If you guys liked Ivan Ooze and Lord Zedd, you should definitely check out Power Rangers Ninja Storm, because Lothor, that season's main villain, is the in-continuity equivalent to Ooze, mixed with the ruthlessness and cunning of early S2 Zedd.
What Disney did was essentially babysitting the franchise till they could get their hands on Marvel and it's extensive library of heroes.
David Yost the first blue ranger of the MMPR series did an interview for No Pink Spandex. He tells them why he left. Apparently people on set kept on calling him a Fword and kept asking the actors if he was gay or not. Which brings me to this. Various Power Ranger alumni with the NOH8 Campaign http://rangerboard.com/showthread.php?t=128329 Jackie Marchand; Writer/Producer (MMPRS3-RPM) Alan Palmer; Corcus (MMAR [COLOR=Black]Black[/COLOR] Aquitar Ranger) Michael Maize; In Space's Psycho Black Vernon Wells; Time Force's Ransik David de Lautour; RJ Finn, Jungle Fury [COLOR=Purple]Violet/Wolf[/COLOR] Ranger Philip Jeanmarie; Max Cooper, Wild Force [COLOR=blue]Blue[/COLOR] Ranger From the top Erin Cahill; Jen Scotts, Time Force [COLOR=Magenta]Pink[/COLOR] Ranger Patricia Ja Lee; Cassie Chan, [COLOR=Magenta]Pink[/COLOR] Space/Turbo Ranger David Yost; Billy Cranston (MMPR [COLOR=Blue]Blue[/COLOR] Ranger) Also the Yost interview hits TMZ http://www.tmz.com/2010/08/26/blue-...power-rangers-david-yost-gay-harassment-quit/
That's sad to hear, that the show's producers were engaged in that kind of prejudiced behavior against one of their own cast members. It makes their racial and gender inclusiveness on the show seem kind of hypocritical. But it's good to know that Jackie Marchand isn't a part of that, and good to see so many Rangers and fellow series alumni engaged in a real-life fight for a good cause.
Part 1,2,3 can be viewed on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmlcuY8bOUk He just walked off the set. He never knew about Billy leaving for Aquitar.
I'm a little surprised about that - not that he was gay, but that he left the show because of it. I always thought that the producers and crew liked him, which is why he hung around so much longer after everyone else on the original cast was replaced at least once by that point (except Tommy). On the flipside, I never really like the original MMPR series mostly because of the lame storytelling. Acting was okay, and the action was great IMO, even though it was glaringly obvious when they used the Japanese footage versus the new stuff they filmed themselves (the grain on the Japanese film was just too easy to pick out). Later seasons seemed to correct this. My favorite seasons are usually the ones where the Ranger team of the year was actually part of an organization of some sort - it always seemed wierd to me that some Rangers looked and behaved more like soldiers than superheroes when their outfits and technology obviously looked government-issue more than mystical creatues. As such, I like the Time Force, SPD and RPM series quite a bit, and even Lightspeed to a certain extent. OTOH, I'm a fan of giant robots and transformation sequences from most anime, so even casually tuning in to the less serious seasons satisfied me when the monster fightin' started. Mark
^That too but mostly the heavier film grain on the Japanese footage. Also, the Japanese costumes were usually shinier. When I first saw the show way back when I was about 10, the thing that I thought was really cool was how the Zords would transform and link up to each other in different configurations. I was an especially big fan of Dragonzord - Fighting Mode. And Tommy wasn't exactly a member of the original cast since he didn't show up until like episode 20. Reminds me of what Mr. Kabapu's definition of a civil service job was on Excel Saga.
It really sucks that he left the show for the reasons that he did and in the way that he did, and really is a sad commentary on just how much prejudice - blatant or otherwise - still exists out there even though the world in general likes to think of prejudice as being non-existant or a non-issue. I do have to give him kudos for being as candid as he was, and also have to give the No Pink Spandex guys - many of whom frequent the PR message board that I also frequent quite regularly - credit for asking him to give advice to people who might be struggling with some of the same issues that he went through and that led to his departure from the series.
And the 18th season title is? http://tonyoliverentertainment.com/WriterCredits.html Power Rangers Samurai Straight and to the fine point of their katana blade. I still need to finish Shinkenger too.
Someone talked to Tony Oliver yesterday I'm thinking the morphin sequence might be a cut and paste job like Wildforce's since Saban is known as a penny pincher This new bit of info has brought up words like "laziness" to "if it ain't broke don't fix it" Just a bit of information, people hated Wildforce because it was almost a direct copy of Gaoranger. TimeForce also relied heavily on Timeranger for ideas and that was considered a good season.
Normally, I don't have much of a care for Power Rangers. Just seemed to over the top, even for my taste. So I never kept up with the franchise. Someone passed me some subbed episodes of original Super Sentai episodes from Japan...huh, I actually sort of like it. Still got a campy, silly feel to the show. But for some reason it works in a way that the US versions didn't.
The cast is having their first photo shoot today. http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1581270893335&ref=mf Send Hector David Jr. a friend request. http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/profile.php?id=1282578797 Also, here's the video but you have to log into facebook to see it:
I don't like the title. It sounds incomplete. I would have preferred something like "Power Rangers: Samurai Strike".
It harkens back to the simpler titles of the past like Power Rangers Zeo and Power Rangers Turbo. And of the fifteen previous PR series titles, only six have subtitles more than three syllables long, if you bend the definition of "subtitle" enough to include Mighty Morphin'. (And five of those were four syllables long. The record is Operation Overdrive at seven syllables.)