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00:00:00I remember as a kid distinctly being in my house and hearing the theme song and I just would run to the TV
00:00:12it's an iconic theme song
00:00:17guitars come in all the instruments and it just makes you want to rock out
00:00:24and action Power Rangers wasn't just a show one two three
00:00:33was a 90s cultural touch point the show is absolutely crazy they're like superheroes
00:00:41saving the world being a Power Ranger meant being a superhero leagues of dedicated fans
00:00:49but it also meant maintaining that superhero demeanor and attitude when you're out of the
00:00:57costume and out in the world as well and here's where things start to get really dark if you're
00:01:01a kid uh leave the video right now if you look online you can read lots about the Power Rangers
00:01:08curse I rested yeah but because he's dead I've lost a lot of people with unanswered questions
00:01:18Power Rangers was Eric's first acting job and last he's my best friend I miss him I stabbed him once
00:01:27before I need to know I came to finish the job is to be alive these are shows that are about combat
00:01:32can I just have a moment what happened to him I did want to die I did there was extreme domestic
00:01:38violence suicide fraud he passed away from hanging himself why did you decide that he wanted to speak
00:01:45now it's good to have the real people who actually experienced these things to come out and say a few
00:01:53things that people don't know
00:01:55power rangers is a show that debuted on television in the early 90s
00:02:24it was one of the first live action kids programming who were superheroes since power
00:02:30ranger premiered 30 years ago it has had over 900 episodes and counting it has had hundreds of
00:02:37rangers thousands of crew people hundreds and hundreds of stunt people for movies comic book
00:02:43spin-offs I've been a physician in the medical profession for over 40 years when I come upon a case
00:02:51particularly a mysterious case I always start with the history and in the case of the power rangers
00:02:57it began with one person Haim Saban
00:03:00Haim Saban was a composer and eventually the owner of Saban entertainment which was the production
00:03:09company that made power rangers Haim was responsible for the inspector gadget theme song
00:03:14I suspect as soon as I've said it it is now stuck in your head the story goes that he made a deal in
00:03:23which he would produce all the music for free for Dallas the TV show in Europe as long as he could
00:03:29keep the royalties on the music and he made billion he made a fortune off that and he always wanted to do
00:03:34these kinds of shows that were different and unusual when Haim Saban went to Japan he saw this television
00:03:41show Super Sentai that reminded him of a cartoon Japanese have been doing this for 25 years at
00:03:49that point and their show is very successful in Japan he felt like this is something that would be
00:03:55very popular with children and Haim Saban came up with a great idea why don't we bring it to America
00:04:00pull out everything that was easily identifiable as Japanese so cars on the left kanji crowds of
00:04:07people running down the street that's like 10 15 minutes so then we can just film another 15 minutes
00:04:14of this episode in America and have American actors play the characters before they went into costume
00:04:23he was pretty much laughed out of a lot of rooms first of all it's live action and nobody's doing live
00:04:28action everybody's animated everybody thought he was nuts except for Margaret Lesch who was running
00:04:32Fox Kids at the time it was really low budget the first season and they had to borrow it to get it
00:04:37done and just something Saban had never done before so I went to work on a pilot I had never done this
00:04:42before when the show starts there's an intergalactic bad person named Rita Repulsa and she and her
00:04:49minions escape and decide to take over Earth and on Earth there's a guy named Zordon who's this kind of
00:04:54wizard-like guy and he summons five teenagers you know teenagers saying the world sounds terrifying how
00:05:04come we can be at school and just run off where's our parents are they're okay with this are they
00:05:07getting phone calls that we're missing third period again power ranges the show has elements of same by
00:05:14the bell and high school musical frankly and like a transformer cartoon one thing that research has shown
00:05:20is that kids like transformations well there's a kind of a wow factor when they can take control of
00:05:27something and see cause and effect like with lift the flap books or play-doh I had an eight millimeter
00:05:40camcorder at the time this is what it looked like on first unit behind the scenes and everybody doing the
00:05:46classroom scene when they started power rangers they were they were hiring martial artists stuntmen
00:05:53gymnasts it started with the same five actors the same five rangers okay Austin St. John played the
00:06:03red ranger he was the leader of the group he looks like the leader he had the muscles Walter Jones played
00:06:11the black ranger you seem to have the the the swagger of the group hi kid Tui Trang's the yellow ranger she's the
00:06:19peaceful one who tends to be the conscience of the group and that's David Yost who played Billy the the blue ranger
00:06:25he's sitting behind her he's the intellectual the brains the inventor behind it and then we got AJ there sucking on
00:06:33our lollipop the pink ranger Amy Jo Johnson aka Kimberly every boy's first crush that one
00:06:39about halfway through the first season suddenly a new ranger shows up the ranger the green ranger it
00:06:48was Jason David Frank and normally the six rangers a little rebellious
00:06:52none of us are thinking stereotypes and so when my it was my assistant who pointed it out in a meeting
00:07:04one day that we had made the black character the black ranger and the Asian character of the yellow
00:07:09ranger I was so mistake it was such a mistake but Tui was not our original yellow ranger it was actually
00:07:16Audrey Dubois she was the one who did the pilot episode don't know why she left you'll have to ask her
00:07:21stop sticks there are some things that I was there for at the very beginning that only I and the
00:07:35other rangers know about that no one's ever heard about I was in martial arts since about the age of 12
00:07:43and when I auditioned for that show I was 25 so by that time I was a third degree black belt at her
00:07:50audition Audrey she did her cotta in front of us I thought she was going to kill us from a distance
00:07:54she was so good we were told on the last night that we auditioned that three groups have been picked
00:08:03three groups of five so I went to my group of five right which was Austin Amy Jo Johnson David Yost
00:08:10Walter Jones and myself Austin St. John was 17 when he came to work for us he came in with zero acting
00:08:17experience only Walter and Amy Jo had worked professionally before as actors never on camera
00:08:23and I think David might have had one or two theater jobs but that was it
00:08:27so we were told that we were to sign a contract it was like six o'clock seven o'clock at night and we
00:08:39were told that we needed to return by the next morning by 7 a.m. if we were one minute past seven
00:08:45you are not going to be up for this at all you'll be cut out so this is pre-email so there isn't going
00:08:56to be an agent that's gonna pick up a phone call at nine o'clock so you take a risk and you sign it and
00:09:02you say okay let's do it for the season let's hope for better after if I need to they pretty
00:09:08much own your performance forever Power Rangers was not produced under a union contract which means
00:09:12we were free to pay whatever we could negotiate I went to some other union shows one of the lead
00:09:18actors was making 50 grand per episode whereas the Power Rangers were making a few hundred and that
00:09:25was basically it this is a business but it doesn't operate like any other business one of the liabilities
00:09:32of being young in Hollywood is that you want to work you'll do anything you'll pay me what you want
00:09:36I get to be on TV and I'll figure it out and so it's very easy for young people to be exploited I was
00:09:42naive enough to think that okay if I sign this contract then we could talk numbers later so I signed
00:09:50the contract basically these contracts just made it okay to work you to death and they did and action
00:09:57usually you would shoot like 15 to 20 setups something like that on a regular film but we
00:10:04were doing it 70 to 100 setups a day with a single camera punch they're not just sitting around saying
00:10:10lies they're jumping around it's very physical they have to work out and train to maintain their
00:10:14characters your our shoot days were much longer you know we should have 12 to 14 hour days where
00:10:21unions is 8 to 10 so it can be a little abusive to the actors sometime Amy Jo would just start crying
