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What the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Taught UsA Research AnalysisCory RaposaShepherd UniversityThis paper was written for Comm 305, taught by Jason McKahan What Were the Power Rangers?The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was an American version of a Japanese Sentai show called Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger. The show ran in America from 1993 to 1996. During its three or four year run, the rangers had a very big success. The show had a three season run during its time in the 1990s. The first episode of the Power Rangers was in August of 1993 on the network Fox Kids. It reached its limit in February of 1996. The show was not only for kids in the 1990s. This show spread throughout every age group from young to very old and everyone loved it. The theme song of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers could be heard anywhere and instantly recognized and sang along to. The phrase “Go Go Power Rangers” was now a household phrase to families with children in the 1990s. The show was owned and ran by a man named Haim Saban. Saban was a Japanese Super Sentai creator but wanted to create an American show to expand his name and fortune. So after trying to figure to compete with other 1990s shows just like the Power Rangers ideas, such as: VR Troopers and Beetleborgs, he finally figured out a way to do so. Saban would use stock footage from his Japanese Sentai shows and mix it in with the newly filmed American Power Rangers show since it would cost him too much money to reshoot all of the big explosions and prop work. This was a big and bold move but ultimately worked in the end because the younger children could not tell what was American or Japanese at the time. Or could they?The Might Morphin Power Rangers was about five teenagers who were called upon by a wise mystical man named Zordon and his trusty robot partner named Alpha 5, or just Alpha for short. The five teenagers were transported to the ranger command center because Zordon would need help defeating an evil out of this world witch named Rita Repulsa. Rita wanted to destroy Zordon and anything that had to do with the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers because she had already tried to defeat them in her own time and lost, but now that she has been set free it’s up to the new Power Rangers Zordon has chosen to defeat her.The team was made up of five teenagers each given a special ancient power coin, which held the powers of the ranger, and the “zord” they possessed. These zords were spirits of dinosaurs. First there was the blue ranger named Billy Cranston played by David Yost, a nerdy white kid with overalls and glasses. He was given the power of the triceratops. Next was the yellow ranger named Trini Kwan played by Thuy Trang. The yellow ranger was a skinny Asian girl who mastered in martial arts and was given the power of the sabre tooth tiger. Then was the pink ranger named Kimberly Ann Hart played by Amy Jo Johnson. A preppy white girl given the power of the pterodactyl. Next the epic black ranger named Zack Taylor played by Walter Jones. A young black teenage boy who loved to dance. He was given the power of the mastodon. Finally the leader of the rangers for the beginning of season one is the red ranger named Jason Lee Scott played by Austin St. John. He was in charge of making decisions and was always on the front line given the power of the biggest zord the tyrannosaurus rex. The show was always the same. The teenage super group were in the hometown of Angel Grove, a spin off of Los Angeles, and were faced with their own personal problems, such as: a crush, bad grades, bad friends, etc. Typical teenage or child problems that the viewers could be having at home. Then they would be wisped away by Zordon because Rita had unleashed a new monster on Angel Grove and it was only up to the Rangers to stop her and her new monster. She also sent along a group of “puddies” to ware the rangers out before hand. The rangers would always defeat the monster with their weapons and it would blow up. But then, Rita would throw down her staff from the moon and make the monster grow to the size of Godzilla, and the rangers would have to call upon their animal zords to combine together and for the MegaZord. They rangers always put up a struggle and defeat the new monster in the end. Then the show would end with the teenagers back where they started but with their home life problem solved. The shows never changed but yet people could not get enough of the new problems, new monsters, and just the Might Morphin Power Rangers themselves. After the first episode aired the series was a hit and companies all over wanted a piece of the Power Ranger action. Bandai become a house hold name as well when they started producing the Mighty Morphin Power Ranger action figures and toys. Toy stores all over were constantly sold out these new power ranger toys and comic books. In about the middle of the first season, Saban thought that he could spice the show up even more by introducing what came to be known as the most popular and smartest decision he ever made. The story was Rita became annoyed with the rangers and decided to make them fight one of their own by taking control of a kids mind named Tommy Oliver played by Jason David Frank, a mixed martial arts master who just became friends with the rangers leader Jason during a martial arts contest. Rita gave tommy the ranger coin of the green ranger which was the green dragon zord. Later the five rangers defeated Tommy and Rita’s spell and Tommy became what most saw as the new leader of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Tommy had his own megazord and had many upgrades to his uniform that the other rangers did not have. The introduction of Tommy was the an even bigger success than the original airing of the show. Later in the shows three series run Tommy would be given the power of the white ranger because of a mishap. Then some rangers would be replaced for reasons never