Trivia / Power Rangers RPM

• Acclaimed Flop: Many regard this as the best Power Rangers season, even if the ratings were crap due to many ABC affiliates either not airing or pushing it to 4 or 5 in the morning.
• Contractual Obligation Project: RPM was put into production to fulfill a deal with Jetix Europe and Bandai.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Eddie Guzelian was saddened by Disney not bothering to get his ideas for the end of the series, or allowing him to ensure his original vision would be fulfilled. Ari Boyland later said his dismissal was "traumatic".
  • Some of the cast have hinted in interviews that they would have preferred the original vision to the direction it went in, although they don't know it themselves. Adelaide Kane later outright said that she took Eddie Guzelian's departure very badly, and she jokes that she's still bitter about Tenaya-7 not becoming a Ranger herself.
  • Ari Boyland wasn't too happy at how Out of Focus Flynn was in the second half of the series. He recalls the experience of reading the scripts for each episode and going "wow, I don't do anything." Like the fans, he would have liked to see Flynn's Ship Tease with Gemma be expanded on.
  • Mike Ginn wishes there could have been a backstory episode for Gem and Gemma like the other Rangers and Dr K got.
  • Not the series itself but Eka Darville pokes fun at his American accent, saying he was glad Power Rangers gave him the chance to practice it "before I was on a show people actually watched".
• Costume Backlash: Adelaide Kane disliked the vizor she had to wear as Tenaya-7, which completely obscured her vision and made it difficult to film fight scenes.
• Creator Killer: Due to it being a ratings failure and the Troubled Production, RPM was the last to be co-produced by Renaissance Atlantic Entertainment, which became defunct when the show was bought by Saban Brands in 2010.
• Creator's Favorite Episode:
  • Ari Boyland and Milo Cawthorne list "Ranger Blue" as their favourite. The former because it was A Day in the Limelight for his character, the latter for the Lampshade Hanging opening scene.
  • Dan Ewing lists "The Road to Corinth" as his favorite.
• Executive Meddling:
  • While most cases of Executive Meddling generally end with the production and airing of the show, the Disney executives overseeing RPM apparently took this to a whole new level by deliberately using members of the Power Rangers fandom to spread rumors about original executive producer Eddie Guzelian mismanaging the budget and schedule of the show, a rumor that has been absolutely denied by every single first-hand source willing to put their names behind their story.
  • For unknown reasons, long-time Power Rangers writer Jackie Marchand (who had written episodes for every Power Rangers series except Wild Force) departed the franchise early in the first half of this series. Marchand would later state on Twitter that she was offered a lousy deal by Disney in which she shares the executive producer role with someone else and receive half the pay.
  • The show's existence is a positive example - if Disney had their way, Jungle Fury would've been the last show. However, because Bandai asked for it (and agreed to pay for part of it), Disney agreed to do one more show, but after that, they were done with the series (and the series lay dormant until Saban bought it back).
  • Mike Ginn recalls the Disney execs ordering them to refilm a scene, where Gem tells Flynn that Gemma will be busy with "other things". As the characters then go into a bedroom together, the execs found his original delivery too suggestive.
• Fake American: Eka Darville, Dan Ewing and Adelaide Kane are Australian, and Rose McIver, Milo Cawthorne and Olivia Tennet are New Zealanders. Most of the supporting cast were Aussies and Kiwis too. Averted with James Gaylyn (Col. Mason Truman) and Fellis McGuire (Scott's brother Marcus), who are actual Americans.
• Fake Scot:
  • Ari Boyland (Flynn) is also from New Zealand. The accent was originally much thicker, as he went for a specific Glaswegian dialect, but he was told to tone it down out of fear of American audiences not being able to understand him. Years later at conventions, he found out that many people thought he actually was Scottish. Including actual Scottish people.
  • Flynn's father, who appears in the "Ranger Blue" episode was also played by a Kiwi - Jason Hoyte. The young Flynn's actor Jake McGregor, is also from New Zealand.
• Friendship on the Set: According to Rose McIver, the cast all became very close and stayed in touch, even ten years later.
• Franchise Killer: Done on purpose, Disney really didn't want to produce new Power Rangers, only greenlighting it after Bandai paid for part of the season, and so barely advertised it and put it on at 5 in the morning.
• God Never Said That: There were persistent reports that the darker tone was against Disney's wishes, and that Eddie Guzelian was constantly clashing with the higher-ups. He set the record straight as early as 2009, stating that Disney approved of everything and were encouraging him to make the series as he saw fit.
• On-Set Injury: Adelaide Kane suffered one while filming the fight between Dylan and Tenaya, where the latter cuts herself and finds out that she bleeds. As they were filming in a desert on a windy day, sand blew into her eyes and she had to be taken to hospital to make sure she wasn't blinded. Once her eyes were washed out, they sent her right back to work!
• The Other Darrin: General Kilobyte switched voice actors between his first and second appearances.
• Production Posse: Eddie Guzelian would later work with Ari Boyland, Milo Cawthorne, Adelaide Kane, Olivia Tennet and Mike Ginn in the film Blood Punch - in roles all specifically written from them based on their Power Rangers work. Rose McIver also served as a producer.
• Prop Recycling:
  • Dr. K's sonic blaster, which originated in Big Bad Beetleborgs and was last seen in "Forever Red". And while borrowing from Super Sentai normally goes without saying, special mention must be made of the van with "GO-ONGER" plastered on the side.
  • The Operation Overdrive Red Ranger helmet in "Ancient History".
  • Instead of a Cool Car, Ziggy drives a delivery trike like the one used by Jungle Karma Pizza. Or it's possibly the one Hanto once used.