00:10:28for no reason and then go off and then come back and then it was okay when we were shooting the pilot
00:10:35we're out in the desert it's got to be 110 degrees and someone has heat stroke it was one of the bad
00:10:46guys in a wetsuit with a rubber mask over their head with a pinhole for the eyes and for the mouth
00:10:52he's flopping around like a fish me and the others had come together and agreed we were not going to
00:11:01continue shooting until like this guy gets in an ambulance and goes on and that's really hard to
00:11:06do when you're shooting the pilot episode we had this much money for the pilot it was offered to anyone
00:11:13there that they would get a hundred dollars if they took that man's wetsuit off and put it on
00:11:21so that we could continue shooting and someone did the original man was in his underwear in the dirt
00:11:33flopping around waiting for an ambulance i was watching that going what like this is not okay like
00:11:42it's scaring me this is just the pilot episode and as it becomes this massively successful brand
00:11:51you have violence fraud suicide homicide including homicide by sword and people losing everything
00:12:02along the way
00:12:03second day on the pilot i am gathers us the people who kind of in charge of this back in the table he
00:12:13says listen fox likes what they see so far so it looks like they're going to buy the show
00:12:17i was living in arizona at the time i was going to need a certain number to be able to move to los
00:12:26angeles so i went to try to negotiate more money for each episode
00:12:34so that i could make a living i think it's fifteen hundred dollars and i told the studio that i wanted
00:12:42to do the show i just couldn't afford to
00:12:44and i was afraid that what i was doing didn't feel quite right either because we had already shot
00:12:54the pilot and i'm going to easily be replaced it's not like i thought i was irreplaceable it's like
00:12:59there's 10 000 kids outside your door like they would love to be a yellow ranger
00:13:04and now this is their baby their project
00:13:15so i left excuse me for a minute
00:13:22i didn't think i was going to get emotional about that
00:13:26i tried to be tough about it
00:13:28so i was just like wow
00:13:32i
00:13:33it is what it is
00:13:37you know but
00:13:38by the time audrey left and we we cast tweed the yellow ranger was kind of rewritten to match
00:13:48tweed a little bit more she was vietnamese and during the fall of saigon she was five years old
00:13:55she had escaped and came over by the boat the lack of food and nourishment and tweed's already tiny
00:14:03as it is and her almost dying from day one she was a survivor
00:14:09whereas the others had either gymnastics background or martial arts background
00:14:17tweed she didn't have all of that
00:14:22the first season the actors were actually doing their own stunts
00:14:26this was pre-matrix
00:14:29and no one in hollywood was used to doing these kind of crazy wire gags
00:14:33and martial arts action
00:14:35whoa
00:14:36i've heard several stories of other rangers of
00:14:39hurting their neck or breaking their leg or their arm and production has to stop
00:14:43who i hurt my neck
00:14:47no you didn't
00:14:48after we shot the pilot it was rewritten several more times
00:14:52i told my dp i said this could be this generation's batman
00:14:57and he just looked at me and said are you kidding no one's ever going to see this
00:15:01don't expect another season of this
00:15:03finally on august 23rd 1993
00:15:07it premiered on fox kids
00:15:09they're cool they're nice
00:15:11they're like superheroes
00:15:13saving the world
00:15:15when the first season aired it averaged 4.8 million viewers
00:15:19an afternoon children's program
00:15:22that was the highest rating for a network children's program for the year
00:15:25it was a huge hit
00:15:27fun
00:15:28campiness
00:15:30always carrying a moral message
00:15:32the show is just absolutely crazy
00:15:34you know
00:15:35it's got bright colors
00:15:36superheroes
00:15:37dinosaurs
00:15:37mastodont
00:15:39turtle
00:15:40triceratops
00:15:42adults watch the show
00:15:43they have no idea what's going on
00:15:45but if little kids watch the show
00:15:46they know exactly what's going on
00:15:47because their brains are just going
00:15:48you know what i mean
00:15:50it changed everyone's lives really
00:15:51people were just
00:15:53running to them
00:15:55and freaking out
00:15:56power rangers has been this
00:15:57cultural phenomenon
00:15:58one two three
00:15:59power rangers was referenced a lot in the 90s
00:16:04it was on fresh prints of bel air
00:16:06well i've been meaning to tell you that i'm a
00:16:08a what a power ranger
00:16:10and on friends
00:16:11it's morphing time
00:16:13it was bigger than just being a television show
00:16:15one of their first
00:16:20public appearances
00:16:21was at universal studios
00:16:2330,000 kids got to see it
00:16:2820,000 kids got
00:16:30sent away
00:16:31but it just sold out
00:16:32and traffic was tied up
00:16:33on the hollywood freeway for hours
00:16:35they were shutting down the ramps
00:16:38off the 101
00:16:39to universal
00:16:40guys tied up traffic on the 101 today
00:16:43that is so amazing
00:16:44i'm i'm gonna call my mother as soon as i get home
00:16:47mom guess what
00:16:48you know
00:16:48they had suddenly hit the big time
00:16:50and i can't think of any superhero show
00:16:56until the marvel series
00:16:57where you've got this mashup
00:16:59of a bunch of people fighting together in unity
00:17:01the only show on television
00:17:04that had a black superhero
00:17:05two female superheroes
00:17:07and was a very diversified cast
00:17:10brown children would come to me
00:17:12and say i you know
00:17:13i identify with you
00:17:14because i got to see you on television
00:17:15and it made so much of a difference
00:17:17in my own life
00:17:18it made me feel like
00:17:20i can pursue my dreams
00:17:22my goals
00:17:23because you were able to do it
00:17:24this is one of the first times
00:17:28that teenagers are the superheroes
00:17:30and i think that's a genius construct
00:17:32of course it'd be attractive to young people
00:17:34but i'm not sure that was a healthy message
00:17:39these are shows that are about combat
00:17:43the fighting on power rangers was really high octane and fast
00:17:56it's like boom boom boom boom boom
00:17:59the more action i could shoot the better it was
00:18:02back then there wasn't a lot of like hand-to-hand combat
00:18:07between live action characters on kids programming
00:18:11the national coalition on television violence
00:18:14called power rangers the most violent children's show
00:18:17it had ever reviewed
00:18:18the power rangers have over 200 violent acts per hour
00:18:22there was a revolution called action for children's television
00:18:26that immediately hated the show
00:18:27there was people that felt it was too violent
00:18:29i mean the roadrunner was violent
00:18:31right there was violence in the three stooges
00:18:34this though was a show that was really built around the violence
00:18:39and people had concerns that that violence
00:18:41was going to result in kids acting out violently
00:18:4488 percent said the power rangers
00:18:47have prompted more classroom violence
00:18:49kids were karate chopping their siblings
00:18:58and beating each other up
00:19:00in norway these two boys took this girl
00:19:05they beat her up and they left her for dead
00:19:07those boys said that they were imitating something they had seen on television
00:19:11we got blamed for a lot of stuff that we didn't necessarily deserve
00:19:15i had to come up with some of the martial arts things
00:19:19and make it more of a almost like a comedy skit really
00:19:23it's a way of making it more like a bugs bunny kind of a show
00:19:30we had to do public service announcements
00:19:33do you know your fantasy from reality
00:19:35so that they could stop beating each other up
00:19:37when power rangers came out i was nine years old
00:19:41you'd rush home every day after school to watch it
00:19:44and it was just like the coolest thing ever
00:19:46power rangers is pre-dating streaming
00:19:49you couldn't engage with it beyond the 30 minutes
00:19:52that they allotted that show
00:19:53the only way to continue enjoying it
00:19:56is to buy this toy
00:19:57and you can live in that universe for a little bit longer
00:20:00the toys have proved an instant hit too
00:20:03you want all the toys
00:20:04you want the action figures
00:20:05be like you know tiger zord and be really excited
00:20:07you know it's morphing time
00:20:09this mega zord is one of the original mega zords
00:20:11shows like power rangers make this much money
00:20:14on ad sales
00:20:16and they make this much money on merchandising
00:20:19that was the time of tackle me elmo
00:20:21and everybody had to have the must have toy
00:20:23it was like right away the toys were selling off the shelves
00:20:25uh no i'm sorry we don't
