Project Phase Two - Results

Project Phase Two - Results

So we’ve completed what should have been the end of the Power Rangers series altogether only to find that their appeal and their power was too much for Fox to say “no” to them.  20 more episodes were ordered for the season but wouldn’t air for a few more months so that they could be, you know, filmed.  So let’s make some inferences after the first half of season one.

Character Development

Observations.

We suggested before that while the action is cheap to produce, the reason kids keep coming back for more is the teens in their Saved by the Bell/California Dreams scenarios of regular high schoolers who fight crime.  In order to see who has mass appeal, we looked at who opens and closes the show – who gives us our first line to draw us in and who leaves us with our last line to make us want to come back for more?  As has been true all along, Kim is the Queen of opening shows with 14 openers – roughly 35% of the time, Kimberly said the first piece of dialogue. Also keeping in line with our first phase, Zack picked up his pace in closing the shows (11 out of 40) with Kim smoked at only 7 openings.  What we’re seeing here is that Zack gives us catharsis and closure and entertains us with a quick ending one-liner.  Kimberly is complex and makes us want to stay tuned for the next 30 minutes.

At the beginning of the series, we saw quite a bit of rotation with focus characters though many more episodes were about Kimberly than about anyone else.  What I think this really shows is a balance between keeping both girls and guys interested – girls might be more interested in the teen scenes whereas boys might enjoy the action more (in theory).  We see a little over ¼ of all episodes revolving around either Kimberly or Trini or both whereas less than ½ are focused on strictly the boys.  How can this be?  The boys make up 2/3 of the team yet less than ½ of the episodes.  The answer I came up with is that Saban is trying to toe the line between girls vs guys episodes and the fact of the matter is the girls are greatly outnumbered so there’s going to be more episodes about just Trini or just Kimberly as opposed to any one singular guy.

Conclusions.

Jason doesn’t necessarily get too many focus episodes (2 out of 40 about him alone) –but as a teen he definitely rounds out more as a supporting character.  He developed some comedic chops as well as the noble leader . . . without being boring *cough cough* every Red Ranger ever.  Billy is becoming more of a team member rather than just their resident geek, his contributions to the team are real and he’s definitely less of a joke as we moved along in the season.  Zack picked up a few more episodes dedicated to him and developed a lot more outside of the Rangers via his “relationship” with Angela.  Trini and Kimberly have the highest concentration of episodes about them – and good lord are they ever the concerned teens.  Future of America the two of them what with caring about pollution, volunteering to be big sisters to the less fortunate, befriending every minority known to man, these two are really ahead of their time.  My original hypothesis was that perhaps episodes tend to focus on the girls since female viewers are more likely to tune in for story as opposed to action – and I still maintain that’s true.  Then there’s Tommy.  More and more episodes are about Tommy.  He gets two whole mini-series about just him and his character takes off like wildfire. 

BACK TO ACTION!

Observations.

The three main components to look at for the morphed Rangers are: who says "it's Morphin time", who is the first to action (first hit), and who kills the monster.  If Jason is the leader, we would assume that he says "it's Morphin time" the most - and the data support this – 80% of the time it is Jason who says it.  The only time Jason doesn’t say it is if someone morphs after the group and Jason isn’t present.  It can be assumed that whoever says “it’s Morphin time” in Jason’s absence is next in line of command of that particular group.

Next, let's look at who kills the monster.  I was surprised to find that only Kimberly and Trini had killed monsters on their own (of the Rangers) – we have a lot of group weapons and a whole lot of Ultrazord action.  And that one time with Jason’s cousin, Jeremy.  But interesting that on three occasions one of the girls is the only one responsible for a monster death.  This is a dynamic I really find interesting because more often than not, they kill monsters in their Zords or with their group weapons, very rarely on their own.  I was even more surprised to find that not even Dragonzord had defeated anyone on his own – take THAT Tommy.

Last, there's the Power Order.  The Power Order is the order in which you see the Rangers appear after morphing whether it be through flipping in the air or a pose (left to right).  By tracking which position they stood in (farthest left = position 1, etc) I looked at, on average, where did each Ranger appear in the lineup and does that even matter?  Jason appears most often as the first flipping Ranger or the middle standing Ranger - so it looks like the middle Ranger in a lineup is the most visible/powerful/important.  Again, on average, our Rangers can be found here:

Kimberly and Trini set a precedence for female rangers to follow – you can be girly, you can be into shopping, you can be into saving the environment – you can do anything you like and it has no bearing on whether or not you can fight and/or kill a monster all by yourself.  Empowering, no?  Please, take note Samurai and Megaforce.

