The series takes place in the fictional town of Angel Grove, California. After a space expedition to the moon revealed a dumpster, astronauts open the dumpster and inadvertently release the villain Rita Repulsa from confinement. When word of Rita's release came to Zordon, he ordered his robot assistant, Alpha 5, to find five "teenagers with attitude" (including David Yost), who would defend the Earth from Rita's attacks. The story would continue on to subsequent incarnations, often with new villains.
The theme music, Go Go Power Rangers, was often parodied, and many of its subsequent incarnations contain the words "Go" or "Power Rangers" in their theme music.
The various Power Rangers over the years have been replaced, partly based on evolving storylines, and partly because the actors behind these characters were rumored to be holding out for greater pay.
Steve Cardenas as Rocky DeSantos (The Red Ranger) (1994–1996)
David Yost as William "Billy" Cranston (The Blue Ranger) (1993–1996) (Note: "Cranston", whilst generally accepted by the fanbase as Billy's last name, was not officially stated in the show's continuity.)
Dave Mallow as Baboo (Voice) (credited as Collin Phillips)
Trivia
Due to the unforeseen popularity of the series, Saban, the company that produced Power Rangers, was faced with the possibility of exhausting all of its Zyuranger footage with no more to fall back upon in order to continue producing the show. The company contacted Toei (the company which produced/produces the sentai series in Japan) as well as Rainbow Productions (the company that designed and produced the monster suits), requesting another half-season's worth of Zyuranger footage... specifically for Power Rangers. The two Japanese companies agreed, creating around 25 brand-new monsters and filming both human- and zord-sized battle footage for each. These monsters are collectively known in the Power Rangers fan community as Zyu-2, a term coined by Power Rangers fan Chris Funaro. Around this time, Saban was also negotiating a deal with Toei to acquire footage from Gosei Sentai Dairanger, the sentai series which followed Zyuranger. Saban used more than half of the Zyu-2 costumes in the remainder of season one of Power Rangers. When they decided to replace the Dinozords with the mecha from Dairanger in season two (termed Thunderzords in Power Rangers), the Zord footage of the remaining Zyu-2 monsters became obsolete. To compensate for this, Saban attempted to splice the Zyu-2 and Dairanger footage to ensure that the Zyu-2 monsters were not seen fighting with the old Megazord that was not supposed to be there. In other words, it would show only the monster attacking followed by a shot of just the Thunderzords taking the damage. This did not always work, for occasionally the monster could actually be seen making physical contact with the old Megazord.
Billy Cranston (David Yost) wears blue plaid boxer shorts. In the episode "Power Ranger Punks", Billy (David Yost) and Kimberly (Amy Jo Johnson) become punks after drinking Rita's potion. Viewers can see the top of Billy's boxer shorts in his punk outfit, which is a blue plaid pattern. However, after the spell is removed by Alpha and Zordon, Billy immediately notices this and hides the top of his boxer shorts from sight.
Lord Zedd is the first American-made villian that is only part of Power Rangers and not the Sentai Series. Others villans that would follow this are Divatox, Astronema, Scorpius, Trakeena. But after Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue ended, each of the following series used a US Original Villian as the main villian and occasionally one of the other villians as well (Master Org of Power Rangers Wild Force is an exception since the costume came from Dairanger).
The suits of several monsters were modified in some fashion in order to create new monsters for American footage. Such monsters were:
Pudgy Pig was disassembled, and parts were used for Turkey Jerk in Season 2's "Storybook Rangers".
Mr. Ticklesneezer was repainted and clad in a Santa Claus-like suit, becoming Grumble the Elf in Season 2's "Storybook Rangers".
Silver Horns was repainted and a tongue was added, becoming Repellator in Season 3's "A Friend In Need".
Merrick the Barbaric 's head was removed, and his body was used for Incisorator in the Season 3 episode, "Changing Of The Zords, Part II". Ironically, Incisorator's episode aired before Merrick 's.
The expression "Morphinomenal" was coined by Billy Cranston.
Similarily, "It's Morphin Time!" was first spoken by Zordon.
The Ninja and Shogun UltraZords are the only zord formations in Power Rangers history that are made from American Footage. No suits or props were used in making them; the Bandai toys of each Zord were used to bring them to life on the show. The American versions of the toys were used for this, which presented some problems as the American versions are often noticeably different than the Japanese versions (and thus, the actual Zords on the show). For example, the left arm of the Japanese Shogun MegaZord toy (and the real Shogun MegaZord) is white. For some reason, the left arm of the Shogun MegaZord toy was repainted pink for the American version. Thus, the arm would suddenly switch colors whenever the Shogun UltraZord was formed.
As the title says, the announcement is a reality check, or something that clarifies or serves as a reminder of reality often by correcting a misconception.
