Rita Repulsa; Ed Neil/Robert Axelrod as Lord Zedd; David Fielding/Robert Manahan as the Rangers' leader Zordon; and Richard Steven Horvitz as Zordon's sidekick Alpha 5.

Mere months after the premiere, MMPR had captured the highest Nielson ratings at the time for a network children’s TV show, receiving a 12.5 rating with children between the ages of two and 11. By 1994, the Power Rangers’s share of the market for action figures had jumped from four to 40 percent in little more than a year, earning approximately $1 billion. The perfect storm of show, toys, and other merchandise made it so that even when the show's 22 minutes were up, a kid could recreate what had just happened, or imagine a new adventure, with ease.

Over-the-top explosions, larger-than-life robots and monsters, teenagers with incredible super powers, and a theme song like an adrenaline shot to the chest—MMPR had everything. It was a for-kids, live-action drama that combined the slapstick comedy of Looney Tunes with the never-ending destruction of Godzilla

Twenty years later and most of us who grew up with MMPR are in our '20s and early 30s. Revisiting the series now may not have the same hypnotizing effect, but it's still hard to turn away from a screen showing Rita Repulsa freeing herself from a space dumpster, or the Rangers combining their Dinozords to create the one Megazord.

In celebration of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers turning 20 this year we spoke to several people involved with the show, including some of the Rangers, villains, allies, and producers. Some of the responses may surprise you as we discuss everything from the challenges of making a Japanese show into an American one to the allegations of racist casting. Pour yourself some cereal and milk and put on that theme song—it's time to revisit one of the most iconic kids shows of all time.

The Players, in alphabetical order: 

David Fielding - Zordon

Jason David Frank - Tommy Oliver, the White/Green Ranger

Barbara Goodson - voice of Rita Repulsa

Amy Jo Johnson - Kimberly Ann Hart, the Pink Ranger

Shuki Levy - director, writer, and executive producer 

Ron Wasserman - theme song composer

Note: David Yost, who played Billy Cranston, and Walter Jones, who played Zack Taylor, could not be reached to comment.

As told to Elijah Watson (@EliW92) and Tara Aquino (@t_akino)

RELATED: 25 Teen TV Couples You Idolized Growing Up 
RELATED: 25 Things Every '90s Kid Wished They Could Do  

View this video on YouTube

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Big in Japan

In the late 1980s, Haim Saban and Shuki Levy of Saban Entertainment came to the U.S. from France in hopes of establishing their production company. After a few years spent composing theme songs for TV shows like Inspector Gadget, and adapting and dubbing Japanese cartoons like Maple Town into English, Haim Saban stumbled upon the Japanese superhero series Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger, which would become the basis for the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.

Shuki Levy: A French producer Saban and I were friends with asked if I could compose the theme song for a show called Inspector Gadget. Before long, every studio that did animation for Saturday mornings began approaching us, and if we weren't approached, Haim would reach out. Through that, Saban discovered the basis for Power Rangers during one of his visits to Japan.

Saban brought some of the tapes and toys from the show back to Los Angeles. He said to me, "We gotta do something with this. It's so big in Japan, but nobody else around the world is looking at this stuff." The first idea was to dub it. At the time there was a similar show—not heroes and costumes, but something similar—a Japanese show that did really well in France, dubbed into French.

We decided to keep the Japanese footage for the action and create an American show for the rest. I wrote the script, directed, and scored the pilot, but it never aired. Haim shopped it around for at least five years, but nobody wanted it. People laughed. About six years later, Fox Kids came into existence, and Margaret Loesch, who was the president at the time, met with Haim and she greenlit the series for 13 episodes. Then it took off.

When it finally got to air, the main challenge was, because all of the action in the show came from Japanese footage, we were obligated to follow that storyline. For example, we'd get an episode where they were fighting some type of rubber-looking pig. We had no idea what the story was about, and so had to build our own around the Japanese footage.

This also created challenges for the merchandising department because we'd get a new episode and then the new episode would introduce a new bad guy who would turn out to be a semi-regular on the show. Meanwhile, there were no toys of this character. In time, we got more in sync with the Japanese, and when they saw the success of the show in the U.S. they started adjusting their work patterns to accommodate us.

The casting was enormous. It was an open call to start with and hundreds teens showed up. We had in mind what we wanted, but as always in casting, you don't know until you see the person and you go, "That's it." 


 

Haim Saban shopped the show around for at least five years, but nobody wanted it. People laughed.  —Shuki Levy


 

Jason David Frank: Five cast members were already cast and then they were looking for an additional Ranger, the Green Ranger. I was fortunate to go in there and there wasn't really that much competition. I did my speaking bit and then they asked me to do karate.

