Ethan: We rolling?
Nelson: Alright, all… the… lights… are on,
Ethan: Rollin rollin rollin. Okay, remember, it’s three two one clap.
Nelson: So we gonna clap this out?
Ethan: Yep. All right, three, two, one. [Clap.] Excellent.
[“It’s Morphin’ Time!” + intro music]
Ethan: Minna-san, yokoso. Welcome to your favorite cross-cultural, deep dive analysis and recap podcast covering Super Sentai and Power Rangers,
Kenkyuu Sentai Podcast Rangers.
Andrew: You know, it really is my favorite.
Ethan: Yeah, I mean if you listen to it, it’s kind of default your favorite, because it’s the only one. Before we started this show… Well, I mean, before I even like proposed it, I just got curious and there are a couple of Power Rangers podcasts out there. Most of them have not updated in a long time, and none of them are doing the type of like, comparison work that we’re doing. So it’s your favorite by default. My name is Ethan, I use he/him pronouns, and with me is my usual co-host, Andrew.
Andrew: Hi, I’m Andrew, I also use he/him pronouns.
Ethan: And joining us once again is our good friend and producer of the show, Nelson.
Nelson: Heyooo, I’m back. I’m actually in the room with them. I know you won’t believe me, but I’m here.
Ethan: We can, we can, like physically reach out-
Nelson: Yeah, can you-? There you go.
Ethan: He’s there.
Nelson: Yeah, so we’re all here, gang’s all here, you know, all of that. I’m here to talk about the Power Rangers episode that I have watched too many times.
Ethan: If you recall from episode two of our show, we had a mix-up with the Archive.org episodes being out of order. They’ve since been taken down, Yahoo anime rules, don’t talk about s***.
Nelson: Wait, they took down all of Mighty Morphin’?
Ethan: It’s not there anymore.
Nelson: Oh, I was watching Zyuranger and it was…
Ethan: Zyuranger’s still there, but somebody put out a copyright claim.
Nelson: Where the hell… Where am I gonna watch Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers?
Ethan: Don’t worry about it. Anyway, the episodes being out of order means Nelson has been waiting for a quite some time to finally talk about today’s episode of Power Rangers. If you’d like to see the correct order of episodes, check the Ranger wiki. Today, we are discussing Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger episode 6 “Tate, Daizyujin!”, which is “Arise, Daizyujin!” and Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, season 1 episode 6, “Food Fight.” Without further ado, let’s get into the recap.
Nelson: Unless we have further ado.
Ethan: I do want to say a hearty f*** you to the Jasper Police Department.
Nelson: Yeah, I got pulled over on the way here. You know.
Ethan: He’s fine, we’re fine.
Nelson: I’m fine. Yeah.
Ethan: But also f*** cops.
Andrew and Nelson: All of ’em,
Andrew: Even the ones in my family.
Nelson: Yeah, even the ones you like. F*** em. Yeahhh.
Ethan: Yeah. So-
[“Kyoryu Sentai… Zyuranger!!”]
Ethan: “Arise, Daizyujin!” was written by Sugimura Noboru and directed by Sakamoto Taro. We pick up right where we left off with Geki, alone in a strange desert otherworld. Climbing over a ridge, he sees in the distance the destroyed remains of Tokyo, and at the bottom of the hill, he finds the skeletal corpses of his comrades. The Guardian Beasts appear in the sky and tell Geki that he must unite the hearts of his team, as well as the bodies of the Guardian Beasts in order to form Daizyujin. Geki sees an immense shape under the sand of this dead world as the Guardian Beasts tell him
this will be the future if he does not succeed at unifying the Rangers.
Nelson: Hold on. Hold on. There’s a big detail you’re leaving out there in that everybody was dead, everybody was like… I was like this is a kid’s show.
Ethan: It’s bleak, it’s bleak. It’s like, it’s horrifying. He finds the skeletons of the other Rangers, and he sees like a badly broken Tokyo Tower in the distance, and a totally destroyed cityscape. And like, this is what Bandora’s ultimate goal is: like, the destruction of all life on Earth.
Nelson: They were skeletons! It’s crazy.
Ethan: Yeah, it’s bleak.
Andrew: So she doesn’t just want to torture children.
Ethan: Right. Well, I mean she- that’s definitely like her mode of-
Nelson: That’s part of it.