• Real Life Writes the Hairstyle: Milo Cawthorne had a "bowl cut" when auditioning for Ziggy, and producers disliked the look on him, requiring him to grow it out for the season.
• Recycled Script:
  • "If Venjix Won" is a new episode written around the same premise as "Legacy of Power" back in Dino Thunder - the mentor is somehow separated from the team, whose attempts to find her lead to unlocking past footage for a Clip Show.
  • Similarly, there's an enhanced human all alone before meeting up with a preexisting team of Rangers. He's looking for his long lost sister who had been taken from him. A major villain is a pretty girl who despite being young is a trusted Dragon. As the enhanced human begins a romance with the Yellow Ranger, he figures out through his necklace that the Dragon girl is his sister and she switches sides to help him. She is then kidnapped and programmed to be dedicated to evil alone. Near the finale he is able to both save his sister from evil and be a couple with the Yellow Ranger. Sound familiar?
  • Green Ranger falls in love with the techie chick. Shades of Lightspeed Rescue, anyone?
• Romance on the Set: An example of Life Imitates Art at that. Ziggy and Dr. K received a lot of Ship Tease in the series, and their actors, Milo Cawthorne and Olivia Tennet, ended up getting married in June of 2013 while living in Los Angeles. In fact, it was partly because of the romantic tension between Ziggy and Dr. K that the two actors got together. As Olivia explains in a magazine interview, she and Milo got together in real life "because we thought, well, someone's obviously trying to tell us something." Also, they had appeared in two other television productions in New Zealand prior to RPM. Unfortunately, the relationship didn't last, the two having split up nearly three years later, according to this interview with Milo Cawthorne.
• Screwed by the Network: Half of America couldn't see it because of opt-outs, pre-emptions for college football, and in some areas, an unsociable timeslot (who's awake at 5am?). It was also not shown on Disney XD, as mentioned in the trope intro. UK viewers had to wait six months for the second half of the season, due to Jetix stopping the new episodes when it became Disney XD. It was only thanks to the internet that the season became as beloved as it did.
• Star-Making Role: RPM has had the most successful post Power Rangers season of actors yet, with Eka Darville, Rose McIver and Adelaide Kane all getting big roles through the 2010s.
• Troubled Production: Good grief:
  • Bruce Kalish had decided to move onto a new project, and Disney planned on FINALLY cancelling Power Rangers, but Bandai and Jetix Europe^note the former European Fox Kids networks which were under partial outside control; Disney eventually bought the remaining investors out by the time they converted Jetix to Disney XD had Disney under contract for one more season. To that end, a new producer was brought on: Eddie Guzelian. The only problem? Guzelian was primarily an animated creator (having worked on Fillmore! and American Dragon: Jake Long prior to this), putting him into a new role entirely with not only dealing with live action conventions, but the unique production and the way the Super Sentai/Power Rangers transition works.
  • To his credit though, Guzelian did watch several episodes before production began, getting a feel for the show, and trying to take the franchise in a new direction by pitching a post-apocalyptic series to try and revitalize interest among not only boys, but also to an older audience as well. The only problem? The Sentai series they were working off of, Engine Sentai Go-onger was a parody series, so they ended up in a similar situation to Lost Galaxy (and the first half of Turbo) in trying to splice one series into another, entirely different situation (Eddie remembered in an interview having a massive Oh, Crap! reaction to seeing the mecha designs, particularly freaking out at the robots having eyes).
  • On top of this, there were script delays going into production, in part due to the difficulty in writing around the Sentai footage, and rumors of production overshooting the budget in part due to a higher use of original footage instead of stock stuff.
  • And to top it off, Guzelian was fired DURING production, with two writers who'd come on to help with the production quitting in protest. Veteran PR writer Judd Lynn was brought in to help finish the production, forcing him to do a behind the scenes episode to buy him some time to catch up with the work. All in all, not exactly the easiest production to do, only compounded by the fact Disney/ABC kept hiding RPM in its scheduling and promotions due to its lack of edutainment and higher violence levels putting some executives off (and in turn the lack of edutainment had several ABC stations preempt the show). Even though Power Rangers wasn't renewed under Disney's management afterwards, the fact that this production could even be finished with all the issues it had, and be well regarded by older fans as well is quite the feat.
• Underage Casting: Eka Darville is possibly an example. He was only eighteen during the first season, and Scott has already undergone enough training to become something of an Ace Pilot (although still treated as a rookie) - suggesting he's playing him a few years older. Case in point - Ari Boyland was twenty-two, and Flynn has already graduated and had enough time to train in other careers.
• Urban Legend of Zelda: To this day, rumours persist that Eddie Guzelian's original ending for the series would have been a two-parter called Ranger Black, where Dillon would be revealed as a sleeper agent for Venjix (to the point where everything about him including his ability to feel emotions was all a lie), and be the final boss of the series, with it ending as the Rangers are forced to put Dillon down to defeat Venjix once and for all. These rumours usually pin Eddie's firing from RPM midway through the season on him refusing to budge on the ending, though in the years since no one has indicated if it's true at all.
• What Could Have Been: Enough for its own page
• Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: Eddie Guzelian jokes that the big twists and conclusions to the major story arcs were "finalized on an airplane trip from Los Angeles to Boston on my way home for Christmas". The very next day was him being fired, leaving no time to share his ideas with the crew.
• You Look Familiar:
  • Again Kelson Henderson, being unrecognisable... again. Just for one episode ("Blitz") this time.
  • Rewatch Ninja Storm, specifically Cam's trip to the past. Apparently, Colonel Truman (or a near-identical relative) used to run the Wind Ninja Academy. He's also the voice of Zeltrax, and all of the Orangehead Krybots from Power Rangers S.P.D..

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