Power Rangers Reviews: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 1 (1993-1994)

 Hey everyone! How's it going? I'm doing pretty well. I hope you're all having a wonderful weekend. It's been a quiet one for me, which is nice. So today is the day. I'm finally getting to talk about season 1 of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. I've reviewed certain episodes on earlier incarnations of the blog and I touched on the first half of Power Rangers Beast Morphers, but I've never done full season reviews of any season of Power Rangers before, and I've been doing this for almost eight years now. So grab your Power Coins and let's get into it. It's Morphin Time!

Season 1 is a pretty basic season. It's biggest problem is that, aside from the few multi-part episodes that the season has across it's 60 episode run, it's all episodic with very little continuity compared to future seasons of the show, including seasons 2 and 3 of Mighty Morphin. Which in and of itself isn't a bad thing considering this was made and aired in the mid '90s, at a time where episodic television, particularly in children's programming, was still the dominant form of television with some exceptions like Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993-1999) and Babylon 5 (1993-1998). For example in episode 7, "Big Sisters" Zordon mentions the Morphin Masters to the Rangers as the people who created the Power Eggs, eggs that had an undescribed power but were said to be powerful enough to make Rita unstoppable if she got her hands on them. But for all of that build up, the Power Eggs are lost at sea, and the Morphin Masters aren't mentioned again until the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Boom! Studios comic book series, and the most recent seasons of the TV show, Power Rangers Dino Fury. There could've been some interesting stuff to develop for the Morphin Masters, but because the show was episodic, the whole thing was forgotten by the next episode.

Season 1 is probably the season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers that I watched the most of when I was a kid. Given that both Global and YTV aired the season right through the summer of 1994, we rented the "Green With Evil" VHS releases, AND I had six episodes on VHS thanks to the mom of a schoolmate who taped them for me off Global and YTV, it was pretty easy for me to watch it. Though I actually don't remember what time it was on on Global, since it was on five days a week and on Saturday mornings there. On YTV it was on at 5:30 after reruns of Batman (1966-1968) during The Zone, which I will talk about at another time. Sadly, this was the only season that was on on YTV as the channel removed it from the schedule just before season 2 started. Though Batman reruns remained on the channel until 1996. 

One thing I noticed during this rewatch is that we're given glimpses of the interpersonal relationships between the Rangers but we don't get more because of the constant need to fill the series with comedy courtesy of Bulk & Skull. Don't get me wrong, I love Bulk & Skull, they're some of my favourite non-Ranger characters in all of Power Rangers, but this season they fill up too much of the run time of an episode and it takes away from the more emotional moments that later seasons of the show do so well. For example in episode 35, "The Green Candle Part 2", the Rangers are getting Billy's molecular decoders set up so Jason can enter the Dark Dimension to try to get the Green Candle that's burning away Tommy's Green Ranger powers and then Bulk & Skull show up for absolutely no reason other than for a brief comedic moment.

But right from the first episode, "Day of the Dumpster" you can tell that the Rangers, Jason (played by Austin St. John), Zack (played by Walter Jones), Trini (played by the late Thuy Trang), Kimberly (played by Amy Jo Johnson), and Billy (played by David Yost), are best friends before they even get their Ranger powers. And, while later seasons will explore this a little bit further, we only get brief glimpses of it before the Putties attack or before Bulk & Skull show up to create chaos because they think they're so tough and smart, when they really aren't. They're actually more like the audience's stand-ins on the show, which they become more and more as the series goes on since they're on the show together until Power Rangers In Space (1998), with Bulk staying on the series until the next season, Power Rangers Lost Galaxy (1999) and returning for Power Rangers Samurai (2011) and Power Rangers Super Samurai (2012). So they have plenty of time to be fleshed out. I just wish that the writers would give that kind of attention to the Rangers themselves this season.

Speaking of the Rangers, even though I love the character, Tommy isn't my favourite Ranger. I've always considered Jason, the Red Ranger, to be my favourite. Though I liked Billy as well. However, I've found myself enjoying Kimberly and Trini alot more during this rewatch. I think it's because neither of them are helpless damsels in distress like you normally would see on shows like this in the '90s. Okay, sure, Kimberly needed help to get out of the Samurai Fan Man's jar in episode 31, "Calamity Kimberly", but against the Putties, in the Pterodactyl Dinozord fighting giant monsters, and even when dealing with Bulk & Skull, Kimberly can handle herself quite well, which is great. And I think that's why I don't like her as much in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (1995) as she spends half the movie screaming and asking Tommy for help. I'll talk about that more when I get to the movie in a couple of weeks. 