00:20:27power rangers was the biggest selling toy in the 90s
00:20:30power rangers enters its second season
00:20:31and licensed merchandise sales balloon to 1.6 billion dollars worldwide
00:20:36in reality they had made a billion dollars in toy sales
00:20:40which like is a lot of money now
00:20:43it's so much money in the 90s
00:20:45and these actors are having their likenesses used for toys
00:20:50but they weren't receiving anything
00:20:52there was one guy getting rich off of this show
00:20:55one of the things that simon said was look
00:21:00i'm giving them a chance to become stars
00:21:02but from the actor's point of view is
00:21:04well now the show has taken off
00:21:07and i'm still not making any money
00:21:09there was the thing of
00:21:12well i created this character
00:21:14no you didn't
00:21:15we created the character
00:21:16and picked you to play the character
00:21:19good
00:21:20so the cast and the crew had already filmed about 60 episodes
00:21:23they're in the middle still of shooting season two
00:21:26but the contract ended
00:21:27so for the cast this is their opportunity
00:21:30to actually negotiate properly these big contracts
00:21:33austin st john red ranger
00:21:36tweed train yellow ranger
00:21:38and walter jones the black ranger
00:21:41were all represented by the same agent or manager
00:21:45a demand that was made was a percentage of the toy sales
00:21:49and that was never ever ever going to happen
00:21:53we had to do a presentation to the fox affiliates
00:21:58the owners of all the stations
00:22:01they all came rupert murdoch came
00:22:03they brought out the power rangers
00:22:05and then twee went up to the microphone
00:22:08and started reading the speech
00:22:10and then she went off script
00:22:12and said something along the lines of
00:22:14you know we're up here giving you a show
00:22:16and maybe you should be up here giving up a show
00:22:19because we're bringing all the ratings
00:22:21how rotten fox was for not paying them more money
00:22:24and how they deserve more money
00:22:26and this and that
00:22:27and the station owners were just looking like
00:22:30what is this
00:22:32when it was over she walked backstage
00:22:36and she just ran to me and grabbed me
00:22:39and started crying and she said what did i do
00:22:41oh my god what did i do
00:22:42and then she regretted it instantly
00:22:44and it was kind of too late
00:22:46you cannot bully savant
00:22:50you cannot
00:22:51if that's your tactic
00:22:52you're going to be screwed
00:22:54it wasn't too long after
00:22:57i was having lunch
00:22:58and see a guy in the red ranger costume
00:23:01and i go
00:23:02is that a stunt double
00:23:04and they went no
00:23:05that's the new red ranger
00:23:06austin st john walter jones
00:23:10and twee had left
00:23:11and karen
00:23:14johnny
00:23:16and steve
00:23:18had taken their place
00:23:19everybody got scared
00:23:23by cutting off three of the rangers
00:23:26cutting them out
00:23:26it sent a message to everybody
00:23:29don't even try it
00:23:31we'll just replace you
00:23:32like that
00:23:33we don't care
00:23:33everyone is dispensable
00:23:38and you see that
00:23:39in future incarnations of the show
00:23:41he's scary
00:23:42he taught me how to be scary
00:23:45when i got on the show
00:23:50i didn't even know
00:23:51i was replacing anyone
00:23:52i hadn't heard the story
00:23:55until i was filming my first episode
00:23:57that i was going to be
00:23:58the next yellow ranger
00:23:59my first check
00:24:02on power rangers
00:24:03from one episode
00:24:04i made 720 dollars
00:24:06that was before taxes
00:24:09i'm clearing like
00:24:10300 and something dollars
00:24:12i just remember working a lot
00:24:14it was my very first series
00:24:16i was introduced
00:24:18to the film industry
00:24:20that way
00:24:21i learned a lot
00:24:22of do's
00:24:23and i've learned a lot of don'ts
00:24:24when the first three rangers left
00:24:28and we replaced them
00:24:30i was certainly worried
00:24:31that changing the cast
00:24:32would cause a problem
00:24:33but the ratings went up
00:24:34and toy sales went up
00:24:36so they got the idea
00:24:37that maybe we should start
00:24:38changing the cast regularly
00:24:39however heim felt strongly
00:24:41that anybody who started the show
00:24:43could stay as long as they wanted
00:24:43david yost
00:24:44amy joe johnson
00:24:46and jason david frank
00:24:47but the new rangers were told
00:24:49they could be replaced
00:24:50i had been on the show
00:24:52for two years
00:24:53and one of our cast members
00:24:55came in
00:24:56and told us about
00:24:57an open casting call
00:24:58for power rangers
00:24:59but no one told us
00:25:02that we were being replaced
00:25:02my agent didn't even know
00:25:04that we were being replaced
00:25:05or that they were even looking
00:25:06for new cast members
00:25:08like that's very hurtful
00:25:10our last day on set
00:25:13i could not stop crying
00:25:16um
00:25:17i wasn't ready to leave
00:25:21i had developed a family
00:25:23and
00:25:24oh my gosh
00:25:27why am i tearing up
00:25:28can i just have a moment
00:25:33do you need a tissue
00:25:34yeah
00:25:34what is going on
00:25:36if you
00:25:37if you want to take a break
00:25:39yeah let me just take a moment
00:25:41after leaving power rangers
00:25:47i started substitute teaching
00:25:49in between acting jobs
00:25:52to supplement my income
00:25:54some of the kids knew
00:25:55i was a power ranger
00:25:56i remember going home
00:25:58and feeling like
00:25:58oh my gosh
00:25:59you just feel
00:26:00this big
00:26:01walter actually came over
00:26:04to buffy
00:26:05and played a student
00:26:06one time
00:26:06and i thought man
00:26:07walter could tear that up
00:26:09but they don't give him
00:26:11a chance
00:26:11because he's a power ranger
00:26:13and they think
00:26:14you're not a good actor
00:26:15because of that
00:26:16you go from being on set
00:26:18you have an action figure
00:26:20all this grandiose stuff
00:26:21and what are you really
00:26:23you're just a guy
00:26:23in tights
00:26:24wearing makeup
00:26:25right
00:26:25after coming off a hit show
00:26:28people feel crushed
00:26:29in my experience
00:26:30i've seen young actors
00:26:31develop extreme despair
00:26:33and in the case of the power rangers
00:26:36a surprising number
00:26:38of cast members
00:26:39end up
00:26:40in some sort of criminal
00:26:41endeavor
00:26:42austin st john
00:26:45the original red power ranger
00:26:47has recently been charged
00:26:48with a 3.5 million dollar
00:26:51fraud allegation
00:26:52for misappropriation
00:26:54of the cares act
00:26:55this was the small business
00:26:57protection loan
00:26:58where people's salaries
00:26:59were supposed to be
00:27:00being protected
00:27:00he set up small
00:27:02and existing businesses
00:27:03allegedly for the purpose
00:27:04of fraudulently
00:27:06making claims
00:27:06for money
00:27:07in 2024
00:27:10he accepted a plea deal
00:27:12for a conspiracy
00:27:13to commit wire fraud
00:27:14and then there was news
00:27:15that oh did you hear
00:27:16one of the power rangers
00:27:17he kills someone
00:27:19officers
00:27:20how was it here
00:27:20in my life
00:27:21when people talk about evil
00:27:22that's the stuff
00:27:23they're talking about
00:27:24power rangers
00:27:38power rangers started
00:27:43with the same five rangers
00:27:45and in year three or four
00:27:47due to contract issues
00:27:49they decided to rotate
00:27:50the rangers every year
00:27:52so every year
00:27:53there was a new set
00:27:53of teens
00:27:54that walk into these roles
00:27:55the heroes get replaced
00:27:56and it's a whole new storyline
00:27:57in eight years
00:27:59there had been 36 actors
00:28:00who played a power ranger
00:28:02across 400 episodes
00:28:04as of 2024
00:28:05the power rangers franchise
00:28:07made more revenue
00:28:09than x-men
00:28:10or the dc universe
00:28:12or even sesame street
00:28:13in 2001
00:28:16the company sold to disney
00:28:19the whole of sabana entertainment
00:28:21including their library
00:28:22which is where
00:28:22haim had to step out
00:28:23and power rangers
00:28:24eventually went union
00:28:25right before they sold
00:28:26actually
00:28:27so i played the red ranger
00:28:31in season nine
00:28:32when they went union
00:28:33union shows
00:28:35the turnaround times
00:28:36are you know
00:28:37you can only be on set
00:28:39so long
00:28:39the pay is larger
00:28:40and they were very
00:28:42particular about
00:28:42us not getting hurt
00:28:43a lot of the stunts
00:28:45we never did
00:28:46like they had
00:28:47my character
00:28:48in street clothes
00:28:49running up a flight of stairs
00:28:50and they said
00:28:51bring the stunt double
00:28:52and they brought in
00:28:53the stunt double
00:28:54running up a flight of stairs
00:28:55because they're protecting you
00:28:56from getting hurt
00:28:57this is uh
00:28:59my little collection of stuff
00:29:02and then all of the different toys
00:29:04this is our forever red picture
00:29:07signed by everybody
