Power Rangers

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Power Rangers
The Saban-era logo for Power Rangers
Genre	Action, Adventure
Created by	Haim Saban
Directed by	Various
Starring	Cast Members
Voices of	Voice Actors
Theme music composer	Various
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	15
No. of episodes	636 (as of November 12, 2007) (List of episodes)
Production
Producer(s)	Saban Entertainment (1993-2001) Walt Disney Entertainment (2002-Present)
Location(s)	United States (1993-2002)  New Zealand (2003-Present)
Camera setup	Multi-Camera
Running time	30 minutes (with commercials)
Broadcast
Original channel	FOX, Toon Disney, ABC, ABC Family
Audio format	Stereo
Original run	August 28 1993 – Present
Chronology
Related shows	Masked Rider VR Troopers Super Sentai
External links
Official website
TV.com summary

Power Rangers is a long-running American children's television series adapted from the Japanese tokusatsu Super Sentai Series, though it is not simply an English dub of the original. Rather, it is a 'new' production with English-speaking actors spliced in with the original Japanese footage in varying ratios. Due to the very Japanese nature of many of the Super Sentai Series' stories and design, the American shows are altered to fit a Western audience. However, many of the action sequences featuring the characters in costume and the mecha (referred to as "Zords" in the English series) are typically dubbed. The series that began the franchise was Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, which began broadcasting as part of the Fox Kids group of programs that aired on the Fox network. It lasted for three seasons (from 1993 to 1996). The franchise has continued, and as of 2007 has consisted of 15 television seasons, 14 different series, and two theatrical films. The fifteenth season and thirteenth series, Power Rangers: Operation Overdrive, debuted on February 26 2007,^[1] and completed on November 12 2007. The new series, Power Rangers: Jungle Fury will debut in February of 2008. The Power Rangers series was distributed by Saban Entertainment from 1993 until the end of 2001 and was broadcast on Fox until the fall of 2002. The franchise was purchased by the Walt Disney Company as a part of the buyout that took place between 2001 and 2002.^[2] This resulted in Fox Family Worldwide becoming ABC Family Worldwide.^[2] This buyout also included Saban Entertainment becoming BVS Entertainment, from News Corporation, Fox's parent company, and Haim Saban.^[2] The show continued to air on Fox until its Fox Kids package was dismantled in the United States. Since September 2002, all Power Rangers shows have aired on various Disney-owned networks (ABC Kids, Toon Disney and Jetix channels worldwide). ABC Family, another Disney-owned network, also used to air Power Rangers until it did away with its Jetix timeslot after August 31, 2006. As of 2007, Disney Channel remains the only Disney-owned network that has never aired Power Rangers.

The Power Rangers

A Power Ranger is a fictional individual who "Morphs" from an unpowered form into a powerful superhero usually wearing a brightly colored battle suit usually made of spandex featuring a helmet with an opaque visor.^[3] In many cases, the helmet serves to protect his or her secret identity. (In some cases, more powerful Rangers may have extra shielding on their suit to protect them from strong blows.) A morphed Ranger generally possesses superhuman strength, durability, and hand-to-hand combat ability; unmorphed Rangers may possess other innate abilities such as telekinesis,^[4] super speed,^[5] invisibility^[6] that are usually not directly related to his or her Ranger powers. Rangers appear to retain their original physiology beneath their suits when in morphed form, as Rangers' helmets have been seen removed or broken on numerous occasions^[7], revealing his or her natural form underneath.^[8] Helmets aside, the suits are donned and removed nearly instantaneously with a glow of light or some other effect. Sometimes, Rangers "de-morph" involuntarily due to powerful physical attacks. Rangers regularly operate in teams of five, with a special sixth Ranger frequently joining the team part way into the series;^[9] More recently a core team of three will later be joined by additional Rangers. Each Ranger's suit and energy spectrum will match a specific color, with red, yellow, and blue being joined by some combination of pink, green, black, or white. Rangers may be named after their respective colors, such as Red Ranger, Blue Ranger, etc., but numbers or other names may also be used. There is usually no more than one Ranger of a given color on a team, but exceptions of this rule are generally given alternate names (in Time Force, there were two Rangers with red-colored costumes; the first was the Red Time Force Ranger, the second was the Quantum Ranger). Each team's costumes are nearly identical aside from color, helmet design (most notably the shape of the opaque visor) and perhaps a numerical designation. Any additional Rangers will regularly have additional costume modifications, usually some form of additional armor. The Rangers' color designation also influences their wardrobe throughout the series, as their civilian clothing is often the same color as their Ranger color. This correlation was joked about in Dino Thunder when Tommy Oliver (a former Green Ranger, White Ranger, and twice a Red Ranger) became the new Black Dino Ranger; he said that he had to go shopping because he did not own enough black-colored clothing.

Plot sequence

The Disney/Jetix-era logo for Power Rangers.

