Saban re-acquires rights to 'Rangers'

[The Borgified Corpse]

I always wanted to see Schrier and Narvy get their own show as a Laurel-and-Hardyesque duo, or star in a Gilligan’s Island remake.

IIRC, they were considering a Bulk & Skull spin-off. It's the reason why Power Rangers Zeo ends with that weird bit where they get recruited to be French spies. This was supposed to lead into the spin-off, but they canned it since they couldn't come up with more than a few episode ideas. That's why all was conveniently forgotten in the next movie.

 

[Agent Richard07]

What kind of conventions did it deconstruct?

Watch this clip starting at the 1:02 mark. It's a scene from an episode of Power Rangers RPM...

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCys-87dU2Y[/yt]

 

[Gojirob]

BTW, what did you mean by, "It was dark, but it was also funny, with great witty dialogue (Guzelian has a knack for it) and hilarious, biting deconstructions of longstanding Power Rangers tropes. Yet even as the show made fun of PR conventions, it simultaneously managed to concoct almost plausible-sounding scientific explanations for them — reconstructing even as it deconstructed"? What kind of conventions did it deconstruct?

Everything. Every cliche of the previous fifteen years of Power Rangers. The multicolored costumes, the transformation phrases, the animalistic giant robot vehicles, every trope and silly stylistic gimmick you can think of. The most brilliant and hilarious example was an episode that made use of the gimmick of having random explosions go off behind the Rangers when they transform and pose. They rationalized it as a release of excess energy from the transformation process. And then, when the other Rangers were menaced by the monster of the week, the Blue Ranger figured out he could use this effect -- by transforming with his back to the monster!!

Awesome! What were some others?

Personally, I used to always be bothered by why the giant monsters never seemed to attack the Megazord during the seemingly vulnerable transformation stage. At least, on Power Rangers in Space, it looked like the Astro-Megazord had some sort of shield around it while it transformed.

To use an animated version, the very first Lion Voltron attempt was blocked by the monster; A much later attempt by a monster to block it actually caused damage to the monster.

One of the extreme lesser sentai lights, Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters From Beverly Hills, had the hapless henchman use an ingenious scheme to wear the heroes down by pulling the monster back and letting it heal while sending down a fresh creature. The big bad came back and quickly reimposed the status quo. For some reason, sometimes these little shows make that odd turn their better-made cousins miss.

 

[Christopher]

Awesome! What were some others?

I don't remember exactly, and I couldn't do them justice. Your best bet is to track down the series and watch it yourself.

Personally, I used to always be bothered by why the giant monsters never seemed to attack the Megazord during the seemingly vulnerable transformation stage.

Oh, that's just basic henshin etiquette. You never attack during the transformation -- it would be impolite!

Although in Toei's prototype giant-transforming-robot show, which bizarrely was a Japanese version of Spider-Man, they actually had the monster attack mid-transformation in the second episode. Or rather, Spidey had a flying car that he travelled to the giant spaceship/robot in, and the monster fired on the car to prevent it from docking with the ship, at least for a little while.

BTW, speaking of Zords, I have a long-delayed rant coming about that red battle-Zord that Billy gave to Tommy on Power Rangers Zeo. Here, after several years of perfectly functional, conventional Zords, Billy tries to reinvent the wheel with a Zord controlled by telepathy. Unfortunately, because it's controlled by telepathy, it doesn't work right when Tommy is under stress. So since he can't stop angsting about his newly retconned long-lost brother, his new Zord can't fight for shit.

Well, of course, they were constrained by the stock footage from Ohranger, the show adapted into Zeo. In the original story, it was the Red Puncher, a robot that "was sealed away after an incident in which it went berserk and killed its original pilot." (The Super Sentai shows had a whole lot more violence and death than the Power Rangers shows adapted from them.) The writers of Zeo were stuck with the footage of the Red Ranger struggling to master the berserk giant robot, and they had to come up with a new story justification for it.

