22 Fascinating Insights Into ‘Mighty Morphin Power Rangers’

From the mid-1990s, children nationwide tuned in six days a week to follow five Angel Grove teens who transformed into superheroes, battling colossal villains with the help of dinosaur-inspired robots known as Zords. The original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers remains a cherished series, and here are some lesser-known facts about its legacy.

The iconic Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers was inspired by a widely popular Japanese television series.

Super Sentai, developed by Toei Studios in 1975, initially ran for two years. Each subsequent year introduced a fresh theme, showcasing teams like the Five Rangers, Turbo Rangers, Goggle Five Rangers, Battle Fever J Rangers, Ninja Rangers, and King Rangers to Japanese audiences.

The American Power Rangers drew inspiration from the Beast Rangers of the Dinosaur Corps, the 16th iteration of Toei’s Rangers. As reported by the Los Angeles Times, Toei selected this theme to capitalize on the dinosaur craze sparked by Jurassic Park. The characters and their designs were licensed to Saban Entertainment.

Selling the show was a seven-year endeavor.

Haim Saban, who later became the executive producer of Power Rangers, initially worked as a concert promoter, theme song composer, and producer of NBC’s Kidd Video (a children’s version of MTV). During a visit to Japan to meet animation studios, he stumbled upon Super Sentai.

“‘We have to do something with this. It’s huge in Japan, but no one else globally is paying attention,’” Shuki Levy, the show’s executive producer (who also wrote and scored the pilot episode), told Complex.

Despite Saban’s efforts, the show initially faced rejection. “For seven years, I pitched this idea, and everyone told me, ‘Take a pill or something,’ because it seemed too bizarre—guys in spandex suits fighting with dinosaurs,” Saban explained to the Orlando Sentinel in 1993. Everything changed when he met Margaret Loesch, president of Fox Children’s Network, who saw its potential—and the rest is history.

The show was initially titled Dino Rangers.

In a conversation with No Pink Spandex, Amy Jo Johnson, who portrayed Pink Ranger Kimberly Hart, shared that during the early days of filming, the series “was known as Dino Rangers, before the title was switched to Power Rangers.

Amy Jo Johnson had almost left Los Angeles just before landing her role.

Johnson’s initial half-year in Los Angeles was challenging. “[I felt] somewhat disheartened and isolated,” she shared with No Pink Spandex. After moving to LA with her boyfriend, their breakup left her with nothing but her belongings sold and plans to return home. However, destiny intervened: “The evening before my departure, I met Walter Rainey, who became my acting coach for the next decade,” she recalled. “I spent two weeks at home. He contacted my parents … and insisted, ‘She really should return.’”

Johnson returned to LA. She had attended an acting class led by Katy Wallin, who also worked as a casting director. “That summer … she was handling the casting for Power Rangers in her office,” Johnson explained. “She reached out and said, ‘Why not come in?’ I did, and I landed the role.”

The Power Rangers actors were discovered through open auditions.

“Thousands auditioned for the series,” Austin St. John, who portrayed Red Ranger Jason, told Entertainment Tonight. “It was an open call, and people flocked from everywhere. I was certain I had no chance of getting anywhere near this … but I was mistaken.”

Casting directors shortlisted thousands to six groups of five teens. Johnson was grouped with St. John, David Yost (Blue Ranger Billy), and Walter Jones (Black Ranger Zack). “We bonded, spent time together, and prepared for the auditions,” Johnson told No Pink Spandex. “Our group ended up winning the roles, which was amazing.”

The pilot episode featured a different actress as the Yellow Ranger.

Johnson’s audition group included Audri DuBois, who was initially cast as the Yellow Ranger. Jones explained to Fusion that the original Trini was “an incredibly skilled martial artist, very strong, and of Latin descent. However, she requested a higher salary, was let go after the pilot, and replaced by Thuy Trang.” You can view the original pilot above.

The action scenes were sourced directly from the Japanese version of the series.

Instead of filming new action sequences, the producers decided to retain the Japanese footage “and build an American show around it,” Levy explained to Complex. “When the show aired, the biggest challenge was aligning our storyline with the Japanese footage. For instance, we’d receive an episode featuring a battle with a rubber-like pig creature. Without knowing the original context, we had to craft our own narrative around it. Over time, we synchronized better with the Japanese team, who adjusted their production to support our success in the U.S.”

The actors recorded their dialogue in a studio, often without wearing their Ranger suits. Jones told Fusion that they only wore the costumes for transition scenes and never actually piloted the Zords. Frank added to Complex that “since we relied on Japanese footage, the only time we wore our suits was in the Command Center, with our helmets off.”