Conclusions.

Originally, I said “my original hypothesis was that Kimberly and Trini may lead in character development and story lines - but when it comes to action, Jason is the man.  He's the martial arts expert (in real life) and it can be assumed that he therefore should kick the most ass on the show.  But the data is suggesting this isn't necessarily the case.  Jason leads and commands - but he's much more of a team player than I would have thought.”  I maintain this to be true – he really does lead a team.  He doesn’t venture off on his own too much and does take command over the others – but he truly does make decisions that (most of the time) make sense.  He is a team player and a leader. 

Morphing Order Flow-Chart

While the Rangers are still kind of caricatures of real people, there is a bit of development in them.  They’re stereotypes yes, but they are strong people and you get why Zordon chose them.  Kimberly and Trini are strong women when it comes to the battlefield, Billy does machines, Zack holds his own and is a solid all-around person – and Jason and Tommy are obviously expert martial artists.  You’re not left wondering “wtf” about anyone being on the team anymore.  Everyone has a place and a reason for being there – which is perhaps the greatest message you can send to kids.  Everyone has a purpose.

And then there’s Tommy.  He became wildly popular – arguably the most popular Ranger of all time ever.  Is it because he was an amazing martial artist? Eh, Jason was pretty decent, too.  His acting chops aren’t any better/worse than anyone else’s, but there is something about him.  They make him the romantic interest for Kimberly and give him this dark brooding thing with him being all evil and proving himself to be good.  Not to mention he has a damn shield.  His character was just made to be cool.  Which is kind of unfair to the other five but eh what can you do.  The sixth ranger took off wildly in Sentai and it would become a staple in the US series as well.

Tommy forever changed the dynamic of the Rangers and nothing will ever be the same again.

1.35 Green Candle Part 2

Episode 35, Season 1

Green Candle Part 2

Writer: Gary Glasber & Stewart St John

Director: Robert Hughes

Episode Summary:

We pick up in the Command Center – the Rangers pondering if there’s a way to rescue Tommy’s powers.  Billy and Alpha chat a little bit and voila – a plan is born.  Billy is going to use these things that resemble giant crutches to build a portal to Rita’s dimension so Jason can go in, fight Goldar, and snatch up Tommy’s Green Candle so we can call it a day.  Jason’s the only Ranger who’s ever SEEN the dimension and he has the most visible biceps so it only makes sense to send him and only him.

The Cyclops monster is engaging in a bit of cosplay and dressing up like the Dragon Megazord and causing general chaos on the newly rebuilt downtown Angel Grove.  Tommy can’t stand to sit idly by and morphs into action.  He’s a bit weak losing his powers and all so he jumps in the Dragonzord cockpit and starts . . . losing the battle.  Zack decides to jump through Billy’s portal and ask Jason to come back and finish the battle with them – he points out that while Tommy may lose his powers, it’s not nearly as bad as him losing his life.

The Rangers morph, call on Megazord, Titanus and the gang to form Ultrazord and take down the monster.  Except uh-oh, the candle officially burned out.  At the Command Center Tommy gives his power coin to Jason so Rita can’t have the Dragonzord or his powers and we watch as Tommy slowly turns into a civilian again.  We cut to Tommy practicing a kata by the lake – Kimberly approaches him and informs him that the Rangers (and more specifically her) miss him.  Tommy *gasp* reaches for Kim’s hand and kisses her before asking her to the dance.  Kim turns away and makes Tommy’s little teenage heart panic before saying “k.” 

Facts:

-First on-screen – Tommy

-First line – “I don’t believe this.” - Tommy

-Focus – Tommy 

-Last Line – “YES! - Tommy

-Jason officially owns the Dragon Coin

-Kimberly and Tommy become the first Power Rangers couple

Observations:

Tommy’s gone and we get a pretty decent story out of it.  The great thing about the Green Ranger entering the scene is that we get more of a story arc that carries through the season rather than singular 30 minute episodes that don’t have a continuous story.  The Green Ranger loses his power and adds quite a bit of drama.  Kimberly and Tommy finally admit their feelings to each other and give us some adorable acting – it’s believable that they’re both nervous teenagers who are friends who like each other.