When I went to the call back, that's when I booked it. I was the only guy there that day. They were looking to rebook the Yellow Ranger. So I was thinking, "Is the Green Ranger a girl or a guy?" Nobody knew what it was.

Amy Jo Johnson: I was a gymnast, not Olympic bound, but a pretty good one. I'm sure that's what landed me the role of Kimberly. I'd been in L.A. for six months when I got the part. 

David Fielding: I moved to Los Angeles at the end of the summer of 1992, and I believe it was late September or the beginning of October, when a college friend of mine who was working for Saban Entertainment at the time called me and said, "This company is putting together a kids television show and I think you'd be great for the role."

When I went to Saban, I was told to go up to one of the upper floors, and when I got there, it was just me and another guy in the room. We both had our lines and our sides. He was across the room from me and I was listening to him and he was listening to me. He went in first to the room where the regular group of producers and all the kids playing the Rangers were. He was there for half an hour. When I got in, they had me stand on a table so I appeared to be above them while I was doing the voice of this third-dimensional, mentor-like character.

My take on the character was what ended up on screen. My inspiration was a mythical character like Zeus or Oden, so that's the voice I was projecting when I was doing the audition.

I remember the young kid playing the Red Ranger, Austin St. John, said, "I think we found our Zordon." I went home and half an hour later they called me and said, "You got the part."

The original name was Zoltar, but I think someone brought up the fact that Zoltar was the arcade game from the movie Big. I think they found that the name had a copyright on it, and so they changed it. 

Barbara Goodson: I worked for the company a couple years prior to that. I met them when word got out that there was a new small studio set-up where they were looking for people who did cartoon voices. I ended up being the voice of all their little boys at the time—Bobby Bear, Macron, Tom Sawyer. That was before Power Rangers.

When Power Rangers came to be, I was part of their stable of actors, and was given the job of Rita. They said they needed a Wicked Witch of the West-like voice, so I did exactly what they asked. What happened was, they fired me. They took a poll and said I wasn’t scary enough. I asked them if I could try something else, but they said they would open it up to other people. And at the point, I had already done the pilot. So I said, “Come on guys, let me audition at least.” I was pissed off. I said, “You want it scarier?!” [In hoarse Rita voice.] I came up with that voice out of being annoyed, and it lasted for five years.

After they brought in the Lord Zedd character to replace Rita, there was some rumor that Rita was coming back. I thought, “Well, I’m doing the voice. Let me audition for her.” I just saw it the other day, when I was looking at some old footage, I have my audition was Rita in the costume. It’s pretty good actually. I’m not Asian, but I think I did a good job. I couldn’t believe how heavy that costume was. So in a way, it was like, “Do I really want this job?” [Laughs.]

Anyway, the producers hired a woman that looked like the original Rita, Machiko Soga, but younger, so Carla Perez took the job. They made a storyline where Rita took a youth potion and she got younger. It was a smart idea because she was able to work for years.

Ron Wasserman: At the end of 1989, Saban had me come in for one weekend to work with some of the composers. I noticed that for the first seven hours, those guys smoked dope, and worked hard the last hour. They got $150 each for every piece they did, simple stuff. The most I ever made was close to $450 a week back then, and if I sold something then, it was a super lucky week. I decided that was what I wanted to learn how to do, so I lived at that studio for a couple years, writing when it was open and getting paid to engineer for other composers.

Saban had come in with a few other previous ideas for a show like Power Rangers. I think one was called Metal Man, so I did some hard rock for that. That idea just died. Then one night, they said they have this show called the Mighty—I thought they said "Morphine"—Power Rangers.

Saban gave me a rough cut of what they had for the opening, so I banged out the theme song in two and a half hours. They said, "If you can, use the word go," and the reason being that they had such success 15 years prior with Inspector Gadget with "Go Gadget Go." I think they considered it a lucky word. The next day, Fox heard it and loved it, and then the show took off. I ended up working on that show day and night, and became the go-to-guy.

It was an astronomical amount of work, so much so that by the end of 1995, I went in and said to the company—this is the deal with Saban and everyone understood —"Just about all of your writer's share went to the company."  I asked for an equal share, they said no, then I said, "See ya." It wasn't on bad terms; they understood and it was just time for me to go.