As for Tommy, he's probably the least developed Ranger in this season. At least in terms of his family life. He's adopted, but I don't think we actually find that out until Zeo. We also never see his adopted parents or anything like that, unlike the other five Rangers. But that's to be expected since Tommy isn't in as many episodes as the other Rangers are. Because his Sentai counterpart in Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger (1992), Burai, doesn't have a whole lot of footage in his Ranger suit, the MMPR stories that Tommy was in were limited to using recycled footage, mostly from "Green With Evil", which had been taken from Burai's six episode introduction arc. Though other episodes would have the few shots of the DragonRanger, Burai's Ranger form, that they could use. But, because Toei made extra Zyuranger footage specifically for Power Rangers after the 50 episodes of Zyuranger had been used up in the initial 40 episode order the series had, known in the fandom as "Zyu2" the writers were able to incorporate Tommy back into the series to finish off the season, though with a severely depleted power supply due to Rita burning most of it away with the Green Candle, and then Jason using some in episodes 36 and 37. A fact that Zordon, or one of the other Rangers, mentions in every episode from episode 51 through to episode 60.

Rita and her henchmen are a weird assortment of villains. In many ways she's incompetent like Tweeg in The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin, yet she can be as cruel and powerful as Queen Beryl in Sailor Moon. Her henchmen are so full of themselves. Especially Squatt and Baboo. Goldar is my favourite of all of Rita's henchmen. Finster is a close second, particularly in one episode where he suggests to Rita that he make a fire breathing Hedgehog monster for her. Rita would have none of that however, and he was forced to make another monster instead. But Goldar is great. Particularly in this season as he's extremely powerful and even Jason has difficulty with him in both morphed and unmorphed form. And even Tommy has problems fighting him, even when he has his full powers. But the fight between Jason and Goldar in the Dark Dimension in "Green With Evil Part 2" and "Green With Evil Part 3" is pretty cool. Also, it's weird that Scorpina just kind of vanishes after episode 41, "Rita's Seed of Evil". She'll be in stock footage from the 50 episodes of Zyuranger that the show keeps using even after "Doomsday Part 2", but she's not part of any of Rita's plots after that, nor is she in any of the Zyu2 footage. And there's no explanation as to where she went or anything like that. And until the 2016 comic book series from Boom! Studios she'll only appear two more times in the series, and both appearances are in season 2. 

I could make so many jokes about this season because there are alot of stupid things that happen. For example, in "Green With Evil Part 1" the Evil Green Ranger barges into the Megazord through the back door of the cockpit and punches all five Rangers out of the cockpit and then jumps out after them. And then there's the matter of Zordon and his habit of only telling the Rangers important information after something has happened. Like he never explained that Rita had somehow gained the sixth Power Coin and might use it to create her own, evil, Power Ranger at some point.

This season of Power Rangers is so iconic. Particularly for the people who were kids in the '90s. Like I said, I watched it on both YTV and Global, but I didn't start watching it until February when episode 46, "To Flea or Not to Flee" aired on Global. I only ever watched it on YTV when I was in the hospital or at my grandparents's place since we didn't have cable where we were living at the time. But, being 1994 I was in the hospital pretty often at that point. And from 3 pm until 6 pm I watched The Zone on YTV every single day. 

Of course, like Super Sentai and other shows and movies around this time, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers produced a toyline by Bandai of America, the North American arm of the company that produced the toylines for the Super Sentai series in Japan. The first wave, from the fall of 1993 consisted of the five main Rangers, Goldar, Squatt, Baboo, and King Sphinx, the Power Morpher with Blade Blaster, the Dragon Dagger, the Power Blaster (with all five Power Weapons included), the Battle Bikes, which were only shown in "Calamity Kimberly" but used all the time in Zyuranger, the Deluxe Megazord, which could be split up into the five Dinozords, a smaller Megazord where you could only remove the Saber-Toothed Tiger and Triceratops Dinozords, the Deluxe Dragonzord with the Green Ranger figure included, and Titanus the Carrierzord. The second wave expanded the line to include Finster, a Putty, Bones, a black and gold Special Edition version of the Deluxe Megazord, and a remote controlled Megazord.

When I was a kid I only had the Red Ranger, the Black Ranger, the Dragonzord/Green Ranger combo set, and the remote controlled Megazord though I got to play with the Power Morpher and Blade Blaster at school, and the Deluxe Megazord at the hospital. Since then I've managed to get the Pink Ranger, Yellow Ranger, Blue Ranger, Power Morpher, Goldar, and the Deluxe Megazord. Which is pretty cool.

 In addition to the toyline, the show had other merchandise. Including a series of novels that adapted certain episodes of the show. The one I had when I was a kid was Megazord to the Rescue! which was an adaptation of S01E37, "Clean-Up Club". There were others too including an adaptation of S01E01, "Day of the Dumpster". 

