More Zyu Footage
 

The thread about the Black Dragon Dragon Shield footage has me scratching my head. Toei did such a great job with the Zyu2 footage and Saban's company did a great job extending season 1 with it. Why couldn't they have done the same thing for season 4? Just have Toei keep making Zyu 2 Footage?

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Its simple really. To steal from our friend Maligore, Saban was "too cheap" to pay for more Zyu reshoots.

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I agree they should have used Zyu 3 footage for Season 2 and kept going. Toei could have kept shooting more footage. And you could do another Toku Series with the other Sentais.

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I would have liked it if they kept with the greek mythology theme, and monsters like Typhon, and Echidna.

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because 1. it was too much money and 2. the ratings for Season 3 weren't justifying a need to keep the suits any longer. They felt changing to Ohranger stuff including the suits would also be the better bet.

yes they're so cheap that the Command Center set was destroyed just so they could build a larger more expensive one on top of which they paid the rights to obtain the crossover and movie footage which is generally something that they can't do since it's too expensive on top of that they had to pay any fees for the Ohranger villain suits regardless of whether they were renting them out or paying for them on top of that they had to pay for any necessary material to repair the suits since Toei doesn't repair the suits for them they just pack them up and ship them off and Saban has to deal with whatever condition they arrive in whether it was from just Toei's usage or the combination of Toei's usage and the shipping process.

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To be honest, if I would be one who's in charge, I would have ditched the Zyuranger suits and the Kibaranger suit starting with "Ninja Quest, Part III". Then have the team morph from their Ninja Modes directly to Kakuranger suits, but with all the original footage that we got. Just have Tommy injured so badly that he can't continue being a Ranger, but keep him as a recurring character. Then just set him up for his arrowhead storyline somehow in the following season, with the Zeo sub crystal search taking place in different circumstances. The rest would be the same, with Rocky taking the team leadership position once it's Kat's turn to become a Ranger.



Well, after 155 episodes, it was time to change the set anyway, because you can't have the characters talking to the same stock footage of a guy pretending to be a giant floating head and also have him stock-footage-mentor those same characters forever. Besides, I'm even surprised that they managed to keep the CC set on the show for as long as they did.

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It would have been cool if they did this. But they did alreasy do a lot, so I understand why they didn't spend more money on Zyu3 footage.

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Zyu2 served its purpose. There was no need for more Zyu Footage with the other Sentai's to adapt. They needed more toys and something to get out of the slump they got in during season 3. So changing things up to match the Sentai Footage made sense.

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they didn't want to ditch Tommy as a Ranger and their leader so you wouldn't have been allowed to you would've been fired for even suggesting such a thing. JDF was pretty much Haim Saban's guy so if you didn't do something to benefit his character then you wouldn't be a writer with the show to begin with anyway.

yup that's true it served its purpose granted I would've enjoyed seeing a battle featuring the Dino Megazord and Dragonzord against Rita, Finster, Squatt and Baboo and yes they needed more merchandise just having the zords wouldn't have added much to the merchandise even if you do count Auric as a zord like Bandai does.

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I like his idea to have Tommy sit out as a Ranger for a year. It may have rehabbed his character. If Saban really thought the way you said, he was hurting his own brand.

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Oh I see Matt. When Saban Fan and myself give Saban his just due you say Saban had nothing to do with creative. But now he did all of the sudden when it coes to Tommy?

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considering they were pretty much friends and I think I've heard stories where Haim actually invited him to his house that should tell you all you need to know. It wasn't even him who was treating JDF that way even the Producers did since JDF wanted to leave in Zeo but he was threatened to stay basically the threat was "if you leave then we're replacing the others" so a compromise was made where he would leave during Turbo.

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Tommy was still the start of the show. They wanted to keep him as long as they could. And lets not forget things were great ratings and toy sale wise during season 2. They wouldn't have made demoted JDF for season 3. Nor would he have gotten the blame for season 3's woes.

By the time Zeo finished things were low enough that the producers were more open for major changes. Not to mention the major behid the scences changes that happened in Turbo. Plus JDF wanted out anyway. And they already had gotten him to stay longer.