Again, I understand with the constraints of the Zyuranger footage why they needed to take away Tommy’s powers – it just seems like they could have set up the story of how Tommy came to touch this wax a little sooner.  Or perhaps given us a good reason why Jason is the only Ranger who could go and fight Goldar in Rita’s dimension – it seems to me that if Zack went with him the first time they could have double-teamed Goldar, gotten the candle, and been home in time for supper.

 

In terms of MMPR season 1 story-telling, this is as good as it gets.  The story moves the season along and sets the stage for more drama with Tommy.  The reason he was so popular at the time – and still amongst hardcore MMPR fans – is this curse he has to bear.  He’s allowed to show more character through his suffering.  He’s dark and mysterious and it makes his character so alluring – just like Burai in Zyuranger.  Without the appeal Burai brought to the table, the sixth Ranger would not be commonplace in Sentai/Power Rangers today. 

1.23 Itsy Bitsy Spider

Season 1, Episode 23
"Itsy Bitsy Spider"
Writer: Steve Kramer
Director: Robert Hughes

Episode Summary:

Having recovered from the crap that was the previous episode, the teens decide to embark on a story that has an actual plot.  We open with Billy and Trini calling on their fellow students to sign a petition to keep City Hall from destroying a statue monument and putting up a BBQ pit in its place.  Legend has it that the statue was built to ward off harmful bugs and so Billy and Trini have the science club's entire collection of bugs on display.  Bulk suggests that at last they can get some good bbq and ribs and throws the entire bug collection on their surrounding students wherein we discover that one, Zack Taylor, is afraid of bugs (spiders in particular).  Upon hearing Billy tell the legend of the statue, Rita decides to steal it and send an evil slimy spider in its place that will sprinkle sleeping dust on those around it.

Kim and Jason decide to help Trini and Billy collect more bugs to replace the ones Bulk lost (sadly Tommy is practicing karate/teaching a class/etc and did not join).  Our teens are caught unaware and attacked by putties - but don't worry, they can handle it.  Zack is teaching a Hip-Hop Kido class (which has the same tenets of self-discipline blah blah blah as any martial arts) to small children and he leaves them unattended to get a tape with "funkier" music out of his car.  When he returns, he finds the children he left unattended sleeping since they were sprinkled with sleeping dust.  Zack tries to outrun the sleeping dust and delivers a poetic soliloqui about how much he hates bugs.

Goldar and Rita's Spidercron monster attack Zack and Zordon calls on the other Rangers to help (except Tommy - who never helps) but they're paralyzed by silly string the Spidercron shoots at them.  Rita makes her monster grow and we call on some Zord action.  By this time Tommy has finished practicing karate and put his communicator back on (Zordon should have a talk with him about that) and morphs to bring us DRAGONZORD!  Dragonzord forms with the Mastadon, Triceratops, and Sabre-tooth Tiger to form MegaDragonzord and we take out Spidercron. 

Zack informs us he's officially over his fear of spiders and jokester Tommy puts a plastic spider on Zack's shoulder and relishes in Zack's anguish and fear (pfft, jerk). 

Facts:
-First line - Trini -"Come on, sign the petition."
-Last line - Tommy - "It's a good thing you've overcome your fear of spiders."
-Focus - Zack
-Zack is afraid of spiders
-Zack teaches Hip Hop Kido to paying students
-First time MegaDragonzord used in battle

Observations:

After Trini's been largely ignored for the past ten or so episodes, we start to see her established character traits show up again with her political activism.  Additionally, we see some progression of character in Billy as the boys learned in "Teamwork" that they should help the girls out next time a petition type event comes up again.  Continuity!  I'm also glad they played against type and had Zack (a boy) afraid of spiders and sent Kim (the girly-girl) out into the woods to collect bugs.  This episode picks up where we were before the Green Ranger saga in developing the other Rangers' characters again.  It also acts as an apology for "The Trouble with Shellshock".

