In Honor of the Grand Finale of Power Rangers. Here are a bunch of Power Ranger Facts. To prevent this list from getting too long,I've decided to just list the various facts that I personally know. So not Every bit of Trivia is gonna be featured.
But first,some Miscellaneous Facts.
Power Rangers beat Super Sentai to the punch at a Kamen Rider crossover, thanks to Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers' Poorly-Disguised Pilot story arc for Masked Rider by a long gap. To elaborate: Said MMPR episodes aired in 1995. The Samurai Sentai Shinkenger crossover arc of Kamen Rider Decade aired in 2009, or 14 years later.
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Power Rangers also had a female Red Ranger before Super Sentai: S.P.D.'s A-Squad leader Charlie, to Shiba Kaoru, the female ShinkenRed, a 4-year difference.
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Ninja and Dino-based seasons have an interesting relationship. Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger and Ninja Sentai Kakuranger - which had dinosaur and ninja motifs respectively - were both adapted into Mighty Morphin.
Ninja Storm was immediately succeeded by and had a crossover with Dino Thunder the latter of which saw the return of Tommy Oliver, who was part of MMPR in both its ninja and dino incarnations, as a series regular.
Dino Charge was immediately followed by Ninja Steel, a reversal of the Ninja Storm and Dino Thunder situation. Ninja Steel's White Ranger also shares her first name with the Mission Control and tech support character from Dino Thunder.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Saban Entertainment's first attempt at adapting the Super Sentai franchise, way back in 1986, was based on Choudenshi Bioman, variously titled either Bio-Men or Galaxy Rangers. Haim Saban had made a pilot with the Bioman footage and original footage, but it was rejected by television networks. When he went to pitch the idea again in the 90's as Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, he made a pilot with Zyuranger footage but kept the actor footage from the Bio-Men pilot.
The names of the five main heroes and Alpha 5 (who was originally supposed to be Peebo rather than an American-original character) were left mostly the same seven years later.
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The original promo that was used to pitch the series (featured in the big box set Shout! and Time-Life offered) showed an odd transition. The Rangers (going by the collective name of "Galaxy Rangers") were known as "Biorhythm Users" (So, instead of "Red Ranger", it was "Biorhythm Red").
Jason was known as "Victor Lee", but was still a martial arts expert; Zack was "Zack Taylor", who was a detective, not a "hip-hop Kito expert"; Kimberly was "Kimberly Harte" (with an "E") and was an aerobics instructor; Billy was still "Billy Cranston"... In Name Only, because this version was an athletic heartthrob, a far cry from the nerd style he would later end up with; and Trini was "Trini Crystal", intellectual and struggling novelist.
Combine the "Biorhythm" designations, the note that Zack is "Biorhythm Green", and the aged looking American footage, this suggests they cannibalized the failed Bioman pilot for this pitch reel.
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Saban (as well as Marvel beforehand) was trying to sell the Super Sentai series for years before it finally got picked up — when it was, Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger was used because it was the most recent series. If it had been picked up earlier, another show would have ended up as the first Power Rangers series. Other Sentai seasons, such as Kousoku Sentai Turboranger and Choujin Sentai Jetman are rumored to have been considered as well.
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In the development stage, the series was called Phantoms and Dino Rangers. Though Phantoms appeared to be a working title that was never meant to be anything but a working title. Dino Rangers was ditched during the shooting of the first pilot, because Haim Saban knew other seasons to follow wouldn't have dinosaurs. The MMPR name was cooked up in the dining area of the bowling alley in the said pilot.
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The MMPR Pilot Episode,was very different. Trini was played by Audri DuBois. The Youth Center was originally a Bowling Alley. Bulk was a Mook in a Gang lead by Skull. Speaking of Skull was played by a different actor.
The Command Center,Alpha,and Zordon looked different. Zordon was named Zoltar. Squat,Baboo,and Goldar were named Grock,Mongo,and Dreadwing. And King Sphinx was called Fly Guy. Plus, The Zords were called Zoids.
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The Green Ranger was originally gonna be a Biker named Rocky. But they decided to go with the gifted young Martial Artist named Tommy Oliver instead.
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Tommy was originally supposed to die in Jason's arms,like with his Zyuranger Counterpart,but Fox Kids execs vetoed it. So,instead of Tommy loosing his life,he lost his Powers instead.
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It was intended for Ernie to be a secret identity of Zordon,which he used to keep an eye on the Rangers. That would explain why he gives the Rangers free use of the Youth Center and why they get discounts on Snacks and Drinks there.
However,in the Final build of the Show,Ernie and Zordon are 2 separate characters,with Ernie never knowing the Ranger's true identity.