Life Beneath the Morphsuit

Every '90s kid wanted to be a Power Ranger. They kicked ass, wore slick helmets, and summoned Dinozords—that is, ginormous robot versions of the dinosaurs (...mostly) each character channeled. Take your pick: Mastodon (the Black Ranger), Pterodactyl (the Pink Ranger), Triceratops (the Blue Ranger), Sabertooth Tiger (the Yellow Ranger), Tyrannosaurus (the Red Ranger), Dragon (the Green Ranger) and White Tiger (the White Ranger). But what was it like to actually live and breathe the Power Ranger lifestyle? Empowering, sure, but according to the actors underneath the helmets, it wasn't the most comfortable thing in the world.

Frank: I was able to have the best of two worlds, playing evil and good at the same time. It was fun.


 

How did it feel to wear spandex on television? Humbling, I suppose, is a good adjective. —Amy Jo Johnson


 

Because we had all of the Japanese footage, the only time we wore our suits was in the Command Center, with our helmet off. It's funny—I was the only Ranger in history to actually wear the full helmet. I had a fight scene with Austin in the Dark Dimension, and they didn't use a body double. The helmets were hard to breathe in, hard to see out of. The reason they started using body doubles, they thought of all the hours that went into make-up and costume changes. They started doing that after my fight scene.

I feel great about being a superhero. That's why I went back to Super Mega Force.

Johnson: The first season of Power Rangers, we did wear the suits. After almost suffocating in them because the helmets only had three tiny holes to breathe through, we got stunt doubles. We did wear the suits with our helmets off sometimes in the Command Center. How did it feel to wear spandex on television? Humbling, I suppose, is a good adjective.

I remember at the end of first season, my boyfriend at the time and his buddies, who where electricians and grips on the show, tried to steal the Blue Ranger's costume and got caught. I think they were fired. God, that was so long ago.

If by playing a Ranger I inspired someone, that's awesome.

Was Zordon Really Bald? and Other Important Questions

Zordon’s Head

The master of the Power Rangers, Zordon was a floating head in a tube. For the first season, actor David Fielding lent his voice (later replaced by voice actor Robert Manahan) and likeness (kept throughout the run of the series) to the almighty being. How exactly did the producers pull this off? With a razor and a green screen.

Fielding: When I was told that I had the part, they told me to shave my head. I had no idea where this was going, but it was a paying job and I hadn't been in Hollywood very long. I figured it would grow back. Still, when I showed up for the first day of the shoot, I asked why I couldn't wear a bald wig. They said it would look funky. So they glued my ears back, darkened my eyebrows and stuffed them into an arch, and I sat in front of a green screen for six hours.

The Tommy and Kimberly Love Affair

Tommy was the new transfer student and Kimberly was Angel Grove High School's resident popular girl. Sparks flew. However, after the Power Rangers' nemesis Rita Repulsa cast a spell on Tommy to turn him into her evil Green Ranger, he broke Kimberly's heart with his cruelty. Fortunately he broke the curse, but left Angel Grove as soon as he lost his powers.

But not for long. In the second season, Tommy reappeared like an angel from heaven (or really, Alpha 5's lab) at the Command Center to a still-smitten Kimberly.


 

The relationship between Kim and Tommy was a risk for a kids show, but I think it helped make the show more real. —Jason David Frank


 

Levy: I can only speak from my point of view at the time because I wasn't the only person making every decision about everything. The show evolved and we found out that the kids that we thought were well past the age of wanting to watch Power Rangers were still watching it. The 12-, 13-, and 14-year-olds. By then, you're entering a whole new arena of pre-teen, which is when you start crushing. We had to stop hinting at the relationship and deal with it because the characters on the screen were in high school but they looked like they were in their 20s.

Plus, the characters became so familiar with people, with kids especially. They were like their friends, so they had to make the stories a little more personal. They needed subplots about what was happening with those teens outside the suits.

Johnson: I was excited to have any sort of storyline. I just wanted to act, and the more plots the merrier. Jason was a pretty charismatic kid and any good reason to be able to flirt was fine by me.

Frank: The relationship between Kim and Tommy was a risk for a kids show, but I think it helped make the show more real. It was something older kids could relate to and sparked their interest. It obviously worked since it became incredibly iconic.

Rita’s Catchphrases

With her husband Lord Zedd, Rita Repulsa was every Power Rangers fans' most feared villain. The alien witch, hellbent on world domination, had control over an unrelenting army, known as the Putties, and a wicked sidekick named Goldar who followed her every command. Not to mention, she had the power to mold monsters (fashioned by her in-house scientist, Finster) and grow them to the size of skyscrapers. But most memorable of all, she had catchphrases for whenever her evil was a-brewin'.

Goodson: "I've got a headache" might’ve come from mimicking what the actress was doing in Japan, where she was holding her head. One of the writers could’ve come up with that. But it fit and we’d find a way to stick it in when Carla was Rita. It became a slogan. She had a couple of them: “After 10,000 years I’m free” and “Make my monster grow.” People ask me to say those every time I do a convention. I have to tell them to wait ‘til the panel.

