Peaches Come From a Can...

...they were put there by a man. In a factory... downtown."
A friend on Facebook posted the other day about liking something called "Naked and Famous" and of course the 1st thing that popped in my head was The Presidents of the United States of America's song "Naked and Famous" ("Everybody wants to be just like me, I'm naked and famous!").

Can you believe that in 2015 it'll have been 20 years since their self-titled debut was released?!

I remember my childhood best friend got ahold of the CD and we used to listen to it the ridiculousness of it for a good while when we were in... 5th/6th grade! Eventually I got a copy myself.

Even now, I still enjoy it - the songs are fast, catchy and mostly upbeat. I still find myself singing along!

Everyone remembers their hits "Lump" (or its Weird Al parody "Gump") and "Peaches", but the whole album was pretty good! Other favorites of mine include "Kick Out the Jams," "We're Not Gonna Make It," "Backporch," and "Kitty."

Thanks to my brief obsession with the stupid song, Peaches became my nickname in Junior High and was eventually part of my 1st ever internet handle. I also incorporated it into my license plate for some dumb reason (I swear, one of these days I *will* change it... someday. Or so I keep telling myself).

These guys definitely come to mind when you think of mid-90s rockin' jam bands!

Angels in the Outfield - We're Always Watching!

 As I've mentioned time and time again, I am a bit of a TBS junkie when it comes to my default TV viewing habits (although nowadays, during the daytime the TV is usually turned to Sprout). I do just love it though when TBS plays old school movies from my childhood as their late-night movie!

This past week I got to take a walk down memory lane and watch once again:

Remember this one from 1994?

Young Roger lives in a segway foster home with another foster boy, JP, in a neighborhood within walking distance to the California Angel's stadium, where the boys spend most of their summer afternoons watching the games from the nearby trees. One day Roger's widowed deadbeat dad shows up and Roger asks when will they be a family again. "When the Angels win the Pennant" dad tells him, basically implying it'll never happen, as the Angels are in last place. But Roger, being a naive kid, doesn't realize that and prays that maybe God can send a little help to Angels to make it happen. Pretty soon Roger and JP get to go to a game in the stadium and lo and behold, Roger meets Al, an angel in charge, overseeing some angels that seem to be helping the ball team do the impossible! However, only Roger can see them. Pretty soon, desperate manager George Knox takes notice of Roger being a sort of a lucky charm and eventually starts to believe the boy's claims about there really being angels helping out the team.

As a good Christian girl in grade school, and a bit of a tomboy at the time, I LOVED this movie. It combined baseball as well as good clean family fun with a plot based around faith and angels.

In the center: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Neal McDonough, and Adrian Brody.
I think that's Matthew McConaughey on the far right.

Watching it now, it's amusing seeing all the now-famous stars. Sure, the big names in it at the time were Danny Glover, Tony Danza and Christopher Lloyd - all early/mid-90s golden actors, as well as Brenda Fricker (aka the Pigeon Lady from Home Alone 2) playing the foster mom Maggie. But it also stars a young Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the main character Roger. And there's a young Matthew McConaughey, Adrian Brody, and Neal McDonough all as supporting actors playing Angels players. Dermot Mulroney (best known for playing love interests in My Best Friend's Wedding and The Wedding Date) plays Roger's deadbeat dad. Oh, if only we knew the stars these guys would become years later!

I gotta say, watching it nearly 20 years later, it still is a pretty good family feel-good film! I think I might even pick this one up on DVD at some point to share it with Jay - we can do a 90s baseball double feature, pairing it with another one of mommy's childhood baseball favorites, The Sandlot!

Baby Me!

I saw this on Celia's blog last night and thought it was a cute link-up!

I'm guessing I'm less than a year old here, having a blast in the old skool Johnny Jump-Up!

Apparently I used to love pulling the drawers out and playing in them. And I kinda look like Jay here too, with the similar haircut!

Cute little toddler/pre-schooler, with my hair in pigtails!

Don't You Turn Your Back or You'll Become a Snack!

"Now we've crossed the line, fallen through time... LIVIN' IN THE LAND OF THE LOST!"

I've been meaning to make this Flashback Friday post for sometime now but knew it was going to take a bit longer to research than I've felt up to doing, but now I have 10 days straight to take easy at home and with family, so why not?