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The "Doomsday" 2-parter was intended to be the Grand Finale of Power Rangers,but the show got so extremely popular,that Fox Kids and Saban decided to keep things going.
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The original finale included 3 elements not seen in the Final Product. Rita had a Nephew named Bubba and he would've been a Power Ranger adaption of Bandora's son,Kai. The Rangers would've trapped Rita in a new Space Dumpster and she would've been sent back into space.
During the Ranger's High School Graduations,Rita would've returned and confronted the Rangers personally. Saban even thought about bringing Machiko Soga,(the actress who played bandora,rita's zyuranger counterpart),over to America to appear with the Ranger Teens.
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Since they were almost out of Zyuranger footage,Saban ordered 26 more monster suits and additional footage from Japan. The footage with these monsters would be known as Zyu2,despite not being part of Zyuranger itself.
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Speaking of Zyu2. Before Power Rangers was even put into full production,Saban ordered some extra Zyuranger villain footage from Japan. Like with the later Zyu2 footage,these scenes are exclusive to Power Rangers.
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Pythor the rumored Lost Zyu2 Monster,was in reality just an extra Monster figure for the Toyline.
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Originally,Jason David Frank's character,Tommy Oliver,wasn't planed to return to the Main Cast. That's because JDF was gonna star in his own show,called Cybertron,an adaption of Metalder (a metal hero show from japan).
However,Tommy Oliver turned out to be extremely popular and 3.1 Million young fans across the English-Speaking World begged Saban and Fox Kids to bring him back - so they did.
JDF was brought back to Power Rangers and the Cybertron show was put on hold for a few months to be reworked into V.R. Troopers.
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Initially,Goldar was gonna overthrow Rita and become the Big Bad of Season 2,but Saban decided to create Lord Zedd,Power Ranger's Very First Exclusive Villain,instead.
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There were plans on introducing redesigned Dinozords for Season 2 and a Redesigned Tigerzord to go along with them. These Zords would take on the Giant Dairanger monsters in new footage. However,these plans were scrapped due to costs and the Dairanger Mecha (the mystical chi beasts) were used instead.
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There is unused Zord Footage with the Season 2 Zyu2 Monsters battling the Original Megazord and Dragonzord. The reason why this footage went unused is because Saban insisted on using the Thunderzords (the dairanger mecha) at the very beginning of the Season.
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The 3-part Season 2 premiere "The Mutiny" was the ONLY time Power Rangers would air in Prime Time.
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Brad Hawkins was intended to be the White Ranger,but due to Tommy Oliver's popularity,he was brought back and made the White Ranger instead. Meanwhile,Brad would receive JDF's abandoned roll in Cybertron,which would soon become V.R.Troopers.
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The Advanced Form of the Main Monster from the Dairanger Movie was planned to be in Power Rangers,but was rejected. This was because Monster footage from the Movies would've cost extra. And Haim Saban is known to be cheap.
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Before Brad Hawkins,the Creative pitched the idea of the White Ranger being a mischievous 12-Year-Old Boy,like his Dairanger counterpart. This idea was shot down quickly.
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Due to a contract dispute with Saban,Walter E. Jones (black ranger,zack), Thuy Trang (yellow ranger,trini),and Austin St.John (red ranger,jason),left the show abruptly sometime after the filming of the "White Light" (the white ranger's debut episode).
So when the White Light episode was being prepped to air on TV,a new line was added in to give off the illusion that nothing was going on behind the scenes. It's also the main reason why Tommy,the White Ranger was made the new Leader,since ASJ's Jason was no longer gonna appear in the show (though the Red Ranger still does).
The Line in question was Zordon's "Are you pleased with the new Leader of the Power Team?".
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When Johns,Trang,and St. John left the show,Saban scrambled to find replacements. While that was going on,they hired Stunt Actors to play the Rangers in some scenes. These actors bared little resemblance to the originals,so they weren't used much and when they were used,they were always shot from behind.
Saban would also use pre-recorded voices of the 3 Actors for these Doubles. Another thing,Saban did as a cover-up, was use unaired footage of the OG actors.
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Saban scrambled to find permanent replacement Actors for the Red,Yellow,and Black Rangers - And they did. Replacing Walter Jones (Zack Taylor) was Johnny Yong Bosch (Adam Park). Steve Cardenas (Rocky DeSantos) replaced Austin St. John (Jason Scott). And Karan Ashley (Aisha Campbell) replaced Thuy Trang (Trini Kwan).
To get around the fact that New Actors would soon be playing The Red,Black,and Yellow Rangers,Saban set up a story where Jason,Trini,and Zack were chosen to represent the United States in a Global Peace Conference and needed to leave the Team..
