Haim Saban, a former Vangelis-esque electronic musician, had a big idea when in his hotel room in Japan 1985: why not bring over a Japanese live action sentai show, but film footage around it with local actors? The initial series was Bioman, and he even created a pilot and proof of concept for it, which to date, has not been seen except in small snippets anywhere in the world. If his American Bioman pilot was picked up, it would have aired in 1986, alongside GI Joe, Jem, and Masters of the Universe. Who knows if it would have become a phenomenon the way it ultimately did, or it would have been lost in the shuffle of kids entertainment in the mid-80s?
In one crucial respect, the 1986 Bioman pilot had a huge advantage: the cast was led by legit action star and martial artist Marc Dacascos, who is legendary in the action and kung fu world. If you like action movies, you probably recognize him on sight. He would have brought the show a tremendous amount of martial arts credibility.
Some aspects of Bioman survive in the final series in 1993. For example, in Bioman, the heroes have a C-3P0 esque comedy robot servant, which was a big part of the Bioman concept, but was not at all in the series they ultimately picked to cut up, Zyuranger (which was fairytales and fantasy). In other words, the Power Rangers have a funny robot because that’s what Bioman had. Also, it is believed that some footage from the ‘86 Bioman pilot was used at various points in the 1993 Power Rangers, which considering what a legendary skinflint Saban was, is perfectly in character.
Incidentally, in much the same way that Vince MacMahon’s skills as a play-by-play man are seldom mentioned for obvious reasons, it’s worth pointing out that Haim Saban, whatever one might think of his management style or tactics in the business world, is a tremendously talented musician and composer. Just look at the music he composed for Mysterious Cities of Gold: it was a Vangelis or Moroder-level accomplishment, on much the same level that Christian Bruhn’s score for the German Captain Future series outshines the original version.
26 years ago, the first episode of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers premiered on the Fox Kids Network and the Power Rangers franchise was created. The franchise is still alive and well after 26 different seasons, 3 theatrical films with the most recent being Saban’s Power Rangers from 2017, 2 very successful comic books from Boom! Studios and a multitude of toy lines from Bandai of America and now Hasbro, it’s very hard to believe that the Power Rangers franchise has lasted as long as it has.
A very huge thanks to Haim Saban for the concept of Power Rangers as well as all of the cast and crew through the years for making this franchise what it is today and a huge very special thanks to Toei Company Ltd. for supplying the Japanese footage from the Super Sentai Series.
