INTRODUCTION

This was one of my favourite television programmes when I was a kid.

Entertaining and exciting the programme might be, I came to realize how this programme might have influenced my behaviours when I was a kid, and maybe even until now...

For fellow friends who are not of my generation and have completely no idea on what these 5 sets of colorful costumes, let me give you a brief information.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is an American live action children's television series that premiered on August 28, 1993. The show is about a group of teenagers who were chosen to protect the world from a group of alien invaders and were given the ability to "morph" into super-powered warriors and to pilot giant robots called "Zords." to fight against the evil alien forces. Each ranger has different characters and specialities, the only common thing among them is that all of them are teenagers with attitude. The team is a good mix of races and genders.

The series was so successfully that there were 3.5 million viewers on weekdays and 5 million viewers on Saturday in USA alone. (Everett, 1996)

Also,by the end of 3 seasons, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was followed up by Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers; Power Rangers: Zeo; Power Rangers: Turbo; Power Rangers: In Space; Power Rangers: Lost Galaxy, Power Rangers: Lightspeed Rescue, Power Rangers; Time Force; Power Rangers: Wild Force, Power Rangers; Ninja Storm, Power Rangers; DinoThunder, Power Rangers: SPD and so on... I give up! Basically, Power Rangers is still being produced until this very day!!!

ANALYSIS

After reading some articles, re-looking through this television programme and self reflection, I got to agree to a certain extent that Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (MMPR) does shape my kinder-culture and childhood experience. Not trying to generalize that my experience equates to everyone’s but I will be including some personal experience of mine in this analysis to make it more relevant when I am writing this.

What made MMPR so enthralling was that it was a combination of fantasy and adventure happening in a realistic setting. It offers the realism an animation couldn’t provide. The Power Rangers were also cool looking teenagers, the age group that we look up to as kids. As the show resolved around the battle between the heroes and the evils, there were unbelievably lots of fighting scenes with an average of 211 violent acts per hour and after which the National Coalition on Television Violence stated it is the most violent children program it has ever studied. (Kiesewetter, 1993)

A Journal article I came across investigated the effects of MMPR on children’s aggressive behaviour and the results concluded that children who viewed MMPR were 7 times as aggressive as children who don’t and boys were significantly more aggressive than girls. (Boyatzis & Matillo, 1995) Most of us know that children’s exposure to television violence does a big influence to their aggression in real life (Hearold, 1986; Liebert & Sprafkin, 1988; Parke & Slaby, 1983) , MMPR is no exception. Based on the results concluded by the journal article, I was probably a violent kid. Recalling on my past, the white ranger was someone I admired as a kid and I often imitated and imagined his fighting scenes while playing with power rangers’ figurines. Other than that, I do not remember getting into fights when I was a kid. That did not necessarily mean I was violent because those were thoughts and imaginations but not actual violence. On the other hand, one would argue that having violent thoughts is already part of aggression.

Another very interesting analysis I want to point out is how MMPR shaped our cultural perception. As mentioned in the introduction, the MMPR is a mix of ethnicities and genders. There are Caucasian American guys as white, red and blue Ranger, an Asian American girl as Yellow Ranger, an African American guy as Black Ranger and feminine Caucasian American girl as Pink Ranger. The selection of cast was not coincidental. As traits of the characters, the yellow ranger was a martial artist, the black ranger was a hip hop dancer and the pink ranger was a gorgeous vain looking girl. (Rose, 1995) On the other hand, the 3 Caucasian men were the brain, courage and leader of the team. The female rangers can always be seen dependent on the guys for help and direction. (Everett, 1996) The main villain of the first series was Rita which was played by a Japanese woman. Although the children might not be able to differentiate the nationality, it was obvious that she was an oriental woman. These stereotypes presented would subtly shape the perception of the kids. These defenceless innocent kids with no background on how these stereotypes and representations came about would very likely grow up with a tendency to think how the Power Rangers were being portrayed. An evident stated in Everett’s journal was that oriental girls are more often assigned the role as Rita when engaged in Power Rangers imaginative play. If there were two oriental girls, one would be asked to be yellow ranger and the other Rita. If there’s only one oriental girl, she is almost always asked to be Rita. (Everett, 1996)

From my personal experience, I have to admit that from young, I tend to think white is a more superior race; they are smarter, more charismatic and bold. This might be attributed to MMPR’s influence that I was exposed to when I was a kid.