IIRC, they were considering a Bulk & Skull spin-off. It's the reason why Power Rangers Zeo ends with that weird bit where they get recruited to be French spies. This was supposed to lead into the spin-off, but they canned it since they couldn't come up with more than a few episode ideas. That's why all was conveniently forgotten in the next movie.

I'd forgotten about that part. There is an odd lacuna between the end of Zeo and the Turbo movie -- not just Bulk & Skull, but Zedd & Rita triumphantly returning at the end of Zeo and then suddenly going into retirement in time for Turbo. If I were the type to write fanfiction, I probably would've come up with a story to bridge the gap.

 

[DigificWriter]

Borgified Corpse, I'm wondering if you had similar issues - vis a vis the Red Battlezord - with regards to the Alien Rangers of Aquitar being telepathically linked to their Battle Borgs, because Billy got the tech and 'know-how' to build the Battlezord from his trip to Aquitar early on in Zeo.

In order to engender some discussion, what are everybody's top two favorite seasons from the franchise, and why?

 

[Samurai8472]

The current reruns on ABC add new, lame effects to the old episodes. Hell, there are times when it feels like they're turning it into the old Batman TV show with "Biff," "Pow," & "Wham" superimposed on the screen. Plus, they're taking too long getting through the early episodes and re-rerunning the early episodes. Most of the episodes before the Green Ranger showed up were shite.

Doesn't help that the guy who was in charge of the Microsoft Paint/windows movie maker remastered graphics was a douche

the guy that is now editing the revised Power Ranger caused some panic when he said the fandom would hate him for what he did to Green With Evil.

http://twitter.com/sk8j

He seems to get off on peoples anger over how the remastered episodes turned out.

Some love his in your face style and some want to "meet" with him.

There was a segment on HDNet's Inside MMA about Jason David Frank's first MMA fight, and in it was a clip from the revised "Green with Evil Part 1".

As long as Saban stays far far away from Sailor Moon, I'm happy.

Also he should stay away from Kamen Rider!!! His last attempt crippled any chances of a new series.

Then last year a new production company adapted Kamen Rider Ryuki to Kamen Rider Dragon Knight. Sadly it was cancelled.

So the record is 2 and 0

 

[Chris3123]

I'm not entirely sure, but I have the vague recollection that this "enhanced" version of MMPR was actually made over a decade ago when the reruns were syndicated or repackaged or something.

Nope, this stuff is all brand new.

 

[Kibbin]

Perhaps this stuff has been done before, all I know is that as far as I was aware the next series of PR was to be the original with some touch ups, I've found the opening somebody showed me a while ago.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2iWYskU964[/yt]

Personally I think this could be worse for the series than running a whole new ranger team. Does the show age that well? While it's been a while since I saw the original and it was the first one I saw and so still love it, I'd say no.

 

[RoJoHen]

After all these years, I still have a crush on Amy Jo Johnson.

 

[Christopher]

After all these years, I still have a crush on Amy Jo Johnson.

You're not the only one.

 

[DBR]

Huh, I had no idea there were so many PR shows after the original!

I remember watching the show at 7:00am on YTV while getting ready for school. Good times. I even went as the Red Ranger for halloween one year.

 

[RoJoHen]

I knew they had made a bunch of them. I'm just surprised so many people here continued to watch them in adulthood.

However, I would love to go back and rewatch the original couple seasons of MMPR. The Green Ranger arc was awesome back in the day, and I still kind of love the first movie.

Ooh, and the Power Rangers video game for Sega Genesis! That was an awesome game.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Ooh, and the Power Rangers video game for Sega Genesis! That was an awesome game.

Agreed. The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie game for Sega Genesis was pretty good too.

Then there was that really strange Sega CD game, where you didn't control the characters. Rather, you had to press the proper buttons to correspond with the moves of the characters on the screen in live action fight footage cribbed from the TV show. It was pretty lame, except it did have some sort of movie mode, where you could just watch the fight scenes, so it was like having a greatest hits video, with fighting clips from "Day of the Dumpster," the "Green With Evil" 5-parter, and the "Green Candle" 2-parter.