Off-Screen Drama

Spending almost every day and night with someone for three years will surely bring you closer to that person. That's what happened with the cast of the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, which ran from 1993 to 1996. With a set like a high school, the Rangers spent their downtime pranking each other and having sleepovers.

However, it wasn't always fun and games. The cast's closeness, coupled with the physical toll taken by an increase in shooting, often created tension when the cameras stopped rolling.

Levy: Power Rangers became a big challenge because it was so successful that we went to daily episodes instead of weekly. There were lot of scripts to go through and a lot of production teams working at the same time. Because of the costumes, we were allowed to put a lot of stunt people inside the costumes and shoot parallel scenes with or without the actual cast, although the actual cast was capable of doing a lot of their own stunts and action. They were cast for that very reason. 


 

I remember the night of the huge earthquake in '94, Thuy had slept over my house and we both woke up to the sound of a giant train coming in my apartment. —Amy Jo Johnson


 

Johnson: There was a lot of fun and drama, and everything you can expect from a bunch of 20-year-olds. Those were some of my most fun party years. It helped with the morphin' times!

David and I are still great friends. Thuy, who played the Yellow Ranger, and I would have sleep overs. I remember the night of the huge earthquake in '94, Thuy had slept over my house and we both woke up to the sound of a giant train coming in my apartment. We hid under a doorway. It was crazy! I miss that chickie.

Frank: We would joke with each other. We all had a good time. You have to understand it's, like, six kids, 18-24. I think Walter was 27 at the time; David was 24; and I was 17. It's like taking a bunch of people, kids and adults, and putting them in a house and making them live with each other six days a week, 12-14 hour days. Everybody got on each other's nerves sometimes.

Me, Johnny Bosch (the succeeding Black Ranger), and Steve Cardenas (the succeeding Red Ranger) had fun on set. Steve Cardenas is a real martial artist. He has a black belt in Brazilian jiujitsu. When he came on, I really liked it because I knew his history and where he came from. We would always mess around with karate moves, and mess around with Amy and everybody. 

Fielding: I would run into the Rangers infrequently in the voice studio whenever they would come in to dub some lines of dialogue for the fight scenes. During the first couple of seasons, all of the fight footage was from the original Japanese production. They had to come in there and do the old "Hiya, hiya" sounds on a separate track.

I got to go out to the Power Rangers set one time and had a tour around the Juice Bar and the school for Angel Grove, but I didn't actually hang out with the Rangers or know them on a personal basis.

Goodson: We recorded in Valencia, so I was on set a few times. We’d see each other in the recording sessions. I would bump into everybody except Carla. I think she kind of wished she could do my stuff, and I kind of wished I could do her stuff. We used to nod and wave to each other.

The Rangers were very close. They got to be like high school friends, just like they were on the show. I know they pranked each other. I see Walter, Jason, and David at conventions. I’m like the other side of the family, not the close end, but we do know each other, and so we hug and kiss and say hello. They are way more connected to each other. It was a good atmosphere.

There were things, of course, that everyone wanted—more money—and Saban wanted to make all the profits and not be as generous as we wanted them to be. [Laughs.

Wasserman: I only hung out with all of them one day. They were in the studio and honestly they didn't give a shit. They couldn't have cared less about the music. The show was so massive and their egos were so off the charts about it. They couldn't go anywhere; their lives had changed drastically.

I hung out with Jason and Paul Schrier, who played the resident bully, Bulk, a couple of times. Those guys are great. No ego, very funny and very, very smart. They're the only two. The rest of them, no. Plus, it was obvious—they weren't doing Saving Private Ryan. They were just being beaten to death working seven days a week. And time has spoken for itself; unfortunately none of them have really gone on to do anything huge.

That One Time the Power Rangers Shut Down an L.A. Freeway, and More

The Power Rangers were the Beatles of children's television. Their number of store appearances, signings, panel interviews, and other promos pretty much matched the number of screaming fans in attendance—which was in the millions. OK, that's a bit hyperbolic, but when you've got so many people35,000 to be exactcoming to your event that you create an eight-mile-long traffic jam, that's got to be what it feels like.

Levy: I think it was 1996, backstage at Universal Studios. We were doing this event with D.A.R.E. People kept running in and telling us, "You're not going to believe what's happening on the freeway! They closed the freeway!" Haim and I were looking at each other. I don't save too many pictures, but I have this one picture on my wall of us from that day—Haim and me with the Power Rangers. We look happy and shocked. I felt like Paul McCartney when they came out of the Pan-American flight the first time the Beatles went to the U.S. and all those people were outside. I thought, "Oh my God. That's what it must feel like." It was unbelievable.


