Power Rangers writer says casting Black (Zack) and Asian (Trini) actors as...

[TMC]

...Black Ranger and Yellow Ranger was 'such a mistake'

https://ew.com/power-rangers-writer-...stake-11710918

Former head writer Tony Oliver reflected on the casting choice that has drawn criticism for decades on ID's new special, "Dark Side of the Power Rangers."​

One of the key creative minds behind Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is owning up to a pair of casting choices widely decried as racially insensitive.

While crafting the first season of the children's superhero crime-fighting series, "None of us are thinking stereotypes," said former Power Rangers head writer Tony Oliver, speaking on "Dark Side of the Power Rangers," the latest episode of Investigation Discovery's new docuseries, Hollywood Demons.

That's why he says that the series was able to get all the way to air — and run for two seasons — with "the Black character the Black Ranger and the Asian character the Yellow Ranger." Oliver says it took "my assistant who pointed it out in a meeting one day" to realize the glaring, stereotype-driven casting at the heart of the show. "It was such a mistake," he reflected.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers premiered on Fox Kids in August 1993. Zack Taylor (Walter Emanuel Jones) was the first Black Ranger, who "seemed to have the swagger of the group," according to Oliver. He described Trini Kwan (Thuy Trang), the first Yellow Ranger, as "the peaceful one, who tends to be the conscience of the group."

Oliver pointed out that "Thuy was not our original Yellow Ranger." The first actress cast in that role, Audri Dubois, quit the show following a pay dispute after shooting the pilot. Trang was recast and edited into the pilot that aired in 1993.

"Dark Side of the Power Rangers" includes 8mm camcorder footage taken by stunt coordinator Jeff Pruitt that reveals the cast was not only aware of the optics of this particular casting decision but openly joked about it. In one behind-the-scenes clip from a classroom shoot, Jones says to the camera, "My name's Walter Jones, I play Zack. I'm Black, and I play the Black Ranger — go figure."

Haim Saban, the creator and executive producer of the TV franchise, quickly established a pattern of swapping out the core cast of five to six rangers with each new season. But Jones, Trang, and Red Ranger Austin St. John left of their own accord in the second season following a pay dispute. Jones was replaced by Korean-American actor Johnny Yong Bosch and Trang was replaced by Black actress Karan Ashley.

In a 2013 oral history of the series, Saban's co-creator Shuki Levi claimed that Jones and Trang's controversial casting "wasn't intentional at all. At that time, Haim and I were new to this country. We didn't grow up in the same environment that exists in America with regard to skin color. We grew up in Israel, where being a Black person is like being any kind of color. It's not something we talked about all the time. It wasn't a big issue."

Amy Jo Johnson, who played the first Pink Ranger, Kimberly Hart, recalled that "Walter Jones used to crack good-humored jokes about that. I think it's funny if it was done unintentionally by the big bosses. But really? Come on. It wouldn't happen today.

"Dark Side of the Power Rangers," the third episode of Investigation Discovery's new series Hollywood Demons, premiered April 7. Hollywood Demons airs every Monday through April 28 from 9-11 p.m. ET on ID and streaming on Max.

[TMC]

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers' Black Ranger Walter Jones isn't offended by his casting: "It wasn’t a mistake; it was a milestone"

Jones has responded to the headlines over former head writer Tony Oliver saying on this week's episode of Investigation Discovery's Hollywood Demons that it was a mistake to cast an actor of Asian descent as the Yellow Ranger and a Black actor as the Black Ranger. "While some choose to seek out the negative, I’ve always believed in focusing on the positive," Jones wrote on Instagram.. "I understand the impulse to address what might be seen as cultural insensitivity, but calling it a 'mistake' would dismiss the impact it had on countless people around the world who found inspiration and representation in TV’s first Black superhero — morphin’ into none other than the Black Power Ranger! It wasn’t a mistake; it was a milestone. It was an honor."