Anyways... trying to fall asleep one night, I came across TBS showing the end of the terribad Will Ferrell Land of the Lost movie that came out not too long ago (too bad it was so bad though - Pushing Daisies' Anna Friel was in it). And it got me wondering about the Land of the Lost show that I grew up watching Saturday mornings on ABC.

And no, no. Not this version:

That's an image from the original 1974 Land of the Lost with the Marshall family - that was 10 years before I was born.

THIS is the version of the show I grew up with:

Yep, that's the intro to the 1991 remake with the Porter family and the attractive jungle girl Christa.

One theory I've read on the purpose of Christa was that she was there for all the dad's who got up on Saturday mornings with their kids to oogle

According to Wiki, "because of the success in syndication of the cult 1974 series Land of the Lost, Sid and Marty Krofft created a remake. The new Land of the Lost saw advanced special effects and a lighter, less survivalist-oriented tone ... The series ran for 26 episodes spread over two seasons, with each season consisting of thirteen episodes. It featured the Porter family—father Tom, son Kevin and daughter Annie—trapped in a parallel universe after their Jeep Cherokee (referred to as a "truck" in the series) fell through a time portal while exploring the back country. They soon meet another human, a beautiful "jungle girl" named Christa who came from 1960s San Francisco. Christa became trapped in the Land of the Lost when she was very young and grew up alone. (An earlier concept would have featured an adult Holly Marshall as the "mystery girl" along with Cha-Ka but due to casting the characters were revisualized as Christa and Stink)."

And here's a few fun facts that kind of ties the 2 series together:
"Some fans speculate that Christa is actually Holly Marshall. That the Marshall family sailed away to find their way out of the Land of the Lost, and that Holly was left behind in the storm that took their raft out into the sea ...

 

Is Christa really a grown-up Holly? Hard to tell...

Scarface, Grumpy... he's an angry
T-Rex, so it's possible!

Some fans speculate that Scarface is actually Grumpy of the original series. In that series they often encouraged Grumpy to leave their cave by pushing a large sharpened log called the "flyswatter" out of the cave entrance and into Grumpy's open mouth. Some believe that one encounter with the "flyswatter" scarred Grumpy's eye. The Potter family, being new to the Land of the Lost, named the T-Rex for his facial feature, rather than his grumpy attitude ...

If this were true, it would make Christa and Scarface the only two characters that existed in both TV series.."

That kinda makes sense actually and is an interesting way to explain it for the older generation that grew up watching the original 1974 and got stuck watching the 1991 version with their kids on Saturday mornings.

Sadly, the show only lasted for 2 seasons with a total of 26 episodes spanning a year and a half (from September 1991 to December 1992), being replayed for awhile before being run in syndication later on Nickelodeon. I always wondered how they were going to get home, back to their normal time period.

To be honest, I wasn't big on this show until after my childhood best friend started watching it and was telling me about it. While I'm sure I've seen all the episodes, I didn't watch it religiously... but boy did that theme song get stuck in my head at times - LIVING IN THE LAND OF THE LOST!

Did you grow up watching Land of the Lost?

Flashback Friday: My favorite music videos in the mid 80s-early 90s

In attempt to remove "unnecessary" photos from my Google+ account, a lot of my custom made icons, such as the Flashback Friday logo got deleted as well and sadly I haven't had much time to try and find the originals!

Jessi recently posted about the Beatles and it got me thinking and watching my favorite George Harrison video from his solo days. This then led to me finding a bunch of old music videos VH1 would play in the mid-late 80s and early 90s that I LOVED as a kid and would spend hours with the TV turned to VH1 in the background as I played with my toys hoping I would get to see my favorite music videos that day!

"I Got My Mind Set On You" by George Harrison


This one came out in 1987 and as a 3 year old, I LOVED it and with all the dancing furniture and animal heads/skins I'm sure it's pretty easy to say why. Even now, 24 years later, it still made me crack up!

"You Can Call Me Al" by Paul Simon


Chevy Chase and his antics in the video are pretty much why I loved it. I saw Christmas Vacation when I was like 5 and for the longest time I associated Chevy Chase as Clark Griswold.

"Cold Hearted Snake" by Paula Abdul


Watching this now, this video was quite racy for being the late-80s and I have no idea why my 5-year old self was allowed to watch it as it wreaks sexuality. I loved the song back though and gotta admit, it's still pretty catchy!