Due to controversies and concerns by the public, the casts for black and yellow rangers were subsequently changed to remove the association of racism in the programme. Concerned groups in the USA continue to call for multiculturalism in children programmes to advocate ethnic homogeneity. (Everett, 1996)

Although the bulk of this analytical part was writing about the negative side of MMPR, this television programme is worth applauded for its intentions. Other than the profit, MMPR’s producers’ aim to create a multicultural main casts was worth applauded. (Everett, 1996) If more children programmes include multicultural content, it would help kids appreciate the cultural differences we have in life. Nonetheless, MMPR still forms a very important part of many people’s childhood and the righteousness of fighting against the “evil” was a positive value I received out of the show even though it was depicted via means of violence. (Boyatzis & Matillo, 1995)

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Bibliography

Boyatzis, C. J., & Matillo, G. M. (1995). Effects of `The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers' on children's aggression with peers. Child Study Journal. 25(1), 45.

Everett, S.-L. C. (1996). Mirage Multiculturalism: Unmasking the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Journal of Mass Media Ethics. , Vol. 11 Issue 1, p28-39. 12p.

Hearold, S. (1986). A synthesis of 1043 effects of television on social behavior. In G. Cornstock (Ed.), Publiccommunications and behavior: Volume 1 (pp. 65-133). New York: Academic Press.

Kiesewetter, J. (1993, Dec. 17). Top kids show also ranks as most violent. The Cincinnati Enquirer, A1.

Liebert, R., & Sprafkin, J. (1988). The early window: Effects of television on children and youth. New York: PergamonPress.

Parke, R. D., & Slaby, R. G. (1983). The development of aggression. In E. M. Hetherington (Ed.), Handbook of childpsychology: Vol. 4. Socialization, personality, and social development (pp. 429-458). New York: Wiley.

Rose, A. (1995). Metaphor with an attitude: The use of The Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers television series as a therapeutic metaphor. International Journal of Play Therapy , Vol. 4, Issue 2.

INTERESTING JOURNALS TO READ
Mirage Multiculturalism: Unmasking

the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

Effects of `The Mighty Morphin Power

Rangers' on children's aggression with peers

Metaphor with an attitude: The use of The Mighty

Morphin' Power Rangers television series as a

therapeutic metaphor.

ONLINE ARTICLE

Cartoons, characters linked to kids’ bad behavior: Power Rangers again

Feb. 18, 2013 | 2:25 p.m.

The Power Rangers check out their 20th anniversary collectibles at the American International Toy Fair on Feb. 10, 2013, in New York. Saban Brands was celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Power Rangers franchise at the show. (Diane Bondareff / Invision for Saban Brands/Associated Press)

The Power Rangers check out their 20th anniversary collectibles at the American
International Toy Fair on Feb. 10 in New York. Saban Brands was celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Power Rangers franchise at the show. (Diane Bondareff /
Invision for Saban Brands/Associated Press)

A new study on children’s behavior has found that certain TV programming beats other programming when you’re trying to calm aggressive, violent behavior in preschoolers.

And once again, the Power Rangers were among the evildoers. Power Rangers bad. Dora, and presumably her monkey Boots, good.

What it comes down to is, less violent programming equals less violent preschoolers. Parents who are always in search of quality animated films and TV shows for their kids may be tempted to reply, “Duh.” What’s different about this new study was the emphasis on switching channels rather than simply pulling the cord out of the wall.