Borgified Corpse, I'm wondering if you had similar issues - vis a vis the Red Battlezord - with regards to the Alien Rangers of Aquitar being telepathically linked to their Battle Borgs, because Billy got the tech and 'know-how' to build the Battlezord from his trip to Aquitar early on in Zeo.

Not so much there, because the Battle Borgs actually worked the way they were supposed to. (Although it's nice knowing the original Japanese story that started it.)

In order to engender some discussion, what are everybody's top two favorite seasons from the franchise, and why?

Well, I can't be comprehensive because I stopped watching after Power Rangers in Space. However, my votes:

Power Rangers in Space. It just felt like the culmination of 6 years of franchise development. You had all of the villains from the franchise uniting under Dark Spectre. You had a lot of emotion going on with the Astronema/Karone storyline. Ekliptor was a fantastic sympathetic villain. And the Andros/Ashley romance really worked for me.

Power Rangers Zeo. For a 13 year old kid, I can't tell you how gob-smackingly exciting this series was, as well as the lead-up to it. The final episodes of the previous season where Goldar & Rito blew up the Command Center were devastating and the search for the Zeo crystal was epic. And when the Zeo powers and the Machine Empire were finally introduced, they didn't disappoint. Granted, King Mondo wasn't nearly as badass as Lord Zedd, but at least Zedd eventually came back. The mystery of the Gold Ranger was also very effective. Plus, you have Katherine at the peak of her hotness!

Honorable Mention: the 2nd half of Power Rangers Turbo. The 1st half of Power Rangers Turbo had a lot of problems:
- It looked like Tommy & the rest of the cast had mentally checked out by that point.
- Adding a detonator to every episode put unnecessary extra strain on the formula.
- Divatox's base was a submarine in Angel Grove Lake. I can't help but wonder why they didn't just use the Megazord to dredge the lake, find the sub, and crush it.
- Carol Hoyt was only so-so as Divatox.
- Demetria was useless as Zordon's replacement. Zordon's whole narrative purpose was to be an exposition character. Demetria couldn't give exposition because she could only speak in questions & riddles.
- Bulk & Skull were turned into monkeys!

Thankfully, the 2nd half of the series quickly repaired each of these problems.
- They brought in a new, awesome group of characters. I loved T.J., Ashley, & Cassie. (Carlos I was more lukewarm towards.)
- Porto no longer planted a detonator in the city in every episode.
- Divatox's submarine base turned into a space station in orbit around Earth. Somehow, the villains just make a lot more sense when they're in space or on the moon.
- Three words: Hilary Shepard Turner! As I've said earlier in the thread, she's one of the most fun villains ever. Viva La Diva!
- They dropped the Demetria-can-only-speak-in-questions gimmick.
- Bulk & Skull became human again. What's more, the 2nd half of Power Rangers Turbo contained my favorite Bulk & Skull premise of all-- Bulk & Skull looking for work. In every episode, Lt. Stone would call up some new old friend who owed him a favor, and this friend would give Bulk & Skull a job, which they would somehow botch with predictably funny results. It was never anything big; just menial stuff like traffic directing on a construction site or forest rangers in a lookout tower. Usually the job would somehow lead to them crossing paths with the monster of the week.
- Plus, the 2nd half of the series introduced a bunch of cool new Zords & vehicles. My favorite was T.J.'s flying convertible.

 

[Davros]

After all these years, I still have a crush on Amy Jo Johnson.

You're not the only one.

Me three

 

[JoeZhang]

I don't understand the attraction of Power Rangers? Even when I was the right age to watch it, I thought it was fairly stupid stuff. I don't see what is in there to appeal to an adult audience?

 

[Davros]

I don't understand the attraction of Power Rangers? Even when I was the right age to watch it, I thought it was fairly stupid stuff. I don't see what is in there to appeal to an adult audience?

