The Greatest Ranger of All Time

Some people say you should never meet your hero, because your perception of them and who they really are often clash. However, the day I met Jason David Frank up until that point was the greatest day of my life! Now I have met many a celebrity in my life, and each experience has been unique, but this story truly does take the cake.

Back in 2017 a buddy and I started a YouTube channel where we did movie reviews. We had achieved a little success by the summer of 2018, but we hit a plateau. We weren’t growing at the rate we had become accustomed to; in fact we were losing subscribers. I was desperate to regain that momentum. I had always followed Jason on social media, and over the years I was never lucky enough to be in the same city he was doing a convention at. You see Jason had always been my idol. When I was a child, he was my favorite power ranger, not just because he was cool and could kick butt, but because of the values he had. He’s also native American like me and I thought that was amazing. I was on the edge of my seat when Tommy Oliver was brought onto Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and proceeded to kick the original rangers butts all over Angel Grove. And I had tears coming down my face when Zordon brought Tommy back as the White Ranger. I was devasted when my lone chance to meet him as a child was ruined by the fact that it wasn’t him but was a worker from the local toy store dressed in costume.

Which brings me to 2018. I saw that he was going to be in Las Vegas, which was where we film our show. I looked into securing media passes for the event. It was our first time doing anything like this, so we were essentially fish out of water. We didn’t know how the set-up interviews, and by the time I figured it out Jason was already completely booked for the weekend. So the first day of the event comes and I couldn’t be any more stoked! I walked around buying up everything I could buy! If you have never been to a comic con, I encourage you to go! By the time my partner got there I was about $300 in the hole, and we still had a full day of filming to do. We were told we couldn’t pop up and ask any of the celebrities about interviews, but we tried any ways and failed in the process. We did interview a lot of other comic book writers and a few C list movie directors, I even got offered a part in a movie.

The day was almost over, and I was exhausted. I had completely forgot about Jason, until I saw him. There he was in the flash Tommy Freakin’ Oliver! The baddest ranger on the planet was right there! So I stand in line, which had to be the longest line there! Seriously Briana Hildebrand and Lewis Tan from Deadpool 2 were on either side of Jason and their lines combined didn’t even come close! As you can imagine, Jason has someone there to help him with sales of his merchandise. I can’t remember dude’s name but let’s call him Dick. So there Dick is standing at the front of this long line yelling out prices for pictures and autographs. Let me tell you they weren’t cheap, and honestly, I can’t blame him for capitalizing on his extreme popularity. As I get closer to the front, I noticed a couple in front of me they are frantically looking for extra cash. We just heard that there weren’t going to be any freebies, meaning you had to buy something in order to get an autograph. The couple were in Vegas visiting and didn’t have a whole lot of cash on them. They did buy some Power Ranger toys from other vendors and had hoped to get those signed. Well Dick wasn’t having that. He had the audacity to raise his voice and yell at these people. I mean he was really giving it to them, no pun intended. All the commotion had caught Jason’s attention.

This was the moment of the ultimate badassness! So Jason calls the couple down, and immediately apologizes for Dick’s behavior. He tells them it was an honor to meet them, and he was thrilled they came all that way just to see him. Jason has the couple pull out whatever items that had and he signed it all! For FREE! At this point I’m just in awe! But he doesn’t end there! He has the couple pull out one of their phones, and he goes onto Instagram and proceeds to record a live video right there on their account! Like who does that! I mean he truly made these people’s day. And he absolutely didn’t have to do that. I was so used to some people of fame just going through the motions, biding their time until they can get away from the crowds. And Jason is the opposite.

I watched him that week take millions of photos with everyone who asked. Countless hugs, high fives, and bellowing out “Ki-yah” and “It’s Morphin’ Time!” for hours on end. Needless to say I was thoroughly impressed. He could have easily just waved them off.

So it’s finally my time to meet The Legend. The first thing I did was tell him how amazed I was about what I just witnessed. His exact words were “Hey man, this is what I do it for! The fans, everything I have I owe to you guys. 25 years is a long time and there are people who remember every moment of it! And I love you guys so much for that!” Even though I had given Dick my $40 for a headshot for an autograph, at that moment I would have given every penny I had to anyone in that building just to meet this guy. Then I remembered about not being able to interview him, and a quote came to mind, “You miss all of the shots you don’t take!” So with that in mind I told him about the difficulties I had just getting an interview. And wouldn’t you believe it, Jason decided to set time for me and my team.

The next day we sat down with him at lunch, he’s much shorter than I expected by the way, and he spent about 20 minutes with us answering questions. For the second time in as many days I was floored with how generous he was. I am truly grateful for that moment, and I will always cherish it. Living in the big city you don’t get to see a lot of acts of kindness and being around celebrities makes it even more rare. I honestly wish more people would be like Jason David Frank. In the 2 and a half years since that event, we’ve grown our page exponentially, and I had tried to live my life just like him. Always positive, always looking for the best in every situation.

I got to interview Jason the following year, and he actually remembered who I was. We actually exchanged numbers, the little kid in me jumped for joy! I leave you all with this, you never know who’s watching you and someone always is. So try to be a good person, because some people need your kindness. Sometimes it’s not about how much money you donate, or how many hours you volunteer. It could be just as simple as a friendly hello, or a kind gesture. Whatever it is, don’t do it for self-gratification, do it because it’s right!