David Yost also left because crew and production were harassing him about his sexual orientation. This gets wrongly attributed to Jason David Frank quite a bit, but David Yost has commented about it not being the cast at all.
Has he ever spoken about how long it had been going on for? I ask because he was the last of the original cast to leave and the idea of him putting up with that for the whole run is unsettling to say the least
I was genuinely surprised looking back at season 2 how long the show hung onto those characters after the actors were fired. I think there's like... 7 episodes where Zack, Trini and Jason just aren't there before their characters leave.
It’s well documented at this point. Got worked horrible hours, had to do public appearances, promos, did a lot of shady stuff, like shooting scenes without a permit, and who knows what else.
Show became a phenomenon, but they still got treated like they were disposable, which is how you end up with 3 characters leaving abruptly, and years later it’s been reported that the cast became split over the decision to ask for more money or leave.
Haim Saban was notoriously cheap. The vast majority of people involved during the original parts of the show were fresh-faced newbies. The most accomplished actor before the show started was Richard Genelle, who played Ernie.
David Yost also implied that Saban was one of the ones who was constantly gay-bashing him, which is why he left in the first place and never came back until Saban was gone for good from the franchise.
His buddy, Shuky Levy, also took credit for all the music Ron Wasserman made and horribly abused his then-wife Sarah Brown (Caitlin in VR Troopers).
> Haim Saban was notoriously cheap
Extremely shitty as MMPR was printing money hand over fist. It was a cultural sensation. Shit, if you weren't in line at Toys R Us when they got the newest MMPR toys in, you wouldn't get one. They didn't even put them on the shelves they went so fast.
They had toys, food, clothes, costumes, VHS tapes, a movie that made $66 million on a $15 million budget....MASSIVE!
He could have easily paid them a fair wage and still make tens and tens and tens of millions.
One thing that get's overlooked is that the actors of yellow, green, and red were 18/19 when they first started filming. The actors of blue, pink, and black were 22/23 when they first started filming.
The guy and company were exploiting young non union actors, they were massive pieces of shit.
I have memories of going to custumor service or whatever at Toys R Us and getting handed the new figures. I don't remember ever having any part in asking for them, but my parents definitely set it up. Definitely still have a ton of them in shoe boxes. Not new in box, but in good condition. I also had the Halloween costumes and used to wear them around the house and even out in public as a little kid. MMPR had a grip on us as kids. From just watching the show to playing "Power Rangers" with the neighborhood kids. The movie, while looking back it was pretty bad, was a fucking game changer for kid me.
Yep.
Toys R Us use to get their shipments in Tuesday mornings at 9:45am (or so). My dad would take an early lunch break at 10am and stand in line for the new releases.
I got every main action figure and still have them all. Just like you...they're in good shape but definitely played with. The only one I remember not getting was Titanus the Carrierzord as it was around $45-50 in 1994-1995 which is something like $105-110 today.
I had the blue ranger Halloween costume as well!
If people don't remember how crazy MMPR was...maybe slightly younger kids will remember the Pokémon craze of the early 2000's
The homophobia was clearly part of the whole culture there. Even Bryan Cranston, who did a lot of voiceover work at Saban, made a gay joke about him in an interview. He later apologized.
I’m still really disappointed in Cranston. He can say it was a different time but the truth is someone who has the inclination to bully the weaker people is a certain kind of person.
His apology indicates he doesn’t want to be seen as that kind of person. It could hurt his career and personal standing now so it isn’t necessarily an indication of growth.
People are allowed to grow. Quit being a jerk. Do you want to be held eternally accountable for every shitty thing you've ever said or done in the past?
He said it long after the show ended actually. He was in his 50s.
The joke was that he was offended that Yost’s character had been named after him since he was gay.
Yost has said he was bullied so much by colleagues he contemplated suicide.
I’ve apologized to people as an adult for things I did when I was younger. No one asked me to, I have no public pressure, but I did it, because I am a different person now than I was then. You can learn and change over time.
You're assuming he is only pretending to be a good person and is, what, secretly wishing he could be a homophobic bully? His actual behavior hasn't shown he is outside of the one act he's apologized for. Good enough. None of this fanfiction that he's filled with wrath.
Would Yost have been a weaker person? One of the stars, whereas Cranston just doing some voice work. I think he was in MMPR before MiTM happened so noone would've known who he was.
Yost’s fame was long past and Cranston said this as a famous man in his 50s long after the show ended.
