CoZ Entry #022 – Ryan Mitchell

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After a handful of seasons, Power Rangers had become accustomed to mixing things up with the introduction of the Sixth Ranger, someone outside the core team who gains Ranger powers one way or another. Sometimes they formally joined the team, sometimes they didn’t. When it came time to adapt GoGoV, the crew hit a bump in the road: aside from an ally who wore some face-revealing armor in a chunk of episodes, the show didn’t really have a sixth member.

So like any good American, they said, “Screw it, we’ll do it ourselves.” And that’s how we got Ryan, the first American-made Power Ranger. [citation needed]

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CoZ Entry #002 – Chad Lee

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Back in the day, the casting direction for Power Rangers seemed to make it a point to prioritize athletic skill over acting experience (in case that wasn’t obvious). The original 6 were all martial artists, dancers, or gymnasts in one form or another. This was presumably to make the unmorphed fight scenes as believable as possible by having the actors do many of their own stunts while showing their faces. Sure, their line delivery may not have been Oscar-worthy most of the time, but they could at least kick some ass. As the show went on, stunt doubles became more heavily utilized. Thus, not as many Rangers got as much unmorphed fighting focus. In that respect, Chad Lee is an exception to the new rule.

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