said, but always thought by the people who could comprehend. Jason was replaced with Rock DeSantos played by Steve Cardenas, as the new red ranger. Zack was replaced by Adam Park played by Johnny Yong Bosch as the black ranger. Finally Trini was replaced by Aisha Campbell played by Karan Ashley as the yellow ranger. And an American villain who became the evil Rita Repulsa’s husband naked Lord Zed became another house hold name when it came to the Power Rangers.The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers lasted three very successful seasons and had a feature length film after the second season that was in theatres all across America. Toy sales become one of the biggest in its time. Costumes were made and kids pretended to be them in there houses and yards with each other, even complete with a toy set of the Power Ranger weapons. Kids were choosing their sex year old Asian friend to be the yellow ranger and their little black friend to be the black ranger, and any kid with dark hair to play Jason. But wait, that doesn’t seem right does it? Why were kids playing with weapons and racial stereotyping their friends? What taught them this behavior?The Cons of the Power RangersThe Might Morphin Power Rangers were a great success, but did that come with a price? The rangers television show did show racial and sexist stereotyping as well as a lot of violence that most people would think, parents wouldn’t let them watch. What were the parents thinking? Did this effect the children in their everyday behavior?ViolenceDiane Levin wrote an article called Disempowering the ‘Power Rangers’ and it only focused on the negative effect of TV violence shown by the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers on children. In the article Levin gives the show its props by describing its success and how it was a wonderful show, but then dives into the violence saying that it “was averaging over 200 acts of violence per hour, compared to just under 100 for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.” (Disempowering the Power Rangers, Levin. 5th par.) She later states that she sent out a questionnaire that required detailed answers to teachers who only work with young children from 17 different states about the rangers and violence. Almost 97 percent voiced at least one concern about the bad effects of the rangers had on their children in their classes.Children were seeing high levels of aggression and violence because children would see another kid doing something wrong and thinking he has all of these power like the rangers do and begin to fight them as the real rangers would. Children at some ages could not tell the difference between what was real or just make believe when it came to the Power Rangers because it was a part of their every day life. Levin came up with three methods of dealing with the power rangers in classrooms because it was so overpowering with children. Her three options were to: 1) Ban Power Rangers, 2) Ban Power Ranger play but allow the topic in other curriculum areas such as drawings or storytelling, or 3) Facilitate play to help children realize what exactly they are doing and realize that the rangers didn’t hurt people and that they were their role models. In 1995, when the Power Rangers movie was coming out in theatres, a writer for the Harvard Crimson named Alison Overholt went to the Sony Fresh Pond Theaters in Cambridge where a protest help by parents and their children was being held protesting the movie being released. Overholt stated that teachers and parents talked with their children and students about the negative things that came along with the Power Rangers and the children sided with them. When asking the children what they thought at the theatre they responded with “Down with the Power Rangers” and “Don’t go! No Power Rangers Allowed”. A new group was formed according to Overholt called T.R.U.C.E. (Theachers for Removing Unhealthy Children’s Entertainment) was also there to side with the teachers and parents at the protest and talked to the parents who did allow their children to see the film and beg them to see the film with them and at least talk to their children about the content after the film was over. Racism and Sexism?Racism was not something that Saban had thought of when creating the original Power Rangers because he himself was a Japanese minority creating an American show. However, along with the violence, people became aware of the racist irony and the sexism along with stereotyping in the character list. The black ranger was a black kid who just loved to dance, the yellow ranger was an Asian girl who loved karate, pink ranger was a preppy cheerleader type girl who was ditsy. Red ranger was an Indian looking male who was a great warrior, and the white ranger was a white male and the leader over all of the rangers.The show could not have been racist and stereotypical on purpose because the creator, like said before, was Japanese and did not see the “white man” as a supreme leader and would not racially profile his own kind with the yellow rangers. But people saw it differently; like said in at the end of the introduction, children were having their Asian friends play Trini and African American friends play Zack when playing Power Rangers in their school yards or neighborhoods. Erin Winkler, a Doctor at the University of Wisconsin did research on how children are not colorblind and how children learn race. He states that “children from three to five or six years old in a racially and ethnically diverse day care center used racial categories to identify themselves and others to either exclude children from activities, and to negotiate power in social/play networks.” (Winkler, Children Are Not Colorblind. P.2) He wanted to make people aware that watching shows such as The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers did effect children in this racist was even though it was not meant to be designed to be like this. He wants teachers, leaders, and parents of young children who watch shows like this to talk about it with their children. Make sure they are in an age appropriate time period in life to understand and make sure they take the matter seriously. He says that it “requires that we rethink our ideas about several dimensions of everyday life, including the nature of racial and ethnic oppression, the intellectual capacity of children, and our willingness to effect changes in oppressive social conditions to the extent of children’s social skills.”