It is so bad that it has a bizzarely fascinating quality.

 

[cardinal biggles]

Yeah, Power Rangers definitely falls into the "so bad it's good" category.

 

[Christopher]

I don't understand the attraction of Power Rangers? Even when I was the right age to watch it, I thought it was fairly stupid stuff. I don't see what is in there to appeal to an adult audience?

Depends. In the early seasons, the main adult appeal was the sexy cast members (and that remained a major draw in later years as well). I also enjoyed watching the stunt footage; it was entertaining watching athletically gifted people demonstrate their skills.

But as the series went on, it grew up with its audience, to some extent. The silly tropes remained, but the storytelling grew more sophisticated. Never as rich and complex as a primetime show (at least until RPM), but there were some interesting story arcs that held one's attention, and some very effective dramatic moments here and there.

The last season to date, RPM, was by far the most mature and sophisticated. It was dark, a postapocalyptic setting where, implicitly, most of the human race was dead. There were actual onscreen deaths of human characters, almost unprecedented in Power Rangers history. There were antagonists who were actual human criminals, not monsters or people under spells but just plain bad people who would hurt you. Yet it was also quite funny in a smart way. There were biting deconstructions of the silly and fanciful conventions of the PR franchise, and yet in a way they'd never been more plausibly justified. And the characterizations (well, most of them) were the richest and most deeply examined ones in the franchise's history. They actually did a whole block of six consecutive episodes devoted to exploring the backstories of the Rangers and their mentor Doctor K in flashbacks, another thing that had never been done before. And some of them were rather intense. The "Doctor K" episode in particular was wrenching, tragic, moving, yet with moments of pure beauty. It was smarter and better than much of what passes for "adult" programming in primetime these days.

So Power Rangers has been many things over the years. It's been produced by so many different people that a lot of different voices and styles have been brought to its interpretation. It's practically more a genre in itself than a single entity.

 

[tomalak301]

Yeah, Power Rangers definitely falls into the "so bad it's good" category.

I do think the only reason I watched the original was because I did find Amy Jo Johnson hot. I remember when it was airing, a common reason to watch it was the "Pink" ranger.

Also, someone who I met today at work has a Mighty Morphin Power Rangers ring tone. First thing that came to mind was "Dammit, can't escape this series the last few days".

 

[Agent Richard07]

In the early seasons, the main adult appeal was the sexy cast members (and that remained a major draw in later years as well). I also enjoyed watching the stunt footage; it was entertaining watching athletically gifted people demonstrate their skills.

But as the series went on, it grew up with its audience, to some extent. The silly tropes remained, but the storytelling grew more sophisticated. Never as rich and complex as a primetime show (at least until RPM), but there were some interesting story arcs that held one's attention, and some very effective dramatic moments here and there.

The last season to date, RPM, was by far the most mature and sophisticated. It was dark, a postapocalyptic setting where, implicitly, most of the human race was dead. There were actual onscreen deaths of human characters, almost unprecedented in Power Rangers history. There were antagonists who were actual human criminals, not monsters or people under spells but just plain bad people who would hurt you. Yet it was also quite funny in a smart way. There were biting deconstructions of the silly and fanciful conventions of the PR franchise, and yet in a way they'd never been more plausibly justified. And the characterizations (well, most of them) were the richest and most deeply examined ones in the franchise's history. They actually did a whole block of six consecutive episodes devoted to exploring the backstories of the Rangers and their mentor Doctor K in flashbacks, another thing that had never been done before. And some of them were rather intense. The "Doctor K" episode in particular was wrenching, tragic, moving, yet with moments of pure beauty. It was smarter and better than much of what passes for "adult" programming in primetime these days.

Pretty much. And well said. I was drawn in by one of the hotties, but in the end, came to appreciate the franchise, especially RPM, for the very reasons you outlined. Good fun that can occasionally surprise us with a little more.