On an amusing note,Haim Saban would threaten anyone who didn't behave by "Sending Them to a Peace Conference!",like he did with Trang,St.John,and Jones. In other words - Fire Them (though in reality,they quit).
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Fox Kids and Saban Entertainment got hundreds of letters from Parents complaining about how scary Lord Zedd was. So Saban decided to soften him up by having him marry a returning Rita Repulsa.
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Speaking of Rita,when she returned,she was finally portrayed by an American Actress (carla perez,I think her name was). Ditto for Scorpina (portrayed by sabrina lu).
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Speaking of Scorpina,She was originally supposed get more appearances in Season 2,instead of just one (goldar's vice-versa). However,Saban couldn't keep in touch with the American Actress who played her,Sabrina Lu,so her return was cut short.
That's why she was absent from All of Mighty Morphin' Season 3 and was completely absent for the Power Rangers In Space Finale,"Countdown to Destruction".
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2 Scrapped episodes were planned for Season 2 - "The Party Crasher" and the 2-Part "Zordon,I Shrunk the Rangers".
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Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers - The Movie was something Saban wanted to do since the very beginning. So in 1994,Saban got together with Fox and they began planning the Movie.
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To decrease the budget,Saban and Fox filmed the Movie in Sidney,Austrailia.
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Initially,Austin St. John,Walter Jones,and Thuy Trang were going to be in the film as the Red,Black,and Yellow Rangers. But due to that little contract dispute,they were replaced by their replacements.
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MMPR: TM went though many different script revisions.
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Gabrielle Fitzpatrick was originally Dulcea,but when she got sick,she was replaced by her understudy,Mariska Hargentay (i think that's how her last name is spelled). But when,Fitzpatrick got better,she ended up returning to the role,replacing her replacement.
on a related note,Catherine Sutherland,who played Kat Hillard in the show,auditioned for the roll of Dulcea,but was rejected.
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The backstory for Zordon and Ducea was gonna be slightly more detailed. Both were part of an secret organization called "The Order of Maridian" and were responsible for the Power Rangers existence in that Universe.
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Because of all of the script revising,the Movie ran Behind Schedule,so the Actors had to stay in Australia for a little longer. As a result 6 Episodes of the show were filmed there - The 3 Part "The Wedding" and the 3-Part "Return of the Green Ranger"
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At one point,The Ranger's helmets were gonna lack the visors and mouth parts,this was so that the audience could see more emotion from the Rangers when morphed. But,since those helmets looked stupid,the regular helmets were used instead.
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Mordant was intended to be a small furry monkey-like creature,who was Goldar's 2nd cousin, but in the final film,he was turn into a Pig - A Pig who was an amalgamation of Squatt and Baboo,who were absent in this Movie.
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Ernie was originally gonna be part of the Movie,but was cut during the "Script Revision" Process. Along with Ernie,his Waterside Cafe was also cut.
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Originally,Ivan Ooze's first set of grunts were gonna be Giant Rats. But the Rat suits looked too low budget for the Movie,so the Oozemen were created instead. Not wanting the Rat suits to go to waste,Saban would use them in the show.
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Ivan Ooze's "Brady Bunch Reunion" line was ad-libbed by his Actor,Paul Freeman.
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Dulcea was originally gonna have an annoying sidekick named Snoggle,but was scrapped early on.
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After destroying his Tengu Warriors for failing,Ivan Ooze was originally supposed to create Super Tengu Warriors,as well as an even stronger,Queen Tengu.
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Adam's "I'm a Frog" line was ad-libbed by Johnny Yong Bosch.
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Ivan was originally gonna brainwash the populace by polluting the Water System with his Ooze. This was deemed too dark.
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The scene where the Rangers battle a Giant Dino Skeleton on Phaetos was never part of the plan,but a last minute addition to the final script.
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A planned scene would've had a training montage of the Rangers using their new Ninja Powers. And the scene after that,would've had the Rangers form a spiritual bond with their Spirit Animals.
These scenes were replaced by that Dino Skeleton battle.
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Instead of fighting the Gargoyles,the Rangers would've fought the Queen Tengu and her Super Tengu Warriors instead.
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In the first draft of the script,Zordon was supposed to die and Dulcea was gonna take his place as the Ranger's new Mentor. This was changed for obvious reasons.
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When the Rangers returned to Earth,they were supposed to visit the Command Center and revive Zordon first,then deal with Ivan Ooze. In the final,these scenes were reversed.
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Ivan was supposed to possess Scorpitron. But in the final,he possesses Hornitor instead.
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Season 3 kicked off with the 3-Part Masked Rider Crossover "A Friend in Need",which was a pilot for the Masked Rider show.
However,due to the acclaimed flop of that show,Saban,Disney,and Hasbro ignore this 3-parter and instead consider the 4-part "Ninja Quest" to be the True Season 3 Premiere.