(page 7) Even one of the original cast members, David Fielding, who played the role of Zordon, the rangers main leader for the first half of the 1993 first series before being replaced noticed the racism and stated it on set constantly, which eventually led to his termination as the role of Zordon. UnNews did an interview with him and he had to say this: “I called Walter Jones [Zack, the original -- African-American!! -- Black Ranger] a nigger from the very beginning. Then I called Thuy Trang [the late actress who played Asian Yellow Ranger Trini] a few Asian slurs. It's no big deal to me. Some people drew blank faces when I called the Red Ranger, I can't remember his... Native American slurs such as Red Man, Running Horse, Redskin, Chief, and Tonto. I used to greet him with 'How!' I used to put a headdress on his Red Ranger costume. “(UnNews Interview) Fielding even after being fired would call and leave Saban, the creator, messages telling him to change the characters and Saban responded with “Leave me the hell alone already, and quit fucking calling me!” Later in the season the racist characters at hand except for the white ranger were changed by different cast members. The red ranger and black ranger were replaced with young white males and they yellow ranger with a black young female. It was never stated whether or not it was because of the racist remarks Saban was getting or because it was time for a story change, but it seemed to do the trick the the racism in the show stopped from then on.The Pros of the Power Rangers and Where They Are TodayThe Power Rangers, despite all of the negativity, were role models to children and adults everywhere and showed the people how to solve everyday problems they would be faced with. It gave children real heroes to look up to instead of cartoon characters that they also watched at the time such as: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Ghostbusters, etc. They could relate to real people and strive to be a “good guy” like their new heroes. The Power Rangers were not just a television show to entertain children after school, but a powerful idol type for them. They could look up to the rangers and instead of hearing “I want to be a doctor or a layer” parents heard “I want to be a Power Ranger and save peoples lives.” Who knows, some of these children that wanted to be super heroes could be real life heroes today. They could be towns police officer or firefighter. They could be one of the men or women who helped pull injured and trapped people our of buildings during this nations terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. They could also be one of the many men and women fighting right now in other countries for America’s freedom. This seems to be a far stretch, but couldn’t it be true?The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers did end after three seasons, but only because Saban wanted to keep the Japanese tradition and change the story every three years like was done with original series in Japan. The Power Rangers name stayed, but the powers and villains changed. The series that followed with original 90s series went as followed: Alien Rangers, Zeo, Turbo Movie, Turbo, In Space, Lost Galaxy, Lightspeed Rescue, Time Force, Wild Force, Ninja Storm, Dino Thunder, S.P.D., Mystic Force Operation Overdrive, Jungle Fury, RPM. Then in 2010 remastered episodes of the original Power Rangers were put out to re air for a year or so. Now the current Power Ranger series is the Power Rangers Samurai.Of the original cast, members still wear their ranger powers and colors proud. Jason David Frank, who is now 40 years old, still travels to conventions as the green or white ranger for people who are not adults to meet their childhood hero. He is also a UFC fighter with an undefeated record. Zack Taylor stared in other movies and follows Frank’s lead in conventions. Amy Johnson the pink ranger did a short movie career. David Yost the blue ranger became a writer for the ranger series. Sadly the red ranger and original leader Austin St. John abused his fame and became addicted to drugs and partying and is now in prison awaiting trial for attempted murder and the yellow ranger Thuy Trangt died in a car crash. The Power Rangers are still and will always be very popular but the original series of The Mighty Morhphin Power Rangers will always be the best despite the racist remarks towards it and the violent nature it seemed to bring. “Go Go Power Rangers”Work CitedAuthor Unknown. (2010, August 30). Zordon reveals that he was fired…. UnNews. Retrieved from . Boyatziz, C.J. (1995) Effects of “The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” on Children’s Aggression with Peers. Child Study Journal. Vol. 25-1. Carlsson-Paige, Nancy. (1996, May). Disempowering the ‘Power Rangers’. Education Digest, Vol. 61-9, 17. C.D. (2012, May 23) How Power Rangers turned me into a Feminist. Culturally Disoriented. Retrieved from . Franey, Lynn. (1994, March 6) Power Rangers Seen as Unruly Models to Youths:…. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from . LeoM. (2008, July 9). Original Power Rangers=Racism. College Humor. Retrieved from . Levi, Shuki. (1993-1996). All episodes. Haim Sabaan, (Creator). Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Fox, ABC. Overholt, Alison D. (1995, July 7) Parents, Kids Protest Power Rangers Movie. The Harvard Crimson. 7-7. Permalink. (2010, Sep. 30). The 50 Most Racist TV Shows of All Time. Complex Magazine. Web. Winkler, Erin N. Ph.D.. (2009) Children Are Not Colorblind: How Young Children Learn Race. Pace. Vol. 3-3. 1-8. ................
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