It's Morphin' Time: Cultural Changes Over 20 Years of Power Rangers

Bio-Man

During his travels to Japan, Saban had stumbled across a long-running (I’m talking 1975-to-present long-running) franchise of superhero programs called Super Sentai. Having scrutinized the enormously popular, cross-media Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles monopoly in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, Saban saw an opportunity for fortune.

The Japanese show’s 16th season, Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger (1992–1993), was laden with mythological histories about ancient human tribes, dinosaurs, space travel, and an evil witch. Aspiring to exploit the international children’s media market long conquered by the Ninja Turtles, Saban interlaced newly-shot footage featuring American actors with the Zyuranger action scenes, with Levy penning the screenplay. Their adaptation was called “Bio-Man”, which Saban peddled around for a few years. (In Levy’s words: “The general reaction was ‘This is the worst thing we’ve ever seen.’”) Later reworked into a show and renamed, it was aired amongst cartoon programming on the new-fangled Fox Kids network. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was an instant hit.

The campy program about monster-fighting, world-saving teenagers became an international sensation, spawning live stage tours, lunch boxes, trading cards, two movies, and highly coveted toys that resulted in desperate parents camping outside stores come Christmastime. The Power Rangers’ share of the action figure market leapt from four percent to 40, and annual sales topped out at $1 billion. Hundreds of products, from pyjamas to snack foods, were endorsed by the show’s name and logo. Its young stars were selected to spearhead anti-drug campaigns.

But far more impressive was the fact that the television program had secured an astounding 52 percent share of children’s viewership, along with a consistently undefeated first place in the ratings―all within one month of the series’ premiere in 1993. The success of the merchandise could be categorically accredited to the optimum branding of the show, designed for the sole purpose of TV-to-retail translation.

Adhering to the blueprints of Super Sentai, which rechristened its seasons annually, Saban Entertainment abandoned the “Mighty Morphin” prefix after three years. Every post-1996 season of Power Rangers would continue to edit together US-filmed sequences with footage from a corresponding Japanese season, but feature different premises and casts (normally between three and nine teenage Rangers, a handful of villains, some sort of helpful magic advisor, and a couple of token comic relief characters). Some seasons would closely follow the existing Japanese plot, while others would have original storylines. New incarnations have been churned out on a virtually uninterrupted conveyor belt, the most recent season to date being 2015’s Power Rangers Dino Charge.

[Note: Saban Entertainment, which eventually merged with Fox Kids and then acquired the Family Channel, produced the show until the end of 2001, when The Walt Disney Company bought Fox Family Worldwide―Power Rangers included―for $3 billion. (Saban, with his half-interest in the company, instantly became $1.5 billion richer when the deal closed.) Still with me? Disney decided to stop producing the show in 2009, and its run of the franchise ended when Saban Brands bought it back from Disney for $43 million the following year. But that’s another story.]

There is arguably far less fanfare these days, but despite the reality that the once-overwhelming craze has died down, millions of children and nostalgic adults continue to consume the enduring franchise. Only the latter group of viewers, however, might notice the alterations that have occurred over the years. Between Mighty Morphin and Megaforce, changes in society have caused the series’ cultural elements, technological content, and production qualities to do a bit of morphin’ themselves.