The Lost Pilot Episode
featuring Audri Marchionno
hosted by Austin St. John and Walter Emanuel Jones
aired 05/22/99
The premiere of "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" would launch a franchise unique to anything that America had ever seen before, but there were several setbacks and trials first before sure footing was set.
Haim Saban was already in the business of importing shows to be Americanized, and had originally wanted to launch Power Rangers based on the 1991 Japanese Super Sentai series "Choujin Sentai Jetman," a season themed around various birds.
But it would be the following Sentai series in 1992, Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger, themed around dinosaurs, that would make it to the final cut. Essentially three pilots were made- one viewed by a trial audience and the second was intended to launch the series.
In the original pilot, it featured a number of things that were very extreme and "too campy," even by future Power Rangers standards. Zordon was called Zoltor and his look was more cartoonish than anything. Alpha 5 looked like a glorified humanoid toaster, Bulk had a different look and had other lackeys with no Skull character. The Angel Grove Gym & Juice Bar was a bowling alley. Zack, the Black Ranger, was skateboarding with a boombox on his shoulder. Kimberly was even more of a valley girl than usual, and the Putty Patrol seemed almost menacing. Billy and Jason also had different hairstyles. The first "monster of the day" was shown as Flyguy, but in the actual season the character wouldn't show up until episode four "A Pressing Engagement" renamed as the monster King Spinx. The morph sequence was completely different, as was the sequence in which Rita and her minions were introduced. The theme was overall more violent than what fans would grow up with. So violent, in fact, that a remake was in order.
Eventually a second pilot was shot with changes to all the above, including a very dramatic change in the cast as Audri Marchionno (then known as Audri Dubois) was recast with Thuy Trang as the Yellow Ranger. It also featured new sets like the Gym & Juice Bar, and the characters' looks were madeover to what they would actually be during the first season. The introductions to the characters nearly mirrored that of the original pilot. This version of the pilot episode was only viewed once outside Saban Studios, and that this year at the long-awaited Power Morphicon- the first Power Rangers fan convention that celebrated fifteen seasons. Tony Oliver, one of the original producers in the first few seasons of the show, treated fans to a look of this pilot and the other pilots. Fans also got a first time look at the winning and runner-up auditions for the original Rangers.
Finally the third and final pilot was shot, each one taking about a couple days of filming (it wasn't uncommon later on to work twelve hour days most of the week). This pilot would be the one that aired on August 28th 1993. The second pilot, the one feautering Audri, was later aired as the "Lost Episode" in the middle of the "Power Rangers Lost Galaxy" season in 1999, and was hosted by Austin St. John and Walter Jones. This episode was only aired twice, and was shown once more at Power Morphicon.
For more information, refer to Audri Marchionno's profile for an interview I conducted in 2005 in which Audri spoke in more depth about the lost pilot as well as her life.
Behind the Helmets | MMPR Actors | Audri Marchionno
Force Factor Entertainment
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