The Untold Truth Of Being A Power Ranger

You're a real martial artist, but no one believes you

"I'm a karate master," Frank points out. "I've been doing it since I was four, and I'm a ninth-degree black belt and I own my own school. But people will still come up to me and ask 'Where'd you learn your karate? On the show?'" Frank just smiles every time he hears that one. The actors did a lot of the fighting on the show; Frank did flips, handsprings, kicks, tree flips, and more. It's why he got the role. Up until then, the studio had only ever seen "Hollywood" martial arts, so when Frank walked in, they didn't know what to do with him. They were all blown away.

When Frank enters the MMA ring to fight someone, they sometimes think "Oh, it's just the Power Rangers guy. He's not a real fighter"an assumption that puts their guard down and works to Frank's advantage. They don't expect him to have anywhere near his level of training or expertise. (By the way, he's undefeated right now.) "I just let them think whatever they want," Frank adds. "I learned this in episode 53. Check out what I did to the Monster Mash monster. And I'm not the only onethe Red Ranger is a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. He's a hell of a fighter. But it took us forever to rebuild our reputations as 'real' martial artists after being on the show."

It doesn't matter if you win or lose

It never mattered to Frank whether he won or lost his MMA matches. "It's funny," he jokes. "If you lose, it's 'Ha ha. You got beat up by the green Power Ranger.' But if you win? 'Man, you beat the Green Ranger. You shouldn't have done thatnow all my fans are angry at you.'"

No publicity is bad publicity, so as long as Frank steps in the ring, there's really no way for him to lose. That's why it surprised him so much when people refuse to fight himlike Jean-Claude Van Damme, who challenged Frank only to back out.. "When I accepted, he backed down and wouldn't fight me," Frank explains. " It happens a lot. The Red Ranger's actor talked all the time about how he could beat me in a fight, but never fought me when I accepted his challenge. I don't get it. Like I said, win or lose, I don't lose. And neither do they, really. Why would you not come together for the fans and do something cool like that?"

Some characters are real people

Frank had the ability to create any character he wanted to for the show, and it's incredibly important to him that people understand the story behind the scenes. "Tommy was me," he explains. "He was a G-rated version of me, but it's still who I was. I was a real loner, and that's the role that Tommy first filled on the show. I was always the kid that was off on his own, wearing X-Men t-shirts and getting teased a bit. as the role changed, it helped me grow into other parts of myself."

It was spliced footage

Power Rangers was based on the Super Sentai series from Japana superhero show similar to Power Rangers, but with heavy Japanese overtones. Seriously, think "stereotypical Japanese thing with superheroes fighting robots," and you won't be too far from the mark. Regardless, Saban took this crazy popular Japanese show and bought the footage, which comes as a bit of a disappointment to fans who thought the American actors filmed all their own stunts.

For a time, Frank filmed his own stunts; he didn't want someone else to do it. But once the show got more popular, Saban worried more about liabilities, so the actors got to do less and less of their own stunts. It got to the point where almost all of the costumed scenes were either from the Japanese show or filmed by stuntmen and voiced over. In the later days, the actors mostly did the out-of-costume scenes. Frank always insisted on doing the actual martial arts himself, but doing flips out of trees? Too much of a risk for the studio's comfort.

"I think a lot of fans realize now that the show was spliced together," says Frank. "But back when it was on, a lot of people thought we really shot all of it, and we didn't. But some people were disappointed and still feel that way."

You're never NOT a Power Ranger

The young viewers in the show's target demographic sometimes believed the Power Rangers were realan impression deepened by the fact that the cast would even do interviews in character. At one event, a young attendee asked Frank why the Power Rangers didn't stop the Oklahoma bombing, and that's always stuck with him. He went to Saban and urged the company to film a public service announcement to let viewers know the show wasn't real. "That sounds terrible. The image of a superhero is real, don't get me wrong," he says. "But kids were getting horribly disappointed that they didn't see us out there fixing real problems. I heard that question about the Oklahoma bombing, and I wanted to be like 'Yeah! How come we weren't?""

It's like finally learning that Santa isn't real, but when you're expecting him to save lives instead of bringing you a new bike, it's infinitely more heartbreaking. Frank's been let down by heroes that weren't what he expected them to be, so he still maintains fitness goals and lives by Power Ranger ideals, so that kids who see him as a hero don't meet him and feel that same disappointment.

Frank even refuses to accept appearance fees at conventions or any public appearances. He doesn't tell people they can't take pictures or videos when they meet with him. He signs anything. He has fun with it, and he's passionate about it. Just one look at him interacting with his fans is proof.

It's all about the fans

Frank clearly loves everything about being a Power Ranger. After Disney bought out the franchise, the show's ratings were slipping, and the new producers (who Frank had worked with before) had the idea to bring back some of the old actors to boost ratings. According to Frank, this is when he realized that the Green Ranger and Tommy had become something bigger than himself. Money was tight as far as the studio's budget for the show was concerned, but he says he told them "I don't care, I'll do it for a dollar."