As the Los Angeles Times’ Monte Morin reports, researchers are saying parents should steer children in the right direction.

“It is a variation on the ‘if you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em’ idea,” Claire McCarthy, a pediatrician at Boston Children’s Hospital, wrote.

“It’s about changing the channel,” the lead author of the study, Dr. Dimitri Christakis, told the Associated Press. “What children watch is as important as how much they watch.”

Seattle pediatrician and researcher Christakis, who did not immediately return calls Monday for comment, has been involved in previous studies on the effects of violent TV on kids. In 2007, a study he was involved in singled out “Power Rangers,” “Star Wars,” “Space Jam” and “Spider-Man” — in addition to televised football and ice hockey — as violent entertainment. Over in the good column were animated films and TV shows including “Toy Story,” “Rugrats,” “Magic School Bus” and “Winnie-the-Pooh.”

Even classic Looney Tunes cartoons were singled out as a lousy example for kids.

“You are actually teaching them that violence is funny,” Christakis told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in a 2007 interview.

The recent study by the University of Washington, published Monday in the online version of the journal Pediatrics, involved 565 Seattle parents, who filled out TV-watching diaries and questionnaires measuring their child’s behavior.

A control group of children was allowed to watch television as per usual, the L.A. Times reported, while a “media diet intervention” group was steered toward programming that featured nonviolent conflict resolution, cooperative problem solving, manners and empathy. (“Dora,” “Sesame Street,” “Super Why.”)

The results: The intervention group showed “significant improvements” in social competence testing scores after six months, according to Christakis. Low-income boys appeared to get the greatest short-term benefit the most, authors said.

As for those Power Rangers, their reputation as a questionable influence on kids has been around for quite a while. A Cal State Fullerton study from 1995 compared two groups of kids around 7 years old and found “children in the Power Rangers [group] committed more aggressive acts per interval than control group children. Expressed as a ratio, for every 1 aggressive act by control group children there were 7 by children who viewed ‘The Power Rangers’ episode.”

Hey, Power Rangers fans. The shows debuted 20 years ago in August. Did you grow up with it? Did the helmeted crew increase your inclination to throw punches? Would love to hear from you in the comments below.

For those who are nostalgic, here are photos of the Power Rangers through the years.

– Amy Hubbard

Thesis Paper worth a thought

Power Rangers. Just Mindless Violence, or The Best Role Models Children Could Have?

A Thesis paper on The influence Power Rangers and Violent Tv has on our youth.

By dweave27 - 9/26/2013

In the early 1990’s an American children’s televisions show was created using a Japanese show called Super Sentai, instead of dubbing over the Asian actors voices with American Actors 20th Century Fox decided instead to film American actors and cut in the Super Sentai footage. This is what is now known as The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

I could not resist reliving a piece of my childhood when this show popped up on my channel guide. I will admit that watching this show objectively was a difficult task considering the horribly written and delivered dialogue, poor fight choreography, and of course the cheap rubber and spandex costumes. I found myself cackling with laughter during the scenes where I was supposed to be invested in the characters motives. It did not take long to discover that the stylized violence was not made to mimic reality. The program is in no way educational in the public schools way of thinking. Still, underneath all the stylized violence and corny dialogue The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers provides a positive influence on children.

Twenty years of Power Rangers mythos all begins when two astronauts open up what appears to be a space dumpster inadvertently releasing our antagonist the evil empress Rita Repulsa and her gang of miscreants after ten thousand years of imprisonment. As any logical evil sorceress would do right after parole Rita’s plan is to, of course, take over the planet Earth. Now this cannot stand, back on Earth an Oz like floating head in a tube named Zordon and his overly hysterical robot companion Alpha-5 recruit five diverse, well mannered, and well groomed teenagers to become the title heroes the Power Rangers. Each of the five teenagers are given incredible powers including super strength, agility, martial arts prowess and of course individual costumes under the circumstances that they use their powers to protect the world not for personal gain or escalating the fight unless they are forced to do so. They are also given individual weapons and giant battling robots called Zords that if necessary can combine and create the MegaZord.

