Category: Written Features

Power Rangers Reflections Redux #04 – Day Of The Dumpster (Pilot Episode)

Since this is a reboot of sorts… and the first in a long while… it makes sense that we use this spot to return to the origins of the series. And so, for today’s entry, I’ll be looking at the original pilot episode of Day Of The Dumpster… or at least, close to it.

For those who need a little primer on what I’m talking about, the original version (or pilot episode) of Day Of The Dumpster is a drastically different entity compared to what would eventually follow. There was a different setting, slightly different names and terminology, and more notably, a different girl playing the Yellow Ranger, who just so happens to be a stark departure from the one we would know and love.

This episode had not seen the light of day in any official capacity nor was it really known to all but the most hardcore of fans. The only way I knew about a pilot episode was when I came across the transcript for the show that was posted on noted fan Joe Rovang’s site a few years ago. It wouldn’t be until 1999 when it eventually aired (albeit in a slightly edited format) as part of the Power Rangers: Lost episode television special. However, Youtube did have the original, unedited version of the pilot online a few years ago, but has since been taken down. As such, the following text is based on the Lost Episode version which is featured on one of the Power Rangers DVD sets since that’s the only version I have on hand.

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Power Rangers Reflections Redux #03 – Best Man For The Job

(Quick Note: This was going to be a whole new write-up, but I wasn’t too happy with what was there, so decided to push that back another week. So as to not “stall” the return of a long dormant feature, I decided to do a quick repost of an old write-up with some minor tweaks and bobs. So sorry about this, folks, but next week, we have a new write-up that’s long overdue.)

When I originally posted this back in August 2015, I opined that it might’ve been possible that I posted this particular musing in the past either here or in a prior blog. Turns out that that posting was the first time it was posted at any point, so there you go. In any event, this episode was chosen completely at random and thus subject to a write-up at the time. The write-up remains as is for the most part.

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Power Rangers Reflections Redux #02 – High Five

Fun historical repost history; this particular entry has been posted on this blog TWICE. First time on July 16, 2010 (formerly #142, which is now a Classic Bite Commentary) and the second time was on February 26, 2012. Third time’s not only a charm, but it’s the only version that’s left standing.

For the most part, there’s not a whole to this write-up that I would change or add to it, as it pretty much sums up my thoughts on the episode rather nicely. There’s a couple edits and slight tweaks to clean the text up a bit or make some points slightly clearer, but nothing too drastic.

This text makes reference to the 2010 reversioning of Mighty Morphin, an experiment where Disney, no longer wanting to produce more Power Rangers but needed to output some sort of product, opted to take the first season of Mighty Morphin and “update” them with new visual effects to give it more of a comic book feel or something like that. The reversioned episodes are often looked down upon by the fandom and something that most folks would rather forget existed. Personally, I didn’t mind the reversioning; there’re some bits I’m not a fan of, but some of the stuff they did I actually liked and thought made sense, and there’s a couple examples of that here.

Anyway, on with the show.

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Power Rangers Reflections Redux #01 – Day Of The Dumpster

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
Season 1, Episode 01: Day Of The Dumpster
Original Airdate: August 28, 1993

Back in 2007, over at my old blog, I wrote some retrospective commentaries on various Power Rangers episodes from the first couple seasons. I kept up with these for about a couple years before dropping it for no reason other than lack of interest among other things. This is something I’ve tried (in vain) to revive and even added a couple new ones along the way, but between then and now, there have been ten of these Power Rangers Reflections (or Retrospectives – the name alternates) and probably a couple more that have yet to see the light of day.

So naturally, it’s worth trying again, right?

The first post under the new Power Rangers Reflections Redux series is a repost of my PRR post of the very first Power Rangers episode, Day of the Dumpster. This is, for all intents and purposes, a recycling of a text that was originally written and posted back on January 12, 2007 on the old DTM Blog (Post #412 if you’re wondering) and subsequently reposted on this blog a couple times. The text won’t be a straight re-post; some edits have been made to account for some additional thoughts as well as some long-overdue fixing of certain typos that have been left unchecked all these years, even after numerous reposts. So hopefully, this is a sign that things will be different.