Frank has also been involved in some pretty interesting fan-made side projects, such as an internet video showing the White Ranger fighting Scorpion from Mortal Kombat, which you can watch above. It's one of the coolest things the internet has produced in awhile, and seeing the White Ranger obliterate Scorpion filled my heart with all the nostalgia.

Now that you have learned what it's like to be a Power Rangers here are some disturbing Power Ranger facts you may have missed.

Power Rangers is an undeniably weird TV series, cobbled together from bizarre scraps of different Japanese zentai and kaiju series, roughly cut with distinctly American additions. This jambalaya of nonsense makes a desperate attempt at coherence, but generally falls short. The surreal series has consistently aired new episodes for over two decades, but unbeknownst to many, the innocent Power Rangers has an even deeper layer of weirdness, both on and offscreen. Here are a few unpleasant Power Rangers facts you may have missed.

Natural Morphed Killers

In true Ranger fashion, Ex-Wild Force Red Ranger Ricardo Medina Jr. just happened to have a sword stashed behind his door when his roommate, Josh Sutter, allegedly burst into his room and began attacking Medina and his girlfriend. On January 31, 2015, Sutter was stabbed in the stomach as Medina defended himself, and the attacker subsequently died from the injury. The Red Ranger went free shortly after his 2015 arrest; the case was thrown out of court for a lack of evidence at that time. But in January 2016, about a year later, Medina was once again booked on a murder charge. If convicted, he faces 26 years to life in prison.

Detonate The Zordon Bomb

The premise of Power Rangers is simple, if a little nefarious: a space wizard in a tube convinces a bunch of vulnerable teenagers to fight evil for him. At his best, Zordon is a low-rent Obi-Wan Kenobi who took a scattershot approach at finding Jedi, hoping that one or two out of fifty wouldn't be killed on their first day by a violent spacemonster. The truth, revealed in episode 293, is that Zordon could have sacrificed himself to defeat every evil alien at once. Why he held off so long is anyone's guess, but like anyone over the age of 25, he probably just couldn't stand teenagers.

Mighty Morphin Kidnapping

Not only was Zordon a bit of a sociopath, but he also kidnapped a ton of kids on Christmas Eve in order to placate his lonely robot assistant, Alpha. While the direct-to-video Alpha's Magical Christmas is despised by most Ranger fans, it's as undeniable as the Star Wars Holiday Special. It happened, and Rangerologists have struggled for decades to try to fit it into canon, while attempting to downplay the excessive creepiness of Zordon just using Earth kids as playthings.

SP License To Kill

Power Rangers SPD was softened significantly for American audiences, as the original Japanese Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger was quite a bit darker. American kids only saw the Rangers capture defeated evil monsters in trading cards using their Delta Morphers, but Dekaranger viewers enjoyed calculated monster executions, whose worthiness of life was determined by an SP License. The License device acted as judge, jury, and executioner, and could either capture or kill them instantly. The License is always right. The License can not be questioned. Kafka would have had a field day.

Poorer Rangers

According to most members of the cast, all of the actors playing the Power Rangers were paid a pitiful, non-union salary for their incredibly long workdays, which often stretched through the entire weekend, requiring both live-action and voiceover work. Austin St. John, the original Red Ranger, has said that he would have earned more working at a fast food window, and that Haim Saban, the show's creator, profited in the millions while refusing to distribute the wealth with his stars. St. John lived in his Jeep after he left the show, as it left him very little to live on, or any residuals, due to Saban convincing the inexperienced actors to sign terrible contracts.

Mighty Banned

Most viewers see Power Rangers as a very cheesy, saccharine adventure show, but early critics of the show found it to be excessively violent, which caused the show to be banned or heavily edited in many countries. In 1994, the accidental murder of a 5-year old Norwegian girl by three boys was quickly blamed on the show, and the program was pulled from the air in Scandinavia. Canada also stopped showing Power Rangers the same year, while in Malaysia, the use of the non-word "morphin" was thought to promote drug use in children, so scenes and titles were heavily edited to simply refer to "Mighty Power Rangers." Presumably, this reduced their trademark catchphrase to the very creepy, "It's. time."

Bigotry Abounds

According to the original Blue Ranger, David Yost, on-set homophobia from the cast and crew was so vocal that he was considering suicide, and left the show for good in the middle of an episode, during his lunch break. The show's producers have refuted Yost's account, stating that he was asking for an unreasonable salary increase, even though Yost's account of harassment is backed up by a behind-the-scenes video. Of course, both sides probably have some truth. It seems perfectly reasonable for an actor to charge a "rampant homophobia" fee in his contract when work conditions suck.

The Green Ranger Can't Stay Out Of Trouble

Jason David Frank, the original Green Ranger and professional MMA fighter, rides his Power Rangers fame harder than any other child star, keeping the franchise alive, but often damaging his own reputation with his giant mouth. As if the pencil-thin microbeard and green stripe in his hair weren't signifiers of trouble, Frank continually finds himself trouble, from posting stupidly about Ricardo Medina's self-defense killing, to sharing executives' phone numbers to get fans to harass studios into letting him into their projects. Go go away, Power Ranger.