Power Rangers Reviews: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 2 (1994-1995)

 Hey everyone! How's it going? I'm doing pretty well. Today we're heading back to the Power Rangers Universe to review season 2 of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Comic books enter the scene this season as do two shows that were made in response to the success of MMPR, so we'll be talking about those as well as the season itself. So without further ado let's get into Mighty Morphin Power Rangers season 2. It's Morphin' Time!

Following the success of the 60 episode first season, Fox Kids greenlit a second season and Saban negotiated with Toei to use more Sentai footage since they'd run out of footage from Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger AND the Zyu2 footage Saban had commissioned from Toei after the show's initial 40 episode order had aired. Though they still had Zyu2 footage to use up in the first thirteen episodes of the season, which saw the departure of Rita, the introduction of Lord Zedd, the change over from the Dinozords to the Thunderzords, and the end of Tommy's Green Ranger storyline. 

Story wise, there's alot more to talk about with this season as, for the first 28 episodes of the season, they took a more serialized approach to the story. More like they were forced to between the Green Ranger Zyu2 footage running dry, and the unfortunate departure of half of the Ranger cast due to pay disputes with Austin St. John (Jason), Walter Jones (Zack), and the late Thuy Trang (Trini).

The season starts off like any season 1 episode did, including using the season 1 opening credits sequence, with Rita about to implement a plan to destroy the Rangers and conquer the world, while the Rangers are involved in a charity event. But then Lord Zedd shows up, restores Goldar' wings, ousts Rita and attacks the Rangers with Putties and a monster that ends up incapacitating the Zords so that the Rangers have to get new ones. 

From there Lord Zedd's attacks become personal as he tries to divide the Rangers, and then goes on to target Tommy, whose powers are starting to fail. Zedd sees Tommy as one of Rita's greatest failures, and so he wants to eliminate any reminders of Rita and her failures. Unlike Rita, who failed to destroy the Rangers right from the very beginning of season 1 though, Zedd succeeds against the Rangers immediately, with the Putties nearly taking them out until Jason accidentally discovers their weakness, and then Pirantishead taking out all six Zords by freezing the Mastodon, Triceratops, Sabertooth Tiger, and Pterodactyl Dinozords, and taking control of the Tyrannosaurus Dinozord and the Dragonzord, turning them against the Rangers.

During this early part of the season there are two storylines running together. The main one is Tommy losing his powers, which ties into the rest of the Rangers too, particularly Jason and Kimberly. Since "Return of an Old Friend Part II" we've known that Tommy had a limited power supply, particularly since Zordon and the other Rangers would remind him, and the audience, that his powers were limited. But it wasn't until the season 2 premiere, "The Mutiny Part I" that things became dire, and we saw Tommy's powers weakening during the initial Putty attack, where the Rangers saved Bulk & Skull, who happened to be in the area when the new Putties appeared. Which leads into what the second storyline is during this whole season.

Because they were saved by the Rangers, Bulk & Skull decide to discover their secret identities, which would make them famous. And that's their storyline through this entire season. Which gives them a purpose that I feel they lacked in season 1. They're also handled alot better this season too. While we would cut to them quite a bit during each episode, their story didn't interfere with the more serious moments with them hardly appearing in episodes like "Green No More" and "The Power Transfer", episodes that had so much going on that there wasn't much time to do anything with Bulk & Skull.

As I was watching the season, I found myself remembering more and more episodes, particularly in the back half of the season, once Tommy was the White Ranger, and Rocky (Steve Cardenas), Adam (Johnny Yong Bosch), and Aisha (Karan Ashley) had replaced Jason, Zack, and Trini. There's an episode in the first 13 that I don't remember from when I watched it as a kid and that was episode 10, "Welcome to Venus Island". But, every other episode, particularly from the post "The Power Transfer" batch of episodes, I remember pretty well. 

When season 2 originally aired, YTV had already removed Mighty Morphin Power Rangers from it's broadcast schedule, so the only places it was airing was on Global TV, during it's Kids TV block, which had just started in 1992 or 1993, just before Power Rangers began airing, and Fox Kids, which we didn't have because we didn't have cable yet. So I was watching it on Global only. Though Wikipedia lists MMPR as only having aired on Global from 1993 to 1994 on the List of Global Television Programming page, I'm pretty sure that it aired on Global after that because episodes 39 to 52 didn't start airing until early 1995 and there was a big hiatus between "The Return of the Green Ranger Part III" and "Best Man for the Job" because of the movie still being in production at the time. So, I do believe that Global TV continued broadcasting Mighty Morphin Power Rangers until the end of season 2, which ended in May 1995 because I remember watching episodes like "The Return of the Green Ranger", "Storybook Rangers", and "Blue Ranger Gone Bad" on Global, at home and by mid 1995 I wasn't in the hospital as much as I was in 1993 and 1994. The show was definitely gone from the channel by the time the first season of Sailor Moon began airing on August 28th, 1995 because I don't remember watching the shows together, and season 3 of MMPR began on September 2nd, 1995, after Sailor Moon had debuted and we moved in early 1996, just before Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers and Power Rangers Zeo began. I'll get into that more when I review season 3, Alien Rangers, and Zeo.