As far as each episode they were all pretty standard. The five protagonists usually would be doing something for the community or hanging out at the local juice bar when Rita would devise some sort of evil plan that is directly related to what the Rangers are doing in the civilian world. Her plan usually involved creating some kind of themed monster for the rangers to fight. The Power Rangers inevitably destroy the monster, or so they think, Rita uses some sorcery and the next thing you know there is a thousand foot monster destroying the city. Without hesitation our heroes call for their Zords and defeat Rita’s monster. At the end of the episode Rita’a plan is foiled and the Rangers have learned some valuable lesson in their normal lives.

Despite parents despise of the shows violent nature it became one of the most watched shows by children and put Fox on the map. Without hesitation Fox began marketing toys and other merchandise. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers had now become a nationwide phenomenon. This would result in two full length motion pictures and nineteen televised seasons lasting all the way to present day.

There is no denying that the show contains violence, in fact when the show first came out a study was done for the Child Study Journal claiming over two hundred violent acts per episode. (Boyatzis, Matillo 1995) This does not mean that the show should not be watched by children. Violence is an everyday occurrence and the Power Rangers teach children how to deal with and stop violence.

A survey in 2009 stated that over 60 percent of children have been exposed to violence in that year. (Finkelhor, Hamby, Kracke, Ormrod, Turner. 2009) If that’s still the case four years later wouldn’t we want our children to be able to understand the difference between unnecessary and necessary violence? In MMPR (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers) the heroes defend the city from evil. The rules of being a Ranger are laid out to never use power for personal gain or let the force escalate unless there is no other alternative. Being as unrealistic as the show is it still can teach our children when violence should be used and when it should not.

Like I said before each episode follows a pattern and for good reason too. Before any monster made completely out of eyeballs shows up to destroy the city Rita send down her grunts, a group of soldiers made completely made of clay, lazily called the Putties. These villainous yet malleable foot soldiers are easily defeated by our super powered teens without them using their actual super powers yet it would have been twice of easy for them to do so. Why not just transform into their alter egos and destroy the putties with one swift move? The simple answer is they were told by Zordon not to. True, but not quite what the creators of the show were trying to project onto our youth’s minds. The show is trying to teach us that power is to be used to defend and protect not to attack. Like Voltaire said, “With great power comes great responsibility.”

I remember when I was a child wonder why the Power Ranagers never just used the Zords to destroy the bad guys and not wait until the action escalates. The reason, which no one explained to me, was that you don’t use a nuclear weapon to dispatch a burglar. It never occurred to me that the show was trying to portray violence as being the last resort. Even during some of the battle scenes the heroes tried to talk down the monster as ridiculous as it sounds. It seems as the writters and producers of the show really thought about the children during the initial creation of the show.

While the action and high flying choreography is the rope that pull the audience in it’s the antagonists lives outside the costume that really creates solid role models and teaches real life values. Each of the five teens work in the local juice bar either teaching some form of martial art, gymnastics or dance which creates interaction with younger people and lets them get involved in community activities. Don’t children today need these kinds of role models? I remember looking up to athletes when I was a kid. Now I don’t think a year goes by without hearing about some professional athlete going to prison on charges like murder or rape yet we let our children watch football. However active protests against shows like Power Rangers go on unnoticed when in reality this show is the one that has moral values.