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Tommy was the reason for the ratings and toy sales going down. People finally wised up and realized what a bad character he was. People weren't mesmorized by the overrated Green Ranger Powers. If I was Saban I would have moved on from Tommy a lot earlier. Pay Austin St. John whatever he wanted to stay or come back as Jason earlier.

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that's different because you people claim that he has everything to do with the show including writing the show when he doesn't he has small things to do with it but generally nothing big unless it involved his bud.

exactly although the ratings weren't that good by the time of Zeo but yes Tommy was supposed to be "the star of the show."

he wasn't the reason for the ratings and sales declining what happens on the show has very little to do with the merchandise stuff the show was just declining in popularity as a show. Austin wanted the show to go union and it was something both he, Walter and Thuy wanted and if they agreed to their demands then they've needed to give them to JDF, Amy and David too since they would all have to be paid the same amount of money due to union rules.

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I do think the change over in Turbo helped to freshen things up for the targer audience. Which mostly have came in after the early seasons. But to say PR's decline was Tommy's doing doesn't seem right to me. Sometimes shows just grow cold quickly. Especially children's shows designed to sell toys. Really the MMPR bubble was going to burst after not to long in any case. Its amazing the shlw rebounded and has existed at the current level for so long.

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The planned Zyu3 footage would have been cool to see. But season 2 worked out. Even with the unexpected cast change.

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yea I agree the changeover in Turbo did help to freshen things up "flr" the targer (or rather target) audience and I also agree that it's wrong to say that Tommy or any character for that matter was responsible for the show's declining popularity since it wasn't always going to be popular regardless of whether they had Tommy on the show or not. I agree the MMPR bubble was going to burst sooner or later anyway and yes it is amazing that the show rebounded and has existed at the current level for so long not always a pleasant level mind you like Samurai and Megaforce for example but hey not every season can be a winner.

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Lol fixed the typo.

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Its an interesting what if. But I don't think they were just going to keep paying for more Zyu footage. Not when Toei was making new Sentais every year. And casts were alreay starting to have massive turnover. Saban Entertainment had to know cast changes were inevitable once the actors got too old. So it made ir more convient to go with the new Sentai Footage and change things up.

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Plus it made more sense for toy sales. You would have to keep changing the zords at minimum. Which would force more crazy footage juggling if you kept the Zyu Costumes. Expenses that made even less sense when the fad ended.

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Zyu2 did a great job in keeping MMPR going beyond it's planned 40 episode run. Would have loved a bit more of course, seeing more Rangers with the Dragon Shield and giving the original Zords a better send off. But we all know Saban won't spend money if he doesn't have too.

i can see why they went with Kibaranger for the White Ranger as it has an emblem on the chest that at least resembles the power coins, so it fit well enough thematically and kept Tommy fans happy.

I do think in season 3 new helmets should have been redesigned at least, again i guess it's a simple fact of money they'd rather not spend but by season 3 so much was US footage (Zords aside) that a few new helmets couldn't have added to much to production costs.

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It certainly was a unique rime for the franchise. It made sense to commision new footage when Fox ordered more episodes. No one expected Powee Rangers to become so popular out of the gate. So they reacted and learned from it. And one of the major things they also learned was that fans loved Tommy. " So we better bring that guy back! "

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Wouldn't ot have been too expensive?

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I hate to break it to you but it was still pretty much the same stock footage of Zordon. Command Center Zordon and Power Chamber Zordon they were still using David Fielding's stock footage for the majority of it

yes

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They were using David Fielding's face, but to me, Zordon's tube in Zeo was shorter than the one in MMPR. Plus when the Rangers, Billy and Alpha or anyone else speaking to him, they are clearly looking in a slightly different direction during Zeo than in MMPR. So it couldn't have been the same stock footage. When they changed the Command Center set with the Power Chamber set, they clearly changed where his tube is located.

That and Zordon's face looked more like a human head in Zeo than it ever did in MMPR. In MMPR, Zordon had a ghost-like look. Zack says it himself right in the first episode: "We're talking to a giant floating head!". A look that the producers did away with starting with Zeo by giving Zordon a more realistic one for his head.

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David NEVER shot any new footage so yes it is indeed the same stock footage of him as Zordon. They just shot a whole single batch of scenes of him as Zordon in 1 day for MMPR and never brought him back to do re-shoots.

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Its a cool idea. But I think the cost issue would have derailed it.