   As with season 1, season 2 took footage from Super Sentai. This time it took footage from season 17, Gosei Sentai Dairanger. Unlike season 1 though, season 2 had to be extremely creative with how they used the Sentai footage. Because Zyu2 footage was still being used for the first 13 episodes of the season, and Lord Zedd was an original villain, alot more original footage had to be shot because the Zyuranger Ranger suits were still being used and Zedd's new Z-Putties didn't match the Golem suits used for Rita's Putties in season 1. So for morphed Putty fights they used American footage since the Zyu2 footage had the original Putties in it. By the end of the season though they were using even more American footage because the White Ranger, the Zords and the monsters came from Dairanger while the other five Rangers, Rita and her henchmen came from Zyuranger, and Lord Zedd and his Putties were Power Rangers exclusives. This is also the first season where we get original American footage of the Zords with the Thunder Megazord fighting the Octophantom in episode 8, "The Power Stealer", and the Thunder Megazord and Tigerzord fighting each other in episode 47, "Best Man for the Job".

I love that the season has a much better sense of continuity than season 1 did. Mainly because of how much serialization the season had. But aside from that, the Rangers, and the villains, remember things that happened previously. For example in the season finale, "Blue Ranger Gone Bad" Rita and Zedd capture Billy and replace him with an evil duplicate, made from a clay statue made by Violet, a girl that has a crush on Billy. Of course, Rita and Zedd have made evil duplicates of the Rangers before, with Tommy's Green Ranger clone, Tom, having been created only eight episodes earlier. So when "Billy" asks the other five Rangers for their communicators because Zordon had asked him to modify them, Tommy decides to keep his, and then later, as Billy's behaviour becomes more suspicious, Tommy contacts Zordon and asks him if he had asked Billy to modify the communicators, and when Zordon informs him that the communicators are fine, Tommy and Kimberly swing into action with an oblivious Rocky, Adam, and Aisha.

As much as I love Jason, Zack, and Trini and think it sucks that Austin St. John, Walter Jones, and Thuy Trang were treated so horribly given how much money Saban was making from the success of the show, I do really like Rocky, Adam, and Aisha. They added a new dynamic to the team that wasn't there before. For example, in "Where There's Smoke, There's Fire", Aisha is placed in charge of the Fire Safety Club at Angel Grove High School and begins taking it too seriously. And then when Rocky, Adam, and Tommy come under attack by one of Zedd's monsters, Aisha, still in fire safety mode, begins giving orders to Kimberly and Billy, who are more experienced as Power Rangers than Aisha is, given that Rocky, Adam, and Aisha had only been Rangers for a week or two at the most at that point. And Billy's just like, "Uh no Aisha, it's tactically more sound for us to stay here until we come up with a plan to help the others", and then they go with Aisha's plan, which doesn't work, and this is the first time that Zordon openly reprimands a Ranger for acting foolishly as Aisha had actively ignored advice from the more Ranger experienced Billy. 

While Zack, Trini, and Billy didn't have much to do in the early part of this season, it made sense to focus on Jason, Kimberly, and Tommy, because Jason is Tommy's best friend, AND was the leader of the Power Rangers at the time, and Kimberly was Tommy's girlfriend so his absence once he lost the Green Ranger powers would have more of an affect on those two than it might on the other three Rangers. Especially because Jason had failed to get the Green Candle, and destroy it before the flame went out in season 1's "The Green Candle Part II". So it would make sense that in "Missing Green", the episode immediately following "Green No More Part II", Jason would feel guilty that Tommy lost his powers yet again.