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The Tengu Warriors from the Movie were reused in the Show and renamed to the Tenga Warriors.
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Kathrine (played by Catherine Sutherland) was initially added Just as Romantic Rival to Kimberly for Tommy's affections. But,once Amy Jo Johnson (kimberly's actress) wanted to leave the show for bigger things,it was decided to extend Kat's role and make her the 2nd Pink Ranger.
And unlike Austin St.John,Walter Jones,and Thuy Trang,Amy Jo Johnson got a proper send off.
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The Mecha introduction is reversed. In Kakuranger (the source of season 3's footage),the Shogun Zords were introduced first,while the Ninja Zords came later. This was changed for obvious reasons.
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The reason why the Rangers were turned into Children in late-Season 3 was so that the Adult Actors could work on Power Rangers Zeo,the next Season,which was being shot at the same time as S3's "Alien Rangers/Zeo Quest" saga.
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Karan Ashley (Aisha) left the show before Zeo,and was replaced with Nakia Burrise (Tanya). In later years,Ashley expressed annoyance that she didn't get a better send-off.
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Zeo marked the 1st time the Ranger Team got a Costume Change. This would happen from now on with each season.
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The Gold Ranger was originally supposed to be Ryan Steele from VR Troopers, hence Brad Hawkins doing the voice. This was scrapped for the triplet Triforians (Trey), and then the returning Jason.
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The Gold Ranger was voiced by Brad Hawkins, from VR Troopers, for his first few appearances before the DiFilippo triplets were cast as a result of a casting scheme that Shuki Levy wanted to go with. Hawkins still did the voiceover due to the triplets' strong accents making it difficult to understand them.
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Theories about Billy's unexplained absences during the times he was suspected to be the Gold Ranger were him working on the creation of the Turbo Powers.
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Billy was also supposed to be the Gold Ranger at one point, but it too was scrapped due to growing tension behind the scenes (later discovered to be David Yost being gay-bashed by the crewmen).
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For Billy's sendoff, since David Yost had already walked away from the series, they had an older actor, William Frederick Knight, play him despite said actor not getting down the mannerisms of the character.
Also, stock footage of Yost was used while using a dubber that only bore a passing vocal similarity to the original actor, similar to the soundalikes dubbing Jason, Zack, and Trini in the middle of MMPR Season Two. Said dubber was the ADR director Scott Page-Pagter.
So when Billy was saying his good-byes to the team via video feed,it was stock footage of David Yost,but scrambled,using a sound-alike.
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Rocky was originally planned to be the Blue Turbo Ranger but due to failed salary renegotiation, Steve Cardenas decided to leave, hence Justin was created in his place.
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A revision of the Turbo Movie script gave Justin a lot more motivation, explained the Turbo powers,explained why the Zeo Powers were replaced, and afterwards explained why they didn't pass the powers off to someone else. There are still some plot holes,but it most of them got patched up.
Adam would've also rescued a mermaid,named Mandika. This scene might have made it as far as filming before they cut her entirely.
In an podcast interview with a fansite in 2014, Hilary Shepard Turner revealed that Divatox was originally written with Grace Jones in mind. And in earlier drafts, her name was "Darivia".
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Early ideas were for the movie to feature all of the original five Rangers returning. David Yost walking off the set near the end of Power Rangers Zeo trashed that concept early on and only Amy Jo Johnson and Austin St. John returned.
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Johnny Yong Bosch revealed that the film was originally about 3 hours long before being cut down in editing with a lot more developments on things that went unexplained in the final product.
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12-Year-Old Blake Foster (Justin) was chosen to be a Ranger to capitalize on the success of Big Bad Beetleborgs.
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There was a dispute between Jonathan Tzachor and story editor Doug Sloan about the tone of the Turbo Season - the former wanted to embrace the comedic elements of the source material, and the latter wanted to make a serious story. Judd Lynn's thoughts were similar to those of Tzachor's,so that's why Turbo would have serious story arcs,but ever other episode would be goofy.
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Jason David Frank wanted to leave the show after Zeo, but the producers asked him to stay on for the first half of Turbo with a reduced role until they found a replacement. Catherine Sutherland then announced she wanted to leave as well, so the producers decided to just completely reboot the entire cast (save for Blake Foster as Justin).
The problem is they didn't tell Johnny Yong Bosch or Nakia Burrise about this. Both of them found out from gossiping hair and make-up people on set.
The Replacement actors were Sewlyn Ward as T.J. the Red Ranger,Patricia Ja Lee as Cassie the Pink Ranger,Tracy Lynn Cruz as Ashley the Yellow Ranger,and Roger Valasco as Carlos the Green Ranger.
