it's morphin time welcome to watch mojo
and today we're discussing the dark
story behind mighty morphin power
rangers the five of you have come
together to form as fine a group of
superheroes as there has ever been no
way
really for this video we'll be looking
at the grim behind the scenes details of
the beloved 90s hit series were you a
fan of the power rangers who was your
favorite go go let us know in the
comments
the original series back in the 1980s
music composer haim saban was watching
tv in his tokyo hotel room and came
across the japanese tokusatsu super
sentai series seeing these color-coded
superheroes facing off against monsters
gave him the idea to create an
americanized version
i bumped into this very colorful show
five kids in spandex kicking monster bug
and i thought
this looks like fun after almost a
decade of failed pilots in rejection
saban with the help of fox's then head
of programming margaret lesch finally
launched mighty morphin power rangers in
1993. teleport to us five overbearing
and over-emotional humans no not that
not teenagers that's correct alfo i was
afraid of that the series followed five
american teenagers who were already
skilled in gymnastics and martial arts
as they trained to become the titular
group oh my gosh what's happening
this is too weird
the original series starred thuy trang
trini the yellow ranger austin st john
jason the red ranger amy joe johnson
kimberly the pink ranger walter emanuel
jones zach the black ranger and david
yost billy the blue ranger later in the
first season
jason david frank joined as the green
ranger who would become the white ranger
one of us now
welcome boy
a new chapter has begun rangers let the
power protect you some of the young
casts weren't even actors
including st john who was a martial arts
instructor since the actors faces were
under helmets saban used footage from
kiyoru sentai zoo ranger and other super
sentai series for the fight scenes
however the cast did perform some of
their own stunts
mastodon
triceratops saber two tigers
tyrannosaurus
[Applause]
overnight success and mighty morphin
merchandise the first episode of mighty
morphin power rangers premiered august
28 1993 on fox kids it was an instant
and unexpected hit quickly becoming one
of the highest rated kids shows on
broadcast television the show was famous
before the show came out i was walking
down the beach with my cousin and these
kids ran up on me and they're like hey
yo you're the black ranger and they're
like
yeah i am how do you how do you know
that i'm like the show's not even out
here it comes out in two weeks they're
like no no i bought your dial yesterday
and your face is on the box audiences
love these teenagers with attitude and
their insane fighting skills morphing
into the colorful superheroes that
defeated monsters and aliens every week
the theme song was pretty awesome too
[Music]
[Applause]
with the massive popularity of the
series it wasn't long before the
merchandise was flying off the shelves
it was just
blowing out of the stores
people are fighting in the aisles
we were getting over 450 calls a day
why can't i get these toys
why aren't they on the shelves
toys costumes video games comics bed
sheets toothbrushes saban entertainment
and bandai created a multi-billion
dollar merchandising empire that would
dominate the 1990s and beyond i've done
a lot of work other than power rangers
but i don't think i've done anything
that has as much merchandise so i feel
like it's continuously following me
between the comic books and the video
games with all the hype surrounding the
show came sudden fame for the young cast
something they had to adjust to fast i
did not like the amount of people who
suddenly knew who i was but i don't know
who they are
i think that that really freaked me out
in 1994 the six cast members became
ambassadors for the dare program and
made national news when an appearance at
universal studios shut down los angeles
traffic we do our first show and it's
crazy you know they say he done the
power of the mastodon he is zach and i
play zach the black ranger i took off my
helmet the crowd goes
there are lights everywhere everybody's
taking pictures a crowd of roughly 35
000 people attended the conference with
some camping outside for hours
you come out on stage and
it was like the biggest rock star moment
we had people just jay said jason
chanting your name your hair standing up
on the back of your neck was intense low
wages and poor working conditions
power rangers proved to be a lucrative
venture for zaban and the higher ups but
the cast quickly realized that they
weren't getting the pay they deserved
here we were just
you know getting paid peanuts non-union
because we did one personal appearance
at universal amphitheater i think it
holds like 4 000 people we had to do
like seven shows that day because so
many people came they worked long hours
sometimes 12 to fifteen hour days
six days a week and reportedly made
about six hundred dollars a week with
zero residuals the success of the show
led to daily episodes instead of weekly
which increased the production schedule
and took an even bigger toll on the cast
and crew as an ununionized show and as
actors without agents there wasn't
anyone to advocate for better pay or
improving poor working conditions there
has to be another way
greeny zach and jason in your hearts you
will always carry the spirit of the
power rangers but your destinies lie
elsewhere amy joe johnson detailed the
time when she and david yost were almost
injured in an onset accident and
revealed that she and twee trang once
had to work the morning after an
earthquake the first actors to leave the
show were trang austin st john and
walter emanuel jones
it's so sad that they're leaving bye you
guys the three of them wanted to have a
union and receive more compensation but
were turned down and quickly replaced in
the middle of the second season the cast
is replaced just like they do in japan
every year in 1994 karen ashley joined
the cast as aisha campbell slash yellow
ranger johnny young bosch as adam park
slash black ranger and steve cardenas as
rocky de santos behold i present to you
the new power ranger
[Music]
rocky adam
in this incredible the three newbies
also starred in mighty morphin power
rangers the movie which was released
june 30th 1995. we'll pack your bags
cause we're sending you right back where
you came from
a teenager with a big mouth not much has
changed in 6 000 years you obviously