The show keeps up this Saved by the Bell/California Dreams playfulness with the teen storylines (they're still going to high school and doing teen things like saving the planet and teaching karate classes) and is really a breath of fresh air after the intensity and darkness of the Green Ranger saga.  I'm taking the fact that we're further developing Zack to mean that either the show recognized how ignored he's been for the first part of the season and that he's actually a pretty decent character OR that they pulled his name out of a hat as the character this story will be about. 

Now for a Jason tangent.  Jason is the defined leader of the group.  But aside from a few select episodes, he's really not a major character in the series.  My guess is because he was hired as a legit martial artist and not so much as an actor.  Which I'm totally fine with, but it's interesting to see how even though he's the leader of the team, the show is not entirely about him (at all). 

From a statistical standpoint, Trini's falling behind in importance (blowing my early hypothesis out of the water), Billy's becoming less boring, Zack's becoming more than a stereotype and earning some screen time which could earn him some statistical points, Jason's still being Jason, and Kimberly and Tommy are taking a back-seat this week so everyone else has a chance.

Project Phase One - Results

After last week's sneak-peek at the first ten episodes, I'm happy to present my first round of results.  So let's look at the data and make some inferences about the power hierarchy in the Power Rangers original lineup.

Character Development

Observations.

As we looked at before, the first and last lines of the show are important to draw the viewer in to this world of spandex-clad heroes and leave us feeling compelled to come back and watch the next episode as well.  In line with the results after episode 10, it appears that Kimberly kept up the trend of opening episodes whereas Zack took over the lead for closing episodes.  Given, his lead over Kim for closing episodes is merely 6%.  Nearly half of all episodes open with a Kimberly line (as they should).  One would expect this to correlate with another parameter - first Ranger to appear on-screen in each episode.

However, despite the fact that Kimberly has a knack for opening episodes, she is not as often the first on-screen Ranger.  That honor belongs to underdog, Jason.  To be fair, a majority of Jason's appearances are alongside another Ranger (i.e. we see him sparring with Zack or teaching Trini a new karate move).  This is evident in his correlation with Zack's first on-screen appearances.

While opening and closing shows is important - what's going to keep a viewer coming back for more?  The character carrying the story for each episode.  This is indicative of who the audience finds the most entertaining to watch or the character they're most willing to come back for.  My findings are not at all surprising - Kimberly and Trini are tied with 6 episodes each.  While Trini had the early lead after episode 10, it appears that Kimberly is more than making up for lost time.  To add a personal anecdote, "Foul Play in the Sky" was my first episode in 1993 and look where I am now.  Kimberly clearly drew me in for more.

Conclusions.

While Jason may be the designated leader of them as a fighting squad, there's not much in the way of character development leaving him rather flat.  Billy is at least fleshing out to have individual interests and show some semblance of a personality.  Zack is largely ignored in the beginning episodes - left behind to be a supporting character with only one episode about him wherein he believes himself to be forgotten (my guess is he's seen the rest of the show and realizes it's highly probable that he was in fact forgotten).  Trini and Kimberly have the highest concentration of episodes about them with Billy not too far behind.  My original hypothesis was that perhaps episodes tend to focus on the girls since female viewers are more likely to tune in for story as opposed to action - but I'm wondering now if it's simply that Amy Jo Johnson is the break-out star of the show. 

The question becomes - was MMPR successful because of Kimberly?  Or did Amy Jo become successful because of MMPR?

BACK TO ACTION!

Observations.

The three main components to look at for the morphed Rangers are: who says "it's Morphin time", who is the first to action (first hit), and who kills the monster.  If Jason is the leader, we would assume that he says "it's Morphin time" the most - and the data support this.  With the exception of Zordon calling the Rangers to action in the first two episodes - it's almost all Jason.  However, starting in "Power Ranger Punks" we notice something new and different - someone who is not Jason gets the opportunity to say those words.  Prior to this episode, even if a Ranger morphs on their own, they do not say the words but merely hold out their morpher and assume the morphing pose.  Billy and Kimberly muster up the strength to say the words together for the first time - and then Kimberly seems to forget that she's a girl and starts saying it all over the place (by this I mean twice). 

Looking at who is the first to action - we see that the numbers are pretty evenly split.  There is somewhat of a correlation between being the character focus of the episode and having the first hit - but not enough to suggest a trend.  We can see this in the fact that the girls (combined) get the first hit nearly half the time and are also the episode focus about half the time - but Jason and Zack's first hit percentages throw off any sort of statistical correlation.