"Opposites Attract" by Paula Abdul


What kid didn't love this video - it had a talking, singing, dancing cartoon cat in it! 'Nuff said.

"I'm Your Baby Tonight" by Whitney Houston


Took me forever to find this one, as all I could remember from the video was a woman (who I coulda sworn was Tina Turner until I thought it could possibly be Whitney) in a leather jacket magically getting on a motorcycle near the end of it! Not sure why I liked this one but something about the motorcycle stood out to me!

"Live for Loving You" by Gloria Estefan


My mom listened to a lot of Gloria in the 80s and for some reason I LOVED this video and the animation in it (totally 80s, btw!). I remember getting furious at my 2nd cousin over this video when I was little too - we were visiting my grandparents and I learned their TV in the basement had cable and so, like usual, I was watching VH1, waiting for my favorite videos to come on. This one *finally* came on and I was rockin' out to it when my older teenage 2nd cousin came in and tried to take over the TV to watch a New Kids on the Block video she had bought. I was screaming and in tears when she took over the TV while my jam was on, despite her telling me that what she was putting on was better and I would like it (I didn't - as all it was was them trying to get on a tour bus while hundreds of girls were screaming and attacking the bus, which I thought was dumb, lol...)

"Just Leave Me Alone" by Michael Jackson


I know it was the stop-motion and claymation/animation in this video that made me love it, on top of the fact I decided when I was 4 I wanted to marry MJ after seeing the Captain EO movie at Disney World's Epcot Center.

"Thriller" by Michael Jackson


I was fascinated by this song and video so much that my parents confiscated my cassette of the album, I listened it to so much, lol...

"Black or White" by Michael Jackson


I remember when this one was premiered world-wide in the early 90s on Fox (I want to say it was after the Simpsons). MJ, Macaulay Culkin (whom everyone my age knew as Kevin from Home Alone) and people morphing into each other... LOVED IT!

(*note* I think mid-80s to early 90s Michael was the best!)

"Escapade" by Janet Jackson


During this period I used to confuse her with Paula Abdul soooo much, as they had a similar hairstyle and were both great performers!

"Always" by Bon Jovi


Another "racy" (for its time) video that my friend and I probably shouldn't dave watched when we were kids but we did, and we LOVED this song and video because of the story it told. It's fun watching it now, as I recognize Keri Russell, Carla Gugino (from Son-in-Law with Pauly Shore and Entourage), the blonde bully neighbor from The Brady Bunch Movie and the artist guy was Joe in NBC's short-lived series Persons Unknown.

"Wild Night" by John Mellencamp & Me'Shell Ndegeocello


A video that follows a night in the life of a female New York taxi driver who's rocking out to John Mellencamp and the chick with the last night we could never seem to pronounce as kids, lol...

"Jack and Diane" by John Cougar Mellencamp


So it came out before I was born but this song was big throughout the 80s and still played on the radio in the 90s. You know you loved clapping along with this one!

"Forever Young" by Rod Stewart


My favorite thing about this video was the whole father/son aspect - I thought it was soooo cute (and still do, despite the kid looking a bit scared of riding on his dad's lap of a the back of a truck the 1st half of the video! lol...)

"Don't Come Around Here No More" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers


The creepy, twist Alice in Wonderland aspect of the video was what always caught my attention, lol...

"Last Dance With Mary Jane" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers


Tom Petty made some pretty creepy videos in the 80s and 90s!

Doc Brown is the villian in the Back to the Future trilogy?

Right now, AMC is finishing up an evening-long Back to the Future marathon that I've been watching since about halfway through part 2 (it's currently at the end of part 3).

Growing up, I didn't watch the trilogy until the early 90s when I was a kid and by then all 3 parts were on VHS. I particularly enjoyed part 3 the best as it had the whole Western element to it - part 2 always confused me as it jumped around a lot. I also grew up watching the Saturday morning Back to the Future cartoon which takes place after part 3 and focused more on Doc and Clara's sons Jules and Verne

A few months ago, the Back to the Future trilogy was re-released in as a 3-disc 25th Anniversary Blu-Ray/DVD set and in response, Sci-Fi and Pop Culture site io9 posted an article stating and pointing out how Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd's character) is actually the villain in the trilogy. Pretty interesting way of looking at it, if you really think about it.