A normal Power Rangers episode can be broken down into a formulaic plot. The plot sequence is generally as follows:

1. Rangers are seen in everyday life with a dispute to resolve.
2. Rangers are attacked by an evil foe's minions/footsoldiers.
3. Rangers fight minions/footsoldiers.
4. Rangers morph.
5. Rangers defeat the minions/footsoldiers.
6. Evil enemy strengthens the minion and makes minion grow to gigantic proportions, followed by Rangers summoning giant machines known as Zords and/or their combined form, the Megazord.
   1. Optional: Rangers find that their current powers are insufficient to defeat minion and discover a new power, such as a Battlizer, or a sixth Ranger.
   2. Optional: Rangers find or receive new Zord/s, new Megazord or Megazord combo.
   3. Optional: Friends or allies show up to offer help or support.
7. Rangers fight and defeat that particular giant minion.
8. Rangers are shown back in everyday life, having learned a life lesson which solves the earlier dispute.

Elements of a Power Rangers season

Each team of Power Rangers, with few exceptions, obey a general set of conventions, outlined at the beginning of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and implied, though not stated explicitly, throughout many of the other incarnations. These include the Power Rangers being forbidden to use their Ranger powers for personal gain or for escalating a fight, explaining why the Rangers do not simply crush the small monsters by means of their Megazord. The Power Rangers are also forbidden to disclose their identities to the general public, barring extenuating circumstances (although this rule was disregarded in Power Rangers: Lightspeed Rescue, Power Rangers: S.P.D. and Power Rangers: Operation Overdrive, in which they were public servants [rescue squad, police officers, etc.] Following a Spartacus-inspired scene by Angel Grove's townspeople, this rule was also disregarded at the conclusion of Power Rangers in Space.) The penalty for disobeying these rules, at least in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, would be the loss of their power. The arsenal available to the Power Rangers is also somewhat standardized: each Ranger is generally armed with a weapon such as a laser gun and/or a sword. Each Ranger also has a secondary set of weapons that can often combine to form a larger weapon (usually a cannon). As the series progresses, one or more of the Rangers are also usually given a motorcycle for long-distance travel, as well as individual Zords. In many series, a Ranger is also given additional Zords or weapons. In some cases, one Ranger may receive something that other Rangers may not have; an example of this is the Battlizer given to the Red Ranger of each series since Power Rangers in Space. Although much of the arsenal can also be found in Super Sentai, there are usually at least some that are not, generally added for the express purpose of marketing toys designed and sold by Bandai. Power Rangers series regularly have villains of their own make which do not appear in the Sentai footage, though for budget and footage reasons there are always carry-overs from the Japanese source material. Less commonly, some series use only the Sentai designs and footage, though despite this some sets have to be replicated for original footage if need be. There was also one instance when to maintain the trend of the Sixth Ranger for a series where only five existed in the source footage, the Titanium Ranger was created especially for Lightspeed Rescue. In seasons following Power Rangers in Space, it became common for each team to be part of a separate storyline from those of previous incarnations. A tradition in later seasons came about such that two teams of Power Rangers teamed up to take on a villain. In Power Rangers: Wild Force, the tenth incarnation of Power Rangers, this is taken to the next level, as ten Red Rangers teamed up in the episode "Forever Red", and in Power Rangers: Operation Overdrive a team of former rangers from various incarnations of the series, teamed up with the Overdrive Rangers to defeat an alliance formed by the son of Rita & Lord Zedd, Thrax, in the episode Once a Ranger. The only seasons not to feature this team up are Power Rangers: Ninja Storm, due to a shift back to non-SAG talent when production was moved to New Zealand and Power Rangers: Mystic Force, due to a relatively short series length. This was somewhat rectified when Xander, the Green Mystic Force Ranger, appeared in the Operation Overdrive mega-crossover Once A Ranger. It is traditional that the arsenal of a Ranger team, especially the Zords, be destroyed at the end of the season in order to destroy the final monster, which is often the main villain. The Rangers also tend to give up their powers, though they remain available for later teaming-ups (For instance, at the end of Ninja Storm, the Rangers sacrificed their powers to imprison Lothor. Once Lothor was freed, however, they were able to get their powers back in order to fight him).

Variations between series

No two Power Rangers series are alike, and aside from a Ranger of each primary color, almost every aspect of the show can potentially be changed depending on the series (and often depending on what the Sentai footage has dictated). Some of the things which are known to change regularly are:

• Annual design theme, and whether or not it is incorporated into the American show
• Number of Rangers, both at the beginning and the end of a series
• Colors of Rangers outside of the primary colors, if any
• Gender of the Yellow and Blue Rangers
• Number of female Rangers, and the ratio thereof to male Rangers
• Ethnicity of Rangers
• Hierarchy of team, including which Ranger is the actual team leader
• Situation of how the morpher is worn, and corresponding morphing call
• Affiliation of Rangers prior to and during the series
• Presence of a mentor and a headquarters
• One or more Rangers' relation to a series villain or fellow Ranger
• Source of the Rangers' power; it is usually magic, unconventionally advanced technology, or (as in Power Rangers Dino Thunder) a combination thereof.

Seasons

Colors

Just like the Super Sentai series that Power Rangers is based off of, the color palette of a Power Ranger team has varied greatly throughout the years.