Lastly, let's look at who kills the monster.  After episode ten, we noticed that Trini was the only Ranger to kill a monster on her own and it happened all of once.  Continuing the trend from our last observation, Megazord continues to be the most dominant monster-killer (at 44% of all monster killings).  What's interesting to note is that Alpha 5 is responsible for defeating a monster (the Genie) and ties himself with Trini at one monster each leaving most monsters defeated by either Megazord or through the Rangers combined weapons (63% of the time this is the case).  However, we notice another new parameter that was not present in our last observation - Kimberly kills two monster on her own giving her the lead as Ranger who's killed the most monsters on her own.

Conclusions.

My original hypothesis was that Kimberly and Trini may lead in character development and story lines - but when it comes to action, Jason is the man.  He's the martial arts expert (in real life) and it can be assumed that he therefore should kick the most ass on the show.  But the data is suggesting this isn't necessarily the case.  Jason leads and commands - but he's much more of a team player than I would have thought.  The only times monsters are killed by individual Rangers instead of the team are when the girls do it.  Or more specifically, when Kimberly does it.

Morphing Order Flow-Chart

While I attempted to put aside my own bias (that Kimberly is the best Ranger ever FTW) - the data is suggesting that Kimberly is in fact the most important all-around Ranger.  While she doesn't take command the way Jason does, she's a utility player that takes command when Jason's not around.  She drives storylines and shows us something no other Ranger does: popularity.  I think a lot of this comes from the fact that the characters (with the exception of Billy and Kimberly) are rather flat and not given much to do and never stray far from their stereotypes characters.  Zack always dances and says something sassy, Trini always does everything, and Jason always kicks things.  Billy's a nerd - but he can also be a valley girl and a punk.  Kimberly's a girly-girl - but she's also a gymnast, a nerd, and a punk.

I'm interested to see what happens with the other characters, will they be developed further or has Saban relegated them to background characters while he fleshes out the characters the kids have shown an interest in (Kimberly and I suppose Billy).  Next we're moving in to the Green Ranger saga which will completely throw everything for a loop.  Hold on to your morphers, kids, things are about to get morphinominally kookie.

1.16 Switching Places

Season 1, Episode 16

"Switching Places"

Writer: Shuky Levy and Steve Kramer

Director: Jeff Reiner

Episode Summary:
We open with Billy showing Kimberly his newest invention - a mind-reading device!  Yet unbeknownst to Billy, Squatt (that little devil!) tinkered with his toy and the invention accidentally switches Kimberly and Billy's bodies.  Bulk and Skull sneak in and the same thing happens to them!  Hilarious!

The next day we see Kimberly and Billy trying to function as each other to hilarious results.  Billy-in-Kimberly can't put on makeup and wears frumpy clothes and explodes a cheese souffle.  Kimberly-in-Billy blows up a computer during a tutor-session and dresses him in a stylish slim-fitting vest.  Billy-in-Kimberly walks around with his hands in her pants (that sounds bad) and Kimberly-in-Billy stands with his hip cocked and flips his hair around. 

Rita sends her Genie monster after Squatt rubs him out (of the lamp) and the Rangers morph, fight, call on the zords, and are about to lose when Alpha 5 figures out a way to trap the Genie back in his lamp.  Victory!  Billy then figures out how to fix his machine and everyone is back to normal.  Skull makes a joke about borrowing Billy's brain for a math test on Monday.  Silly Skull.

Facts:

-First line - Kim "So like, what is this new project?"

-First on-screen Ranger - Billy and Kimberly

-Last line - Billy "Some people will never learn."
-Focus Character: Billy and Kimberly
-Rangers do NOT defeat the bad guy - Alpha 5 does
-Last episode before *spoiler alert* Green Ranger

Observations:
Since this is the last episode before the Green Ranger saga, it's nice to have a light-hearted comedic episode.  Unlike other light-hearted comedic episodes, this one is actually funny.  The story-line is character based rather than action based and the result is a much more enjoyable show.  The comedy isn't forced even though it's slap-stick and the acting is actually somewhat decent.  If you're looking for why Kimberly is a fan-favorite - this episode is the epitome of why.