 

[The Power Rangers] were doing this event with D.A.R.E. People kept running in and telling us, 'You're not going to believe what's happening on the freeway! They closed the freeway!' —Shuki Levy


 

Johnson: The most vivid memory was when we went to Hawaii for an appearance. We didn't realize how huge the show was until we landed at the airport and 10,000 people had come to see us! We had no security and nearly got lei'd to death. I remember Jason Frank in front of me with so many leis on him that I could only see his eyes. It was quite frightening.

I once got a piece of fan mail from a little girl named Remy. I'm not sure how the whole thing went down, but we ended up writing each other back and forth and becoming great friends. She's now a life-long friend.

Fielding: The day we shot the pilot was the most memorable for me. That was my first time being in front of a camera in Los Angeles. Filming at the studio where we did the voice recording was always great because Star Trek: The Next Generation was recording upstairs, so I would pass people in the elevator and go, "Oh, hey. That's Patrick Stewart. How're you doing?"

Goodson: Back in the ‘90s, the cast was doing a fundraiser for a children’s foundation at Target. I did my Rita voice and made this little boy cry. I met him 20 years later at the Power Rangers convention in Los Angeles, and he told me I made him cry and I remembered! Then I did the voice and he pretended to cry. It was sorta cute.

Frank: Being on Power Rangers was a great experience. My favorite memories would have to be the time I spent filming with my brother. He played David Truehart during Power Rangers Zeo. Its something that will stay with me always. Also, filming with the original team and playing pranks was always fun.

Controversy

Just a Lil' Casual Racism

The Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers had your typical high school stereotypes: Jason, the jock; Kimberly, the hot popular girl; Trini, the hot girl's more grounded best friend; Billy, the nerd; Zack, the dancer; Tommy, the brooding badass; and Bulk and Skull, the dumb, bumbling bullies. That was nothing new. However, the show took it a little too far, albeit unwittingly, by having the Rangers' colors correspond to racial stereotypes. That is, Zack, the African-American guy, was the Black Ranger, and Trini, the Asian girl, was the Yellow Ranger. 

Levy: It wasn't intentional at all. At that time, Haim and I were new to this country. We didn't grow up in the same environment that exists in America with regards to skin color. We grew up in Israel, where being a black person is like being any kind of color. It's not something we talked about all the time. It wasn't a big issue. And that's also how I felt in Paris, where we lived for seven years before coming here. 

Fielding: It wasn't until 10 years ago that everybody started to make fun of Zordon's pigeonholing all these characters based on their skin color, and I was like, "Oh, wow." [Laughs.]

I got a chance to talk with Tony Oliver, a voice actor on the show, not long ago. We were onstage together at a convention, and it even caught them by surprise. The producers didn't even realize it until the maybe second season when they saw that the Rangers were color-coordinated.

The first time I saw College Humor's "Zordon Is Racist," I thought that was hilarious. But it was totally innocent on Saban Entertainment's part. 

Johnson: It's hilarious. Walter Jones used to crack good-humored jokes about that. I think it's funny if it was done unintentionally by the big bosses. But really? Come on. It wouldn't happen today.

Goodson: If they didn’t do it, people would say, “Well, why didn’t they make the Black Ranger a black Ranger?” You could get criticized either way. The girl who played the Yellow Ranger after Thuy wasn’t Asian, she was black. You could find something to scoff at everywhere.

Keeping It PG

When you're a superhero, it comes with the territory to blow stuff up and beat up bad guys. However, that didn't fly with some parents. In Canada and New Zealand, the show was banned for its violence amid complaints that the show encouraged kids to resolve conflict through physical fighting.

Levy: Those challenges started at the very beginning of the show, long before Lord Zedd and all of that. Power Rangers was almost like a live-action cartoon. In cartoons, the Road Runner, Tom and Jerry, they blow each other to pieces. The truth is, there was never any physical interaction between a human and another human. It was always volence between silly-looking monsters. You could see the zippers on the costumes if you looked hard enough.

At the same time, we wanted to influence kids in a positive way. That was important to Haim Saban and me. We came up with an idea of making the Power Rangers the ambassadors for D.A.R.E. 

Wasserman: The White House, especially Tipper Gore and Al Gore, were starting to come down on Saban about all this "evil" rock music I was doing for kids. Kids were hearing the word "fight," and it made them violent. That's ridiculous. Of course it's the song's fault and not the kid's fault, so they came and said, "Guess what? [The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: A Rock Adventure] album is going to have to have dialogue all over it in order to tone it down." It was politics.