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During the passing of the torch ceremony in "Passing the Torch",Trini,Jason,and Zack were to appear along side the retiring Rangers.
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Divatox and Dimitria were originally supposed to be Twin Sisters.
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Speaking of Divatox. She was portrayed by Hilary Shepard Turner in The Movie, but while she was on maternity leave, she was subsequently replaced by Carol Hoyt in the television series for the first half of the series.
During the second half of the season, Turner reprised her role, continuing well enough into Power Rangers in Space. The change in actresses between the film and the show also brought about a change in costume and personality.
Divatox's costume in the film was much more revealing and exposed a lot of cleavage, while her costume in the show was a little more covered up. Hoyt's Divatox was more calculating and evil while Turner portrayed Divatox as more of a hysterical diva.
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Blake Foster was a huge fan of the show and was absolutely thrilled when he was offered the part of the Blue Ranger. Even at Power Morphicon in 2010, he said that being a Power Ranger was every kid's dream and that he kept his helmet and costume.
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Bulk and Skull were gonna get their own TV Show,there was even a pilot script made. But,due to budget cuts,the show was scrapped.
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In Space's entire premise was due to Saban believing that Megaranger would be space-themed, but after realizing it was video game and device themed, they decided to stick with their original plans. It's possible we would've gotten a hugely different show had Saban either known about the real theme beforehand or had decided to keep the theme in the adaptation.
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The original intent was to keep Justin (no Andros) and the suit for Carranger's Emperor Exhaus would've been used for Dark Specter,instead recycling the Maligore costume from the Turbo movie.
The Megaranger mooks would've been kept instead of replacing them with the Quantrons, and the Phantom Ranger's identity would've been revealed in the finale.
Darkonda was gonna be named Spike, and Bulk and Skull were going to start a Civil Defense Force with the Rangers away.
Gaskett and Archerina were gonna have some role in the series,but their suits fell apart before shooting the first episode.
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In Space was the Very Series/Season to introduce the Battlizer.
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Rita, Zedd and Divatox were supposed to die in the finale because of the Z-Wave. However, the Fox Kids censors did not like this, so they were spared.
Also, originally all the villains were going to be turned human. This was eventually simplified to just Zedd, Rita, Divatox and Astronema with the rest turned into sand for two reasons (time constraints and wanting to end the Zordon arc).
Rito Revolto was going to appear and become human alongside his sister and Zedd. Unfortunately, his suit had almost completely deteriorated by the end of Zeo, and thus he didn’t return.
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"Countdown to Destruction" was supposed to be a three-parter. It was shortened to two parts, and as a result, many scenes got cut, including Andros and Ashley's kiss, as well as the reveal of Phantom Ranger's identity. Also,Goldar and the Tengas were gonna battle Ninjor for control of the Ninja Temple.
It's also been rumored that Silver Titanus, a space-themed retool of the MMPR Titanus toy would've made an appearance in said third part. Master Vile was also gonna appear.
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In Space was supposed to be the Grand Finale of Power Rangers,but the since the ratings were still good,another Season was made.
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Cassie Chan (Patricia Ja Lee) was supposed to take over Kendrix's spot as the Pink Galaxy Ranger at the end of "The Power of Pink", due to Valerie Vernon's fight with leukemia, with the handoff already filmed.
Unfortunately, due to the uncertainty of Vernon's cancer fight at the time (she later won, hence her sudden resurrection in the finale), the crew was unable to drop Vernon from her spot in the opening in order to pay Lee the same rate and benefits (since PR was SAG union at the time) instead of sticking her in the back end for much less.
Lee quit, necessitating a re-shoot of the ending using stuntmen for stand-ins and Melody Perkins was brought back as Karone,who would become the Pink Ranger after conquering her dark past as Astronema.
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There was supposed to be a set of Ancient Rangers who would have played a part in the series. Interestingly, they would have donned the Ranger costumes from Dairanger. However, Valerie Vernon's leukemia fight caused it to be scrapped.
The only thing that's left from these plans is the Magna Defender's morpher, which was the one used in Dairanger (his Sentai counterpart transformed using his sword,ala He-Man).
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Lightspeed Rescue was supposed to be a continuation of Lost Galaxy.
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The Titanium Ranger was the very first American created Ranger.
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Haim Saban believed that Timeranger had the Heroes chase the Villains though various periods of Time,but when he was informed that they didn't do that,Saban decided to stick with Americanizing Timeranger's plot.
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Eric,the Quantum Ranger,was gonna die,like his Sentai Counterpart,but that was vetoed by Fox Kids.
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Time Force was gonna get a Movie,but thanks to the fear of a rumored writer's strike,it never happened.