00:29:08ricardo's here
00:29:10hey how's it go
00:29:13this is ricardo medina jr
00:29:14ricardo medina jr
00:29:17was the red ranger
00:29:18that replaced me
00:29:19we're gonna go get mic'd right now
00:29:21for this final scene
00:29:22he was a very good looking guy
00:29:25but he was not the strongest actor
00:29:27that i worked with on the show
00:29:28we had one situation
00:29:30where he delivered a line
00:29:32and it was not the correct line
00:29:34and i said let's do it again
00:29:36why he asked why
00:29:38i said because you said this
00:29:40and it should be this
00:29:41and he said well i didn't say that
00:29:43but you did
00:29:45and he denied it to the point
00:29:48that i had the sound man
00:29:50roll back the tape
00:29:51and even hearing it in his voice
00:29:54he denied it
00:29:55i honestly had never run
00:29:56into anything like it
00:29:58there's an interview with ricardo
00:30:01where he is talking about
00:30:03his experience as a power ranger
00:30:05but he also was talking about
00:30:07how troubled he was
00:30:09as a young child
00:30:09how difficult he was
00:30:11to manage for his mom
00:30:13basically grew up
00:30:14without any father figure
00:30:15i was really rambunctious and wild
00:30:17so ricardo was trained in karate
00:30:20studies show that
00:30:22there's a correlation
00:30:23between out of control
00:30:25young people who are getting into trouble
00:30:27and aggressive
00:30:28and jumping off of furniture
00:30:30being placed in karate class
00:30:32to calm down
00:30:34and focus all that energy
00:30:35but when it's not focused
00:30:37it can run amok
00:30:38who is ricardo medina to you
00:30:42well he's two different people to me
00:30:46the person that i met
00:30:48and the person that
00:30:51he truly is
00:30:53i met ricardo medina in 2014
00:30:57on a dating app
00:30:59about three to four years
00:31:01after he was from the power rangers
00:31:03we met at a lounge
00:31:06i was telling him about
00:31:07you know opening my rescue
00:31:09i ran a 100% non-profit
00:31:12animal rescue and humane pet store
00:31:15he mentioned to me
00:31:17that he was a dog trainer
00:31:19and that's what he does for a living
00:31:20i thought this couldn't be more perfect
00:31:22he never mentioned anything
00:31:25about hollywood acting
00:31:27being a celebrity
00:31:28i went to his home
00:31:29and he said to me
00:31:32something that
00:31:33just kind of creeped me out
00:31:34so i just got my car
00:31:35and i drove home
00:31:36i never even thought of him again
00:31:39for months
00:31:40until 2015
00:31:45i ended up getting a ranch
00:31:46in santa clarita
00:31:48a sanctuary
00:31:49for the dogs
00:31:50that weren't lucky enough
00:31:51to find a family
00:31:52it's really in the middle of nowhere
00:31:54i needed someone that could
00:31:57train these animals
00:31:59and i remembered
00:32:00my date with this dog trainer
00:32:02ricardo medina
00:32:03and so at this point
00:32:05ricardo was dating someone else
00:32:07i called him
00:32:09i said hey
00:32:09you know
00:32:09i have this idea
00:32:10i want to get a ranch
00:32:11he's like
00:32:12well i have the same idea
00:32:12i was like
00:32:13you do
00:32:14okay well
00:32:15great
00:32:16my agreement
00:32:19with ricardo was that
00:32:21i would pay for everything
00:32:22and that his duties
00:32:23were to care for the animals
00:32:25that i sent up there
00:32:26and literally from day one
00:32:28nothing was being done
00:32:29he didn't fix things
00:32:31he didn't care for the animals
00:32:33every time i would go up there
00:32:34he was always just locked in his bedroom
00:32:36and the house was always
00:32:39just filthy
00:32:40and that was another issue
00:32:42was him bringing his girlfriend
00:32:43she was never allowed to come out of the room
00:32:47i never saw her face
00:32:48that is antisocial behavior
00:32:52a bad antisocial
00:32:55you would not want to be around
00:32:56those are criminals
00:32:56and they do not care
00:33:00about other people
00:33:01except for what they can get from them
00:33:03so we'd leave letters on his door
00:33:05begging him to please just
00:33:07take care of the animals
00:33:08like he is supposed to do
00:33:10and just nothing from him whatsoever
00:33:12so the landlord went to the property
00:33:15and brought workers there
00:33:17somehow the workers spoke to
00:33:19ricardo's girlfriend through the window
00:33:21and he flipped
00:33:24like ran up to the guy
00:33:25and started screaming at him
00:33:26for speaking to his girlfriend
00:33:27through the window
00:33:29one day
00:33:32i told him it wasn't really working out
00:33:34and ricardo was screaming
00:33:36and that scary screaming
00:33:39like at the top of his lungs
00:33:41telling me that
00:33:42i'll never get rid of him
00:33:44and that if i do anything
00:33:46to try and get him to leave
00:33:48that he will release my dogs into the wild
00:33:50and from that moment
00:33:53i knew that i had to figure out
00:33:55a way to get rid of him
00:33:56joshua sutter
00:33:58he's my brother
00:33:59i always had my back
00:34:01always just loved his big sister
00:34:04unconditionally
00:34:05so i asked my brother
00:34:07josh will you just go and stay up there
00:34:10and do whatever
00:34:11ricardo wasn't doing
00:34:13the next day i brought josh up there
00:34:16and i talked to the landlord
00:34:18to evict ricardo
00:34:20and that was going to happen on february 1st
00:34:24day too late
00:34:26on january 31st
00:34:36i got a call
00:34:38the police drove me to the hospital
00:34:41to finally tell me that
00:34:43it was my brother
00:34:46that he was dead
00:34:48my phone started ringing
00:34:51and it was the media
00:34:53saying we would like to come interview you
00:34:55like right now
00:34:56the story was one of the power rangers
00:34:59killed somebody
00:35:00ricardo was brought in
00:35:03and there was an investigation
00:35:04january 31st 2015
00:35:09approximately 2345
00:35:11can you just go
00:35:12what happened there
00:35:13yes
00:35:13my girlfriend comes over
00:35:15josh has made
00:35:17numerous comments
00:35:19when she comes over
00:35:20that she's not supposed to be here
00:35:22apparently
00:35:24his girlfriend was there
00:35:25and the girlfriend reported
00:35:28that ricardo
00:35:28was acting
00:35:30just in self-defense
00:35:31he's saying that josh
00:35:58burst into his room
00:36:00and he had to defend himself
00:36:02and as soon as i turned around
00:36:04i just
00:36:05reacted
00:36:07he poked him
00:36:09with a medieval sword
00:36:10he had in his bedroom
00:36:11why is there a sword
00:36:13in his room
00:36:14in the police interview
00:36:19ricardo's narrative
00:36:20paints rachel's brother josh
00:36:22as the aggressor
00:36:23i have
00:36:25a sword
00:36:25next to my bed
00:36:27in case something happens
00:36:28he's like
00:36:28Conan barbarian
00:36:29it's literally three feet long
00:36:30ricardo was the red power ranger
00:36:35your girlfriend said
00:36:37you're an actor
00:36:38years ago
00:36:38what'd you do
00:36:39oh power rangers
00:36:40you're one of the rangers
00:36:41the actual rangers
00:36:42years later
00:36:44he actually came back
00:36:45to the show
00:36:45this time he was a part
00:36:46of power rangers samurai
00:36:48he played a villain
00:36:49and his weapon of choice
00:36:51was a katana
00:36:53which is a japanese sword
00:36:54have you had some type
00:36:56of training in martial arts
00:36:57i had like stunt training
00:36:59like when you sign the contract
00:37:00and you're a power ranger
00:37:01before you start filming
00:37:02my stunt guy
00:37:03teaches me specifically
00:37:04what i need to do
00:37:05my guess is
00:37:06he was the kind of guy
00:37:08that if he took on a role
00:37:09if he's a bad guy
00:37:10with a samurai sword
00:37:10that he would collect them
00:37:11practice them
00:37:13i think he truly believed
00:37:14that he is that power ranger
00:37:16and that's why he killed
00:37:17my brother in such a fashion
00:37:19he didn't do this on purpose
00:37:23this is stuff for fans
00:37:24his fans were doing fundraisers
00:37:26for him to send the money in jail
00:37:28i'm depending on you
00:37:30he'll never be guilty
00:37:31in their eyes
00:37:33there's something known
00:37:35as the halo effect
00:37:35where when you're used
00:37:37to thinking of somebody
00:37:38in a positive way
00:37:39that halo that surrounds them
00:37:41is difficult to pierce
00:37:42so there are fans
00:37:45that are so thoroughly
00:37:47let's call it indoctrinated
00:37:49into the world
00:37:51of power rangers
00:37:53that they become toxic
00:37:54and can be actually
00:37:56frankly delusional
00:37:57they think they know him
00:38:00because they saw him
00:38:00on a television show
00:38:01and our brains are wired
00:38:03in a certain way
00:38:04that if i think i know you
00:38:05then certainly you would
00:38:06never betray me
00:38:07by doing murder
00:38:08you're going to get out of jail
00:38:09you're going to get me
00:38:10welcomed back
00:38:11to the power ranger community
00:38:12with open arms
00:38:13am i arrested?