As for Tommy, he was a major focus for a good chunk of this season. First with the Green Ranger arc at the beginning of the season, and then him becoming the White Ranger and the leader of the team only a few episodes later. Not to mention three of his Rangers ended up leaving, with new people coming in to replace them, not too long after Tommy became the White Ranger. I've heard some people say online that Tommy became less interesting once the Green Ranger stuff was finished, but I have to disagree on that because there was still stuff going on in the background of the season that DID come to the forefront later on. For instance in "Lights, Camera, Action" the Rangers appear on a TV talk show to spread their positive message. At one point the host of the show, Harvey Garvey, asks the White Ranger "What happened to the Green Ranger?" and Tommy replies, "Well Harvey, I prefer to put the past behind me and look to the future", implying that he doesn't want to talk about the Green Ranger. Which is interesting because he never seemed to indicate that he was ashamed to be the Green Ranger once Rita's spell had been broken in "Green With Evil Part V" and he'd joined the Rangers. He was finally forced to confront his past as the Evil Green Ranger in episodes 44 to 46 "Return of the Green Ranger" when Rita and Zedd's ally, the Wizard of Deception, used a lock of Tommy's hair to create an evil clone of Tommy, giving him the newly repowered Green Power Coin, something that Zordon and Alpha had been unable to do, despite their best efforts earlier in the season.

Interestingly enough, the producers didn't remove Jason David Frank from the opening credits after he lost the Green Ranger powers like they had in season 1. They even kept the original season 2 opening credits sequence, which had the Green Ranger all over it right up until episode 19, "Two for One" after Tommy had been revealed to be the new White Ranger. The writers had introduced Richie, and Zack's cousin, Curtis, as red herrings for the White Ranger, but neither of them did anything of much significance in the episodes they appeared in so it was pretty clear they weren't gonna be Rangers. While Rocky, Adam, and Aisha became allies of the Rangers, covering for them when they needed to go to the Command Center or morph, and actively helping the Rangers fight Putties and Zedd's monsters before becoming Rangers themselves. 

I remember when "White Light" aired. I was in grade 2, had started at Greely Elementary School, and had heard there was going to be a new Ranger. Though I'd been told by a schoolmate that it would be the Orange Ranger, rather than the White Ranger. Still though, I was so happy when the White Ranger arrived in the Command Center and removed his helmet, revealing Tommy. I didn't faint like Kimberly did in the episode, but I cheered because I was happy to have Tommy back and in a more permanent role than his return as the Green Ranger in "Return of an Old Friend" had been late in season 1. 

 Of course, Bandai America released new toys for the second season, giving us way more than the first two waves of the toyline had in 1993 and early 1994. In addition to Lord Zedd and his monsters, we got the Thunder Megazord, the Tigerzord, with White Ranger figure, and smaller scale figures of the Rangers, which were flipheads. As shown in the image above, these were the Auto Morphin Power Rangers, where you flipped their heads and they would "morph" into their Ranger helmets you pressed on their morphers. All six original Rangers were released, and later on Bandai would release Rocky, Adam, Aisha, and Tommy as the White Ranger in 1995 though Kat didn't replace Kimberly as the Pink Ranger until fairly late in season 3, so there was no Mighty Morphin Auto-Morphin Kat/Pink Ranger figure. The Auto-Morphin line would continue right through until Wild Force and would be brought back for Power Rangers Samurai and again for the 2017 movie. 

I didn't have any season 2 toys when I was a kid, though I do have the six Thunderzords, including the Tigerzord with the White Ranger figure, now. I also had the Auto-Morphin Tommy/Green Ranger figure for a bit, but I got rid of it in order to get the season 2 Zords and some of the season 1 Legacy Collection toys. 

In 1994 Hamilton Comics began publishing a six issue comic book series based on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. The first two issues had Jason, Zack, and Trini and Tommy was still the Green Ranger, but they have the Thunderzords and Lord Zedd is the main villain. The first issue was probably supposed to come out during the first season because Lord Zedd behaved more like Rita in the first issue, but it didn't come out until season 2 had begun airing. This series did things that the TV series wouldn't, or couldn't do. For example, in one issue, Kimberly is grounded by her stepdad, who isn't on the show by the way, and the Rangers have to find a way to get him to stay the execution of said grounding so that Kimberly can morph and help the other Rangers fight Zedd's latest monster. 

Then in June of 1995, Hamilton Comics began publishing a second series, which ran for only four issues this time. It was more of the same as the first six issues, so there isn't much to report.

Then in July of 1995, Hamilton published a third series titled Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Saga. Initially it was supposed to be a six issue series that looked back on the history of the Rangers, covering the major events of the series up to the point the comic came out and showing what impact the Rangers had on the citizens of Angel Grove, going more indepth than the TV show ever did. But the license shifted from Hamilton to Marvel and Saga was reduced to three issues that only covered up to when Tommy became the White Ranger, removing the impact on the people living in Angel Grove. 