Ethan: Her modus operandi of achieving this goal is to torture the children until all of humanity is dead, which is… pretty bleak. Geki promises he will do everything in his power and the Guardian Beasts zap him back to 1992 Earth in the forest where his friends and the children have been trapped by Dora Sphinx. He despairs for just a moment, saying he doesn’t know how to unite the team or form Daizyujin, but Barza overhears and says that Geki must seek out the Dino Crystals. Before they can discuss it, Dora Sphinx and Grifforzer reappear to make Geki’s day that much worse. They fight through the woods and into a quarry, where Bandora throws her sceptre, making Dora Sphinx and Grifforzer into giants. Geki runs around trying not to get squished like a bug, when suddenly his sword gives off a radiating glow and an energy bolt streaks out to a random spot in the hillside. You may remember this footage from a previous Power Rangers episode. It makes like, a little bit more sense, but it’s also still pretty random and far out.
Nelson: They just kind of throw Goldar in there… What was it, Grifforzer?
Ethan: Grifforzer.
Nelson: Yeah, I’m sticking with Goldar.
Ethan: That’s fine.
Andrew: I appreciate you bringing that up, because the Power Rangers footage was complete nonsense, where all of a sudden, [Jason] just knew that this crystal existed, and also how to find it, and what to do with it when he got it. At least Geki here gets some context.
Ethan: Yes, he gets, I would say, a minimal amount of context, but that beats the zero context episode of Rangers.
Andrew: This satisfied everything I wanted to know about the Crystal.
Ethan: Yes. Conveniently, this is the sack holding the Dino Crystals, which has apparently been waiting in this hillside for 170 million years, untouched by both archaeology and industry. Geki unwraps the Crystals and pitches the four that aren’t his to his friends, who are broken free from their imprisonment by the power of the Crystals. They summon the Guardian Beasts and, with the Dino Crystals, are able to combine into the Dino Tanker, and from there into Daizyujin, which gives Dora Sphinx and Grifforzer a fight to remember. Unfortunately, the loggers have arrived to clearcut the forest and make room for the golf course, which distracts our heroes from their fight.
Nelson: They start killing children.
Ethan: Yeah, they’re literally like- It’s not shown like how many trees they actually managed to cut down, but each of those trees-
Nelson: They killed some kids.
Ethan: -has a kid stuck in it and it’s I mean it- like with Hiroshi in the Land of Despair, like we just watch a couple of kids die.
Nelson: Well, yeah, that’s what Violet was talking about. That’s what Violet was talking about before, she wanted this show to not be afraid to show that they will kill children, and…
Andrew: Here they go.
Nelson: Yeah, like they kind of walked it back in the Land of Despair,
but…
Andrew: But not here.
Nelson: No, not here.
Ethan: But again, it’s not- The show doesn’t like linger on that at all. There’s no blood. You know at the end, there’s not like a, “It’s a shame we couldn’t save those those few we lost…” or- It’s just not commented on.
Nelson: But you hear kids screaming while they’re cutting trees down. You know.
Ethan: Dora Sphinx takes this opportunity to shrink back into his human form and challenge the Rangers to more riddles, Threatening to turn Daizyujin itself into a tree if they fail. They solve some, but Geki tricks the monster into revealing his weakness, and when Dora Sphinx resumes his giant form and attempts to blow them away, they summon Daizyujin’s weapon, Kyoryuken Godhorn, which is just the coolest s*** in the universe-
Nelson: Right? The Godhorn?
Ethan: -and strike the monster down in one blow, which frees all the children trapped in the trees. The episode ends with the Rangers reaffirming their promise to each other and to Daizyujin. Loose impressions?
Nelson: Loved it.
Ethan: This is the first time we see Daizyujin, or the Megazord, in
Sentai, and it literally the first shot of it is: it buried in the sand, which is such a cool shot.
Nelson: Yeah, it was so sick. Loved that.
Andrew: This was so much better than the accompanying Power Rangers episode. [Transcriber’s note: MMPR s1e4, “A Pressing Engagement,” which we covered in KSPR 04.]
Ethan: And I think it also blows “Day of the Dumpster” out of the water in terms of buildup to this like, incredible moment. I mean I- we want to get Will [Dover of Dover Demon Designs] to do some artwork for us of the red lightning on the black background, when [Daizyujin]’s raising the sword over his head. Oh, it’s so cool. I mean I literally get chills every time I watch it.
Nelson: I don’t know how exactly they did it with the whole like, covered-up Megazord, if they used like miniatures, because like looking at it, it looked like there might have just been like a little Geki action figure in there, like in a sandbox.
Ethan: I think that was a really well done compositing shot.
Nelson: Really?
Ethan: I think that they took the actual Megazord suit, or if not the actual suit, at least like a model of the torso, and put that in a sandbox, and then composited that in with the shot of Geki and it’s just- it’s extra premium.
Nelson: That’s crazy for ’92.
Andrew: Yeah.
Ethan: Right. Well, I mean you look at the shot of the Guardian Beasts talking to Geki from in the clouds, it just looks like they’re standing up there.
Nelson: Yeah, but I mean they also, you know, that was that was more of an easy coverup, because they had the distance, and the mountain, and all the fog and everything. But yeah, no, that was definitely a cool shot with the whole Megazord like, under all the dust.