Of course there were coloring and activity books for the series as well. Pictured above is one of the ones I had when I was a kid. The designs of the characters, Dinozords, and locations were all taken from various promotional material, particularly magazines, comic books, and other illustrated works. Including t-shirts.

There were a few decks of playing cards, but the one pictured above is the one I had as a kid. The characters and Zord/Megazord designs on the cards are the same as the ones in the coloring and activity books. 

Of course there were video games. The version for the Sega Genesis was a fighting game, where you had to defeat Rita's monsters and henchmen, including the Evil Green Ranger, in various arenas before being able to form the Ultrazord (combination of the Megazord, Dragonzord, and Titanus) and attack Rita's palace on the moon. The Super Nintendo version is a platformer where you take out Putties and monsters in both human form and Ranger form as you go through Angel Grove. The Sega Game Gear version is a combination of the two, the Sega CD version is actual footage from the TV show where you can play through several episodes from the TV show including "Day of the Dumpster", all five parts of "Green With Evil", "The Green Candle", and "Doomsday Part 1" and "Doomsday Part 2". And the Nintendo Game Boy version is a platformer similar to the SNES version. I never played any of these games, though I've watched playthroughs on YouTube and seen screenshots of the games online as well.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Magazine began publication in the fall of 1994, prior to the debut of season 2. I had two issues when I was a kid. The Winter 1995 issue, which came out around the time that Tommy returned as the White Ranger in season 2 (it even has the White Ranger on the issue's cover), which I'll cover next time, and then I had the Summer 1995 issue, which was focused on the movie, which came out around that time. Again, I'll be covering that another time. I got rid of both years ago, but I managed to find another copy of the Winter 1995 issue a few years ago.

Which brings us to the most important part: The home video releases. Season 1 only had ten VHS releases, each tape containing one episode from the season. The initial five were "Day of the Dumpster", "High Five", "Food Fight", "Happy Birthday, Zack", and "No Clowning Around". The second five were the five parts of "Green With Evil".

Season 1 got a complete season DVD release in Germany in May of 2007, long before the season ever got released in North America. The cover has the movie version of the logo, with "Classixx" replacing "The Movie", with the cover art, being a slightly smaller version of what was on one of the 1995 movie posters and the DVD re-release of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie. In this version the White Ranger's image is removed, leaving the five main Rangers. 

In 2012 Mighty Morphin Power Rangers season 1 was released on DVD for the first time in North America, with the season split up between two volumes, thirty episodes per volume.

The two volumes were included in the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Complete Series DVD boxset that Shout! Factory put out in 2012 along with the individual volume sets. I'll talk more about this in my season 3 review, but this set includes season 1, season 2, season 3, and the ten episode mini-series, Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers. Though unlike the volume sets, where Alien Rangers has it's own separate DVD release, this set has the Alien Rangers disc included in the season 3 case. This release has been re-released several times, including a DVD steelbook set that includes Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie on Blu-ray. Like I said, I'll probably do a separate DVD review of the 2012 edition, which I own, once I've finished the series.

As mentioned earlier, season 1 was adapted from Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger (1992). Originally Haim Saban was going to adapt Choudenshi Bioman (1984), but by the time the Fox Kids Network bought the concept, Bioman was considered to be too out of date visually for it to work in a '90s kids show. Saban then chose to adapt Choujin Sentai Jetman (1991), but between the heavier violence and darker themes, he couldn't adapt it into a kids show as Fox wouldn't allow it. Luckily Zyuranger was nearing the end of it's run when Saban produced the original pilot version of "Day of the Dumpster", which I covered in my last review, and was all finished by the time Fox Kids had given the greenlight for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers as a series. Adapting it was difficult since they had to condense 50 episodes worth of material into 40 episodes, since Fox Kids had initially ordered only 40 episodes that they could air in the summer and early fall and that would be it. But the success of the series ensured it would not only get renewed for 20 more episodes in season 1, but it would be renewed for a second season too. As for Zyuranger, it got an official DVD release in North America from Shout! Factory in 2015, a full 23 years after the show's original run. 

And that my friends is it for this review of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers season 1. Despite my problems with this season, I still love it after almost 30 years. As I said earlier, everything about it is iconic. The characters, the locations, including the Command Center, which I love, and the Zords, which are my favourite set of Zords as I have the original Deluxe toy versions as well as the 2010s Legacy Collection versions. Next time I'll be reviewing season 2. Can the Power Rangers overcome all of the challenges and changes season 2 will bring them? Or is this the end for our heroes? Find out next on The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers! Yes, I've always wanted to say that. Take care my friends.