WHEN IT FIRST APPEARED ON AMERICAN TELEVISION SETS IN 1993, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was like nothing else on TV. The brainchild of Israeli-American music producer Haim Saban, the show stitched together segments from the Japanese children’s program Super Sentai with newly recorded live-action footage, and its unexpected popularity quickly cemented the Fox Kids Network’s reputation as a pop-culture powerhouse. Garish, heartfelt, utterly strange, and bursting with irrepressible energy, the show was a dramatic departure from the animated fare that dominated kids TV at the time, and came closer than any program before—or since—to being a “live-action cartoon.” Three decades later, the Power Rangers are global icons and a billion-dollar business. In Morphenomenal, journalist and lifelong fan Joshua Moore delivers a deeply researched narrative history of Power Rangers—from its inception to today—and details milestone moments for the brand and show, as well as offering fresh looks at its thriving toy line and an adult fandom that can’t get enough of those “teenagers with attitude.” Drawing on original interviews, new research, and the kinds of insights that only a true devotee can bring, this is a bold and boisterous account of one of the most unusual and beloved franchises in pop-culture history.