don't know who you're dealing with mr
raisin head
really yeah we're the power rangers
where's my autograph book
controversy over the years since its
debut the power rangers have had their
fair share of controversies the show was
banned in multiple countries for its
excessive violence including new zealand
and canada in 1994 norway sweden and
denmark pulled the show from the
airwaves after the tragic death of a
young girl at the hands of classmates
even though there was no direct
connection between the two malaysia
vietnam and the philippines banned the
word morphin from the title and anywhere
in the series fearing it was too close
to morphine the drug the safety of the
universe is once again in your hands
power rangers aside from censorship
issues power rangers garnered criticism
for the racial coding of the black
ranger being played by a black man and a
yellow ranger by an asian american woman
however jones says it was purely
coincidental and the first yellow ranger
in the unaired pilot was played by
hispanic actress audrey dubois i felt
like for people of color was really
inspiring overall it was inspired for
everybody i mean like you know in the
pilot the yellow ranger was latina so
at that time it wasn't really such a big
deal it was like oh yeah that's okay
black ranger the black costume which i
would have picked anyway perhaps the
darkest of the mmpr controversies is one
that not many have discussed it wasn't
until years after his time on the series
that david yost spoke out about the
reason behind his departure writers
directors it's not that people can't
talk about me and have their opinion
about me
but
continuing to work in an environment
like that
is really difficult in 2010 yost
revealed in an interview that he was
subjected to onset harassment for his
sexual orientation and the crew
regularly used homophobic slurs when
talking about and to the actor basically
i just felt like i was continually being
told i'm not worthy of where i am
because i'm quote-unquote a gay person
and i'm not supposed to be an actor and
you can't be a superhero that's sort of
the vibe that i was getting this
mistreatment led to yoast suffering a
nervous breakdown for which he had to be
hospitalized
where are they now many of the og
rangers continued to act including amy
joe johnson who landed a role on j.j
abrams felicity and went on to become a
filmmaker and musician for the last five
years i've started filmmaking i've done
three short films and i just finished my
first feature film which is called the
space between walter emanuel jones also
continued his acting career appearing in
shows like moisha and buffy the vampire
slayer and later lending his voice to
2013's cloudy with a chance of meatballs
too david yost left acting behind and
became a producer whose body of work
includes reality shows temptation island
and the real housewives of beverly hills
jason david frank's tommy oliver remains
a recurring character in the franchise
appearing in power rangers turbo power
rangers dino thunder and power rangers
super ninja steel just to name a few i
live day by day and i try to put as much
passion into tommy as i could and here
we are 25 years later and i'll put just
as much passion into them like i did
with drakken and all the other series
that we've done after exiting the show
austin st john returned to martial arts
but later went to college and spent time
working as a paramedic in washington d.c
he also reprised his role as jason in a
few series like power rangers wild force
and power rangers beast morphers i was
starting to wonder whether you show up
at all you didn't think i was gonna let
you do this without the original red
ranger did you however he's recently
made headlines with some legal troubles
in 1996 tui trang had a small part in
spy hard but starred as the villain cali
in the crow city of angels that same
year sadly the actress died in a car
accident in september 2001. to all the
people out there you know just live out
your dreams
if you dream something just pursue it
and do it because if you put your mind
to it you can do basically anything and
everything you want to johnson jones
yost frank and st john make regular
appearances around the convention
circuit often reuniting for events and
interviews when i really think about 25
years has passed it's like wow wow and
it's crazy right and like we still
whenever we're together we just pick up
where we left off yeah this is exactly
the chemistry the family still is still
there in 2016 most of them joined former
castmates karen ashley and david
fielding zordon for an original film
called the order before we continue be
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legacy and cultural impact people tell
us
i
got the hunger to be who i am because i
was inspired by you and
what a compliment is that mighty morphin
power rangers was a 90s phenomenon that
continues to be one of the most
successful media franchises in history
and despite the darker aspects of its
history the show inspired a generation
of kids who are now adults and sharing
it with their children lifelong fans
come to see their favorite rangers at
various conventions including power
morphicon that was such an honor the
first time that i appeared at power
morphicon and that so many people showed
up and they waited in line for five
hours some of them to get an autograph
and take a picture with me which is just
crazy because i i do see the impact that
our characters had on people the 2017
reboot power rangers may have not been a
smash hit but it was praised for an
ethnically diverse cast something which
the franchise has long valued
it's morphin time
furthermore the film's version of billy
cranston played by rj kyler is on the
autism spectrum and david yost praised
the film for featuring a queer superhero
becky g's trini
yellow ranger me and four kids from
angel grove found a spaceship buried
underground
what
i'm pretty sure i'm a superhero while a
sequel never materialized another reboot
is in the works at netflix since 1993
there have been 29 seasons and over 900
plus episodes in the power rangers canon
not counting television specials
direct-to-video productions or the three
movies the franchise shows no signs of
ending much to fans delight you've been
to an extraordinary experience together
you need each other now and the world
needs you yeah all right i'm in me too
you can count on me do you agree with
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