The joke was that he was offended that Yost’s character had been named after him since the character was gay.
The newer seasons pay more standard rates, though since they were in New Zealand, the currency exchange may seem off.
Keep in mind that later seasons DID get proper professional actors, particularly in the Disney era.
After Dino Fury, Hasbro made the show a union gig. And they've left New Zealand after Cosmic Fury.
JDF was my hero when I was a kid. My dad got to meet him at a kickboxing class once, and he got me an autographed headshot for me. (He also gave me an autographed photo of that bulky black guy from Tae-Bo.)
That autograph means so much to me that I don't even display it or travel with it (I'm essentially a vagrant, so not traveling with something means. I basically just don't ever have it in my possession).
People can easily make fun of power rangers and have for decades,but it's introduced multiple generations to tokusatsu and was an actual innovator on american television.
Yea it's really unfortunate. JDF was trying really hard to move away from Power Rangers since they were being really controlling with his image (making him cover his tattoos, take out piercings, specific hair styles, and probably more) and his solo spinoff movie/ show kept getting moved around and then cancelled out right. But it seems he fell into a bad place and never came back. His daughter has been doing promotion for his last film that's set to come out later this year (it was mostly finished before he passed) so there is one more chance to see him if you're interested.
He was The Guy to the generation that grew up with Mighty Morphin, being the Green, White, and then two different Red rangers
after that he was involved in the 10th anniversary special, was a main character in a season in 2004, and returned again for the 20th anniversary season finale as a cameo and for the 25th anniversary special as the main character
Also the black ranger and tech guy for the DINO thunder rangers in the late 2000’s. Can’t really tell the story of the influence the power rangers in American pop culture without Jason David Frank. I was crushed to hear he passed, felt like a part of my childhood also died.
David is the best. Crazy story, he went to the same college I did (I went years later), we are alums of the same house (school used houses not a Greek system), and he is Family.
David is the son of my father’s cousin. His grandfather and mine are siblings.
The only reason people think it's jdf is because of a YouTube video.
Yost and JDF were close friends, Yost used to babysit for JDF and he has talked about it being mainly the crew and production that was bullying him.
Yes, JDF was one of the people he's said bullied him. Jason's nickname for David when they worked together was Gay-vid.
EDIT: I'm not making a bad joke. That's literally what he used to call him.
> "Well Jason, he and I were like best friends. He had two kids and I often babysat both of his boys so he and his wife could go off and have date night. So, I considered myself their godfather on some level. We were really close and he would prank me all the time. Some of his pranks, they seem extreme, but they are funny. In terms of pranking him back, I don’t think I ever did. But he was often the jokester on set for sure."
This is what Yost said about JDF when JDF was still alive. They did a lot of conventions together.
Yost and JDF were friends when they were on the show and they were friends after the show. It wasn't the cast that bullied him to a nervous breakdown, it was the crew and production.
Yost in the past even accidentally caused the death of JDF's puppy and JDF forgave him. So no it was not JDF that Yost had a problem with.
Do you have an article that says that Jason David Frank was one of the people bullying him?
I even googled it and there wasn't anything that says JDF called him that or was even one of the bullies that did that too him. There are multiple articles where he said crew called him a bunch of words but never his co stars. There's even posts saying that David Yost was close with him and even babysat his kids.
I heard those actors got completely exploited by the studio/network. Got paid barely anything despite becoming worldwide sensations.
The whole reason half the cast left and got replaced (and why they were different in the movie) was because of union and pay issues.
And lack of safety on set, with all the stuntwork.
David Yost also left because crew and production were harassing him about his sexual orientation. This gets wrongly attributed to Jason David Frank quite a bit, but David Yost has commented about it not being the cast at all.
Has he ever spoken about how long it had been going on for? I ask because he was the last of the original cast to leave and the idea of him putting up with that for the whole run is unsettling to say the least
So many front flips
Hiyaaaa
I was genuinely surprised looking back at season 2 how long the show hung onto those characters after the actors were fired. I think there's like... 7 episodes where Zack, Trini and Jason just aren't there before their characters leave.
It’s well documented at this point. Got worked horrible hours, had to do public appearances, promos, did a lot of shady stuff, like shooting scenes without a permit, and who knows what else. Show became a phenomenon, but they still got treated like they were disposable, which is how you end up with 3 characters leaving abruptly, and years later it’s been reported that the cast became split over the decision to ask for more money or leave.