One can hope.

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Power Rangers Reflections Redux #00 – A Re-Introduction

So we’re going to give this another shot, right?
So long story short, I occasionally have a tendency to write some retrospective commentaries on some episodes of Power Rangers with the intention of making this a semi-regular thing. Despite several attempts at doing so, things have a way of not going your way. And so only less than a dozen of these things were posted, with a few more in the archives nearing completion or something.
Ten years later, I want to give this thing another shot. But this time, I came prepared.
Starting in October, I’ll be rebooting my PR Reflections commentary series with a combination of re-edited old posts and entirely new posts covering new episodes (one of them is the pizza episode.) In regards to the recycled posts, they will either be lightly edited to fix a few typos and integrate some minor bits or they will be somewhat drastically reworked to flow a little better. In some cases, there might be entire segments re-written.
And since this will be the second or third time some of this stuff is getting reposted, there’s a need to try and clean up some redundant material in the backlogs. As a result, all the old entries from early on have been or will be scrubbed and replaced with archival material; either old Bite commentaries or unpublished supplementary material. The links on the Documents page will also be removed and reflect the new entries when they are eventually posted. This is being done in an effort to try and clean up some old, redundant posts that are either repeats or obsolete (broken vids, etc.).
As far as the new entries are concerned… well, they’re new entries. Some of them are old writings that were left dormant for years and finally finished while others are new entries from scratch. In regards to choosing which episodes to write up on, I’ve tried to vary the palette a bit and not keep it strictly within the realm of MMPR. In fact, one of them is a multi-parter that I wanted to touch on for a very long time.
For the most part, the heavy duty stuff is pretty much done, as these were done months ago with the intent of having some semblance of material ready to post on a semi-timely basis. On last count, I’ve got about twenty of these in the can and there’s a possibility that more might be whipped together. But even if it doesn’t last longer than twenty, at least it’ll last longer than it has in the past, which is saying quite a bit all things considered.
So that’s the intro, there’s the new tag, and next week, we go back to the beginning… again.

R.I.P. Adam West

Heard the sad news that Adam West – the deep-voiced actor perhaps best known for his role as Batman in the 1960s television show of the same name – recently passed away of leukemia. Mr. West’s role as Batman is one that most people (myself included) associate him with and while that has been a source of a career stall for a period, his appearances in Family Guy has given audiences a newfound appreciation for the man.

My heartfelt wishes and condolences to the West family and friends.

Dennis Stamp (December 6, 1946 – March 13, 2017)

Dennis Stamp passed away yesterday after a long battle with cancer.

A former professional wrestler during the 1970s and 1980s with over 2,000 matches in the AWA and various territories under his belt, journeyman Dennis Stamp would later gain cult fame as a result of a cameo appearance in the 1999 documentary Beyond The Mat, serving as the guest referee for a 1997 match between Bret Hart and Terry Funk in one of the latter’s many retirement matches.

RIP, Dennis Stamp. Your booking in the live event above awaits you.

RIP Mr. Fuji

Legendary wrestling manager and WWE Hall Of Famer Harry “Mr. Fuji” Fujiwara passed away this weekend at the age of 83. The exploits of Mr. Fuji as both a tag-team wrestler (five time tag champion in WWWF) as well as the manager of countless talents such as Demolition, Don Muraco, and Yokozuna were well outside of my exposure to the wrestling product, but even when I was oblivious to the product itself, he was always one of those names that would get brought up by other folks and one of those names that just stuck in my head even if I had no clue who he was. That doesn’t diminish his accomplishments and his legacy, nor does it taint my enjoyment of the various sketches he did with Muraco.

My prayers go out to his friends and loved ones.