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Wild Force was gonna have more Power Animals than it's Sentai Counterpart,Gaorangers,Saban commissioned them from Japan and Toei were gonna shoot new scenes with these Animals,However this was dropped as a cost cutting measure by Disney,who just bought Power Rangers.
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The epic Red Ranger XOver,"Forever Red" was gonna be a 2-Parter,but Disney cut it to one to save costs. There was also gonna be an Epic Serpentera vs' Megazords battle. But Disney didn't want to promote old toys or waste more money on the Episode.
Also,Rocky was gonna join the Rangers in his Red Ninja Ranger form,but Saban lost touch with Steve Cardenas,Rocky's actor.
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Wild Force was supposed to be the Grand Finale of Power Rangers,as Disney saw it as nothing but a Toy Commercial and not worth keeping around. However,they were convinced to move the show to New Zealand to help cut costs. So they did.
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Before the decision to move filming locations from Los Angeles to New Zealand, then-story editor Amit Bhaumik put together a pitch for what has been dubbed "Hexagon," effectively scrapping the Sentai's structure and turning the Wind and Thunder Ranger rivalry into two sets of Ranger teams, one led by Tommy in a Zordon-like mentorship role (alluded to during Wild Force in his echoing of some of Zordon's lines), the other as a rebellious, anti-authority group led by Jason.
The idea was to feature several veteran Rangers in guest roles as well, and even feature several villains whose fates had been left up in the air, such as Gasket, Archerina, Scorpina, Master Vile, and Lokar. Whether or not the budget would have existed for this version of events is a mystery for the ages, but the moment production changed continents and the production staff changed, the entire idea was scrapped.
There was Also gonna be a Female Gold Thunder Ranger created for the show,had this happened, then we would've had 3 Rangers on each team.
Also,the Green Ranger was gonna work both sides of the spectrum,with his normal mode working with Jason's Thunder Rangers and his Alt-Mode working for the Tommy's Wind Rangers.
I'll talk more about This interesting subject another day and time.
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Speaking of Bhaumik,he once created a short fan film taking place at the end of Zeo,explaining the loss of the Zeo powers. The film was called Scorpion Rain,though some sources call it Scorpion Raid.
Anyway,the film used toys and stock footage, and the plot revolved around Lord Zedd returning to reclaim Serpentera.
Amit Bhaumik considers Scorpion Rain/Scorpion Raid to be an unofficial prequel to Forever Red. I'll talk more about this at another time.
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A Wild Force team-up would've happened,but due to the cost of flying in the WF Actors from LA to NZ,this idea was scrapped.
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The Wind/Thunder Ranger rivalry would've lasted longer,but Disney vetoed it.
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The Original plan for the Black Dino Thunder Ranger was a paleontology professor named Edward Payne. But then they got Jason David Frank to return. The Dino Thunder writers got lazy and never changed the profession once JDF came onboard. This led to the canon issue of Tommy becoming a Scientist in a short time.
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Rumors have swirled for quite some time that Zeltrax was going to be revealed to be one of the Zordon-era Rangers,and Not Smithy. Jason and Billy are the two names that commonly pop up, though some also claim Kat would have become Zeltrax had she been on the show and the character given a female voice.
One has to wonder how much of an impact that would have had with Tommy, now a mentor to a team, fighting a brainwashed friend that the audience knew instead of some guy we only meet in flashbacks.
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The Triassic Ranger,was gonna be a 6th Ranger,but as Abaranger continued, it became apparent that rather than a separate hero it was just another Super Mode for Red, meaning these plans had to be discarded entirely.
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There were plans for Kira and Trent to become an Official Couple, and the relationship was teased throughout the first half of the season. However, according to Trent's actor, the higher-ups at Disney worried that young boys wouldn't be interested in a Romance Arc, and so the relationship was quietly dropped.
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The 500th episode was "Legacy of Power". Also, "Fighting Spirit" aired on the 11th anniversary of the show's premiere.
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The Reason why Disney made the decision to make an evil Clone of Trent was so that they could keep using the Evil White Ranger footage. Since they had Trent turn good way earlier than his Sentai Counterpart,Abrekiller,they needed to do this.
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According to Catherine Sutherland, who played MMPR/PRZ Pink Ranger Kat Hillard,they were going to bring her back, but couldn't because of cost. Presumably, she would have been Tommy's wife and likely filled Hayley's role.
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Producer Greg Aronowitz planned for SPD to have the first full-fledged female Red Ranger in the franchise's (including Sentai's) history, but since this is a series designed to sell toys to boys, he was quickly shot down by higher ups from both sides of the Pacific. He made the A-Squad Red Ranger a woman instead.
