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| Welcome to the one-stop place for basic news about past, present and future telecasts from the Power Rangers franchise. Listings and other information will be kept as accurate as possible and be updated whenever things change.
We now know that ..... well, read it your self: Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers returns in 2010
It would seem that we'll get two episodes each week in the usual spots. The first half of the year is relatively free from sports pre-emptions (only for a NASCAR race or two and one week of WNBA playoffs). June and July will be chopped up pretty good for the 2010 World Cup soccer tournament from South Africa. My curiosity would be if as many ABC affiliates will commit to running what I'm sure some will regard as "16-year old reruns" as they had for this current season of RPM. I think we might see a good handful of affiliates decide to cut the cord and grab that hour for their own use. No way to know until we see some early grids, but that won't happen until late December. What about the show itself? We've heard word that Disney was considering remastering the original stuff from back at Comic-Con. (Might have been some other con, not quite sure) Same episodes, same dialogue, same actors, same music. Nothing's being reshot or re-scripted. What I think is going to happen is there might be even more of an editing to meet "Disney" standards. That, itself, is bad enough. No need to worry about the classic theme being dumped. It might be "enhanced" but there seems to be a contractual deal that the original score must be retained. (That's different than not having the rights to use the music in a NEW way -- as when Adam returned for "Once a Ranger" in PROO and they couldn't use the MMPR theme) Thanks to Lisa J at No Pink Spandex for this clarification from Ron Wasserman himself. Now, the question also comes "How will these airings be seen/treated by Burg and PROAC?" I'm not quite sure. I know one thing. This ISN'T a new series and these AREN'T new episodes. For example, no matter how many times George Lucas fiddled with, remastered, edited Hayden Christensen into the end of "Return of the Jedi" and re-released the box sets, etc., there are still just six Star Wars movies. Here, there are still just 700 PR episodes. They'll still get counted as MMPR time slots, that's for sure. Maybe I'll launch a page in the tone of the BoPR/PRG pages and add to the BoPR counts as these episodes are aired, but with a second number for the number of times "MMv2" (which will be my shorthand for this "version 2" presentation) is aired. Maybe they'll give us some that haven't been seen for a VERY long while! I'm quite glad to see there will be a continued PR presence -- on TV as well as the toy shelves -- and maybe this will give the younger generation an appreciation of what it was that drew us into this show. It's all still fresh news and I'm sure things will work themselves out over time. But that's it.
(By the way, the counter above is counting down to Noon on 12/19/09 on the East Coast. If you're in an area with a time-shifting affiliate, your wait is a few hours shorter).
WILL IT STAY OR WILL IT GO??? To be totally honest with you, there's little chance that it's coming back with a Shinkenger adaptation in 2010. But, with what we know as of Oct. 2, 2009, and the arrival of the second-version remasters of MMPR, this question gets a little vague. PR is staying. But, at least for now, new adaptations of Sentai are gone. So it's kinda stayin' and it's kinda goin' -- at the same time. Does Disney have any plans for a 'revival' after a bit of an hiatus? Does the recent $4 BILLION acqusition of Marvel play ANY role in whatever future rendition of PR might come down the line? Who knows?
Here's the list of what we know -- on both sides -- that has been accumulated over the past year or so. There's just so much more evidence on the 'Go' side and there hasn't been any new 'Stay' evidence in a VERY long time.  Soon after the major mainstream news reports came out about PR's demise, Bandai America (the toy manufacturing arm of the PR machine) sent out an e-mail to PR fans and webmasters. It basically said that everything was go for a 2010 season. The e-mail came out of the blue and -- several months later -- continues to just sit there on an island without a shred of supporting evidence from any other source.Here's the Bandai statement that was included in the e-mail:
"Despite some of the rumors circulating the web, the Power Rangers are not going away in 2010. Disney and Bandai America continue to be committed to the Power Rangers Brand. In fact, Disney is producing a Season 18 and Bandai America will continue to develop action figures and toys for fans and collectors of all ages.  If you think I'm trying to tilt the argument because of any sort of agenda I might have -- forget it. It just looks that way because the evidence for "Go" continues to mount.Here's the list of occurances that would suggest that PR has reached its final season:
"The very first meeting I ever had with Disney on the show, they told me flat out that Jungle Fury was supposed to have been the final season of Power Rangers. I don't remember the circumstances exactly, but something involving foreign financing or issues with the toy company had already begun moving forward and put them in a position of being obligated to to go ahead with the RPM season. I guess people familiar with following the show have become used to hearing this every year, but I took it to be true.
** BUT ... does the announcement of a re-worked, re-issued MMPR toy line negate this news? Is the US operation still going to be based -- full-bore -- in this country?
This is a big deal and I'll do my darnedest to stay on top of the developments. THE LATEST EPISODES: October 3 -- "Control-Alt-Delete"/"Run Ziggy Run": I was much more into the first episode than the second. You knew Tenaya was headed down "Astronema Redux Boulevard." The "key" they shot into Scott reminded me of the Ultraman Tiga transformation device. RZR wasn't devoid of its moments, though. You can so tell K is jiggy for Ziggy. She almost blurted out his name. When K sat on Ziggy's lap, Olivia had a look on her face that was a perfect combination of surprise and that little something us older fans would recognize. *snicker* But, what's in the box??? RATINGS UPDATE: Ratings for Oct. 31 are further proof that the Great Break that comes in every Fall sports season does nothing but break any ratings momentum that year's PR series might have. And, each year, the overall numbers are lower than the year before.
TORRENT UPDATE: Both episodes of this week are encoded, torrented and available. That makes all 28. Torrents are on Mininova only. Click on the link below to find all the torrents. FYI, my first inclination is that I won't be doing the torrents for next year's MMv2 episodes.
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You were wondering what the first phase of the "No New PR" Era might be? Well, the answer wasn't long in coming.
This is a remastered and reworked edition of MMPR. VERY interesting. That's the new logo to the right. As you might guess, my first reaction to this news is as much "How will this play out on TV?" as it is "How good will this be?" First, to the TV side of things.
(updated 10/3/09) Welcome to the Great Break. Hope the countdown above doesn't cause too much of a downer. I've cleared the weekly timer program from my VCR because I don't want to record the reruns or the infomercials. I can't set a date-specific program until it's 30 days from the date I want to record. I just need to remind myself to restore the timer in December -- while I'm running around like a darned fool doing Christmas shopping.
Power Morphicon 2 -- the second official fan convention of all things Power Rangers -- will be in Summer 2010 (exact dates and location have yet to be released). If they can get anywhere close to the guest list they had for the first one in 2007, it's probably worth your while to save up and go. Or, commit next year's tax refund to the cause. The guest list is ALREADY quite substantial and there's still almost a full year to go! (Heck, you might even see the Burgmeister, who didn't see the need to go to the first one ... until he saw the YouTube videos! If I'm there, I'll follow the long-standing PR wardrobe tradition and wear nothing but burgundy shirts and Redskins jerseys!) The link for the official PMC2 Web site can be found below. Once there, you can find the link to the PMC forums.
