The Power Rangers are BACK!

by Chris Eaton-  Source: Variety

My childhood sheds tears of joy.

I love the Power Rangers.  Yes, I realize the show is kiddy, and that it’s really dumb, but you know what.  FUCK YOU!  It was one of the cornerstones of growing up.  Being a Godzilla fan, I had little in the way of giant monster action on TV in the good ol US of A.  Sure, there was the short lived Ultraman Great that aired in syndication, but 13 episodes of an Australian Ultraman couldn’t quench my thirst. Then, in 1993, I saw a commercial that featured a bunch of costumed fighters beaten up monsters, then a giant Spynix looking thing knocking the crap out of a ROBOT T-REX.  If I could produce some sort of ejaculation at the age of 9, I would of.  From then on, I watched Power Rangers up until In Space. After that, I lost interest, Disney bought the show, and I moved on. But, the love was still there and my obsession with the Green Ranger.

So when Variety announced that Haim Saban, the man who brought KyoryuSentai Zyuranger and made it white, had reacquired the property that made him rich, I shedded one small tear of joy.  Since Disney bought the property about a decade ago, they’ve kinda just pumped out a new show every year that seemed to get crappier and crappier.  Under Disney, the violence was toned down, and more emphasis on goofy marketing of toys was installed.  Finally, last year, Disney announced that they were cancelling Power Rangers, in it’s 17th season.  The announced that they will would be re-airing the original show and Bandai would be releasing new figures based on the OG property.

Under the requirement of Saban, Haim will be taking the entire catalog (even the shows he didn’t produce) and moving them over to Nick Toons.  The show will re air this year, with a brand new, 20 episode season.  Saban as a working deal with Toei, who produces the original Japanese shows, which still go strong today.  Under this new deal, Toei gets a cut, Saban gets the new shows to re cut with English actors, and NickToons get’s exclusive rights to air the show.  Saban is quite sure that Power Rangers is ready for a comeback, and I agree with him. The new Japanese shows FX have upgraded fairly well in the last few years, and I believe that the 2009 Samurai Sentai Shinkenger, the 30th Sentai show Toei has produced, will be the template for the new American show.

Under Saban’s new run, the show is free from Disney’s standards.  Nick Toons already has a meaty action block, having acquired the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from Mirage, and setting that property for a come back next year.  This also means that we might finally get a proper season DVD release of the original series.  Power Rangers might not reach the height they did back in the early 90’s, but it would be nice to see a modest comeback from the suffering ass hole of mediocrity.

If anything, Jason David Frank’s MMA career would get a huge boost. There was a reason he was the baddest Power Ranger of them all.