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Bruce Kalish had plans for an SPD movie in which Jack rejoined the team, but was vetoed by Disney. Ironically Toei would start a series of Super Sentai films for the 10th Anniversary of an series with Dekaranger being the second with basically the same plot concept.
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Jack and Z were originally going to be brother and sister, sharing the last name of Manners before being cast apart.
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According to Greg Aronowitz during RangerStop 2015, his original plans for "History" were for Broodwing to use the Dino Gems to create clones of the Dino Thunder Rangers. However, Disney told him to use the time travel dynamic since they were concerned about the audience being confused on whether or not those were the actual team members.
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SPD is the only Disney-made season of the franchise where all the main Ranger Actors were North American.
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Disney wanted to save money and didn't want to hire a seventh starring actor, so it was written in that Sam the Omega Ranger, as a side effect of time traveling, was either stuck in his suit or transformed into a ball of light.
This meant he was played on set by a stuntman in a suit and had his dialogue recorded later in ADR, making interaction between him and the other characters a bit awkward. The crew was frustrated by this.
Due to being too lazy to work around this issue,the writers decided to just give Sam as little screen time as possible.
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SPD also has the pleasure of having the 1st Female Red Ranger (Charlie). She's the Leader of the SPD A-Squad and she's evil.
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Like the other Disney series since the transition to New Zealand, Mystic Force was planned to have 38 episodes instead of 32. Disney, who at this point were beginning to grow tired of the franchise,which was nothing but a Toy Commercial to them,cut the budget for this show.
One of the planned episodes was confirmed to be a crossover with S.P.D. The closest we got with a crossover to the previous season was a cameo by Piggy.
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A crossover with S.P.D. was considered, but due to Disney trimming the episode order from 38 to 32, it was scrapped. The closest thing was a cameo from Piggy from the previous series.
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Ron Wasserman originally submitted two potential theme songs for the Mystic Force, a rock theme and a rap theme, both of which were rejected in favor of what we got.
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Operation Overdrive had a far more ambitious pitch that was retooled after getting a reduced budget, as the original premise of the show would have been similar to Boukenger.
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Around the time of Operation Overdrive, Disney tried to cancel the live-action Power Ranger series and replace it with an animated one, with one incarnation having Doggie Kruger as mentor to a new team. But Toei vetoed that.
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Producer Jackie Marchand was not fond of the finished version of "Once A Ranger", which cut out scenes that would have made the Overdrive team's decision to leave explained better and made more sympathetic. She says the aired version "didn't reflect well on the Overdrive team and made them seem like assholes". Though there were deleted scenes which explained the Rangers' jealousy towards their predecessors.
Also,Thrax was supposed to be a bigger threat in the Crossover,but Disney didn't care much for him,so he was killed off quickly and easily by the Sentinel Knight. True story.
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Jungle Fury has the honor of having 3 Power Ranger exclusive Rangers, the Spirit Rangers.
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After Jungle Fury,Disney was Ready to pull the Plug on the Franchise,but were contracted to do 1 more Series/Season. And they did - Power Rangers RPM.
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RPM was gonna air on Disney XD,but Disney didn't feel like doing that for some dumb reason.
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The executive producer, Eddie Guzelian, was fired midway through the season due to Executive Meddling. When Judd Lynn took the helm the plot shifted from Guzelian's original plan. One example being that Tenaya was not supposed to be Dillon's sister. This twist was very similar to In Space's Andros and Andromeda reveal.
Guzelian has been on the record as still in possession of the notes and has promised the actors that he'd reveal his ideas over a drink if they wanted to.
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The ending revealed that Venjix didn't die and had transferred its consciousness into the Red Ranger morpher. This plot line was setting up for a future RPM crossover that would have seen the next season of Rangers team up with the RPM team to defeat Venjix for good.
Sadly Disney sold the rights to Power Rangers back to Saban and Judd Lynn wasn't brought back on for Samurai. Instead the RPM/Samurai crossover involved fighting a newly introduced villain, Professor Cog, without resolving the Venjix storyline.
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With the reveals that Dr. K and Colonel Truman were returning in Power Rangers: Beast Morphers, speculation began with the loose threads finally being tied up, including theories that Evox was an evolved version of Venjix, and that Scrozzle was in fact a Venjix-built robot — which would explain why he looks almost nothing like the Go-Busters monsters in Beast Morphers, rather resembling the Go-Onger monsters from RPM.
It was ultimately confirmed that series Big Bad Evox was indeed Venjix, who'd escaped from Scott's morpher and into Grid Battleforce's computers as a result of Nate experimenting with the morpher in an attempt to create a new way of morphing.