Ethan: And Godhorn is just such an unbelievably cooler name than “Power Sword!” I mean, the Power Sword’s also cool, but like Godhorn just- is unbelievable.
Nelson: There’s one part that I will never forget in this episode, when Dora Sphinx like goes back into his human form, and he’s like, “Goldar. Chill out.” and dude just like, just gets down. Puts his sword down and just chills out for a second.
Ethan: That’s Sexy Goldar!
Andrew: That’s the header image-
Ethan: Yeah, that’s our header image for our our CommunityMedia.Network account.
Nelson: I love that, he’s just chillin’.
Ethan: Just sexy Grifforzer, just- he’s just laid out, and just watchin’.
Andrew: So Dora Sphinx was a much more daunting villain than what we got in Power Rangers-
Ethan: King Sphinx, yeah.
Andrew: -and the combination of Dora Sphinx and Grifforzer here, it made sense. There were stakes, as opposed to, in Power Rangers, where they’ve they’ve set it up, they’ve already got the Megazord, every episode is just like, “Yeah, fight fight fight, Megazord, over! Hey!” Like this had weight to it. It’s weird that it was this far in but but yeah, I like this a lot.
Ethan: Yeah, and I think King Sphinx in Power Rangers uses his wings to blow Kimberley and Zack away, and that’s the only time you see him do that. When in Sentai, that’s his whole thing, is that if you if you fail his riddles, which are like pretty high level puns, if you like- the last couple that the Rangers solve as they’re in Daizyujin is- they’re quite tricky. But of course he cheats and is like, “What’s the what is the great force that will always win out?” And he says the answer is evil and they disagree and…
Nelson: Also, I mean there was another part that like, I had to pause it because I was laughing too much, where like they’re like, “We know what the final riddle is! It’s his weakness! He’ll never ask that!” and he’s like, “Hahhh, what’s my weakness?” They’re like, “Ah s***!” It like, just literally immediately, he’s like, “Hey, I heard you, so,” and like well, we don’t know, but just like that whole sequence of events, of just like, “He’ll never do that… I’m doing it!”
Ethan: It’s very fairytale, which is a strong influence on a lot of the monster stuff in in Zyuranger.
Andrew: For sure.
Ethan: I think that’s all I have to say about that.
Nelson: It’s a good episode. Oh, all right.
Ethan: Nelson has our Rangers recap which, again, he’s been waiting for probably three months to lay out.
Nelson: I have. Yeah, I made these these notes… Let’s check…
Andrew: Before we shot the first episode.
Nelson: I did! Either way, yeah.
Ethan: “Food Fight!”
Nelson: So, Rangers recap, folks!
[“Go, go! Power Rangers!” + theme music]
Nelson: Power Rangers, episode six, “Food Fight.” So we open up in Angel Grove, at the cultural center, and they’re having a cultural food festival. You know, that can’t be problematic in any kind of way.
Ethan: I think my first note on on this sequence is literally “Oh, we’re just like exoticizing brown women. That’s exciting.” It’s like, Ernie shows up with…
Nelson: With pies.
Ethan: Well, he’s flanked by like two-
Nelson: Two women in hu-
Ethan: Two women in like Hawai’ian… Yeah, hula skirts and leis. And that’s like the first thing you see in this episode.
Nelson: He walks up to Bulk and Skull and he’s like, “Help me with these!” and then he looks- they look at the women and they’re like, “Wohh!”, he’s like, “The pies, come on.”
Ethan: Yeah, not a great way to start the episode. Anyway…
Nelson: Yeah, so, the the Rangers are helping out at the cultural food festival today. They do not have time to deal with Reader Repulsor-
“Reader Repulsor,” what am I, f*** Southern?
Andrew: “Reader Repulsor!” [Cowboy noises.]
Nelson: “Reader Repulsor.” But yeah, they don’t have time for her schemes today, and luckily, you know, she’s upset. She’s got a whole headache, doesn’t even want to think about taking over the Earth. And back at Angel Grove, at the cultural food fair, despite the multicultural foreign cuisine being the most popular of things, the principal guy- What’s the guy with the wig, the principal?
Ethan: Kaplan.
Nelson: Yeah, he just wants some good old American hot dogs and hamburgers.
But he doesn’t want to pay for ’em, because he’s old. He’s an old cheap b***. And so, here we go, this is where Bulk and Skull enter.
As with every episode, like I said before, last time I was here, GOATed theme song. Amazing.
[Bulk and Skull’s theme]
Nelson: And so, yeah, then Bulk and Skull throw some pies and you get a food fight. You know, it is what it says on the tin.
Andrew: Chekov’s food fight.
Nelson: You know, yeah.
Ethan: I have written down that they bean the principal’s wig clean off his head.
Nelson: Yeah, that’s- it’s like they were aiming for the wig.
Ethan: Yeah, it’s targeted.
Nelson: This food fight goes on, man. This goes on for a while.
Ethan: I wrote also in my notes, this must have been hell to clean up, because they are truly going for it.
Andrew: So much of the show, though, is just like, “Hey, let’s point out the way that this person is different and then ridicule them for it.”
Nelson: It was the 90s, dude!
Andrew: Yeah, it’s no wonder that they were aiming for the wig, you know?
Nelson: But yeah, so this awesome food fight gets Rita’s attention, and she makes a pig monster.
Andrew: I just love the idea that, “Oh my head hurts. Oh, I don’t want to deal with the Power Rangers. Oh, they’re having a food fight? Well, I must have a part of that!”
Nelson: I mean, yeah, dude, like trust me. Growing up in the 90s, somebody has a food fight, even if you’re not in the mood, you’re gonna get it.
Ethan: That’s something I always wanted to happen at the elementary school cafeteria. I never saw it.
Andrew: Can you imagine how bad it would have been if we had a food fight in the middle school cafeteria?
Ethan: Oh, god, middle school? I mean, middle school, people would have died. Like someone would have gotten stabbed with a fork.
Andrew: And even if nobody got stabbed with a fork, when the principal showed up- well, Mosley wouldn’t have done anything. But when the assistant principal showed up, somebody would have been grievously injured. He would have just started grabbing people by the hair. I mean, he was not a good dude.
Nelson: Wow. Yeah, no, see, I love the idea of a food fight, but also now that I’m like- I love that I say “now that I’m an adult” like I’m actually an adult, but like, I think about like, food allergies. It’s like the minute somebody with a peanut allergy…
Andrew: Yeah! Gets hit with some peanut butter…
Nelson: Like, you got a lawsuit on your hands.
Ethan: Well, I also would think about like solidarity with janitors, by not making the biggest mess in the universe. And like, they’re not gonna make the kids clean that up. We’re not gonna- they’re not gonna let us mop anything, so like it’s gonna fall on the janitors, and that’s way too much work for them to do.
Andrew: Not to mention, you know, the food waste.
Ethan: Yeah, that also sucks.
Nelson: Yeah, okay, so she summons this big old pig monster to Earth to eat all of the food on Earth. I’m talking all of it. And I- you know, I may have glossed over it a bit here, but this pig monster…
Andrew: It’s disgusting.
Nelson: Oh boy. Don’t like it. Don’t like it at all.
Ethan: I don’t like his voice.
[“Oh, I’m hungry! Oughghhhh!”]
Nelson: I don’t like what he looks like, I don’t like what he stands for, I don’t like anything about it.
Andrew: Are you familiar- There was a line of toys in the the late 80s and the early 90s called Mad Balls. It’s just grotesque balls.
Nelson: Yeah, it reminded me of a mixture between one of those and a Garbage Pail Kid.
Andrew: Yeah, yeah.
Nelson: Because it just has a Trojan helmet for some reason.
Andrew: For no reason!
Ethan: There is a reason for that, that will not become clear until we get to this- the episode of Sentai that he’s up in, which…
Andrew: Which means that within the context of Power Rangers, there is no reason for it.
Ethan: Zero context. It’s just like, “What?”
Nelson: Yeah, and his arms, I think, are in his mouth?
Andrew: Yeah, he’s all like…
Nelson: Yeah, his arms come out of his mouth to pull the food into his mouth, and he’s also a head on legs in a Trojan helmet.
Ethan: It’s funny y’all mentioned Garbage Pail Kids and toys. We had a toy of this at my granddad’s house, and the back- like, the lowest back part of his helmet is on a hinge, so that you can open it up and extract all of the things that you can feed to him. So you could actually feed him your tiny Power Rangers weapons from the five inch scale line, and then open his a** up and pour them out and feed ’em- I mean, it’s silly, it’s silly.
Andrew: No, he’s a grotesque little dude.
Nelson: Yeah, so, after this pig monster gets here and he destroys their picnic and eats the potato salad that took them three days to make.
[“Way to go buddy. It took us three days to make that potato salad!”]
Ethan: Three days for potato salad?
Nelson: It’s a SpongeBob reference, sorry. Might have gone over your head.
You remember, “It took us three days to make this potato salad!”?
Ethan: No, that one escapes me. I remember a lot of SpongeBob, but that’s- this one escapes me.
Nelson: That one was a real in the pocket one for you. So basically they get yelled at by the principal and then they’re like, you know, as they usually do when they get in trouble, say, “F*** this, Zordon’s calling.” So they go to the other room and they just dip out, and Zordon’s like, “Pig monster’s here! Y’all gotta do something about this.” And they’re like, “Yeah, we should,” and in the meantime, the pig monster goes to Angel Grove. He goes to the cultural food festival…
Andrew: The place that the Rangers had just left!
Nelson: Where they just were! And it’s just terrorizing that, which means, and you know, this is another fun thing that we’ve pointed out in this podcast, they had to shoot new footage for this.
Andrew: I didn’t think about that, but you’re right.
Ethan: Yes, when they imported all of the props and costumes, they had somebody come in in that costume and start shoveling, you know, fake shoveling, but like shoveling all the food.
Nelson: He was Cookie Monster-in’ it. Yeah.
Ethan: I would jam on some cookies right now, ugh.
Nelson: They realize that the monster can’t have spicy food.
Ethan: Correct.
Nelson: And this is after they try to fight him and he eats their weapons, and just poots out little remainders of them.
Ethan: His little tail bouncing is like gro-tesque. It’s like boingoing. Blech.
Nelson: So they lure him in with spicy food and, you know, he starts coughing out their weapons, and then they make the Power Blaster and they shoot him to death.
Andrew: Now see, I don’t know about you, Nelson, but but when I eat spicy food, I immediately start coughing up weapons.
Nelson: I mean who doesn’t? I mean, who among us, right, you know? But yeah, coughs up the weapons, they form the Power Blaster, day saved.
Andrew: Day is saved!
Nelson: And then because, you know, what’s the 90s without making people appreciate other cultures that they thought were weird? And so they convinced the principal to eat a little bit of spicy food, just a little bit, and you know, and then that’s the end. And he’s like, “Oh, all right, all right, I like what you’re doing.” So, yeah, honestly, I’m glad we could finally talk about this episode because I feel like I’ve had too much build-up for this disappointing a** episode of Power Rangers. They don’t even go big, there’s no Megazord in this!
Ethan: No, so, because he doesn’t the Megazord doesn’t ever fight the pig monster in the original show.
Nelson: They just shoot him with the Power Blaster, and he’s gone.
Andrew: And at that point in the original- in Sentai, in Zyuranger, the Megazord was basically brand new, and they have already established that it only has to come out for a big threat. This pig monster is not a big threat. He’s just a gross little dude.
Ethan: Yeah, he’s just hungry.
Nelson: And he got dealt with like a gross little dude. He got shot and exploded.
Ethan: The spicy radish stuff is so funny to me. It’s so goofy. I have had radishes that are like gnarly tasting.
Nelson: Do they make spicy radishes?
Ethan: It’s not spicy in the way that a pepper is spicy…
Andrew: It’s just kinda sharp.
Nelson: Yeah, it’s like ginger.
Ethan: This one that I’m thinking of was a black radish. I went- I was on a trip to Washington State to visit some friends in 2018, and one of their friends worked on a farm, and they had been growing these like extremely gnarly black radishes. And if somebody snuck me a whole sandwich of that, I would have also spewed up all the magical power weapons. There is a bit where someone says “flip his wig.””
[“Mr. Kaplan is going to flip his wig! Again!”]
Ethan: In reference to Kaplan, and I noticed that Thuy Trang’s face- She is trying so hard not to break at that point, if you watch her face in that shot, she is like really really holding it in. I thought that was really funny. I think this is also the first instance that we see “morphenomenal” come up as a thing that the Rangers say? It’s so obnoxious.
[“Why not lure the animal with food after we stick a piece of the spicy radish root inside? Morphenomenal idea, Billy!”]
Ethan: Morphatominal, morphitudinous, it’s all…
Andrew: They kept trying for these catchphrases.
Nelson: Also, I think it’s implied that Zack is Jamaican?
Ethan: Is it?
Nelson: I mean, if you look at the booth that he’s at, I’m pretty sure it’s a Jamaican flag that’s behind him? Like I’m pretty sure. I have to go back and look, which I will, since I’ll be editing this. But yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s implied that he is Jamaican of some sort. Which, hey, I don’t know if you guys’ve ever had Jamaican food, but whew s***, man.
Andrew: When we lived in Maryland, long time ago, we could walk to this Jamaican joint. And Ryan and I would frequently eat so much that we made ourselves sick, because it was wonderful, and it was cheap, and it was right there. Yeah, I mean it was fantastic.
Ethan: Well, I want some Jamaican food now, I guess.
Nelson: Yeah, right, good stuff. You know, yeah, so that’s the episode. What are you guys’ thoughts on this episode, “Food Fight?”
Ethan: I think there’s not as much fat shaming as there could have been, but there’s a non-zero amount of fat shaming, and I don’t appreciate it, once again.
Nelson: I mean, they do put [Bulk’s] face in food. The pies.
Ethan: Well, I mean Kimberley kind of shame- fat shames the monster. Which like he’s a monster, he’s evil, but also like we didn’t have to… you know, these are the tools of the enemy, et cetera et cetera.
Andrew: Considering all of the episodes of Power Rangers up to this point, and how bad most of them have been, this one at least felt almost coherent. Like the plot, while full of ridiculous bulls, at least stuck to its ridiculous bulls enough that that it- like, whoever wrote this did a good enough job with it.
Ethan: You know, it’s a good utilization of the source film. It’s like yeah, okay, pig monster eats all the food. How can we frame this in a way that sort of makes sense and has some stakes. Again, Rita is working on such a small-time level, like we talked about in a previous episode. Rita wants to gain control of the park. Okay, why? What purpose does that serve? How does that help advance her like, world domination cause?
Andrew: Especially when we’ve established how powerful she is. Like, it does seem super petty. Like, Rita has the ability to-
Ethan: Wreck whole cities.
Andrew: -And if we take Bandora’s actions in the first episode of Zyuranger as canon, like, can just reconfigure the entire Tokyo Tower, and she wants a park.
Nelson: She can ride a bike in the sky.
Ethan: Yeah, or she wants to ruin one school’s food festival, when she could be like burning crop fields, you know, and-
Nelson: You know, she’s doing what a lot of people should be doing, and that’s thinking locally, all right. You gotta start somewhere, you gotta be the change you want to see.
Andrew: Rita living those Community Media values.
Nelson: Is she an ally?
Ethan: No! No, she also loves pollution and other stuff, and making children cry.
Andrew: Making children cry!
Nelson: She’d make a great Captain Planet villain.
Ethan: Oh, yeah!
Nelson: Would she be too powerful for Captain Planet?
Andrew: She might be too powerful for Captain Planet.
Nelson: All you power scaling nerds out there.
Ethan: Yeah, where does Captain Planet fall on the Megazord scale? Like could Captain Planet take the Megazord?
Andrew: I need to know this.
Nelson: I think Captain Planet could take the Megazord.
Andrew: I need you to seek me out and tell me.
Nelson: Yeah, Deathbattle. Let’s get that going. They still do that, right? You haven’t watched Deathbattle?
Ethan: Are you talking about like, the claymation celebrity death battle?
Nelson: No, no, that’s Celebrity Deathmatch. It’s like a YouTube series…
with Whiz and Boomstick… I’m- you probably- that probably sounds like I’m just making s*** up. Yeah, no, but it’s like, a show where they take all the attributes of two characters and they animate like a death battle between them. Yeah, it’s real-
Ethan: Ichigo versus Naruto or something.
Nelson: Yeah. Yeah, or like Omniman versus Homelander. Yeah, if they’re still making those, let’s get Captain Planet against the Power Rangers.
Andrew: Absolutely.
Nelson: The Planeteers against the Power Rangers.
Andrew: Let’s do it. Okay, research time? I’ll start the research.
Ethan: So I know what our research topic is today, because we were talking about it off camera, off mic, but tell the people what do we got today.
Andrew: So for today’s research topic, I’m looking to talk about the actor who appears in the most episodes of Power Rangers. I got curious, I did some cursory internet searching, and and my cursory internet searching told me something that I didn’t believe? I thought was a lie. And it turns out that I was right not to believe it. So, let’s get into it.
Ethan: He’s been real cagey about who this actually is. He keeps talking about “the actor this, the actor that.” And so like I have a good idea, but I don’t actually know. So I’m really interested.
Andrew: I surprised myself. So let’s go. So first and foremost, if you search “who appears in the most episodes of Power Rangers?”, what you’re gonna get is Jason David Frank, who has not appeared in the show yet,
but who plays the Green Ranger and later the White Ranger.
Ethan: And later the Gold Ranger and later the Black Ranger.
Andrew: And I have no doubt that he was the Power Ranger who appeared as a Power Ranger in the most episodes of Power Rangers, but he hasn’t shown up so far in this series.
Ethan: Episode 17. It’s gonna be a banger.
Nelson: We’re getting close to that.
Ethan: Yeah.
Nelson: Nice.
Andrew: And some of his his co-stars, or at least some of his fellow actors, who are already in the show, also stick around for at least as long as he does, so I thought it was weird that that he would have the reputation as being in the most episodes, you know? So I did some more digging and specifically I went and looked at specific actors. There’s a character who’s already appeared in the show who definitely beats him and his name is Eugene Skullovich. He’s played by Jason Narvy and he appears in 151 episodes of Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, 50 episodes of Zeo, 44 episodes of Power Rangers Turbo, 43 episodes of Power Rangers In Space,
an episode of Wild Force, an episode of Lost Galaxy, and an episode of Power Rangers Samurai. He also appears in a one-off Bulk and Skull spin-off. They did a a direct-to-video spin-off episode because they were going to do a Bulk and Skull television program.
Ethan: When I was verifying that Paul Schrier is Bulk’s actor for the episode four transcript, I peeked into that and I did see a mention of that.
Nelson: There’s your special episode mention for this one.
Andrew: So that’s a hell of a run, you know, a ton of episodes.
Ethan: How many is that total?
Andrew: Just over 290. It’s about 294 or so, depending on if you count the the spin-off. And in a couple of those his character appears, but he does not. I don’t know if you recall this, but for a little while in Turbo, Bulk and Skull are played by monkeys.
Ethan: I did- I read about this also.
Andrew: And that’s while they were shooting the Bulk and Skull spin-off show.
Ethan: I think they did voiceovers for those episodes, but their faces don’t appear.
Andrew: So so just over 290, but is that actually the most appearances from a single actor?
Ethan: I have no idea.
Andrew: It turns out the answer is no.
Nelson: Oh, who do we got?
Andrew: Skull’s counterpart, Bulk.
Nelson: Ahhh!
Andrew: Surprisingly, Bulk, played by Paul Schrier, beats him out, depending on how you count it, he either beats him out by a little bit, or he beats him out by a lot. Paul Schrier appears in every episode of Power Rangers Samurai and in nearly every episode that that Jason Narvy appears in, plus a bunch that Jason Narvy does not appear in. And that by itself would be enough to put him in in the lead slot, but but like I said, it depends on how you count it, because he also appeared as a lead character in a thing called Power Rangers HyperForce. Power Rangers HyperForce is a canonical, officially-licensed web series that was done as a podcast and a Twitch stream.
Nelson: What!
Andrew: It’s a Power Rangers role-playing game. It’s a tabletop game, and they did this tabletop game, they had a bunch of professionals come in and play characters for this tabletop game, and they made the plot of the tabletop game canon within Power Rangers. It crosses over with several of the Power Rangers comic books and Paul Schrier plays a character named Jack Thomas, who is the HyperForce Yellow Ranger.
Ethan: I saw that mentioned when I was verifying that actor’s name. This makes sense now. It made no sense to me at the time, because I was like wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
Nelson: Yeah, that’s something else.
Ethan: So how long is the HyperForce series?
Andrew: It’s like 20-something episodes.
Ethan: Of what, an hour a piece?
Andrew: No, they’re like half an hour.
Ethan: Oh geez, that’s super digestible.
Andrew: It aired in 2017, 2018. I’ll actually end up talking about it a little more in my next research segment. But yeah, so I did the the digging and Paul Schrier appears in more episodes of Power Rangers than anybody else, and I just find that fascinating.
Ethan: He stuck around. I mean, this- we’re talking about like a span of
30…
Andrew: Yeah…
Nelson: 30 years.
Ethan: 1993 to 2024 is a long time. [Transcriber’s note: you ain’t have to say that about your/myself.]
Andrew: We talk about this a lot on the show, but his character is just treated horribly, and it’s honestly a little heartwarming to me that he managed to take that and turn it into a multi-decade career, that in many ways culminates with him getting to assume the role of of an actual Power Ranger. I mean, like, I love that for him. That’s what I got. You know, I was surprised by this answer. It was not what I was expecting. And so in a couple of episodes, when I come back and do some more research segment, I’m gonna get into Paul Schrier and what else he has done. But I didn’t want to bog us down here, because I just love that reveal.
Ethan: No, that’s awesome. I read a little bit about his role in Samurai and some other stuff, and it didn’t even occur to me that he would be in the number one spot.
Andrew: And it’s kind of neat to watch as their characters- as Bulk and Skull evolve from like, the comic relief bullies to kind of almost supportive side characters. Like in the Turbo era, they’re still like not exactly friendly, but like the Power Rangers are frequently- they’re helping Bulk and Skull out, as opposed to bullying them, and as the show continues to progress that becomes a- more and more of their relationship is that these are just dudes that they know and are are generally friendly with.
Ethan: Why do I remember something about the Puce and Mauve Rangers? Does this ring a bell to you at all?
Andrew: No.
Nelson: Yes. Cause one of them was like the Purple Ranger? Yeah.
Ethan: Yeah. Is that- that’s ringing a bell with you?
Nelson: Yeah, I don’t remember what that was about, but I know there was a Purple Ranger who wasn’t a Power Ranger.
Ethan: They like, make their own costumes or something.
Nelson: They called him the Mauve Ranger?
Ethan: Yeah.
Nelson: That’s hilarious.
Ethan: I can’t remember the context, I don’t remember which season of the show it’s in…
Nelson: What child would know what color mauve is?