00:38:16yeah
00:38:16yeah
00:38:17so you can charge
00:38:17the policy
00:38:18but it was the third day
00:38:20he was in jail
00:38:21a reporter called me
00:38:22and he said
00:38:22they're releasing him
00:38:23and they're not going
00:38:24to press any charges
00:38:25from that moment forward
00:38:30i made it my life
00:38:34to basically solve
00:38:35my own brother's murder
00:38:37because no one else
00:38:37would do it
00:38:38when i arrived
00:38:42at the ranch
00:38:42the first thing
00:38:43i noticed was
00:38:44a perfectly intact door
00:38:47ricardo said
00:38:49my brother had kicked
00:38:50this door in
00:38:51but the door
00:38:53had absolutely
00:38:53no damage on it
00:38:54and neither did ricardo
00:38:58i read the autopsy report
00:39:02and it was clear
00:39:03that there was
00:39:04a struggle
00:39:05that went on
00:39:05with the sword
00:39:06the interpretation
00:39:07was that he was trying
00:39:07to pull the sword away
00:39:09i couldn't say that
00:39:10i almost wondered
00:39:10if those were defensive
00:39:11wounds on his hand
00:39:13ricardo said
00:39:16that he poked
00:39:17his roommate
00:39:17with a sword
00:39:18so i was looking
00:39:19where is the wound
00:39:20and how deep
00:39:21did it go
00:39:22he ran him through
00:39:23with the sword
00:39:24there's an exit wound
00:39:25on the back
00:39:26so he had to
00:39:29lunge at him
00:39:30with a sword
00:39:30put it through
00:39:32the right upper abdomen
00:39:34and the liver
00:39:35across his body
00:39:37through his lung
00:39:38out his back
00:39:40that's an extraordinary wound
00:39:42that's something you see
00:39:44in game of thrones
00:39:44not in a scuffle
00:39:46with a roommate
00:39:47a year after his initial release
00:39:51ricardo was charged
00:39:53with murder
00:39:53in march 2017
00:39:55ricardo accepted
00:39:56a plea deal
00:39:57to a lesser charge
00:39:59of manslaughter
00:39:59he received
00:40:00a six-year prison sentence
00:40:02i know there was
00:40:04a lot of red bar rangers
00:40:05but the face
00:40:06that i know
00:40:07that is the ranger
00:40:08is a killer
00:40:08it hurts
00:40:10because my brother
00:40:11wasn't a celebrity
00:40:12he was just a simple guy
00:40:14and because of
00:40:16ricardo's celebrity
00:40:18i feel that he
00:40:19really just got a slap
00:40:20on the wrist
00:40:21there's been hundreds
00:40:24of rangers
00:40:24and some of them
00:40:26are going to have
00:40:26mental health issues
00:40:27some of them came to us
00:40:28with mental health issues
00:40:29and they worked through that
00:40:30pua magasiva
00:40:32was the red power ranger
00:40:34on power rangers
00:40:34ninja storm
00:40:36when you'd see him
00:40:37on the show
00:40:38he was just beaming
00:40:39with a big smile
00:40:40on his face
00:40:41he was really proud
00:40:41of being the first
00:40:42pacific islander
00:40:43to be a superhero
00:40:44in an american
00:40:44tigga show
00:40:45he was just really
00:40:46proud of that
00:40:47feel good man
00:40:47take charge of your life
00:40:48get out there
00:40:49have some fun
00:40:50enjoy life
00:40:51be happy
00:40:51and on march 11th
00:40:532019
00:40:54he committed suicide
00:40:55and this was 16 years
00:40:57after having been
00:40:57on power rangers
00:40:58when i read the story
00:40:59about pua
00:41:00it's like
00:41:00there's got to be
00:41:01more here
00:41:02after his death
00:41:04a lot more information
00:41:05came forward
00:41:06his wife reported
00:41:08that there was
00:41:09extreme domestic violence
00:41:11typically when he was drunk
00:41:12in fact exclusively
00:41:13when he was drunk
00:41:14by her report
00:41:1415 days before
00:41:16he died
00:41:17he was sentenced
00:41:18of domestic violence
00:41:19against his wife
00:41:20he was concerned
00:41:22about his image
00:41:24as a hero
00:41:25as a power ranger
00:41:26you can tell
00:41:26he was deeply ashamed
00:41:28by the behaviors
00:41:30that were manifesting
00:41:31and losing
00:41:32his celebrity status
00:41:33disappointing their fans
00:41:35being disdained
00:41:37in some way
00:41:37may the power
00:41:39protect you all
00:41:40i'm thinking about
00:41:42the red ranger's lives
00:41:44because hua was red ranger
00:41:45ricardo was red ranger
00:41:47austin st john
00:41:49played the red ranger
00:41:50jason was also
00:41:52a red ranger
00:41:52who's your favorite ranger
00:41:53that's what i hear
00:41:54he played a red ranger
00:41:56in my season
00:41:57but not
00:41:58when the series started
00:42:00because we're using
00:42:06japanese footage
00:42:07the five original rangers
00:42:09were red
00:42:09yellow
00:42:10blue
00:42:10pink
00:42:11and black
00:42:12halfway through the first season
00:42:13this bad guy ranger
00:42:14shows up
00:42:15and he's a green ranger
00:42:16that fights the power rangers
00:42:18we're gonna say hello
00:42:19to the little kitties
00:42:20hello
00:42:21how are you
00:42:22i'm Tommy the green ranger
00:42:23jason david frank
00:42:25who was known as jdf
00:42:27was just 20 years old
00:42:28when he was cast
00:42:29in the first season
00:42:30of power rangers
00:42:31as tommy oliver
00:42:32the green power ranger
00:42:33his character
00:42:35blew up
00:42:35fans loved it
00:42:36he became the most popular
00:42:38that was the most watched
00:42:39and the ratings came back
00:42:41you know
00:42:41huge ratings
00:42:42everyone loved him
00:42:44jason
00:42:46he had this
00:42:47boundless energy
00:42:48get hit
00:42:49just almost like
00:42:51a wound up toy
00:42:51that just
00:42:52just flies around
00:42:53there was never a stunt
00:42:56or never a piece of action
00:42:58that he would say no to
00:42:59he was friendly
00:43:02he goofed around a lot
00:43:04Jeff with his camera again
00:43:06watching some of the later videos
00:43:09realizing there was something
00:43:11really dark going on in there
00:43:13this was not an easy decision
00:43:20because we kept everything very private
00:43:23my name is nicole frank ibarra
00:43:25i was jason david frank's sister-in-law
00:43:28i was married to his brother eric frank
00:43:30eric was the older brother
00:43:33jason was the younger brother
00:43:35jason david frank
00:43:36grew up in covina
00:43:38which is one of the
00:43:39outskirt suburbs
00:43:41of california
00:43:42and it was
00:43:44underdeveloped
00:43:45his dad
00:43:46had his own trucking company
00:43:47and there was times
00:43:48where they flourished
00:43:49and there was times
00:43:50where things got tough
00:43:51it sounds like
00:43:53he came from a situation
00:43:54where they were
00:43:54financially challenged
00:43:55you know
00:43:56i know they lived in the trailer
00:43:57their bathrooms were outhouses
00:43:59so jason and i came on
00:44:01our rangers about the same time
00:44:03and i remembered things
00:44:05that jason and i had talked about
00:44:06just things about family
00:44:08and there was some serious
00:44:09dark things going on there
00:44:12but he always pulled it together
00:44:14eric and jason
00:44:17were like two peas in a pod
00:44:19they had the same passion for
00:44:21martial arts
00:44:22both for black belts
00:44:23they really did call themselves
00:44:25the fearless frank brothers
00:44:27they really just had this
00:44:28crazy quirky bond
00:44:30i met eric
00:44:33when i had just graduated
00:44:35high school
00:44:35and at first
00:44:36i didn't like him at all
00:44:38he was
00:44:39he was arrogant
00:44:41he was funny
00:44:42and after a couple months
00:44:45of just getting to know him
00:44:46we were pretty much inseparable
00:44:47like my very first love
00:44:49jason got married in vegas
00:44:51first
00:44:51and we were part of their
00:44:54wedding ceremony
00:44:55and so jason was eric's best man
00:44:58so we went to the same chapel
00:45:00we got married in vegas just like they did
00:45:02jason was raising at that time a young family
00:45:06and same for us
00:45:09but eric always had a want to be on tv
00:45:14so he on the side where i was always taking acting classes and doing modeling gigs here and there
00:45:20but jason went from you know just being a neighborhood kid to all of a sudden being on a hit show
00:45:25when power just came out the power rangers are so cool and then the green ranger shows up and he beats all of them
00:45:33and you're like what like no one can beat all of them but in doing so you must be cooler than all of them you know
00:45:39the scene of just him doing his kicks and he's like green tank top and he always had like a bandana
00:45:46he looks great looks awesome fights awesome
00:45:49but also there's scenes with him and kimberly where he's soft
00:45:54will you be my date for the dance hat tonight
00:45:56i love seeing that side because he also has this huge heart
00:46:01everybody wants to see kimberly and and tommy kind of get together since they seem to have a little
00:46:06chemistry at least a little tension there
00:46:08i've been wanting to do that for a long time
00:46:10he was like a good-looking guy who was charming and in that way was more for their girl base
00:46:18he was supposed to be just a villain that came in for five episodes and eventually he gets turned
00:46:24back to the good and then leaves the show and that was the way it was supposed to be
00:46:28what happened was those five episodes actually aired monday through friday
00:46:33but on that friday afternoon in san francisco the show got a 99 share
00:46:38so that means that 99 of children 6 to 11 that were watching television in san francisco that day
00:46:45at that time were watching power rangers
00:46:47it's not just the tv show mighty morphin mania has invaded the marketplace
00:46:52i don't know if a lot of people know this but power rangers was the biggest selling toy in the 90s
00:46:56and of course the biggest selling power ranger was the green ranger
00:46:59the response from the audience was so overwhelmingly positive
00:47:03we had to do something
00:47:05so we went ahead and started finding other footage from other seasons and uh we found another ranger
00:47:10there's a lot of really iconic moments in power rangers but what was the coolest moment was probably