More novelizations of episodes from the show were published during season 2. I don't know if they continued into season 3, but "The Mutiny", "White Light" and I THINK "The Power Transfer" and "The Ninja Encounter" were adapted into book form.

Another issue of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Magazine was published around the time Tommy had been revealed to be the White Ranger. This is one of the issues that I had when I was a kid and I still have it in my collection today.

Another deck of playing cards was released in early 1995 as it includes the White Ranger, the Thunderzords, and Lord Zedd. That's all I can say about this deck as that's what it says on the box and I never owned this deck.

Another video game was released for the Super Nintendo in 1995. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Fighting Edition is a fighting game, where you battle Zedd's monsters in the Thunder Megazord, Mega Tigerzord, Ninja Megazord, and Shogun Megazord. The movie has an influence on the game as well as Ivan Ooze, the main villain of the movie, is the final boss at the end of the game.

While season 1 only had ten VHS releases, all ten being re-released in 1994, season 2 had more than that. Twelve episodes, and Alpha's Magical Christmas were released on VHS between 1994 and 1995. As I mentioned in my Power Rangers VHS overview, I saw the first three season 2 tapes at the video store when I was a kid, but we never rented them and I only owned Alpha's Magical Christmas.

Season 2 was released on DVD in Germany in 2007 or 2008 when the season 1 set came out. According to the Power Rangers Wiki the three part season 3 premiere is included with the 52 episodes of season 2, as they're basically season 2 episodes anyway, which is interesting.

Then in 2012 Shout! Factory released the entire season in a two volume set, with 26 episodes on three discs per set. I got both volumes at Toys 'R' Us not long after they came out.

Both volumes were also released in the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Complete Series DVD set, which came out at the same time as the individual season volumes. The complete series also includes Alpha's Magical Christmas, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Live!, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Official Fan Club Video, Lord Zedd's Monster Heads, The Good, the Bad, and the Stupid: The Misadventures of Bulk & Skull, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Karate Club: Level 1, and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Karate Club: The White Ranger Kata, all of which had been direct-to-video releases on VHS in the '90s. So it's a pretty robust set in regards to the bonus features.

As many popular shows, movies, and comic books do, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers inspired other Tokusatsu shows to be dubbed and brought over to North America. Two of which came out in 1994, around the time that season 2 began. The first was Saban's own VR Troopers, based on Toei's Metal Hero series. This show was originally going to be a vehicle for Jason David Frank following the end of his run as the Green Ranger in season 2, with him being replaced on MMPR by Brad Hawkins. But when Saban and Fox Kids began getting flooded with calls from parents, requesting, yet again, that they bring Tommy back, Brad Hawkins was moved over to what became VR Troopers, and Jason David Frank was returned to MMPR to play Tommy, who was now the White Ranger. Unlike MMPR though, VR Troopers would end because they ran out of Metal Hero footage to use in the show after only two seasons. This would be a problem with another Saban produced series, which I'll discuss briefly in my reviews of Zeo and Turbo.

The second series to be inspired by MMPR was Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad, co-produced by DIC Entertainment and Tsuburaya Productions, the company behind Ultraman. It starred Mathew Lawrence (Jack Hunter on Boy Meets World and Girl Meets World) as Sam Collins/Servo and Tim Curry as the voice of the villain, Kilokahn, a computer virus planning to conquer the world. It also only aired for two seasons due to the Japanese footage running out. It aired in syndication and on ABC in the U.S. but aired on YTV here in Canada and I watched it more than I did VR Troopers. The series also had a toyline produced by Playmates Toys

Overall season 2 of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is much better than season 1. While the Power Rangers formula is still present in the season, it veers away from that formula slightly by having more serialized storylines sprinkled in among the more episodic, one and done episodes. It also has a much more solid continuity than season 1 did as well as better balance between the more serious Ranger stuff and the more comedic Bulk & Skull stuff. Which I appreciate because, like I said in my season 1 review, I do love Bulk & Skull, it's just they showed up at really weird times in the first season and it wasn't always appropriate.

I also love that characters like Billy and Kimberly grew this season. They didn't have the most storylines this season, but Kimberly had a fair amount, though Billy had one or two only. Trust me, I'll be talking about that in a future review.

Alright my friends, that will be it for me for today. I'll be back either tomorrow or Tuesday with my review of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie and then I'll be moving on to season 3. So until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.