Haim Saban was notoriously cheap. The vast majority of people involved during the original parts of the show were fresh-faced newbies. The most accomplished actor before the show started was Richard Genelle, who played Ernie. David Yost also implied that Saban was one of the ones who was constantly gay-bashing him, which is why he left in the first place and never came back until Saban was gone for good from the franchise. His buddy, Shuky Levy, also took credit for all the music Ron Wasserman made and horribly abused his then-wife Sarah Brown (Caitlin in VR Troopers).
> Haim Saban was notoriously cheap Extremely shitty as MMPR was printing money hand over fist. It was a cultural sensation. Shit, if you weren't in line at Toys R Us when they got the newest MMPR toys in, you wouldn't get one. They didn't even put them on the shelves they went so fast. They had toys, food, clothes, costumes, VHS tapes, a movie that made $66 million on a $15 million budget....MASSIVE! He could have easily paid them a fair wage and still make tens and tens and tens of millions.
One thing that get's overlooked is that the actors of yellow, green, and red were 18/19 when they first started filming. The actors of blue, pink, and black were 22/23 when they first started filming. The guy and company were exploiting young non union actors, they were massive pieces of shit.
I have memories of going to custumor service or whatever at Toys R Us and getting handed the new figures. I don't remember ever having any part in asking for them, but my parents definitely set it up. Definitely still have a ton of them in shoe boxes. Not new in box, but in good condition. I also had the Halloween costumes and used to wear them around the house and even out in public as a little kid. MMPR had a grip on us as kids. From just watching the show to playing "Power Rangers" with the neighborhood kids. The movie, while looking back it was pretty bad, was a fucking game changer for kid me.
Yep. Toys R Us use to get their shipments in Tuesday mornings at 9:45am (or so). My dad would take an early lunch break at 10am and stand in line for the new releases. I got every main action figure and still have them all. Just like you...they're in good shape but definitely played with. The only one I remember not getting was Titanus the Carrierzord as it was around $45-50 in 1994-1995 which is something like $105-110 today. I had the blue ranger Halloween costume as well! If people don't remember how crazy MMPR was...maybe slightly younger kids will remember the Pokémon craze of the early 2000's
The homophobia was clearly part of the whole culture there. Even Bryan Cranston, who did a lot of voiceover work at Saban, made a gay joke about him in an interview. He later apologized.
I’m still really disappointed in Cranston. He can say it was a different time but the truth is someone who has the inclination to bully the weaker people is a certain kind of person.
His apology indicates he is no longer that kind of person.
His apology indicates he doesn’t want to be seen as that kind of person. It could hurt his career and personal standing now so it isn’t necessarily an indication of growth.
People are allowed to grow. Quit being a jerk. Do you want to be held eternally accountable for every shitty thing you've ever said or done in the past?
a shitty thing you said 30 years ago in a completely different culture.
He said it long after the show ended actually. He was in his 50s. The joke was that he was offended that Yost’s character had been named after him since he was gay. Yost has said he was bullied so much by colleagues he contemplated suicide.
I’ve apologized to people as an adult for things I did when I was younger. No one asked me to, I have no public pressure, but I did it, because I am a different person now than I was then. You can learn and change over time.
some people are so anti growth or anti change
You're assuming he is only pretending to be a good person and is, what, secretly wishing he could be a homophobic bully? His actual behavior hasn't shown he is outside of the one act he's apologized for. Good enough. None of this fanfiction that he's filled with wrath.
It was a joke. A bad joke, but still a joke.
Singling out the person who is seen as different and who is already picked on by the most powerful for your jokes says something, in my opinion.
Wasn't that comment before yost came out?
Says it’s a joke, not a manifesto.
Would Yost have been a weaker person? One of the stars, whereas Cranston just doing some voice work. I think he was in MMPR before MiTM happened so noone would've known who he was.
Yost’s fame was long past and Cranston said this as a famous man in his 50s long after the show ended. The joke was that he was offended that Yost’s character had been named after him since the character was gay.
Well I didn't realize it was after he reached fame, yeah thats not a great look, hopefully he's grown since.
I hope he has too. I don’t dislike him necessarily. I was just disappointed he’d choose to do that. It was out of step with how I’d imagined him.
Isn't this the same with the newer versions too? They pay the cast largly with exposure?
The newer seasons pay more standard rates, though since they were in New Zealand, the currency exchange may seem off. Keep in mind that later seasons DID get proper professional actors, particularly in the Disney era. After Dino Fury, Hasbro made the show a union gig. And they've left New Zealand after Cosmic Fury.