00:47:16when tommy stopped being the green ranger and you thought that he was gone from the show and you're like
00:47:21no my favorite character and then they're like well we also have this new character we're introducing
00:47:25you know the white ranger and you're like all right i guess he's he's not as cool as tommy
00:47:29and then he takes the helm up guess who's back you're like it's tommy you know it's like that
00:47:34was the coolest moment
00:47:35at the end of 94 the power rangers shot the first movie with 20th century fox
00:47:42the first power rangers movie had a 15 million dollar budget and it made 60 million dollars so
00:47:50it was an incredible success
00:47:51when they went to the premiere of the power ranger movie it was like almost beatlemania
00:48:00he loved their fans with his fans there's nobody better i remember when we were doing our adr at a
00:48:07studio down in burbank and uh he got there late and uh the reason he got there late is there had
00:48:12been a shooting some guy had gotten shot in his own driveway and this kid was there at the hospital
00:48:17was a power ranger fan when he got there he got on the phone got called saban made sure he sent
00:48:22toys over and personally went over and talked to the kid he did this on his own he didn't do it for
00:48:26publicity that's true that was him he was very popular i can't imagine being one of people
00:48:33magazine's 50 most beautiful people at like 18 years old here's jason david frank
00:48:38that was early on in power rangers i'm gonna do what you do okay
00:48:45it's like seeing jason as just a normal person and not in his costume
00:48:52he would have six bricks and he would break them
00:48:57this kind of shows you what type of showman he was
00:49:01i am felt strongly that anybody who started the show could stay as long as they wanted
00:49:08jason didn't want to leave
00:49:11and he keeps swapping out the regular cast but he stays on
00:49:13he played the green and white ranger in mighty morphine
00:49:16he played a red ranger in my season
00:49:18he realized the value of where he was and embraced it versus just constantly wanting the next thing
00:49:25in season four he actually comes on with his real brother eric and they play brothers in the show as well
00:49:33eric played david trueheart the long lost brother that tommy never knew he had
00:49:40my brother's in danger no david he isn't how do you know
00:49:44i remember this scene gosh it's been here since i've seen this this clip
00:49:50eric practiced it so many times it was like okay can i make myself cry should i cry should i not cry i remember that
00:49:57he wanted to nail it for himself but also for jason because he wanted jason to be proud of him
00:50:05eric's character was written in for five episodes and this is just the exact way that jason had begun
00:50:11and look how successful it had become for him so this could be the beginning of eric's rise
00:50:15you know we were hoping that eric would become the white ranger and as you can see he's wearing a white
00:50:20gi really led eric to believe that that was going to be the next step and that was the hope back then
00:50:27um but it didn't didn't pan out
00:50:29eric frank did his five episodes and that was it
00:50:34meanwhile jason moves on to the next power ranger season and to star in the second power rangers movie
00:50:40throughout the years eric had an acting coach and he was doing his acting classes but he didn't land
00:50:48anything
00:50:49i was 25 and i had a six-year-old a four-year-old and a two-year-old then there was one day just a normal
00:51:01day kids are playing video games i just made breakfast he said he was going to take a nap
00:51:10i said okay i'm gonna go play games with the kids
00:51:15and
00:51:18about 45 minutes later i thought i'm gonna check on him
00:51:24we had a big canopy bed
00:51:30he um
00:51:36i have a hard time saying that sorry he passed away from hanging himself
00:51:43five years after appearing with his brother jason on five episodes of power rangers eric committed
00:51:58suicide
00:51:58i think it had a lot to do with
00:52:03his career there was definitely jealousy he was feeling not as successful as his brother
00:52:10the last conversation that i can recollect of having with jason's when he came to my parents home
00:52:20shortly after we laid eric to rest and he just shared with me how terrible he felt about how he wished eric was still here and he wished he could have helped him and see him through this and he had a lot of guilt he had a lot of guilt
00:52:37my name is tammy frank and i am jason's second wife
00:52:52so we met in 2001 when we first started dating we were into each other and i just like felt so in love with him and he felt so in love with me
00:53:04one day he called and he left me a message in the middle of night crying he found out his brother had passed away
00:53:11he really flipped out he felt so guilty and just so much different feelings he felt for like seven eight years
00:53:19i think it's obvious that if you lose a family member you feel deeply connected to it's extremely painful but people that have major loss and don't deal with it properly and in depression
00:53:38that same year there was another tragedy within the power rangers family
00:53:47twi was actually one of the original cast members of power rangers that ended up being replaced
00:53:53twi trang was one of my best of friends and she was going to be one of my bridesmaids when i was getting married
00:54:00i gathered my bridesmaids twi and steph and decided to make a trip up to san francisco to meet my maid of honor
00:54:11once i got there we went out dancing that whole entire night the next day we headed back to la
00:54:19steph and twi were in the front seat while i was sitting in the backseat of the car
00:54:24at one point i unfastened my seatbelt and i pulled myself closer to them and right at that moment
00:54:35as we were going around the turn the car started to slide and drift out we're like hitting the bumps
00:54:43and the car started fishtailing violently and then i could feel the car spin and when the car spun the back of
00:54:52the back of the car hit the side of the mountain the car flipped like four or five times
00:54:59all the windows shattered i was catapult out of the little triangle window
00:55:06and i flew like 35 feet in the air landed on the left side of my head
00:55:11face down bleeding to death i was getting woozy and drained and then i just slowly checked out
00:55:22can i do another pressure release please i'm all like yeah and then do you mind to help
00:55:28uncross my leg for me because i was in the other chair for a week so being in this chair my body's
00:55:35like oh this is a different chair yeah the moment that i did wake up in the hospital i was paralyzed
00:55:42from the neck down i couldn't move nothing the doctor told my dad just be happy she's alive
00:55:48she has three to five percent chance of moving or feeling anything from the neck down she's now
00:55:53classified as a quadriplegic the driver miraculously survived the crash with minimal injuries
00:56:01so every day i was asking i need to know is twi alive
00:56:08twi was not wearing a seat belt and she did not make it
00:56:12instead of making a seat belt
00:56:15i was talking about the pain i was thinking of the way she could get out of your head
00:56:19and you think why why is it the good people
00:56:22and and why it has to be them
00:56:25to be them that i don't understand yes power rangers has a dark history is there a curse
00:56:34this is the power rangers curse given all the dark tragedies fans started to think that there
00:56:40might be a curse on may 13th 2009 he was found dead of apparent suicide robert l manihan he played
00:56:48the voice of zordon he also died we might have to make a documentary about the curse of the red
00:56:53ricardo medina jr who pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter after killing his 38 year old
00:56:59roommate if i were not a trained professional i would be convinced there was a curse but we have
00:57:05to remember that they were carefully selected for these roles and very young actors thrust into the
00:57:12limelight it often doesn't go well in the case of the power range things are about to get tremendously
00:57:23darker he's not a power ranger he's evil
00:57:27after five seasons and the second movie jason left the show right around the time that jason was
00:57:39divorcing his first wife after that lost his brother he met tammy and they moved to texas
00:57:45because that's where tammy was from there was a lot that like happened right in there
00:57:49he always wanted to have a dojo and so he just opened a school and he expanded it and when me
00:57:55and him got together i helped him run it but then when the studios realized that power rangers was kind
00:58:01of declining and they're like we need to bring back what we know will work and they brought back jason
00:58:05and he'd be like i want to do this because this is what the fans want it's not for my own ego it's
00:58:11because what the fans want if the fans are happy then everything is great
00:58:15in 2002 they had a special reunion episode with just all red rangers we all came back jason was
00:58:25on set and it was this big fight sequence that happened
00:58:28and that would became the most popular episode by far jason david frank embraced his role as a power
00:58:35ranger for three decades and then he became the black ranger and he's so much older now than the
00:58:45kids that are on power rangers you know everyone else in there is a teenager now he's in his late
00:58:4820s early 30s jason david frank starred in over 100 episodes it was actually 225 episodes
00:58:56but i was the longest running ranger he had to like correct them he had to make sure that they got the
00:59:02stats right 2013 was the 20th anniversary season i mean check this out look how amazing this stuff is
00:59:13our last episode was called the legendary battle legendary rangers free ones we were bringing all
