27/02/2024
In honor of we are honoring the legacy of Black Power Rangers – Beyond The Helmet. ⚡️
No television program had a greater impact on kids in the 90’s like the original Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers series, which debuted on FOX kids in 1993.
As many know the series is comprised of fight footage from Japanese Super Sentai series Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger stitched together with American actors portraying high school students as they battle iconic space witch Rita Repulsa. One of Saban’s key marketing strategies (along with “must have” toys) was in casting; viewers had 5 or 6 opportunities to identify with a team member.
In the shows iconic intro, we see intergalactic being Zordon summon his assistant Alpha 5 to recruit “teenagers with attitude” and NONE had more style or attitude than the first Black Ranger, Zack Taylor.
Yes, MMPR was heavily criticized over placing an African-American in a Black suit and an Asian American in a Yellow suit, but no matter how much you wanted to read…….it worked!
Zach was just COOL; kids found him extremely relatable and most memorable of the original roster next to the reformed evil ranger Tommy Oliver. He rocked a high top fade & baggy jeans, was a class prankster, clowned bullies on the regular; created his own fighting style, called Hip Hop kido, knocked people with a power axe and commanded the Mastodon Dinozord. Zack was first Black live action superhero of my generation and the first black character that studied martial arts since Bruce Leroy in the Last Dragon (1985).
Of course Zack wasn’t the only one to pick up a morpher, there would be 20 in total over the Power Rangers 30 year legacy. Here are a few favorites, including Aisha, Tanya, team leaders TJ from Turbo, and Jack from SPD!