Mighty Morphin Power Rangers ("MMPR") is an American live-action television series, created for the American market, based on the sixteenth installment of the Japanese Super Sentai franchise, Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger. The show and its related merchandise both saw unbridled overnight success, catapulting into pop culture in mere months. Under the original name Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, the series ran from 1993 to 1996 and spawned a feature film, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie.
The second and third seasons drew on footage and elements from the Japanese series Gosei Sentai Dairanger and Ninja Sentai Kakuranger respectively, though the Zyuranger costumes were still used extensively; the main 5 Dairanger suits were never used at all, only the KibaRanger (White Power Ranger) suit was used. The series was produced by MMPR Productions and distributed by Saban Entertainment, and aired on Fox Kids.
In 1996, the Mighty Morphin label was retired as the series would follow in the footsteps of its Sentai source material, changing its name, cast and plot every year; thus the Power Rangers franchise was born. Power Rangers still runs in this format to this day, though currently the majority of post-MMPR series are not spin-offs in the traditional sense.
Four athletically able teenagers along with their brainy friend Billy are selected by Zordon to fight the evil of Rita Repulsa, her monsters and her minions after the witch is accidentally released from imprisonment in an intergalactic dumpster on the moon. Later in the series, the rangers are joined by Tommy, the once evil Green Ranger designed for Rita's evil, but later was deprogrammed and spent two portions of the series briefly as the Green Ranger. Over time, some rangers had to pass their powers to others as well. Action scenes and scenes with Rita were edited from footage based on Japanese action sagas. Replacement villain Lord Zedd was designed in the U.S. Written by Ondre Lombard