Earlier I said that each character teaches their class to the youth. Karate is the foremost skill being exercised. One would argue that to be a violent sport based on fighting and violent acts. In the MMPR the martial arts are presented not as a means to create violence, but instead as a means to learn self-respect, confidence and control. In fact parents today are turning to martial arts dojos for their children instead of the usual sports like soccer or softball. The children seem to gravitate towards the sport for reasons not associated with violence. Self-gratification, for instance, is an aspects that parents are realizing goes hand in hand with the teaching of Karate. Children receive colored belts that represent their level of expertise in their class. (Greenberg 2000) Also a study by Bob Schleser, a sports psychologist at the Illinois Institute of Technology, recently found that children between 7 and 18 who took karate dramatically increased their "perceived competence" in areas ranging from social and cognitive skills to maternal acceptance. "Karate gives a general sense of confidence and personal control; says Schleser. (Greenberg, 2000)

So what is it about Mighty Morphin Power Rangers that drives parents to despise it so much? Well, in the years 1996 and 2009 a famous study was conducted by The National Institute on Media and the Family called Barney vs. Power Rangers in which a group of children are shown an episode of Barney and Friends then observed with hidden cameras. The following day those same children were shown an episode of MMPR then observed again and the results were then compares. Now of course the children reacted differently to each show. With Barney the children danced around and sang songs together. With MMPR the children reenacted the karate move as best they could with each other also known as play fighting. Parents were astonished at the results for some reason.

Children will always try to act out what they see. In a different circumstance what if those same children were sat down and asked what they learned from each show? I’m sure there would be a positive reaction to Barney that goes without saying. What about MMPR? Do you think maybe they learned something from the show? If they did not why do you think that is. My thoughts, maybe the parents should be talking to them about what they watch on TV. Despite what parents tell us the TV is an educational mean, children learn more from the TV than we want to believe. So why don’t we explain to them that the violence in the show isn’t the message the show is trying to convey? The answer is simple, television is an escape not for the children but for the parents from their kids. Parents let their children watch TV and when all the parents get together they complain about what they watch. Now they can regulate what they watch, but still don’t actually watch the shows and decide what to block and allow. Shows like SpongeBob Squareparnts are allowed when there are studies that suggest the show actually lowers intelligence. In the editorial Is SpongeBob Making your Kids Dumber? Author Jonathon M. Seidl talks about the study done by the University of Virginia show substantial that children that watch Spongebob have a negative effect on children cognitive abilities. Yet parents don’t see the harm in the show, at least it’s not violent right?

I am 26 years old and I watched Mighty Morphin Power Rangers when it came out in the early 90’s. I don’t have a violent criminal record, but I am an Eagle Scout. I can’t say MMPR was the cause of that, however I can say that the show did not cause me to go on a violent rampage using fake karate to beat up the neighborhood bullies sceaming “Hi YA!”

Take a good long look at what your children are watching on the boob tube you may be surprised that the shows you let them watch are more mindless than the ones that feature stylized violence. Some of them might even be better influences on our children than studies suggest. The future of our children is in our hands for a short time, maybe we should expose them to a little bit of violence in order for them to learn a greater lesson than fear violence and revert to mindless forms of entertainment. The choice is yours.

POWER RANGERS: THE MOVIE

Mighty Morphin Power Ranger was so successful
that Saban Entertainment and Toei company took the opportunity to produce Power Ranger the movie which was a box office hit, only second to Apollo 13 of 1995.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

From: http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/where-are-they-now-the-original-power-rangers

Where Are They Now? The Original "Power Rangers"

It’s been 20 years since the original “Power Rangers” cast made their television debut. 20 YEARS. Find out what they’re all up to today.posted on May 8, 2013 at 6:22pm EDT

Matt StoperaBuzzFeed Staff The original "Power Rangers" cast circa 1993:

And chillin’ on set:

Via Facebook: jasondfrank

The Red Ranger then:

The Red Ranger now:

According to IMDB, he lives in Washington DC and works as a paramedic.

He apparently always wears a bluetooth, too.

The Pink Ranger then:

The Pink Ranger now:

Via Twitter: @_amyjojohnson

Amy Jo Johnson is basically the only Power Ranger that has been consistently working since the “Power Rangers” ended. Her last television role was as a lead on the show “Flashpoint.”