Morphenomenal

When it first appeared on American television sets in 1993, <i>Mighty Morphin Power</i> Rangers was like nothing else on TV. The brainchild of Israeli music producer Haim Saban, the show stitched together segments from the Japanese children&rsquo;s program <i>Super Sentai</i> with newly recorded live footage, and its unexpected popularity quickly anchored Fox&rsquo;s daytime programming block and further cemented the network as a innovative pop-culture powerhouse. Garish, heartfelt, utterly strange, and bursting with irrepressible energy, the show was a dramatic departure from the animated fare that dominated children&rsquo;s programming at the time, and came closer than any program before it to being a &ldquo;live-action&rdquo; cartoon.<br>Three decades later, <i>Power Rangers</i> is a pop-culture icon and a billion-dollar franchise. The show regularly premiered episodes on U.S. networks through December 2021, after which streaming juggernaut Netflix brought new airings under the &ldquo;exclusive&rdquo; umbrella on its platform. Netflix and Hasbro, current rights-holder of the Power Rangers brand, also announced in late 2021 the development of a Power Rangers TV and film &ldquo;universe&rdquo; spearheaded by Jonathan Entwistle, whose dramedy series The End of the F***ing World won a Peabody Award and British Academy Television Award for Best Drama Series. <i>Power Rangers</i>, it seems, is trying to grow up.<br>In <i>Morphenomenal</i>, journalist and lifelong Power Rangers fan Joshua Moore will deliver readers a deeply researched narrative history of Power Rangers &ndash; from its inception to the present day &ndash; and offer comprehensive retellings and analysis of milestone moments for the brand and show, as well as insights into its still-thriving toy line and an adult fandom that yearns for its favorite spandex-wearing superheroes to share a bigger piece of the spotlight with the likes of Batman and Wonder Woman. Moore will tell this story through a combination of original interviews and existing news coverage, academic research and recorded audio and video appearances by cast and crew members from throughout the show&rsquo;s 30-year run.