The actor portraying Zordon was filmed only a single time.

David Fielding shared with Complex that he envisioned Zordon (initially named “Zoltar”) as “a mythical figure akin to Zeus or Odin, which influenced the voice I used during the audition.” He competed against only one other actor and, after auditioning alongside the Rangers, secured the role.

However, instead of recurring appearances, he was filmed just once for a few hours. “Budget constraints meant they never filmed the character again,” Fielding explained to The Huffington Post. “They shaved my head, glued my ears back, and used makeup to accentuate my eyebrows. They painted the upper half of my chest and shoulders green, and I sat before a green screen as they filmed only my head. ... If you observe Zordon in the show, his movements often seem out of sync with the scenes.” The remainder of his role was recorded in a studio.

The woman who voiced Rita Repulsa was initially fired but later rehired.

Barbara Goodson, a regular voice actor for Saban Entertainment, was cast as Rita and instructed to deliver “a Wicked Witch of the West-style voice,” she recalled to Complex. However, after a poll deemed her performance insufficiently menacing, she was let go. “I requested another chance, but they decided to audition others,” Goodson said. “Having already recorded the pilot, I insisted, ‘Let me at least audition.’ Frustrated, I developed the hoarse Rita voice out of irritation, and it became iconic for five years.”

The Green Ranger was originally intended to be a temporary character.

When Jason David Frank auditioned for the role of Tommy, the Green Ranger, the five original Rangers had already been cast. Tommy was initially planned to appear in just a handful of episodes. However, fans adored him and sent letters to Saban expressing their enthusiasm. As a result, Saban decided to bring him back. Frank eventually became the White Ranger and appeared in 217 episodes.

The series achieved enormous success.

Filming for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers commenced in September 1992 and lasted six months. The show premiered on August 28, 1993, and quickly became a sensation. By the end of 1993, it was the top-rated weekday show for children aged 2 to 11 and also claimed the top spot for 6- to 17-year-olds on Saturday mornings. “The Power Rangers have achieved the highest Nielsen ratings for a network children's TV show,” The Baltimore Sun reported in December 1993.

“The success has exceeded all expectations,” Saban remarked at the time. “Numerous parents have written to us, expressing how the show has strengthened their bond with their children. Parents and kids each enjoy it on different levels.”

The Rangers’ command center is a real location.

The exterior of Zordon’s lair is the House of the Book, a building on the Brandeis-Bardin Campus of the American Jewish University in Simi Valley, California. Designed by Sidney Eisenshtat, it opened in 1973.

The actors choreographed their own fight scenes.

Saban ensured the actors he hired could perform superhero-like actions with minimal guidance. Yost and Johnson were gymnasts, while Jones, St. John, and Frank were martial artists. Jones was given the creative task of developing “hip-hop kido.” He told The Huffington Post, “I had to think deeply about it, figuring out the purpose and effectiveness of each move … Creating new ways to blend dance and combat was one of the most enjoyable aspects of the job for me.”

However, the time allocated for filming fight scenes was limited, and Jones had little time to plan them. “It wasn’t like a movie set where you have two weeks to perfect a fight sequence,” he explained, adding:

“‘In today’s script, you’ll be fighting in the park. How about using this park bench? Can you come up with something?’ I’d have 15 to 30 minutes to devise my moves. They’d give me a couple of putties … Everything was improvised and choreographed on the spot.”

The actors performed many of their own stunts ...

“It was exciting, but as a non-union show, I had to handle most of the stunts myself. The helmet had only three holes, making it hard to breathe,” Johnson shared during a 2004 interview on The Sharon Osbourne Show. “They’d dangle me over fire pits and other hazards; it was quite perilous … We faced many frightening situations.”

Johnson revealed to Complex that during the first season, the actors wore the suits and helmets, but “after nearly suffocating due to the helmets having only three small breathing holes, stunt doubles were brought in.”

... However, their pay was far from generous.

“We were earning, at most, $600 a week,” Johnson told No Pink Spandex about the non-union production. “No residuals whatsoever; not a single one.”

St. John shared with The Huffington Post that “I could have earned the same amount working at McDonald’s during the first season. It was disheartening, frustrating, and infuriating for many of us … We had a great time, but we worked tirelessly, putting in long, grueling hours on a non-union show. We were never compensated fairly for our efforts.”