Amy Jo yet again shows off her acting talent by showing her comedic chops and does a really good impersonation of David Yost's Billy - down to his nerdy lingo and word pronunciation and mannerisms.  I say this without irony, she actually does a really good job with this role.  David Yost actually shows that he has an inkling of acting ability as well as he incorporates a lot of Kimberly-mannerisms in his hair flipping and the way he pronounces certain, like, words.  However, he makes Kimberly out to be really uninterested in anything but herself and highly inconvenienced by everything - and that's not the Kimberly we know and love.  Bad Billy.

Continuing with what we saw in "Power Ranger Punks", Billy shows some promise of maybe one day not being the poorly dressed nerd who over-enunciates and sucks-the-fun-out-of-everything.  Season 2 spoiler perhaps?  So - props to the costuming department on this episode, you win.  Props to Bulk and Skull, you actually can act as well.  And props to Kim and Billy on a job well done.

1.15 Dark Warrior

Season 1, Episode 15
"Dark Warrior"
Writer: Ronnie Sperling, Jeff Deckman, Mark Hoffmeier
Director: Terence H. Winkless

Episode Summary:
We open on Jason teaching a karate class and Billy once again whining about how lame he is.  Trini's Uncle Howard is coming to visit and we find out that not only is he a scientist, but he's also a martial arts legend!  A karate scientist!  Billy decides he's tired of being picked on and decides to re-enroll in Jason's class.  Uncle Howard invents an invisibility formula and then humorously loses it at Ernie's!  Rita sends her Scarf Dark Warrior to create a plan to steal the forumula.

By this time Uncle Howard has taken Billy under his wing and is teaching him a little about science, a little about karate, and a lot about life.  While practicing martial arts with Billy, Uncle Howard is kidnapped by Putties and taken to a cave where he's tied to an explosive and threatened with his and Trini's life if he doesn't fork over the invisibility formula.  Dark Warrior sends a nastygram ransom note to Trini which prompts the Rangers to take action and find Uncle Howard.

Billy diffuses the bomb using his martial arts training he learned from Howard and we morph to kick some Dark Warrior behind.  Throw in a little Megazord and we've got ourselves a victory!  We end at the Youth Center where Billy earns his Yellow Belt in karate and Bulk and Skull still pick on him (cos only nerds do karate) and invisible Uncle Howard teaches them a lesson by beating them up.  Ha ha.

Facts:
-First line - Jason "1, 2, punch 3, punch 4"
-First on-screen Ranger - Jason
-Last line - Trini "Uncle Howard!"
-Focus character: Billy AND Trini
-Billy earns his Yellow Belt

Observations:
This episode is mostly about building Billy's confidence and proving my previous assertions wrong that he doesn't belong on the team.  He does have dedication (despite the fact that he initially quit Jason's class, pfft) and finally does have some martial arts know-how.  He just needed to learn it from a scientist and not a jock.

I dislike the ending of this because, yet again, it's awfully unfair to Bulk and Skull and very un-martial-arts like to beat someone up without them knowing it.  Especially since Skull is doing this cute little A Clockwork Orange thing with his hat.

Additionally, I misheard Rita call Dark Warrior the Scarf Warrior several times, understandably so since he wears a scarf.  It then dawned on me that he's probably the name-sake of the episode.  It struck me as odd that Rita let one of her minions take charge of something - but I guess she respects the Dark Warrior in some capacity.

1.13 Peace Love and Woe

Season 1 Episode 13
"Peace Love and Woe"
Writer: Julianne Klemm
Director: Robert Hughes

Episode Summary:
The teens are helping Ernie set up for the big dance this weekend.  They show their lack of faith in Billy's ability to find a date by offering him unsolicited advice.  He declares he's not going to the dance but working on his weather machine instead and when he least expects it bumps into love Marge.  Marge drops a heart-pendant and then proceeds to talk non-stop about it until we realize she's a nerd too!  Billy's too scared to ask her to the dance, so Marge performs the racy 90s action of asking the boy to the dance!  He accepts.