Below are key points from the article, which you can read in full here.

He's a Terrorist

It's hard to call a lovable character from our childhood a terrorist, but he was. The DeLorean was electric but he needed a nuclear kick to generate the 1.21 gigawatts...again, 1.21 GIGAWATTS!!!...to shoot through time. Since you can't buy plutonium at the corner drugstore he had to steal it from Libyan terrorists. He takes the toxic and deadly substance for his own personal use and makes a bomb for the Libyans out of used pinball machine parts. This proves he knows how to make a bomb and is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve his goal. When they realize he made them a fake bomb they want revenge so they drive their van down to the Twin Pines Mall—later the Lone Pine Mall—at 1 AM looking for some payback. He then promptly gets shot in front of his dog and a teenage boy, who's then forced to jump in a time machine and destroy the space time continuum. This all happened because he was working with the enemy. More like Doc "Taliban Al Qaeda" Brown, right?

Let's face it: He deserved to get shot. That's what happens when you deal with terrorists. They kill you. However, in the process he put a teenager and his dog at risk. Doc was on his way to the future moments before the terrorist van tore into the parking lot. What if he had remembered to pack the plutonium, left for the future, and then the terrorists arrived while Marty was still there and took out their revenge on the happy-go-lucky teen who was drawn into the mad scientist's web of deceit? Or, worse yet, what if the terrorists killed Doc, Marty, and took the time machine for themselves? Plutonium is nothing when compared with a machine that could take over the world. Biff had a shot to run the world and made it sleazy; terrorists would travel back in time and run over George Washington with the De Lorean. If there's no George, there's no Great Satan. But what if the terrorists killed them all and didn't realize it was a time machine, you ask? Well, genius, Marty made a videotape detailing every aspect of the DeLorean. It even shows how to fuel the damn thing. If they can find a guy in a mall parking lot in the middle of the night they can probably operate a VCR.

Even if everything went according to plan, Doc still contaminated a mall parking lot with plutonium, poisoning a helpless community for decades to come. You really think those thin hazmat suits or plutonium chamber in a jury-rigged DeLorean are safe protection against nuclear fall-out? Well, they're not.

He's an Old Man Whose Best Friend is a Teenage Boy

Let's rewind to the very beginning, when Marty first walks into Doc's home. That's weird to begin with: A teen having access to a much-older non-relative's house. Then the phone rings and Marty is comfortable enough to answer the phone in a house that isn't his own.

It's Doc. How did he know Marty would be there at that precise moment? He should have been in school. Does Marty always stop by Doc's house before school? Does he ever spend the night? Doc tells Marty to meet him at the mall at 1:15 AM and Marty's totally cool with that. Later on he wakes Marty at around 12:30 AM to make sure he'll be at the mall in time. He also reminds him to stop by his house and grab some condoms...sorry, the video camera.

He's a loner in 1955 as well, living on the outskirts of town, on the precipice burning through his family fortune to make a machine that could destroy the world.

In Part III they give him a love interest. Director Robert Zemeckis and Producer Bob Gale say in the Blu-ray special features it was time for Doc to stop living with his head and start living with his heart.

Likely story, Bobs.

He Unnecessarily Puts His Dog's Life at Risk

When he first tests the machine he puts his Dog Einstein in the DeLorean with a stopwatch around his neck. He then sends the poor pooch one minute into the future. What kind of man tests something this dangerous on his unknowing pup? What if it did what Marty thought had happened and it disintegrated him. The car was set up to run on a remote. Why didn't Doc just put a stopwatch in the driver's seat? He would have gotten the same result. The clock would have skipped over the minute regardless. His excited reaction when the DeLorean disappears proves this was the first time he tested it, so there was a chance something catastrophic could have gone wrong. Risking Einstein's life and not testing it himself first proves our next point...

He's a Selfish Coward

Near the end of the original Doc rips up the letter where Marty tell him about getting shot by terrorists.

He says no man should know his own destiny, space-time-continuum, blah, blah, blah... But what's he do at some point between 1955 and 1985? Tapes the letter back together!

When Marty asks about the whole destroying the universe thing Doc responds: "I figured, what the hell."

So it's wrong for Marty to make a few bucks from the future with a sports almanac, or for other people to not know their fate. But when it comes to his own ass it's "what the hell." Really brave, man.