Saban came to me and said, "Here's some words we don't want you to use anymore. We don't want you to use the word fight, never use the word hit." They said, "If possible, everything has now got to be in major chords." In other words, happier chords, not minor chords, which are considered to be dark.


 

Saban came to me and said, 'Here's some words we don't want you to use anymore. We don't want you to use the word fight, never use the word hit.' —Ron Wasserman


 

People only focus on what's wrong and negative. I remember one press conference where Haim Saban was saying he had grown up watching Cowboys and Indians stuff, and yet he didn't have any friends that were shot in the head with arrows. It's up to the parents to teach kids that violence is bad. I could see why Shuki would be upset about that. I know karate classes were filled across the country, but how could that possibly be bad? That was getting kids off their asses to learn a few moves. But nobody ever focuses on the positive message. 

Frank: I was the first one to do any interviews because I've done public speaking before about D.A.R.E. America, drug use, and violence. Violence was created long before the television camera. Could karate be dangerous? Yes. Everyone looks at me to say, "Well, what do you mean?" Your kids have to be educated in what karate is all about. That's why we did public service announcements.

I wish TV was what it was 20 years ago. Now you got movies like Kick-Ass, you got bad guys called "Mother-effers," you have people saying the B-word on the radio, you've got B-words on television. My little girl can't even listen to a song without sexual references.

The Power Rangers, to me, were role models that kids could look up to. It could tell kids if you're like Billy and you're calculating everything, you can be a Power Ranger; if you're a loner like Tommy, and don't have friend, you can make friends; if you're a valley girl like Amy Jo Johnson, a popular girl, you can hang with the non-populars.

If you watch our very first interview in the fan club package, you see that we're being interviewed in character—you never see our real names. They didn't want our real names. They wanted us to be Tommy the White Ranger and Green Ranger. One time, one of the kids asked: Where were the Power Rangers during the Oklahoma City Bombing? After that question, I told Haim Saban and everybody, "You better let the kids know that we're actors, because what's happening right now is that these kids think we're real, and I don't want to feel like I'm letting them down."

These kids needed to understand the facts about truth and reality. I got 500 kids looking at me, and I'm in my superhero costume. No one has trained me how to do this. You have a kid that raises his hand and says, "Jason Frank, Tommy, I have a question: Is smoking a drug?" And, quick, you've got to think about how many people does this kid know that smokes. So of course I say, "Yeah, it's a drug. Nicotine is a drug." "Well, what can happen if you smoke?" "People can get lung cancer." "Oh my gosh, my mom's going to die because she smokes." And I'm saying, "No, buddy, listen—smoking is very bad for you, and as a kid you can remind people not to smoke because it will help them." These are the things I've been dealing with for years with Saban.

Johnson: People are allowed to have their own opinions and probably for some people's taste, the show was too violent and for others they can see the positive messages delivered in each episode. I think Power Rangers helped motivate a lot of kids in a lot of positive ways.

Goodson: When I started, my son was in preschool and I wanted to give the preschool all these toys as a way to fundraise. But they refused them. They thought the show was violent. I would argue, saying that kids were kicking the air. Everyone’s got an imaginary bad guy. They all wanted to be the good guys and they’re all fighting the Putties. Everyone was defending good. Everyone wanted to be a Power Ranger, not a villain.

I can see where, without parenting, maybe it wasn’t a good thing. You need a good parent to tell kids about the rules. I didn’t let my son watch some shows that I thought were too dark for his age. Or I would watch them with him and then tell them what not to do.

Fielding: A lot of people overlooked the fact that the Rangers were in a defensive posture. We weren't attacking, we weren't taking the fight to anybody. It's only when we were threatened, or our friends were threatened, that we did that kind of thing. I think that kind of got lost on a lot of parents, especially when you have an 8-year-old kid running around the house kicking stuff. In his mind, he's doing what the Rangers are doing: fighting the bad guys.

On Repeat

If You Could Steal One Thing From the Power Rangers...

The Power Rangers had a ton of awesome gadgets: a wrist walkie-talkie that connected them to Zordon's Command Center, custom weapons, motorcycles, their very own Megazord, and the most important one of all, the Morpher, which had the power to transform and teleport each Ranger. 

Levy: I would love to teleport. If it could save me from going through airport security, then that would be my favorite device. 

Frank: The Dragon Dagger, just to summon the Dragonzord when I encounter traffic here in Houston.

Johnson: The Morpher, of course. It would be nice to teleport.

Fielding: I wish the Morpher existed, simply because of the travel capabilities. 

