Power Rangers Turns 30

Just think: this entire phenonemon started with a pair of astronauts tampering with something that they had no business even touching.

In all seriousness, the hallowed Power Rangers franchise celebrated 30 years, three even decades, on August 28, 2023. Doesn't seem like 30 years. Seems like yesterday that an eight-year-old young man tuned into some show called Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, with no idea about what it was, nor with any idea if he'd even watch a second episode, let alone become a borderline religious fan. But that's what happened with me. Once I watched on the afternoon of August 28, 1993, I became hooked.

It all started with these five pictured above. Once Rita Repulsa was released from her space dumpster prison "after 10,000 years" (that line remains iconic), the quintet shown above--Billy Cranston, Trini Kwan, Jason Lee Scott, Kimberly Hart, and Zack Taylor--were all recruited by Zordon to become Earth's first Power Rangers. I remember watching "Day of the Dumpster" that very day, and again, I was fascinated and all in right from jump street. Of course, for the first few weeks, it was just those five easily defeating every single one of Rita's monsters without hardship.

And then, he came in, and this is where the heart becomes quite heavy.

Rita was set on creating her own Ranger to take down the quintet, and she found the perfect person in Tommy Oliver. Under Rita's full control, Tommy became the Green Ranger, and nearly succeeded in taking down the Rangers (as well as Zordon), but in the end of that epic five-part arc, Jason freed Tommy from Rita's control, and now that Tommy had the power, he joined the Rangers, turning the quintet into a sextet. Instantly, Tommy became my favorite of the Rangers, because he stood out the most out of the entire group. His Ranger tenure was hampered thanks to Rita's Green Candle (I still despise that thing) affecting his powers, though they remained safe with his Power Coin in Jason's possession. However, Tommy ended up returning to the group when the rest of the Rangers needed him the most, and he would remain with the Rangers from that point, though he would be on a limited power supply that had to be recharged.

Season Two saw Rita replaced with the more powerful Lord Zedd, and that turned things up. The Zords had to be replaced with more powerful once, and as for Tommy, the battles ended up draining what was left of his Green Ranger powers, though he would back as the fully powered White Ranger. That's not all that changed:

Contract disputes led to Austin St. John (Jason), Walter Jones (Zack), and Thuy Trang (Trini) departing the series in the middle of the second season, and we would see episodes featuring the three characters shown above: Adam Park, Aisha Campbell, and Rocky DeSantos. They ended up becoming the first civilians to actually fight the putty patrol, as well as the first to learn the identities of some of the Rangers, as they learned that Tommy, Kimberly, and Billy were Rangers. Inevitably, when Jason, Trini, and Zack left for the international peace conference, the three new characters went from simply knowing about the Rangers to becoming them.

So that was the team from the latter half of Season Two, and a huge chunk of Season Three, though the second season actually saw Zedd and Rita tie the knot. Yikes! I remember how crazy Season Three was, because that gave us the Ninja and Shogunzords, but it also gave us one hell of a debut.

Oh man, oh man. I plan on writing a full story about her, but I'll just give the brief details. I loved Kat with a passion. I was 10 years old when she made her villainous debut, and I found myself having a bit of a crush on her, not gonna lie. Katherine "Kat" Hillard debuted in the two-part episode, "A Ranger Catastrophe"; basically serving as a sleeper agent of sorts for Rita. She had the ability to take the form of an actual house cat, though she actually became the Katastrophe Monster during that two-parter and fought the Rangers. She was defeated, but she continued to plague the Rangers, especially Kimberly.

Kat was responsible for taking Kimberly's power coin and putting her in danger of losing her powers, but as time went by, the stranglehold that Rita had on her was slipping. She ended up completely free from Rita's spell, and actually managed to regain the Pink Power Coin, but once Kimberly decided to depart to compete in gymnastics, Kat became the new Pink Ranger. Following the Alien Rangers arc, which introduced us to Tanya Sloan after Aisha's departure, Power Rangers Zeo began, and that saw Billy step down from his Ranger duties and handle things in the Command Center, which actually began as the start of David Yost's departure from the series, as well as the commonplace practice of changing Ranger forms every year, though Zeo also saw Jason return as the Gold Ranger. This left Tommy Oliver as the remaining member of what I call the "Original Six," and he was step down during the Power Rangers Turbo year.

Regarding my fandom, I watched every year of MMPR, watched Zeo, Turbo, In Space, and a good chunk of Lost Galaxy, but that's where I started to trail off. I was aware of the other seasons that followed, but I didn't return to full PR watching until 2004, when Power Rangers Dino Thunder began. The reason, of course, was obvious.

Dino Thunder saw Tommy Oliver return to the franchise on a regular basis. Jason David Frank appeared in the "Forever Red" episode of Wild Force, but Dino Thunder saw Tommy originally back as a mentor for the three Dino Thunder Rangers: Conner McKnight (Red), Ethan James (Blue), and Kira Ford (Yellow). This was the second straight season to begin with a three-Ranger team, following 2003's Ninja Storm, though the trio became a quartet when Tommy himself became the Black Ranger, which was his fourth Ranger color (he was also the Red Ranger in Zeo and Turbo).

Dino Thunder was my favorite of the five seasons I watched in the 2000s. It was followed by SPD, which I thoroughly enjoyed while watching WWE and the NHL's return from the lockout in 2005. Mystic Force came in 2006, which had to be the first incarnation to have anything resembling a horror/supernatural element. Operation Overdrive in 2007 was quite an interesting one, and the last season I actually did watch was Jungle Fury in 2008, which I also enjoyed. Regarding the proper networks, Fox aired the first 9.5 seasons, while ABC aired the latter half of Wild Force and all of Ninja Storm. The five seasons I watched from 2004-08 aired on Toon Disney and ABC Family (the latter now known as Freeform), while RPM aired on ABC. The 10 seasons that followed aired on Nickelodeon, and the franchise currently airs new episodes on Netflix.

Speaking of Netflix...

The Power Rangers franchise spawned a big screen film, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie, in 1995, and two years later, Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie, came out in 1997. The Power Rangers wouldn't return to the big screen until 2017, when the famously over-criticized film came out, which featured brief cameos from Jason David Frank and Amy Jo Johnson. However, what I want to talk about is Netflix's one-hour special, Power Rangers: Once & Always.

I remember learning about this special a little over a year before this came out, and the main creative mind behind this was none other than David Yost. I beamed over that part of the news, because Yost hadn't been part of the franchise since Zeo, and his exit (as we all know) was due to all sorts of bad things he went through behind the scenes. I was in when I first heard about this, and then the announcement was made, and the trailer dropped, and my excitement increased. Power Rangers: Once & Always hit Netflix on April 24, 2023, and it was an early celebration of 30 years of the franchise. The special brought back MMPR actors, with Yost, Steve Cardenas (Rocky), Walter Jones, and Catherine Sutherland (Kat) back in the fray, and served as an hour-long, long overdue tribute to Thuy Trang, who tragically passed away back in 2001. The special was dedicated not only to Trang, but to Jason David Frank as well, who passed on in November 2022.

I am a diehard Power Rangers fan, mainly those MMPR years, so I loved Once & Always with a passion. I still hope we get a sequel; now that Yost seems to be back in the franchise, we may get a follow-up. 30 years. Again, that's so hard to believe. The Power Rangers franchise remains stronger than ever, and I actually plan on diving back in and possibly playing catch-up, because I find myself very intrigued by the most recent seasons.

As a legendary sage often said, "May the power protect you."

My tribute to Jason David Frank: