Monday, June 21, 2010

Better Know a Ranger: Turbo Edition (v1)

Red Ranger: Tommy Oliver
Actor: Jason David Frank

Tommy started out as the evil, brainwashed Green Ranger, but, having the snazziest duds and being shown to be a badass (or as much of a badass as you could be on children's TV in 1993) ensured that he'd stick around long after they ran out of Green Ranger footage, so they made him the White Ranger, and the leader of the Power Rangers. He eventually became the Red Zeo Ranger....right after he learned of his Native American heritage, and then became the Red Turbo Ranger.

This season, having completed high school, Tommy becomes a race car driver because....well, I mean, the show was called Turbo, and Tommy had been in high school forever by that point, so they had to do something. As the leader of the team, he is contractually bound to receive more spotlight episodes that any other two characters combined.

Jason David Frank left Power Rangers midseason to pursue other opportunities. Unfortunately, said opportunities remained outside he grasp, no matter how hard he hunted for them, through the meadows of chance and the heaths of fortune. His crossbow of talent never seemed to hit it's quarry, no matter his effort.

*Ahem* He eventually became a MMA fighter.


Green Ranger: Adam Park
Actor: Johnny Yong Bosch

Adam Park was introduced way back in season two of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers when half of the actors held out for more money, and had their characters sent to a "Peace Conference" as revenge. Adam was the replacement Black Ranger, most notable for being stuck with Frog Ninja Powers, and being bummed about it.

Anyway, by the time of Turbo, he has the team's second-in-command (much the same way Klingons ascend through the ranks), and in his civilian life, a stuntman and a soccer coach. He gets a few spotlight episodes before he leaves.

Johnny Yong Bosch is best known for his extensive voice-over work and apparently also has a band.


Pink Ranger: Kat Hilliard
Actress: Catherine Sutherland

Kat was the second Pink Ranger, replacing Kimberly after the actress quit in order to pursue other opportunities (hint: it didn't go well). Anyway, the producers, perhaps catching a glimpse of the future after an opium binge, decided to cast an antipodean for the role, and introduce her as a girl captured by Rita Repulsa and then brainwashed into infiltrating the Rangers...as a cat. It...was a weird plan.

Anyway, by assuming the powers of the Pink Ranger, she also inherited the duty of being the love interest of the Red Ranger. She has a couple of spotlight episodes, both of which deal with her adventures in becoming a professional dancer, and both of which will make you want to hit your head against something hard.

Catherine Sutherland has basically done no acting besides Power Rangers. But as a kid, I thought she was hot....I stand by that opinion now.



Yellow Ranger: Tanya Sloan
Actress: Nakia Burrise

Tanya was introduced in the midst of a complicated story-arc that I don't care to recapitulate, other than to say that due to the vagaries of time travel, she may actually only be eight years old.

Anyway, her character basically exists because the footage had five Rangers in it, and so they had to have someone in the yellow spandex. She is the focus of exactly zero episodes this season.

Nakia Burrise has had a number of bit parts on TV. By the standards of Power Rangers alumni, that's pretty good.



Blue Ranger: Justin Stewart
Actor: Blake Foster

Star Trek has Wesley, Doctor Who has Adric, Power Rangers has Justin.

I could see how, in the abstract, it might seem like a good idea to have the new Ranger be the same age as the target audience. That said, there was no way in hell that it was going to work. First of all, having a twelve-year old in fighting sequences always looked faintly ridiculous, even by Power Ranger standards. Second, the acting in Power Rangers had always been dodgy at best, and adding a child actor to the mix was probably one step too far.

Still, I have to admire the conviction that the producers seemed to have in this character. We are going to experience Justin-centered episode after Justin-centered episode, and they will be uniformly terrible.

Blake Foster grew up to become an unemployed former child star, but not prominent enough of a child star to be in a reality show. He apparently earned a black belt at age 11, which would likely make him the least threatening black belt in human history.

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