Goodson: I want Rita's sphere. I had the Rangers' stuff, because I had the toys for my son. Maybe one thing of theirs would’ve been helpful because they always won. This is speaking as Rita, not as Barbara.

Wasserman: I would love, more than anything, to morph out of meetings. I'd make sure the batteries were charged, take good care of it.

Playing Favorites

Just because the cast was close doesn't mean they didn't play favorites. Well, at least some of them did. Only a few players dared to single out their favorite Ranger.

Levy: If I had to pick the color that I like most, I'd have to say the Black Ranger. I wear nothing but black. But a favorite Ranger? No. I had a lot of fun when both the Green and the White Ranger were played by Tommy. We were in Australia at the time, shooting the movie. We went to Old Sydney, which is a replica of Sydney from the 1800s, where people are still walking around dressed like they're a tourist attraction. We rented the whole place and I took the Rangers back in time. It was fun to work with two Tommys—one good and one bad. It made writing a little more exciting.


 

I liked Billy. He had two sides. He was the nerdy, bumbling, comic relief kind of guy, but then he was also the Blue Ranger who was able to kick ass and take names if he needed to. —David Fielding


 

Wasserman: Amy Jo was gorgeous. I really like brunettes. She'd have to be the one. She didn't have an ego, wasn't acting like a movie star. She was the type of person where you could've said, "Hey, you wanna go grab a few beers?" and she would've gone, "Hell yeah, let's go." She always seemed nice. Thuy Trang, she was an absolute doll. The guys, for the most part, were very stuck in their parts.

Johnson: Trini! I've actually watched a few episodes recently with my daughter and Thuy's confidence and funny way about her is so beautiful. She lit up the screen.

Goodson: I liked Billy because he was smart. Of course, I like Tommy because I was able to make him bad for awhile. I also love Zack because he’s such a sweetheart. It’s hard because I know Walter now. And Amy Jo! I’m going to mention all of them, but they were all sweet. The tragedy of Trini—Thuy—is still with us. She was a sweetheart.

Fielding: I liked Billy. He had two sides. He was the nerdy, bumbling, comic relief kind of guy, but then he was also the Blue Ranger who was able to kick ass and take names if he needed to.

The Legacy

Since its inception, Saban Entertainment's Powers Rangers franchise has spawned 18 different series. They include: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers, Power Rangers Zeo, Power Rangers Turbo, Power Rangers in Space, Power Rangers Lost Galaxy, Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue, Power Rangers Time Force, Power Rangers Wild Force, Power Rangers Ninja Storm, Power Rangers Dino Thunder, Power Rangers S.P.D., Power Rangers Mystic Force, Power Rangers Operation Overdrive, Power Rangers Jungle Fury, Power Rangers RPM, Power Rangers Samurai, and Power Rangers Megaforce. Today, you can find the most recent series, Megaforce, airing on Nickeledeon, and its merchandise on toy store shelves everywhere. Power Rangers is an indelible part of American pop culture.

Levy: It feels fantastic. Every time you touch somebody, whenever something you dreamt of becomes a reality and it makes somebody feel better, that's what makes it successful for me.


 

I hope these kids who watched it growing up are bringing their kids to see it. The message is a good message. It’s about teamwork. But thank you to the fans. It means so much to us. —Barbara Goodson


 

Wasserman: It feels great to be a part of the legacy. It's an honor that people still love this. Back in the day, there was no record of anything. I think I did one or two interviews and those were heavily edited by Saban. Now, it's been nice for the past several years to speak my mind and discuss what it was really like. I pull this stuff up when I find it and I collect it, and I think my kid'll crack up about it. That's truly the best part of it.

I have a 9-year-old boy. When he was about three or four, he started watching the old series, which he liked much more than the new stuff. He couldn't quite get his head around the fact that the song was done by me. Now, he's starting to get a bit of an idea of what exactly I do, which he'll bring up at the most inappropriate times. The other day, we were at a cash register and the cashier asked me what I do. My son went, "My dad wrote the song for Power Rangers, have you ever heard of it?"

Johnson: I don't really realize that kind of stuff. But if that's true, then wow, that's pretty awesome. I have a 4-year-old, and we've watched a few of [the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers episodes]. She sort of likes it. She wanted to be a Putty for Halloween. I think she was just being polite.

When someone stops me for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, I always know their age —between 26 and 28. OMG! Twenty years ago! That's crazy.

Frank: My daughter is big fan—only my seasons, though. She's a well-trained girl. If daddy's not in it, she doesn't think it's the real Power Rangers.

