Last night, we are watching American Idol on Fox. It was the show where one of the kids gets sent home. A commercial comes on for “That ’70s Show”, which is also on Fox. “That ’70s Show”, is in its final year and having some special episodes or something. I’ve never watched “That ’70s Show” so I can’t say what that special thing is.

As we are watching the commercial for “That ’70s Show”, Jasper says, pointing at Ashton Cutcher, “That’s the same guy that plays Billy on Power Rangers.”

I reply, “No, not the same guy Jasper. That’s Ashton Cutcher…he’s a big movie star.”

“Yes it is Dad. They have the same face. Ashton Cutcher is on Power Raners!”

“Sorry son”, I reply, “it’s a different guy.”

“I know it’s him Dad. I know it.” He wouldn’t believe me.

Power Rangers is an ongoing superhero franchise currently owned by Disney. Given a new title and theme annually, the franchise is headlined by similarly self-replicating television series, and is directly tied to the vast merchandising empire owned largely by Japanese toy company Bandai.

The show is adapted from the Sentai series of yearly serials, but is not an English dub of the original. Rather, it is a ‘new’ production with English-speaking actors spliced in with the original Japanese footage to varying ratios. Due to the very Japanese nature of many of Sentai’s stories and design, the American shows are always at least slightly changed to fit a Western audience. Much of the toy line (specifically the zords) are similarly adapted from pre-existing Japanese counterparts.

The franchise was known as Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers during the first three seasons of the television show, after which the title began changing every year, starting with Mighty Morphin’ Alien Rangers. The official umbrella name is now Power Rangers, though the uninitiated will still refer to it with Mighty Morphin.

The Power Rangers series was distributed by Saban Entertainment from 1993 until the end of 2001 and was broadcast on the Fox network. The franchise was purchased by Disney as a part of a Saban buyout between 2001 and 2002, and the show continued to air on Fox until its Fox Kids package was dismantled in the United States. Since Fall 2002, all Power Rangers shows have aired on various Disney-owned networks. (source wikipedia.com)

I mentioned to my wife, who was also watching American Idol with us, that Jasper thought Ashton Cutcher was a Power Ranger. We had a good laugh and then finished watching American Idol…on Fox.

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