Power Rangers have been around for quite a long time, it even existed for two years before I was born. Ever since 1993 generations of fans grew up with fond memories of the color-coded champions of righteousness. Each generation had its own era in a manner of speaking. Some of us gravitated to the Disney era (2001-2009), or the Neo-Saban era (2011-2018), while we’re still presently being introduced to the Hasbro era. Today, we’re not going to talk about any of those, we are here to talk about the era that started it all.
Join us as we rank the iconic seasons from the original Saban era. We’ll be looking at the first ten seasons that were produced by Haim Saban. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers will have 3 entries as that comprised of 3 seasons. Wild Force is on this list, although Saban only produced half of that season it still belongs to the Saban era nonetheless.
10) Power Rangers Turbo
Turbo was the original black sheep of Saban’s Power Rangers family. While the franchise is known to be rather repetitive and predictable at times, Turbo overdid their formulaic approach, as if the writers followed an instruction manual about how to make a Power Rangers show more than introducing anything new in the first half of the season.
Turbo introduced us to new rangers, new villains, and new allies. We met Justin, the then newest and youngest Blue Ranger, Dimitria, Alpha 6, Divatox, and her Space pirates, and later on, we met Ashley, Carlos, Cassie, and TJ, and of course the mysterious Phantom Ranger. While there were new characters we barely tolerated, there were new characters we adored in high esteem and others who we found to be intriguing.
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The second half of Turbo was an improvement, most of the annoying characters were toned down and a few ridiculous plot threads and running gags were tossed away, thanks to Judd “Chip” Lynn. After we bid farewell to veteran rangers we were fond of, the season surprisingly got better gradually, culminating in an amazing jaw-dropping finale that paved the way to Power Rangers In Space.
If the first half of Turbo wasn’t so weak this season would’ve ranked considerably higher on this list.
9) Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 1
Fans may want to sit down for this one. We love Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, we’ll forever be grateful for the part it played in our childhood. Many fans consider the First Season to be the best based on the characters, action, and memorable moments. However, objectively speaking, none of the seasons in Mighty Morphin were the best.
Season One alone contained 60 episodes, most of them were fillers. The tremendous lack of a serialized format hindered this season. The best episodes were the ones we only needed to watch; the pilot episode, the five-part “Green With Evil” saga where we met the legendary Tommy Oliver, the two-part “Island of Illusion” arc, the two-part “Green Candle” arc, the two-part “Doomsday” arc, and finally, the two-part “Return of an Old Friend” arc.
The large remaining portion of this season contributed very little if anything at all to the story, though it was entertaining enough to have this season rank higher than Turbo.
8) Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 2
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers experienced a paradigm shift at the beginning of its sophomore season with the arrival of Lord Zedd, the most fearsome villain in the history of Power Rangers, at least he was until he became a simp when he got married to Rita Repulsa. This season was a baby step in the right direction, there was an improvement in the storyline, better character development, and new characters who turned out to be valuable assets to the story.
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Unfortunately, the drama behind the scenes had a negative impact on the show’s quality this season. Lord Zedd was toned down because parents complained about him being “too scary” for children. The change was not for the better, it became increasingly difficult to take “Zeddy” seriously after that. Actors, Austin St. John, Walter Jones, and the late Thuy Trang left due to payment disputes. Steve Cardenas, Johnny Young Bosch, and Karen Ashley replaced them as new characters in a messy transition between old and new rangers.
After those major changes, Saban and his writing team continued to play it safe, opting to stay close to the first season’s formula. At least there were fewer episodes in this season.
7) Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 3
Season three was Mighty Morphin Power Rangers at its peak. Stakes were higher than ever, so the rangers had to step up, and believe me they sure did. The Rangers got new ninja powers thanks to their new friend Ninjor, along with ninja zords and shogun zords.
The Rangers weren’t the only ones who stepped up. Writers were beginning to realize that kids who were watching were getting older, so they took a more mature approach this season. They also wanted it to not be too different from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers The Movie even though that is not canon.
This season faltered with inconsistency, filler episodes, the two-part “Rangers in Reverse” arc as well as half of the ten-episode Alien Rangers mini-series at the end. There’s nothing wrong with the Alien Rangers character-wise, but having to watch them weaken to dehydration every episode grew to be annoying and predictable. The best part about that mini-series was the build-up to Zeo.
6) Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue
Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue is the second season post-Zordon and the second anthology season after Lost Galaxy. Rangers tend to have secret identities, but the Lightspeed Rangers opted to change things up. In this season, they made their identities as rangers known to the public. A government organization called Lightspeed Rescue tapped into the Morphin Grid to develop the first man-made morphers and zords. They recruited four extraordinary young working-class adults instead of teenagers along with the Captain’s brilliant daughter to become the Lightspeed Power Rangers.
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This was essentially the first attempt at the franchise being more “realistic” and modern. Many initiatives taken to stand out from previous seasons were well done. Lightspeed does have its shortcomings though. Some of the acting is ridiculously bad, even by Power Rangers’ standards. The writers also recycled plots from past seasons for filler episodes thinking we wouldn’t notice – We’ve noticed.
To check out some more of our top ten Saban Era Power Rangers seasons continue to page 2!