I'm so happy to have embraced the show for the last 20 years. I'm in a time in my life right now where I'm able to reach not only kids, but older people. I have three generations of moms as fans. They have a daughter, and their daughter that has a daughter, and they all watch Power Rangers. It's amazing.

Goodson: Not in a million years did I think it would be this big. The first time I saw it I thought it was just another job, and my parents and my sisters looked at it and thought it was odd.

It does my heart good to know that people responded to Rita. She's like the modern-day Wicked Witch of the West. My son grew up with her, too. He wasn’t happy that I was the evil empress; he wanted me to be the Pink Ranger. I hear a lot from fans that they grew up with her being their witch. It’s an honor. As an actor, you’re only as good as your next job. You always have to look for work. Sometimes you can get down on yourself, so when I hear people saying Rita's their favorite villain, I think, “Oh gosh, well I did something. Maybe I didn’t save the world, but I made a few people laugh.” That’s very satisfying.

I totally understand the nostalgia of it. I hope these kids who watched it growing up are bringing their kids to see it. The message is a good message. It’s about teamwork. But thank you to the fans. It means so much to us.

Fielding: I never think people will recognize me as the character. In a number of work situations, somebody would find out who I was and they would suddenly become, like, 8 years old. But I've been in a number of situations, like at a convention, where I'm walking around hearing kids talk about the show and they don't realize I'm standing right next to them. It's really cool to be part of something like this.

20 Years Later

Nowadays, Austin St. John is an EMT and firefighter in Washington D.C., and Walter Jones continues to act, his last credit being the feature film Man Without a Head. David Yost, who came out after his stint of the series, admittedly tried to get rid of his homosexuality through conversion therapy, before finally accepting himself. He continues to act and produce. Unfortunately, the history of the Power Rangers isn't without tragedy. On September 3, 2001, Thuy Trang, best known as Trini, died in a car accident near San Francisco. 

And as for the rest of the cast and crew...

Frank: I'm talking to Saban about making a PG-13 Green Ranger movie. It's just a matter of Saban stepping behind it. I was an X-Men fan growing up; I loved Wolverine. I feel like the Green Ranger can step outside the box and be like the Wolverine of Power Rangers. That's why I think he can handle his own movie. I love seeing the guys come up to me, they're all tough, and say, "Oh dude, you're Tommy? I feel 8 all over again." That's awesome. I feel just as lucky to have fans as the fans have me. Fans are everything. Without the fans, I would not be here.

There are a lot of other things in the works right now. I'm doing a reality TV show called, This Is My Morphin Life, and I've shot about six episodes. There's a lot of interest in this. We're actually going to be shooting some stuff soon to present to Saban and, one way or another, it's going to happen.

Johnson: I just finished five years on a TV show called Flashpoint. Now I am dipping my feet into the world of directing with a short film called BENT and now LINES. You can follow me on Twitter and Facebook to see how it all pans out!

Goodson: I'm still doing voiceover work, but it’s not as much or as often as I want. But I’m not doing what I need to. A lot of my friends are better at hustling and smiling and dialing. A lot of people have gone into directing and teaching, but I haven’t found the thing that I want to do. I’m looking at doing more books-on-tape. The new wave is that you have your own studio, you become your own editor and your own masterer. That’s the whole learning curve that I’d have to be willing to learn.

Fielding: I'm a published writer now. That's really where my interests are. I continue to embrace Zordon. The show and the character were a force for what we aspire to—the heroic. You can be a force for good. All you have to do is speak up for your friends and face whatever your fears are and be strong. Zordon. He grabbed these five kids and taught them something. He's one of the good guys.

Wasserman: I really love the sitcom world. I have one show, Hot in Cleveland, with Betty White, and it does great. We're starting season five in September. I did another show called Retired at 35, but that didn't do well, just two seasons and that was that. I loved workinh with Cedric the Entertainer on The Soul Man, which did pretty well and may get picked up for a third season. But regardless of that, he and I are going to do a comedy R&B album.


 

I'm talking to Saban about making a PG-13 Green Ranger movie. —Jason David Frank


 

And then I've got a new show that I'm thrilled about that will start airing in December called Kirstie, with Kirstie Alley, Michael Richards, and Rhea Perlman. Also, a new Nickelodeon show called The Thundermans, a live-action sitcom about a superhero family. We just started writing for that last week.

Then there's the new MMPR. There's this group of professional filmmakers that did a very, very dark trailer and plan on doing, I think, short stories of extremely dark, like, PG-13 or R-rated Power Ranger-related stuff. They're in pre-production now and probably by the end of the year they'll have their first bit. I don't know if it'll be three, five, or 10 minutes, but I'm really looking forward to it.

And Levy declined to comment.

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