Rita sends a non-Finster-made monster, Madam Woe, to Angel Grove to kidnap Billy and she accidentally kidnaps Marge instead (she was a nerd wearing blue - they all look alike, honest mistake).  Zordon informs the teens that Madam Woe has an alternate dimension in the gem on her forehead and we need to combine the power coins to defeat her (when were you going to tell us we could do this, Zordy?).  Billy volunteers to take the combined power coins because he's obviously the best fighter and not at all emotionally involved in the situation.  Sigh.

Billy breaks Madam Woe's gem in hand-to-hand combat and we call on the Power Weapons to defeat her and send Marge home.  We end at the dance where Bulk offers money to Ernie for a cake he ruined earlier (which is damn decent of him, actually) and we end with Ernie dancing which is funny because fat people doing anything is hilarious! 

Facts:
-First line - Jason "Spinning, bottom fist, side"
-First on-screen ranger - Jason and Trini
-Last line - Jason "it's not time for cake yet, we've still got the sandwiches to serve."
-Focus character - Billy
-Kim has her first fight scene where she looks like a competent fighter
-Introduction of combined power coins

Observations:
I'm tired of the nerd stereotype that nerds have no game.  Look at any nerd-centric festival or convention and you will see they have a lot more game (given, with each other) than most of the rest of us have.  With this knowledge, it's no surprise Billy and Marge hit it off so well even though she over-enunciates EVERYTHING.  Also please note, this is the first episode in which a Ranger of any color gets a date.

This is one of our first episodes where we see that someone other than Jason can take the lead - which will definitely have an interesting effect on my results for this study.  While Kim and Trini have both killed monsters on their own before, they only take charge by default when Jason is not around.  Billy took charge of things and defeated Madam Woe on his own.

That said, Madam Woe is the first monster that actually looks kinda cool and doesn't have a stupid power.  She's also our first female monster.  Girl power indeed.

1.12 Power Ranger Punks

Season 1 Episode 12
"Power Ranger Punk"
Writer: Mark Hoffmeier
Director: David Blyth

Episode Summary:
We open on the cast of Saved by the Bell teens playing volleyball in the park when Babboo stops by to drop his magic "potion" in their drinks.  Billy and Kimberly (aka the weakest links at volleyball) are poisoned and immediately take on the personalities of "punks" which in the 1990s meant they donned Jersey Shore accents and said "insults" like "dorks" and "the service stinks".  Baffled by their rude friends, our remaining teens go on about their day.  The next day at school, Billy picks a fight with Bulk and Snookie Kimberly asks Skull out on a date Saturday night (he accepts).  If you're having trouble spotting our "punks" - Billy miraculously has arm muscles and Kimberly is wearing a pink teddie.

Rita attacks with her Terror Toad monster who eats Rangers and then places their helmet decal on his belly.  The three non-punky Rangers battle the Terror Toad but Zack and Trini are immediately eaten.  Alpha 5 finds an antidote for Billy and Kimberly (coming from the legendary Singing Squash) and the two remaining Rangers exclaim - (wait for it) - IT'S MORPHIN TIME!  Jason and Billy are subsequently eaten and Kimberly frees everyone with her Power Bo because she's awesome.  Kimberly kills her first monster with an arrow from her Power Bo and my heart swells with pride.

We end with Bulk and Skull demanding revenge from Billy humiliating them and poor Skull recovers from a heart-break after realizing Kimberly is kind of a bitch and ditches him for their date.  Bulk and Skull hilariously fall into a volleyball net and the teens laugh at their misfortune.

Facts:
-First line - Jason - "All right, let's go"
-Last line - Zack - "Give it to him, Billy, this I gotta see."
-Focus Character - Kimberly and Billy
-First Skull/Kim flirtation scene
-First time Kim defeats a monster BY HERSELF
-First time we see Power Rangers as bad guys
-First time someone other than Jason says "It's Morphin Time!"

Observations:
This was the second episode I remember seeing as a youngin and for some reason it really drew me into the series even though upon further inspection the acting makes me cringe - except for Amy Jo as Kimberly who can do no wrong.  Kim shows her Ranger supremacy by preventing herself from being eaten (seriously, if someone's going to rescue Rangers, it's going to be Kim), defeating a monster BY HERSELF, and still finding time to go home and fix her teased hair afterward.  When does the girl sleep?