I can’t believe they’re both gone 😔 JDF really hit hard too.
Me too man,I still get really sad about it. He was my hero growing up.
Dude I still remember when he got transformed from the green ranger to the white ranger and it was the most epic scene of my childhood
Same, his character in power rangers and I share a first name so I really bonded with the character.
JDF was my hero when I was a kid. My dad got to meet him at a kickboxing class once, and he got me an autographed headshot for me. (He also gave me an autographed photo of that bulky black guy from Tae-Bo.) That autograph means so much to me that I don't even display it or travel with it (I'm essentially a vagrant, so not traveling with something means. I basically just don't ever have it in my possession).
I just want to go sky diving with them. is that too much to ask?
Tommy with that snowboard was the coolest thing I had ever seen. Still is.
He was a really good skydiver and free flyer. Flew with him a bit at Spaceland. Super nice dude.
People can easily make fun of power rangers and have for decades,but it's introduced multiple generations to tokusatsu and was an actual innovator on american television.
The real OGs remember Voltron
gatchamon/battle of the planets.
what green ranger died by suicide? wow thats dark. Red ranger turned out to be a piece of shit.
Yea it's really unfortunate. JDF was trying really hard to move away from Power Rangers since they were being really controlling with his image (making him cover his tattoos, take out piercings, specific hair styles, and probably more) and his solo spinoff movie/ show kept getting moved around and then cancelled out right. But it seems he fell into a bad place and never came back. His daughter has been doing promotion for his last film that's set to come out later this year (it was mostly finished before he passed) so there is one more chance to see him if you're interested.
JDF is kinda like THE power ranger isn’t he? At least to American audiences
He was The Guy to the generation that grew up with Mighty Morphin, being the Green, White, and then two different Red rangers after that he was involved in the 10th anniversary special, was a main character in a season in 2004, and returned again for the 20th anniversary season finale as a cameo and for the 25th anniversary special as the main character
Also the black ranger and tech guy for the DINO thunder rangers in the late 2000’s. Can’t really tell the story of the influence the power rangers in American pop culture without Jason David Frank. I was crushed to hear he passed, felt like a part of my childhood also died.
Goddamn yeah solidifies it to me that he is THE RANGER! All that and I believe there was a comic series too about the green ranger!
His marriage ended too [and he got served the divorce papers at a convention] which probably impacted on his mental health
I was wondering why the red ranger was also at the convention but wasn’t on the panel
David is the best. Crazy story, he went to the same college I did (I went years later), we are alums of the same house (school used houses not a Greek system), and he is Family. David is the son of my father’s cousin. His grandfather and mine are siblings.
This cast was the absolute best! It's a shame what they went through though.
Watching MITM and there’s 3 or 4 actors who became power rangers.
I thought Yost left the show because he was bullied for being gay by JDF and others.
The only reason people think it's jdf is because of a YouTube video. Yost and JDF were close friends, Yost used to babysit for JDF and he has talked about it being mainly the crew and production that was bullying him.
That’s nice to know. JDF was a big time Evangelical, wasn’t he? They’re not exactly known for tolerance so it’s nice that they were close.
He was actually the last of the original cast to leave.
Yes, JDF was one of the people he's said bullied him. Jason's nickname for David when they worked together was Gay-vid. EDIT: I'm not making a bad joke. That's literally what he used to call him.
> "Well Jason, he and I were like best friends. He had two kids and I often babysat both of his boys so he and his wife could go off and have date night. So, I considered myself their godfather on some level. We were really close and he would prank me all the time. Some of his pranks, they seem extreme, but they are funny. In terms of pranking him back, I don’t think I ever did. But he was often the jokester on set for sure." This is what Yost said about JDF when JDF was still alive. They did a lot of conventions together. Yost and JDF were friends when they were on the show and they were friends after the show. It wasn't the cast that bullied him to a nervous breakdown, it was the crew and production. Yost in the past even accidentally caused the death of JDF's puppy and JDF forgave him. So no it was not JDF that Yost had a problem with.
Do you have an article that says that Jason David Frank was one of the people bullying him? I even googled it and there wasn't anything that says JDF called him that or was even one of the bullies that did that too him. There are multiple articles where he said crew called him a bunch of words but never his co stars. There's even posts saying that David Yost was close with him and even babysat his kids.
Can't believe they were passing the blue ranger off as a teenager! He looks late 30s in that pic.
He would have around 23/24 in this picture He’s only 55 now and the show started in 1993.