He's a Thief

He burns through all his family money to make the time machine, yet he still has enough to fill a suitcase with different denominations from every possible era.

Plus he upgrades the DeLorean with a Mr. Fusion machine and visits a rejuvenation clinic (took out the wrinkles, did a hair repair, changed his blood, and replaced his spleen and colon) adding 30-40 years to his life. Where's he get all the cash?


Clearly he stole it. Moving on...

He Destroyed the Space Time Continuum

He ruined time. He takes no responsibility over his unholy invention. He proclaims over and over again that it was a mistake and must be destroyed, but he kept on using it. Like a junkie who's always prepared to quit tomorrow.

The Back to the Future logic says time is not set in stone, or self-correcting, and the future can be changed. With each trip they take he destroys time that much more. George McFly, his father, was a weak peeping-tom loser. Biff was a strong Alpha-male, most likely raised in an abusive home (did you hear how much his grandma screamed at him in Part II?). That's how things were supposed to be. That's nature. But it's okay to change things if the results benefit Marty and Doc? Biff of the alternate 1985 world would strongly disagree.

Speaking of which, wouldn't George and Lorraine remember Marty? Marty took a nap in his future mom's home, got his dad to hook up with his mom at the dance, and played an integral part in their lives. And then they just completely forget him? His mom was infatuated with him. At no point do they say: "You look a lot like this guy you're named after. I was gonna bang him in a parked car but then Biff came along and almost raped me before your father got up the stones to punch him out. Then you played guitar on stage and we kissed and fell in love." Also, as Marty is leaving them at the dance Lorraine says she likes the name Marty. Well, not enough to use the name on her firstborn son. Instead they name their first son Dave, then they have a daughter named Linda, then they wait to named the youngest Marty. That's cutting it kinda close for a name you really like.

This is just the tip of the destruction caused by Doc. Even when he goes into the future to save Marty's kids he could have done more harm than good. When he's toying around in the old west he's inventing items that shouldn't be in existence yet. We're not saying Doc is responsible for global warming, but it's a definite possibility.

He's a Big Fat Liar Who Plays God

How many times does Doc say once they get back to 1985 they have to "destroy this infernal thing" referring to the time machine? At least twice. He also says he wishes he never invented it. When Marty arrives back in 1985—alone because Doc was too busy thinking with his Lil' Emmett by saving the damsel in distress (a woman who was supposed to die in a ravine)—the DeLorean is pulverized by a train. Whew! It's over. Everything is in place, Doc is stuck in the old west with his true love, and Marty can get back to his life. He goes home and it's the 1985 where his dad wasn't a loser and he has his own truck. He gets his girlfriend and takes her to see the destroyed DeLorean.

Then WOOOSH!

A big f-ing old west steam train appears with twirly things on top almost killing them.

Who's it in? Hey, it's Doc, his wife, and two young kids, one of which he won't let take a pee.

What happened to the whole notion that traveling through time is wrong? That he should have never built that infernal machine? Since his eldest son Jules doesn't appear to be older than five he must have been building it shortly after Marty went back to the future. Why would he do that? Did he build it so he could show up in the future—almost killing Marty and Jennifer—and tell them in person that the future is up to us? He also said he had to come back for Einstein, but we proved above that's a crock (i.e. using him as a guinea pig to test out the time machine). Couldn't he have just sent a letter like he did at the end of Part II? Or maybe his great-grandson could have approached Marty and told him of all the good his great-grand pappy did to benefit humanity and given instructions on taking care of Einstein. At least we know Marty wouldn't try to vaporize him. But no! The devious Doc decides to start the whole process over again, only this time dragging a wife and two young kids into his madness.

From a Hollywood perspective this ending made it clear that if Zemeckis' career went in the tank he could always return to this franchise. But success smiled on The Zemeck and he never needed to make another BTTF. But somewhere, shooting through time, is Doc, addicted to the power of controlling the universe, wielding his infinite power over three hostages he calls family. Great Scott, indeed.

Source: http://io9.com/5673855/why-doc-brown-is-the-real-villain-of-back-to-the-future

What do you think?

My friend Alphie the Robot

Earlier this week my jaw about dropped as I saw on a TV a commercial for the new and improved Alphie the Robot toy by Playskool.

