Power
Rangers Zeo is the third incarnation of the Power
Rangers franchise, and the fourth season overall.
This series was a direct continuation of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and began the Super Sentai
practice of annual Ranger suit changes.
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| Alpha 5 appears to be caught in the destruction of the Command Center. |
Although Power Rangers was still performing well in the ratings, there was a
noticeable decline from when it started and in merchandise sales. Saban
Entertainment decided that a major shake-up needed to
happen to the status quo to reinvigorate viewer interest. They ultimately
settled on cosmetic and casting changes, allowing them to use new Sentai
footage—which would cut their costs substantially—and generate a new range of
merchandise.
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| Goldar and Rito become maids for all their efforts. |
Zeo
picked up right from where Mighty
Morphin left off, with the Command
Center having been destroyed by Rito Revolto (Bob
Papenbrook) and Goldar (Kerrigan Mahan) during their theft of the Zeo Crystal.
However, they dropped the Crystal in the chaos and lost their memories as a
result, ending up the personal slaves of Bulk (Paul Schrier) and Skull (Jason
Narvy)—who were now bumbling police officers—for half of the season until their
memories returned.
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| The Rangers and Alpha speak with Zordon in the new Power Chamber. |
The
Power Rangers discovered a second subterranean Power
Chamber where Alpha 5 (Richard Steven Horvitz) and Zordon
(Robert L. Manahan) retreated. The Command Center rebuilt itself while the
power of the Crystal was used to restore the Rangers’ lost powers, turning them
into the Zeo Rangers. However, since the power could only be split five ways,
original Blue Ranger Billy Cranston (David Yost) opted to remain in a support
capacity in the Command Center, where he felt he was the most useful, and
allowed Tanya Sloan (Nakia Burrise) to take his place on the team.
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| The Zeo rangers with the Zeo Crystal. |
The
team gained some new colors, with Tommy (Jason David Frank) becoming the Red
Ranger, Adam (Johnny Young Bosch) the Green, and Rocky (Steve Cardenas) the
Blue, while Tanya became the Yellow (who was actually a female this time) and
Kat (Catherine Sutherland) remained Pink. The Rangers’ helmets featured a visor
whose shape was reminiscent of the numbering Zordon gave them in their first
transformation; from 1-5. Instead of Morphers,
they now used Zeonizers
to transform, which would materialize on their wrists when needed. With these
new forms came new weapons:
a sword for Tommy, hatchets for Adam, axes for Rocky, double clubs for Tanya,
and a disc for Kat, as well as Zeo Laser Pistols and Blades. They could also
combine their powers for a powerful attack from the Zeo Cannon. Along with new Zords,
Billy and Alpha 5 developed Zeo
Jet Cycles for additional transportation for the team, and a Defender
Wheel that Tommy could launch from his Zord for a strong
attack.
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| The Royal House: Klank, Orbus, King Mondo, Prince Sprocket and Queen Machina. |
Meanwhile,
in space, the dreaded Machine
Empire was making its way towards Earth. They were a massive
race of mechanical beings led by the Royal House of Gadgetry: King Mondo (David
Stenstrom), Queen Machina (Alex Borstein), and Prince Sprocket (Barbara
Goodson). Later, when the House is in upheaval, the other son, Prince Gasket
(Douglas Sloan), and his wife, Princess Archerina
(Melora Harte)
arrive to take over and continue the family’s work. The Empire had already
conquered an entire chain of galaxies, with the Milky Way being the final link.
Aiding them were Klank (Oliver Page) and Orbus (Goodson), their top henchmen
who oversaw many of the monsters’ missions. To quell any competition, they
first assaulted Rita Repulsa (Carla Perez & Goodson) and Lord Zedd’s (Edwin
Neal & Robert Axelrod) moon base, driving them and their minions into
hiding with Rita’s father, Master Vile
(Tom Wyner).
The Machine Empire constantly attacked the Rangers with their endless supply of
monsters
and Cogs,
the minor minions that took the place of Rita’s Putties.