00:59:20the power rangers together they're all here we all got actual goosebumps watching them walk up
00:59:27and when jason david frank came up to us that we were all very intimidated to me because that's
00:59:36the ranger that is all of our childhoods that is he's the coolest guy ever he was important to the
00:59:43franchise in that he became the face of the show
00:59:47jason david frank is interesting because he is an actor who then built his career and his branding
00:59:56around power rangers he really leaned into the fandom i mean he did hundreds of conventions and
01:00:01then over the course of four years he made a youtube channel that was just about him going to these
01:00:06conventions i love you jason love you too love all y'all comic conventions they've been going on for
01:00:15years it's an opportunity for fans that want to meet some of their celebrity crushes and to take
01:00:21pictures with them for jason his lines were ridiculous i met some of his fans that would go
01:00:29and see him four or five times around the world you have all the big stars are you know stanley robert
01:00:35downey jr and jason's line was equally as long as everyone oh my god no stanley i'm not about to let
01:00:42any time to fight without saying hello to my favorite power rangers
01:00:47he had this thing called last fan standing where he would wait till everyone has gotten what
01:00:55they wanted he would change his flights change his hotels just so he can accommodate everyone
01:00:59that was everything for him i think he probably had a convention signing almost every weekend
01:01:08jason david frank and i'm in new york city right now knoxville tennessee puerto rico dallas comic-con
01:01:14orlando san paulo brazil jdm jdm jdm jdm jdm i would see fans come up to me on the street and
01:01:24they're like i met jason at a convention i told him that i was having troubles at home my mental
01:01:29health was deteriorating he's like and jason gave me his email jason gave me his number and he goes one
01:01:34night i was thinking about you know taking my own life and i called jason he stayed with me on
01:01:38the phone for a couple hours i could tell you tons of stories of people coming up you know people
01:01:42crying to me about how much jason affected their lives and i think jason felt like he didn't do
01:01:49enough to help his brother that he wasn't there enough and because what happened to jason and losing
01:01:53his brother it gave him a great deal of compassion and empathy to all his fans that he extended tenfold
01:02:01to them depression add suicide is an ultimate high right now no one's paying attention to it
01:02:09everyone's paying attention to everything else so if you guys are dealing with depression or
01:02:14suicidal thoughts or whatever we got to get through it together the problem with jason he is not trained
01:02:19to manage people coming at him with very serious mental health concerns needs it's overwhelming it's
01:02:27scary and it could be incredibly dangerous yes here we are
01:02:36phoenix comic-con thank you thank you thank you at phoenix comic-con a person came to the convention
01:02:45with a bunch of guns
01:02:46i said hey you might want to keep a lookout for this guy because he's he's saying crazy things
01:02:53and sure enough they're able to apprehend him and find him phoenix pd identified him as 29 year old
01:03:00matthew sterling
01:03:00so in his possession was body armor pepper spray combat knife 12 gauge shotgun 245 caliber handguns
01:03:11a revolver a stun gun and throwing stars and in his home was evidence of perfecting a kill shot
01:03:19matthew said that he was the punisher which is a comic book character who punishes people for
01:03:27doing wrong and on his phone calendar he had an alert for that day and it read kill jdf at comic-con
01:03:34what is jdf or who is jdf this is a transcript of the interview these detectives don't know who jdf is
01:03:44they're probably not really watching power rangers so they're trying to find out what the point of that
01:03:48calendar invite was jdf is is uh jason david frank can you take me into why you would want to
01:03:58make a scheduled event to kill jdf i always do that because this is a cane addict a cocaine addict
01:04:04you go down to comic-con today you got an arsenal of with you and you're hot you're pissed off
01:04:12you admitted it yourself definitely do not care for him i can't stand him he's not a power ranger he's evil
01:04:19i have hatred for what he is he's corrupted a power ranger he's not a power ranger he's not he's a drug dealer
01:04:29we don't know where the cocaine addiction allegations have come from we don't know if he has any real
01:04:35knowledge or not we just know the allegations what if he died would you feel any remorse no
01:04:41if matthew sterling is one of these green power ranger fans where jason is a hero and if you found
01:04:51out he was less than that it might upset him if you were to kill him that would be punishment right
01:04:56that would be punishment matthew sterling was dressing up as the punisher and really believed in sort of
01:05:02this retribution for people who weren't behaving right and he felt like jason was disrespecting
01:05:07the power ranger's name your full name matthew and great king of aros sterling he was sentenced to 25
01:05:13years in arizona state hospital the fact that they sent him there for 25 years is extraordinary
01:05:18usually people get three years five years two years 25 years is serious business i want to let you know
01:05:25that i'm okay everything is fine and uh i prefer not talk about it it's changed quite a few things
01:05:33as a result when i was with the rangers in a public serving we had security all around us
01:05:37especially after the jason frankinson what is the most challenging or difficult thing about being a power
01:05:44ranger just about anything i think i'm the type of guy trying to make everyone happy jason was really
01:05:50young when he started doing this work he was in his 20s but now he's in his 40s and he is still
01:05:56predominantly known for this one thing he did it's still most of his professional life be brave be
01:06:03strong the power ranger stereotype has hurt a lot of actors people just wrote it off as a kid show
01:06:08jason being one of the originals had that stigma he wanted for people to look at him like serious
01:06:15that's the only thing he didn't want to be known only as power rangers
01:06:19in 2021 he started working with his friend aaron to make their own action movie called legend of the
01:06:24white dragon jason wrote this new character and the character's name is eric which was named after
01:06:31his brother this was his new focus he's like i want a role that's really emotional very gripping
01:06:37no silliness no corniness this was kind of his role to kind of show a darker side
01:06:42having known jason for 10 years you could tell that there was stress there were elements the
01:06:48way he was acting some of the builder range that i've known him longer i remember a few of them saying
01:06:53like hey i'm kind of worried about him some things changed we started to text less frequently
01:07:03netflix started to cast for a power rangers reunion called once and always
01:07:06that he was done with power rangers for a while jason was my everything like i would cook for him in
01:07:17bed tickle him to sleep massage him i mean kiss him always say you're so hot you're so beautiful
01:07:23lots of sex but then about after four four or five years i noticed that i can never fulfill like
01:07:30with an empty a dark hole and like it was never enough can never be enough i don't know i can't
01:07:38feel whatever's in you and that's why he had multiple multiple affairs i mean with lengthy affairs
01:07:46with many women i didn't know at the time that was going on he actually wound up leaving june 30th
01:07:52and i didn't know why he turned his phone off and i had no way to get a hold of him so i had to file
01:08:01for divorce to get his attention i mean that's the truth i had i felt like i needed to do something
01:08:12i saw him at paramorphicon and his whole demeanor was different
01:08:16he just did not look like himself to me he just looked a little bit more withdrawn there was a
01:08:25sadness to him that i hadn't seen before he gave me this really long hug and just said that he loves
01:08:33me and he's going through a lot right now he pulled me aside and he just revealed to me something that
01:08:40had happened the conversations that we had that some of them i'm going to keep to myself but i will tell
01:08:45you this he was really struggling with some stuff and i think that that's when i realized there was
01:08:49something else at play here that i hadn't seen before did it have to do with power rangers no
01:08:57and did this have anything to do with tammy the the conversations had nothing to do with tammy at
01:09:02all so yeah i want to make sure i communicated that feeling like he's a burden to other withdrawing
01:09:08from meaningful activities hearing depressed these are all very troubling signs but on the flip side
01:09:13had recently been posting on facebook where he seemed positive it is jdf the green ranger white
01:09:19ranger red ranger red zeal black dino thunder now my new movie the legend of the white dragon i just
01:09:27thought that he would pull himself out of that because this new project was coming up that he was
01:09:31so excited about i'm so excited to see you guys november 25th 26th and 27th
01:09:37i just needed to talk to jason finally he agreed to go to a country bar
01:09:52he was just like so happy he's like i miss you god i feel excited and i was too
01:09:57we were having a great time we didn't leave the bar until after two like the lights were on
01:10:02we got to the hotel we were talking he was like okay i'm gonna go shower and then i'm like i gotta
01:10:11get food i gotta get snacks okay i love you i go downstairs get snacks
01:10:19i try to come back get down the key i was banging on the door tammy begs the front desk to let her back
01:10:26be in the room i tell her he's in the room just open the door they decided to call the police