My jaw dropped because I had the classic 80s version of this toy (dubbed as Alphie II) and the fact that they gave him up an update and recently brought him back was just... shocking! To be honest, I had nearly forgotten about the educational plastic robot toy that I loved so much as a kid, so seeing him incarnated again on TV nearly 20 years later was a nice welcome!

Originally introduced in the late 1970s and running on batteries, Alphie was a great educational toy for young kids as he came with different learning cards you could slide into his compartment and he would ask you different questions regarding the images on the card in which you would respond by pressing the different buttons next to the images on the card. Alphie would tell you if your answer was right or wrong. It was a pretty impressive toy for that era!

The original Alphie was blue and when the Alphie II was introduced in the 80s he got a little bit of a makeover - the 80s version (Alphie II) is the version that I had growing up.


 


I loved my Alphie robot - he taught me about letters, shapes, simple math, and colors.

The new 2010 version of Alphie has had another makeover, making him look a more modern and less "box-y" with a handle on top (I always carried him around by the arm-like handles he had), and comes with 30 cards (I think mine had 10 or less) and now sings in addition to having an electronic eye panel to help him interact more and seem more like a real robot.

I'm hoping to find my Alphie II somewhere at my parents house, although (now costing twice as much), we might just splurge and get baby Jay the new 2010 version at some point.

Did you have a Robot Alphie as a kid? What do you think of the new version?

The fascination with crazy colored hair dolls and their little naked butts

Originally known as Leprechauns, but also referred to as Dam dolls, Gonks, Wishniks, and Norfins, we simply called them Trolls or Treasure Trolls.

Who would have thought a scary fantasy creature such as a troll would be widely popular with young kids throughout the decades?

Before the Beanie Baby outbreak of the mid-90s, there was the Troll craze. Different stores in the mall would carry various Troll dolls, all with different colored hair and cute, clever outfits - there was a troll dressed for every season and almost any activity a kid could think of!

I remember I had a whole shoebox full of these guys! The first one I ever got had yellow hair, however I did have the ever popular Rainbow Hair Troll too.

 

They also created larger dolls with outfits you could interchange with other dolls (I sometimes used Cabbage Patch Kids clothes, as they fit!) - I had one that was like a ballerina. I also had the troll pencil toppers that caused plenty of fun at school! There was also the Treasure Trolls game - I forget the point of it, but it came with 4 mini troll dolls (about the size of the pencil toppers) and since we didn't play the game much, I just put them in my shoebox with my other troll dolls!

Did you know that Trolls were originally created in 1959 and besides being popular in the late 80s and early 90s, they were also popular in the 60s and 70s? They also made it onto the Toy Industry Associations's Century of Toys list too!

In 2005 there was a short-lived and failed cartoon series called Trollz, and apparently it was recently announced by Dreamworks that a Trolls movie is in the works as well.

It's Morphin' Time!

In late August 1993, right before I started 4th grade, Fox relaunched their Saturday morning kids lineup including a live-action action hero show - The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers!

Evil alien sorceress Rita Repulsa is released from "dumpster" prison and decides to destroy and wreck havoc on the nearest planet - Earth. Learning of her return, the sage Zordon commands his robot assistant Alpha 5 to find 5 teens (in fictional Angel Grove, California) to combat her attempts.

Selected are Jason as the Red Ranger and unofficial leader of the group, peppy cheerleader-type Kimberly as the Pink Ranger, token Asian girl Trini as the Yellow Ranger, geeky Billy as the Blue Ranger, and token black guy Zack as the Black Ranger. The 5 are given the power to morph into their respective Power Ranger outfits thanks to power coins that fit in their belt buckles and each have a signature weapon and Zord combat vehicle, in which when all 5 Zords combine, they create the Megazord - a giant robot looking vehicle that basically puts the finishing moves on any of the monsters that Rita unleashes. Every fight seems to consist of the Power Rangers fighting some of Rita's cronies in hand to hand combat, followed by battling whatever monster she has released on Earth that week first with their weapons, then together in their Zords. When the monster suddenly becomes stronger and/or bigger, then they combined into Megazord to deliver the final blow!

Rita begins to "wise-up" and decides to fight the Power Rangers with one of their own - new teen at school Tommy, who is at first known as the Green Ranger and wields Rita's "Sword of Darkness." He does almost succeed in defeating the Power Rangers, until Jason destroys the sword and Tommy comes out of the spell Rita has initially placed on him, causing him to switch sides and fight along side the other 5 Power Rangers.