Rita, Zedd and their crew would return to plague the Rangers and the Machine
Empire both as the series progressed.
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| Skull, Bulk and Lt. Stone. |
Other
returning characters included Ernie
(Richard Genelle),
the owner of the Angel
Grove Youth Center; Lt. Jerome Sloane (Gregg Bullock), Bulk
and Skull’s supervisor on the police force who ended up fired because of their
antics and opened his own detective agency; and Sam
Trueheart (Frank
Salsedo), the Native American who helped Tommy locate his
piece of the Zeo Crystal as well as raised his long-lost brother, David
Truehart (played by his real brother, Erik Frank).
The Alien
Rangers from season four also made a return appearance,
marking the first time two incarnations of the franchise interacted with each
other. These kinds of crossovers would become an annual event as the franchise
continued.
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| The Machine Empire approaches Earth. |
In
the weeks preceding its debut, a serialized series of shorts aired along with
reruns of Mighty Morphin season 3 and
Alien Rangers taking the place
of the episode teasers. The shorts depicted the arrival of the Machine Empire
to Earth and how the citizens of Angel Grove,
as well as the previous villains, dealt with that and the fact that the Rangers
were suspiciously absent. However, the shorts were rendered non-canon after the
first two episodes of the series proper depicted the very different arrival for
the Machine Empire. Following each short, more of the Zeo title was slowly revealed.
Power Rangers Zeo debuted
on FOX as part of the FOX
Kids programming
block on April 20, 1996. It utilized footage from Chouriki
Sentai Ohranger,
the
19th season of the Super Sentai series from Toei Company, Ltd., combined with original footage filmed
with the American actors. In place of episode teasers, Zeo used cold openings for each episode. Ron
Wasserman reworked his
theme for Mighty Morphin to include
the new Zeo aspects of the series,
while Shuki
Levy,
Kenneth Burgomaster, Jim
Cushinery
and Jeremy Sweet contributed to the
show’s overall soundtrack. Sloan, Jackie
Marchand, Stewart St. John,
Al Winchell,
Brett D. Born, Mark
Hoffmeier, Gilles Wheeler,
Mark Litton, Richard Goodman,
Steven Melching
(as Buzz Alden), Charlotte
Fullerton, Ron
Milbauer, Terri
Hughes, Joseph
Kuhr,
Tony Oliver, Barbara
A. Oliver, Shell Danielson,
Jim Suave,
Colleen White,
and Levy served as the series’ writers. International airings and the original
intro for the pilot used an alternate logo that simply read ZeoRangers with the helmet visor shapes
below it. Following the episode “Brother, Can You Spare an Arrowhead?” the Zeo intro would be shortened for the
majority of the remaining episodes.
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| Jason as the Gold Ranger. |
Although
the ratings were initially high, the show stumbled as it progressed. To combat
this, Saban sought to lure in older viewers by bringing back one of the
original five Rangers: Jason Scott (Austin St. John). St. John had previously
left the series over a monetary dispute, leading to his eventual replacement by
Cardenas. Jason’s return was tied into the story arc featuring a mysterious
Gold Ranger (who was actually the Black
Ranger in the Sentai series, marking the first time a color
was changed from the source material and predating the first actual Gold
Ranger by 9 years) that would appear to help the other
Rangers. The Gold Ranger’s identity was kept secret, with clues being laid out
to his identity being either Billy, Skull or Tommy’s brother. Initially, plans
were to use the Gold Ranger to link the Power
Rangers franchise to Saban’s other Japanese/American hybrid series, VR
Troopers,
by
having his identity be Trooper Ryan Steele; which is why the morphed Gold
Ranger’s voice was provided by Steele’s actor Brad Hawkins. Steele was also
previously going to be integrated into Mighty
Morphin as the White Ranger (later changed to Tommy).