Ethan: That’s the joke. It’s like puce and mauve are such obscure…
Nelson: That’s crazy.
Ethan: I don’t remember any of the context, or even if it’s from the show, or like a comic, or something else.
Andrew: If you search for “Puce and Mauve Ranger,” you get Bulk’s wiki page. I don’t know the details and I will find out before my next research segment.
Ethan: This is such a very faint but distinct memory that I have. I can’t remember anything about it. I just remember them like basically sewing their own costumes that are not Power Ranger- they’re not power suits, and then like declaring themselves the Puce and Mauve Rangers.
Nelson: Puce and mauve.
Ethan: Puce and mauve, yeah.
Nelson: That’s crazy.
Ethan: But I can’t remember anything else about it. I just remember that that’s a thing that happened at some point.
Andrew: Okay, so that’s some research.
Nelson: That is some research.
Ethan: Yeah, no, that’s such a cool question.
Nelson: Good little trivia.
Andrew: Oh, I didn’t give a total. Bulk appears in well over 300 episodes, and if you include the the stuff from HyperForce, it gets up to like the
330 or so.
Ethan: Awesome. If we ever get a cast member on the show, we should spring that fact on them and see how they- what they think. I mean, we should we should ask them who they think it is, because I imagine all- virtually all of them would say Jason David Frank, and I think the fact that Bulk and Skull beat him out, both of them, is really funny.
Nelson: They’re the most Power Rangers Power Rangers, you know?
Ethan: Okay, well, I mean is that everything we have to say about these episodes?
Andrew: Yeah, I think that’s it.
Nelson: That’s it.
Ethan: Okay.
Nelson: Ethan, hit ’em with the outro.
Ethan: We’ll be back next time to discuss episode seven of Zyuranger, “Mieru, Mieru! (I can see, I can see!)”, and Power Rangers, “Big Sisters.” If you’ve enjoyed the show, please feel free to send me five dollars, and if you want to find me online, don’t. But you can follow the show on the Fediverse @KenkyuuSentaiPodcastRangers@Meet.CommunityMedia.Network. Andrew, how can people get in touch and what should they look out for?
Andrew: So I’m @AJRoach42@Retro.Social on the Fediverse. You can find the stuff that I’m doing at AndrewRoach.net. That’s all I got to say today.
Ethan: Okay. Nelson, what do you want to shout out?
Nelson (caught by surprise): Oh, uh, so-
Ethan: Middle school flashback, oh god!
Nelson: Yeah, right. So, I work on Working Class Music, you can go check that out. You know, I’ve got videos there of me doing music stuff. Speaking of music stuff, I’ll be here, playing playing a show in March.
Andrew: Which you’ll be able to watch on New Ellijay Television.
Nelson: Yeah, which you can watch.
Ethan: Or you could just show up. You have plenty of time.
Andrew: Yeah, when was the last time you played a solo show, Nelson?
Nelson: Phew boy, I’m not gonna say that on air, because then they might not come.
Andrew: Was it 10 years ago?
Nelson: I mean, I wouldn’t say 10 years ago.
Andrew: Was it 2015?
Nelson: Like, out? Not just like at my house? Oh, okay, probably like
I’d say…
Andrew: ’16 at the latest, man.
Nelson: No, 2017.
Andrew: Yeah?
Nelson: 2017, 2018 probably.
Andrew: Really?
Nelson: Yeah, it’s been a while.
Andrew: You played a show in ’17?
Nelson: I think so. I actually went and did some stuff last night. My buddy was doing like a whole karaoke thing with his band, and I was like, can you guys play “Short skirt, long jacket” by CAKE? We did that and f*** “Beverly Hills” by Weezer.
Andrew: Of course.
Nelson: Yeah, so that’s what I did last night. Got to get the reps in. But yeah come see John Thefruitman. Andrew finally gets what he wants. You also find me @Nelsonforyou on wherever, and if you can’t find that, don’t do anything else. Take a nap.
Andrew: Take a nap.
Ethan: Take a nap. That sounds good.
Nelson: All right, we’ll see you guys next time.
Ethan: Yeah! Okay, that’s all the show we have for you today. Thank you so much for listening and thanks also to Hurly-Burly and the Volcanic Fallout for the use of their song “Colossal Might (totally radical instrumental version)” for our intro and outro music. Kenkyuu Sentai Podcast Rangers is licensed CC-BY-SA and produced in collaboration with New Ellijay Television at the Ellijay Makerspace, which stands on the ancestral, unceded, stolen, and occupied lands of the Cherokee people. You can learn more about the Makerspace by visiting EllijayMakerspace.org and you can learn more about the Cherokee people by visiting Cherokee.org. Strength, love, and solidarity to all oppressed people, and in the words of a wise man: f*** capitalism; go home.
Nelson: Yeah!