In season 2 of the series, there is a new villain in charge - Emperor Lord Zedd who instantly overthrows Rita and sends her back into her space "dumpster" prison as he decides he wants to conquer Earth. Seeing the defected Tommy/Green Ranger as a threat still, Zedd finishes Rita's attempt to destroy the powers she originally gave him, however Zordon and Alpha hatch a plan to make Tommy into the new White Ranger and the new leader of the Power Rangers.

Also near the end of season 2, it is announced that Jason, Zack and Trini are being sent to Switzerland to represent their city in some World Peace conference, thus also leaving the Power Rangers and having to transfer their respective powers to 3 new "chosen" teens - Rocky, Adam and Aisha. Rita and Zedd also get married as Rita returns from her prison and drinks a potion that makes her look younger and she gets Zedd to fall for her.

In season 3 - the last of the original Mighty Morphin Power Ranger series - Rita's brother Rito shows up and destroys the Power Ranger's Zords beyond repair and they must the original creator to construct new, better ones. Also, Australian girl Katherine comes to Angel Grove and it is learned that Rita has put a spell on her, making her steal Kimberly's power coin. Katherine comes to and breaks out of it, returning the coin to Kimberly, but by then she has been too disconnected from her powers and Zordon declares she has fulfilled her duty as Power Ranger and Katherine takes her place in the series as the Pink Ranger.

Zedd and Rita are also joined by Rita's father Master Vile, who uses time against the Power Rangers turning them into powerless kids - this event spawned the spin-off Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers and pushes the series into the phase, known as Power Rangers: Neo

The 2 longest running characters throughout the entire franchise were the comic relief team of Bulk and Skull - 2 wannabe bully types who often find themselves in humorous and clumsy situations.

I'll be honest, I only really watched the first 2 seasons - I've never been a fan of cast changes and so once the cast started changing, I stopped watching. As I mentioned, I was in 4th grade when the show debuted - a little on the older end of the kid demographic, so that probably also explains why I didn't keep up with the series after the first few seasons; past 4th/5th grade, it wasn't cool and you'd get teased. But I LOVED the show during the first season! Kimberly the Pink Ranger was of course my favorite and out of the boys I liked Jason best, but later my affection grew more towards Tommy, as he had long hair.

I remember they had all the toys and actions figures and Zords you could collect (buy) and put together into Megazord... I had the action figure you see here of the Pink Ranger where with the press of a button, you had the Pink Ranger in uniform, helmet and all, and then press the button on the back and her head switched out to normal Kimberly sans pink helmet. She also came with her white bow and a blaster gun. I remember buying it at Toys R Us and since I didn't have any of the other Power Ranger toys, she often fought battles alongside my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle action figures (I had most of those!).

Where are the original Power Rangers now?

• Austin St. John, who was Jason the Red Ranger, hasn't done much aside from Power Ranger appearances and practices different types of martial arts.
• Jason David Frank, who played Tommy the Green/White Ranger, is currently a professional MMA fighter.
• David Yost, who played Billy the geeky Blue Ranger, has come out as gay and has done both acting and producing on several TV projects.
• Walter Jones, who played Zach the Black Ranger, has done a handful of TV appearances including the Disney Channel original movie Brink!, a guest role in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a guest role in Family Matters, a 1st season supporting character in FX's The Shield, and a cameo in Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. He was also featured in a PetCo commercial. In 2009 he was also arrested for a DUI, but the charges were later dropped.
• Amy Jo Johnson, who played Kimberly the Pink Ranger, has had probably the most successful post-Power Ranger career, with regular roles in TV series such as Felicity, The Division, Wildfire, and currently Flashpoint, as well as starring in various movie roles (Disney's "Susie Q", VH1's "Sweetwater") and various guest/minor roles in both TV and movies.
• Thuy Trang, who played Trini the Yellow Ranger, didn't get a chance for her post-Power Ranger career to take off. She had a role as one of the villains in The Crow: City of Angels movie, and a small part as a manicurist in Leslie Neilson's spoof Spy Hard, but she died in a tragic car accident in 2001 - it is believed that she wasn't wearing her seatbelt and died as a result of injuries that could have been prevented.