The situation barely improved after the first season. Saban Entertainment continued to profit immensely from merchandise, video games, and theme parks, all leveraging the actors’ images. “After two seasons, I believed we deserved union status,” Jones told The Huffington Post. “The idea was for us to unite, seek representation, and negotiate contracts collectively. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. Three of us negotiated, while the others stayed. Eventually, we negotiated our way out of the contracts and moved on.”

Trang, Jones, and St. John did not return for the third season, which marked the final chapter for this group of Rangers. They were succeeded by Karan Ashley, Johnny Yong Bosch, and Steve Cardenas, who took on the roles of the Yellow, Black, and Red Rangers, respectively.

The cast was summoned to work immediately after the catastrophic 1994 Los Angeles earthquake.

Trang and Johnson grew so close that they frequently stayed overnight at each other’s homes. They were having one such sleepover when the earthquake struck. “We experienced that earthquake together, just the two of us,” Johnson told No Pink Spandex. “Despite the chaos, they called us into work that very morning!”

While Johnson acknowledged the surreal nature of the situation, she noted that “we were all young and far from home in California … the cast and crew became our family. Gathering that morning to check on everyone was oddly comforting.” However, no filming took place that day, as the crew failed to show up.

The iconic theme song drew inspiration from Inspector Gadget.

Ron Wasserman, the composer, crafted the Power Rangers theme in just two hours, working from a rough version of the credits. “They suggested using the word go, inspired by the success of Inspector Gadget with its catchphrase Go Gadget Go,” Wasserman explained to Complex. “They thought it was a lucky word. Fox approved it the next day, and the show skyrocketed. I ended up working tirelessly on the series and became their trusted composer.”

Bryan Cranston provided voices for two villains.

In two 1993 Power Rangers episodes—“Foul Play in the Sky” and “A Bad Reflection on You”—you can hear the voice of Bryan Cranston, who later became famous as Walter White. “I did voice work for Power Rangers many years ago,” Cranston mentioned during a Reddit AMA. “I was told the Blue Power Ranger was named after me, with the last name Cranston. Years later, I discovered it was true.”

The toys became a massive hit with children.

In December 1993, Entertainment Weekly proclaimed Power Rangers toys as “the season’s most sought-after Christmas gifts.” Nearly a year later, the frenzy continued: As reported by Newsweek in August 1994, “Toys that usually cost $10 are being resold for up to $65 in classified ads ... The demand has forced Toys ‘R’ Us to impose purchase limits, with some stores allowing only one action figure per family. ‘Aside from the Cabbage Patch craze of 1983,’ said CEO Michael Goldstein, ‘I’ve never seen anything like this.’” Today, collectors who held onto their action figures and Zords can fetch a significant sum on the resale market.

The series faced bans in several countries.

In 1994, the show was banned in New Zealand, removed from two Canadian TV networks, and edited on others due to its perceived violence. Malaysia also banned it in 1995, but for a different reason—authorities believed the word morphin might negatively influence children by associating it with the drug ‘morphine,’ as reported by ITN. After censoring the word, the show was permitted to air again.

The bans extended beyond the show itself: A New York preschool prohibited Power Rangers clothing and merchandise after teachers observed children fighting, claiming it was “worse than anything seen with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or previous trends.”

Many parents criticized the show for being too violent, but Saban dismissed these concerns. “If anyone can argue that a flower-spitting monster or a pig devouring Earth’s food is violent—please, spare me,” he remarked in 1993. “Our goal is to teach kids concepts like teamwork in an entertaining way. Kids love martial arts, so we include it, but we emphasize self-control, inner strength, and using it only for self-defense.”

A spin-off featuring Bulk and Skull was once a possibility.

Thankfully, the proposed series featuring Angel Grove’s bumbling bullies never materialized. According to Jason Narvy, who portrayed Skull, “The spinoff would have had Bulk and Skull managing their grandmother’s hotel. We even had a Mexican Elvis impersonator named Elves, and the plot was set to be filled with absurd antics.”

The script for the first movie was developed while filming was underway.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie was shot over five months in Australia and, like the TV series, was a non-union production. However, unlike the show, it didn’t reuse any Japanese footage.

“The film began as a relatively small project, budgeted at around $18 million, but it grew significantly during production,” Paul Freeman, who played the antagonist Ivan Ooze, explained to the Los Angeles Times in 1995. “The script evolved as we filmed, with producer Suzanne Todd often writing scenes on her laptop while on set. I’d receive rewrites mid-scene, and a producer would hand me new lines, saying, ‘Say this instead.’ What could I do? I was playing a character named Ooze—anything was fair game.”

The movie—which nearly cast future Law & Order: SVU star Mariska Hargitay—debuted in 1995 and grossed nearly $66.5 million globally.