 |
| Trey of Triforia. |
Plans
were changed at the last minute and instead he became Trey of Triforia,
the ruler of an alien planet who came to Earth seeking Zordon’s help. Along the
way, Trey had ended up split into three different beings representing his
aspects of Courage, Heart and Wisdom (played by triplets Ted, Tom and Tim
DiFillippo, with Tom being the one inside the suit), which is what Triforians
are made up of. Because of this split, they could no longer control their power
and needed to transfer it to Jason until such time that they could reconstitute
themselves into a single being. They also gave Rangers access to new Super
Zeo Zords through the Super
Zeo Gems, which were instrumental in the initial defeat of
King Mondo and his monsters that had become enhanced with near-indestructible
armor. Unfortunately, the powers proved incompatible with human physiology and
eventually needed to be transferred back to Trey.
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| Cestria helps an elderly Billy. |
Zeo ultimately
came to an end with Rita and Zedd being the ones to successfully take out the
Royal House, sending the Machine Empire into disarray. At 50 episodes, it
marked the third season where Power
Rangers exceeded the number of Ohranger
episodes (in this case, by two). It also marked the departure of Billy,
ending his stint as the longest-serving original Ranger. During production of
the show, David Yost was having difficulty coming to terms with his
homosexuality and was constantly harassed by the crew on set because of it. Yost
left before the end of the season and his absence was filled by stock footage
and voice actors. The character of Billy was written off as being rapidly aged
by the regenerator he used in Alien
Rangers to change himself back from a kid, necessitating his having to
travel to planet Aquitar,
the home of the Alien Rangers, for a cure. Falling in love with the Aquitian Cestria
(Steffanie Malanga),
Billy opted to remain there. This was also the final appearance of Rito as the
costume for the character fell apart after filming and was never replaced.
Like
with Mighty Morphin, Zeo had a line
of figures
and other merchandise primarily produced by Bandai. Bandai had also
released two video games in 1996: Battle
Racers by
Natsume for the Super
Nintendo (which was essentially a Super
Mario Kart clone
using Ranger sprites) and Full
Tilt Battle Pinball by
Kaze for the PlayStation.
In 2007, Disney
Interactive Studios released Power
Rangers: Super Legends for PlayStation 2, Nintendo DS and PC, which
featured a blend of various Rangers from various incarnations including the Red
Zeo Ranger. In 2017, Kat and Jason became playable characters in nWay Games’ Power Rangers Legacy Wars mobile
game.
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| Image Comics' sole Power Rangers comic. |
Image Comics
acquired the license
to produce an ongoing comic series for the show in 1996,
but it only ran for a single issue before Image lost the license. Four issues
in total were written by Tom
and Mary Bierbaum with art by Todd Nauck,
and a proposed crossover with Image property Youngblood was advertised and
partially drawn. The Zeo Rangers returned to comics as part of BOOM!
Studios’ “Shattered
Grid” event in 2018 and were depicted as
being from an alternate universe. Following the event in
the story “Beyond
the Grid”, Tanya was announced to be a member
of a new team of Rangers, the Solar
Rangers,
that included the Ranger
Slayer (an alternate Kimberly), The Magna
Defender, the Red
Space Ranger, and the Green Samurai Ranger,
along with Heckyl from Dino Charge and
comic-exclusive characters Ellarien and Remi.
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| The DVD cover. |
Saban
Home Entertainment released the two-part pilot episode to VHS as Power Rangers Zeo: Zeo Quest, followed by It Came From Angel Grove featuring the
titular episode before it aired on television and a music video. In 2002, Walt
Disney Home Video released Power Rangers Holiday Special which contained
three holiday-themed episodes, including “A Season to Remember”. In 2012, Time
Life Entertainment
released Power
Rangers: From Mighty Moprhin to Lost Galaxy containing the complete span of those
shows over 40 DVDs. In 2013, Shout! Factory
released Zeo as part of the Power Rangers: Seasons Four-Seven box
set, and later independently across two
volumes. They also released Power Rangers Legacy, which
contained seasons 1-20 in a collectible Red Ranger helmet package.
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