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The series originally had a MUCH darker ending (at least allegedly -- no one is sure whether or not this is real). After Venjix was destroyed in Danger & Destiny, the series' true finale Ranger Black would begin; Dillon would be revealed as a cyborg sleeper agent created to infiltrate the Rangers, gain their trust/access to the morphing grid, and ultimately serve as Venjix's final host.
Everything about his human existence, up to and including Tenaya being his sister, was fiction created by Venjix in order to lure the Rangers into trusting him. The series would then end with the rest of the team being forced to kill Dillon in order to save humanity and destroy Venjix once and for all.
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Johnny Yong Bosch apparently turned down the chance to reprise his role as Adam. What kind of role he would have played is unknown though common speculation is that he'd have filled a role similar to Tommy in Dino Thunder.
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Tenaya was going to get a morpher at the end of the season had Eddie Guzelian stayed on, presumably becoming a Ranger.
There are rumors that she would have become the Orange Ranger, and helped control the unpiloted Croc Carrier, and in turn the ValveMax Megazord with Dillon and Ziggy (there was no Orange Ranger in Go-Onger, or even in the RPM toyline, which did give the PaleoMax Zords counterpart Rangers; same thing goes for the Whale Jumbo Jet.)
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After RPM,Disney decided to cancel the series and instead revise the Original Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. The less said about this one the better.
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In 2011,Disney sold the Power Rangers franchise back to Saban,who immediately started the nest Season/Series, Power Rangers Samurai.
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Because of executive meddling by Nickelodeon (the network that saban chose to air power rangers),All Neo-Saban Era Series were forced to split up into 2 20-Episode Seasons.
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"Clash of the Red Rangers" was once intended to be a Full RPM/Samurai Crossover
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Samurai is the Only Power Ranger Season where the Battlizer can be shared between Rangers,instead of being a Red Ranger exclusive.
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Saban wanted to skip Goseiger and go right into Gokaiger,but Toei vetoed it.
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Megaforce (and Super Megaforce) was the series that commemorated the Franchises 20th Anniversary
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In Super Mega Force,Many Past Rangers were originally planed to return,but plans changed due to various reasons (such as budget constraints and actors refusing to return for either low pay or personal reasons).
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Dino Charge was a result of Saban fully skipping over Go-Busters to adapt Kyoryuger. Go-Busters would eventually be adapted as the 1st Hasbro Season,Power Rangers Beast Morphers.
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For Ninja Steel,Saban adapted Ninninjer and bypassed the Sentai's previous Series/Season,ToQger. Though some elements from ToQer would still be featured in Ninja Steel.
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The reason why ToQer went unadapted was because Trains were not that exciting for American Kids (that and the megazord gaining a penis when it the rangers mistransformed it.)
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"Dimensions in Danger" almost became a longer episode. Notable scenes were cut before production started, as revealed in the script under Wes' actor Jason Faunt's possession such as:
Gemma originally had more lines, with some of them ultimately given to Wes in the final version.
While it had the third-largest number of Rangers teaming up with 16 ("Legendary Battle" and Shattered Grid had more), it was originally going to be 21 with the inclusion of Ninjor, Phantom Ranger, Ryan, Eric and Doggie.
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Soon after the completion of Super Ninja Steel,Saban sold the rights to the Franchise to Hasbro.
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Beast Morphers was the 1st Power Rangers Series/Season in the Hasbro Era.
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For the 2nd Season of Beast Morphers,Hasbro moved the Series to Netflix.
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Beast Morphers was gonna have a Much Stronger connection with RPM.
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Dino Fury was initially called Dino Knights,but Hasbro thought the name was too obvious.
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No crossover for Dino Fury ended up being filmed owing to the pandemic (Covid-CCP).
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Zyuohger was skipped because the Ranger Costumes looked a bit too basic and the Mecha didn't look cool enough. Plus,the Sentai Series after it,Ryusoulger had Dinosaurs and just looked better,so it was adapted instead (into Power Rangers Dino Fury).
Kyuranger was skipped for having too many Rangers. Let's face it,it would be nearly impossible to thoroughly develop and tell the stories of that many rangers within a season of Power Rangers.
Also,LupinRanger VS PatoRanger was skipped because Rangers can't be criminals (the LupinRangers) and that Rangers as cops could be problematic for some in today's climate (the PatoRangers).
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Power Rangers Cosmic Fury is the shortest Power Ranger Series (with only 10 Episodes) and The Franchise Finale. And it was the Only Power Ranger franchise that used Original Non-Sentai suits for the Main Rangers.
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And that's all she wrote for this. Hope you were all enlightened by these factoids.
Power Rangers may be gone,but it will be fondly remembered as a Franchise that entertained 3 Generations.
Until Next Time,
Stay Gold,Space Cowboys.
And Resist Modern Attitudes!!!!
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