Trini once again shows her interest in everything because she's awesome at everything in life by taking gymnastics lessons from Kimberly.  As for the guys, I'm realizing more and more that Jason and Zack really are teenage boys - they always make fun of those weaker than they are (Bulk and Skull) and occassionally start trouble (i.e. instigate the fight in "Food Fight" and this fight with B&S). 

This episode definitely continues the trend of making the storylines centered around the girls and perpetuating my belief that Kimberly will be the overall best Ranger (biased statement) of the original five.  It also gives us our first taste of the fact that Billy can be kinda hot when he's not covered in glasses and overalls.

We're about four episodes away from my official statistical results about the original five - so stay tuned!

1.8 I, Eye Guy

Season 1, Episode 8
"I, Eye Guy"
Writer: Stewart St. John

Director: David Blyth

Episode Summary:
Billy and his young protege, Willy (clever writers), are in Billy's garage tinkering with Willy's latest invention: a Virtual Reality Roller Coaster (1993's vision of THE FUTURE!).

They test it out on the other Rangers and silly Kimberly reacts as if the coaster is real thereby rendering his invention awesome.  Willy and Billy exchange some odd nerdy high-five ending in a yank on their overalls (as awkward to watch as it is to describe).  The Rangers walk Willy through the park to get to the Science Fair which is conveniently held at Ernie's Gym and Juice Bar since the Rangers don't really know how to go anywhere else.  Putties attack because Rita decides she wants Willy's genius for herself.  She plans to use the Eye Guy monster to capture Willy in his big eye (Eye Guy is a bunch of prop eyes glued to a suit) and feed off his genius. 

They make it to the fair despite the putties and Bulk and Skull cause trouble with the nerds (cos who else goes to science fairs?) which Jason and Zack try to prevent, somehow Bulk and Skull lose their clothes and end up in drag, and Willy gets blamed for the entire fiasco and kicked out of the fair.  Willy goes off on his own because he was blamed for Jason and Zach's actions and oops! is captured by Eye Guy.  Willy then becomes a Japanese child in a space simulator trapped in Eye Guy's eye.  The Rangers morph and call on Megazord to defeat Eye Guy (who by this point has a severe case of conjunctivitis because he has Willy in his eye).  The Rangers take Willy back to the fair where the judging Professor and Ernie are both enjoying his VR Roller Coaster and announce Willy is the best inventor ever FTW!  Bulk and Skull are naked and want their clothes back since they lost them  earlier, Trini and Kimberly are bitches and shrunk their clothes.  Laughter ensues.


Facts:
-First Ranger Line - "Aww, come on, you've gotta have faith." - Billy
-First on-screen Ranger - Billy
-Focus Character - Billy
-Last Line - "Sure, we washed and we sterilized them." - Kim
-Jason wears blue jeans for the first time
-Trini says "morphinominal" for the first time (leaving just Billy and Jason to say it)

Observations: 
This is our first Billy episode and definitely isn't as moving or fast-paced as other episodes (i.e. "High Five" and "A Pressing Engagement").  Unlike our Trini and Kimberly-centric episodes which develop the characters further and debunk Kimberly's valley girl stereotype, Billy's episode doesn't do anything to further develop his character beyond anything but a nerd who wears dorky glasses and overalls.  The only way to believe he's actually friends with Zack, Jason, and Kimberly is if they're copying his homework - and since the MMPR have such high moral standards - you know this isn't happening.  So, I don't buy Billy's place in this group.

We see more of the Sentai footage influence in this episode when Willy is trapped in Eye Guy's eye with the Japanese child stuck on the space simulator.  Much like Maria in the last episode, it is very obvious it is not the same American actor.  However, unlike Maria, Willy is dressed appropriately - similar to his mentor Billy - and not in an obvious attempt to fit the Japanese footage like Punky Brewster Maria.  I'd like to say this is evidence of Saban getting better at stitching the Japanese and American footage together - but I assure you we're way off from that happening.  Additionally, anyone notice the small Japanese girl the Blue Ranger is protecting when he attacks Eye Guy's center eye?  Continuity much? 

Additionally, when Willy goes to the park by himself, we hear our first ever voice-over on the show.  Oddly enough, it's not one of the Rangers.  This breaks down the fourth-wall removed format of the show and has the character directly addressing the audience.  I don't have much recollection of this happening again - so my guess is it's because we're at the beginning of the series and haven't yet found the voice or stride of the MMPR format.