01:10:45it's early in the morning and you know the family called me and just just told me that
01:10:54what had happened i was at my apartment and i got a phone call from aaron
01:11:01his tone was different i was on my way
01:11:07to a signing and another ranger came to the door she um she said that jason's gone
01:11:16jason david frank jason david frank the original green power rangers was dead in his texas hotel
01:11:24bathroom jason david frank's wife has confirmed that the power rangers star's death was a result of
01:11:30suicide he's my best friend and above all i miss him as my family member really this one hit me pretty
01:11:39hard because there's rumors flying around about you know what happened to him he was found with a
01:11:46hair dryer cord that he had torn off and put around his neck i was shocked because he did it in
01:11:55around the same manner as his brother i'd love to know why i'd love to know why he didn't speak to people
01:12:02to me when somebody has everything going well and he has things to look forward to and yes he's got
01:12:08some frustrations and resentments but he's doing well suddenly kills himself it's confusing to fans
01:12:14but i think i know exactly what happened
01:12:19eric and jason they really did have a rough upbringing
01:12:24and there was you know some um you know jason had some abuse growing up not saying with his mom
01:12:31and dad at all i'm just saying there is abuse and then people are so embarrassed to even get help
01:12:37with talking about abuse they were talking about adverse childhood experiences the
01:12:44sort of the worst of course is abandonment neglect sexual abuse physical abuse these all add to
01:12:49adverse childhood experiences the way the brain works with trauma is we literally wall it off from
01:12:55a wiring standpoint so it feels like it's out there somewhere not bothering me something i've dealt with
01:13:01i don't want to think about that again jason wanted to rise above and find positive outlooks
01:13:10that's what drew jason to fighting originally the problem is that when people really have those
01:13:17sorts of experiences they usually get into some kind of formal setting of treatment white knuckling and
01:13:25struggling and trying not to be human being and be a superhero it doesn't work for the human being
01:13:30you know we all have our jason stories
01:13:42i did not talk to anyone about anything i just kept all of it inside until you guys started talking to
01:13:50me i've never spoken about it at all he was the guy that i worked with throughout the years on power
01:13:57rangers but during the beginning there were issues with someone close to him and drugs what was going
01:14:02on he just couldn't um you know he couldn't smile
01:14:12he was talking about suicide
01:14:17so i hope this doesn't make people upset at me but
01:14:20i told him i felt maybe when i was done with everything i wanted to do maybe i would rather
01:14:29do that than just shrivel up in a hospital bed and he agreed this was what he wanted to do
01:14:35so i said okay buddy i told him this was a decision we would make when we were older
01:14:41but just not today i told him let's just get up one more time go back to one and let's just start
01:14:52shooting and we'll just do take after take until you like it and then you feel better and he did
01:15:01jason loved being like synonymous with the power rangers and what they stood for but he was broken in many
01:15:07ways right around the time that jason lost his brother he also lost a few other people that were
01:15:14very close in his life people that he would go to and talk to jason told me he like they had to
01:15:20detain him like they had to arrest him because he was just like hysterical like he was just out of his
01:15:25mind like crazy in my experience that's when you see people retreat into drugs
01:15:31and he's been talking about demons for a long time i'm scared because the chosen one gets attacked
01:15:39a lot we all do get attacked by the devil we have dots and suicidal depressions man we got
01:15:46we got this we got that people with depression don't talk about demons they talk about depression
01:15:53people with suicidality talk about troublesome thoughts and it scares them people who talk
01:16:00about demons the devil and fighting are almost always talking about behaviors that they can't
01:16:10control it's either addiction or trauma that's the only time those words are used are you a fighter
01:16:17it's like yeah i'm a fighter you fight the you fight the devil all the time and when they're in
01:16:24treatment or they've been treated that language stops everyone looks it's like hypocrite hypocrite it's
01:16:30like you know what you got to do is you got to consistently fight the devil 24 7 24 7. and then
01:16:38when i found his toxicology holy
01:16:47included in jason's toxicology was a medication for bipolar disorder so he had bipolar disorder
01:16:53he was described on set as having boundless energy can you see the ranger the green ranger
01:17:01that is heading towards what we call hypomania and the risk of hypomania you can frequently plummet
01:17:06into depression and they can be quite severe
01:17:11he was found with the whole range of substances in his system
01:17:15he had ambien ambien is a sleeping medication they also had clonopin clonopin is a anti-anxiety
01:17:26medication ambien and clonopin is a powerful synergistic combination that causes people to stop breathing
01:17:36so if you're going to die of a pharmaceutical overdose it's going to be this combination
01:17:40none of these are bad medications it's just when they're not used for specific reasons
01:17:47then it becomes profoundly dangerous what can happen is that people who are struggling with drug
01:17:52addiction will suddenly get frustrated and do something to themselves like take their own life
01:17:59where people get hung up is they go well why did he do drugs in the first place he did drugs in the
01:18:03first place because he had trauma and that trauma is walking around in such intense pain that you
01:18:11can't imagine living with it and you find something that relieves it for the first time in your life
01:18:18you're going to go back to that a few times nobody's fault none of that is anybody's fault
01:18:22and i don't know why he didn't embrace treatment do you know why he didn't you want to do therapy yeah
01:18:34definitely he was too embarrassed honestly and it was all about he didn't want his perception he
01:18:40didn't want people to think he was crazy weak or he had he was like problems jason definitely felt
01:18:46like he wore two different masks and he felt like he wore a mask with a lot of his fans he didn't want
01:18:51to be weak for them the problem with idolizing any celebrity particularly a celebrity where the fans
01:18:57need that individual to be a superhero is that it's impossible to live up with that
01:19:03so awesome but fans were demanding it as a celebrity you have an obligation to people to your fans
01:19:14and to your family and i've lost my brother i've lost a lot how long was this uh this was in uh 2021
01:19:21questions 21 21 21 so a year before these celebrities kill themselves do you realize how many fans are hurt
01:19:29and how many fans are killing themselves because that particular actor killed himself i've never
01:19:36seen that video before it was interesting that he mentioned that the obligation that they have i suppose
01:19:40maybe the pressure his role on power rangers and his life in hollywood was his mission it was his
01:19:48purpose it gave him meaning but it was also i suspect the liability that prevented him from getting the
01:19:54treatment he needed so everyone out there that can help someone go help someone he doesn't want people
01:20:01to see him that way it should be him reaching for help not offering to other people
01:20:10so with legend the white dragon the premiere will be i think probably one of the hardest things
01:20:16because the joy of the project was i wanted to stand up there with jason after the movie
01:20:23and watch everyone you know give him you know his standing ovation that he deserved i wanted to look
01:20:29at him and go he got the respect that he wanted you know and just don't get to do that now
01:20:41yes it power rangers has a dark history is there a curse it depends on your definition of a curse i hear
01:20:48about the power ranger curse i always thought it was more of a curse in terms of future employment
01:20:54hard to get new jobs get stereotyped as a you know power rangers your expectations as a young actor
01:21:00that gets a show is this is easy and then you know any setback you're just frustrated why am i not doing
01:21:06this why am i not this guy and now you're like no no i'm this guy and i'm happy to be this guy
01:21:10so now it's years later you've you see where you are you see your place and you go wow this is
01:21:16amazing you don't get this being at nypd you make a lot more money than i did but you don't get the
01:21:22satisfaction i'm often asked if i could go back and change anything would i my experience got me to
01:21:30where i am right now so i appreciate my time on there it wasn't always cookies and cream but it
01:21:39made me this person that i am today when you put on the suit for the first time it is the coolest moment
01:21:47ever there's a sense of responsibility with it as an actor like you are like a role model
01:21:53it's great to have idols i'm all about people looking up to superheroes but we all have weaknesses
01:22:04we all have shortcomings including the actors that play superheroes when the cameras stop rolling
01:22:10let's be empathetic let's be supportive let's not insist that people be other than the human beings they are
01:22:23what's the answer the mercy my friend just hanging himself stop asking questions and call me right now
01:22:50when the show started it wasn't so sweet so do you love me or hate me i'm one of the victims of one
01:22:56of the housewives i think the majority of people don't know the true story