Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Trick or Treat

For all the shade I cast on the 1990s there is one aspect of that decade I wouldn’t change for the world, television. From American Gladiators to The X-Files with everything like Brisco County Jr and The Critic in-between it was a time for some great tube. For a kind obsessed with TV there were countless hours of pure viewing bliss available. Being a kid however meant there were two key forces competing for attention, Nick and Fox, the latter of which changed the game when they delivered Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. A bizarre mixture of poorly written teenage antics mixed with the colorful action of Japanese tokusatsu had a pull over kids that still exists to this day if not nearly as strong. Naturally as a boy in just the right age range I was hooked from moment one, and though I eventually bailed on the franchise (somewhere around Zeo) it inspired a love for toku along with crafting memories that last to this day. We all know there's one thing better than a favorite old show and that's holiday episodes. Yep, all that preamble was just to announce that I wanna talk about a Power Rangers Halloween episodes, well sorta.

Funny thing about memories is how much they bend to the will of deductive reasoning. For years after I’d stopped watching Power Rangers I remembered that fun Halloween episode where they fought a giant pumpkin. Most of that memory held true except that it actually wasn’t a legit holiday ep and originally aired in May! This was an odd tradition for the series with multiple installments matching the holiday in every way other than the important detail of actually being based in October. Even so Trick or Treat still has more than enough fun little touches to rank among more legit Halloween specials thanks to the likes of pumpkins, fog, costumes, and a grown-ass man in a cheap Dracula cape.

The episode begins innocently enough with every Americans boys childhood crush, Kimberly doing one of her gymnastic routines before informing some of her friends that's been selected to appear as a contestant on a show called Trick or Treat where she will attempt to win a new car. Tommy informs the audience that this is America's most popular game-show. Above all else this is the sort of fantasy that makes this episode endearing. The thought that America’s favorite game show would be entirely themed around Halloween. For a kid the basic idea was purest mana. Who wouldn’t love a syndicated dose of ghostly games every weekday? Damn thing would be like a regularly scheduled appointment with a mood table. The conversation soon turns to wonderment of who her opponent might be which seems like a foolish waste of time when there's only around nine primary human characters in this show and I'm fairly certain Ernie isn't allowed to leave the juice bar. Sure enough Kim will be competing against her frequent sexual harasser, Skull. What's worse is she won't be able to rely on boy toy, Tommy who has to attend a karate championship across town.

Meanwhile on the moon a horrible witch and her platoon of space goblins discuss schemes involving the planting of evil pumpkin seeds. I love to imagine a world where someone tunes into this show with zero knowledge of the basic premise only to witness a scene like this and scratch their head in equal parts astonishment and confusion.

Now it's time for Trick or Treat. Remember that this is supposedly the biggest game show in the whole country, Jeopardy be damned. The concept is contestants ask host, Monty Conte trick questions. Should they put one over on him they earn a point and the chance to play games of physical dexterity... kinda. For instance Kim plays a wheel of misfortune game that consists of her just being strapped to a wheel and spun around. My guess is she loses if she hurls. By comparison Skull's game makes significantly more sense as he must climb a rope web to collect large rubber bugs before a spider prop swings in and vomits foam in his face. A whole lot of this game seems to revolve around puke. Call me crazy but either the idea of this game-show being highly regarded is total crap or the population of the Power Ranger universe is far less picky about their entertainment.

In order to keep the viewers from loosing interest the entire game-show segment is frequently interrupted by the solo adventures of Tommy who stumbles across a rotten pumpkin patch, in a public park mind you, before causally strolling off. Feeling the need to expose their handiwork the villains sick some putty patrolers on our lamebrained hero. From that point on the audience is treated suffers whiplash between game segments and hair-metal guitar solos while Tommy demonstrates just how many roundhouses he can perform in a row. It's jarring, stupid, and god help me, hilarious. What's better is after smiting his foes Tommy calls up Zordan to report on Rita's pumpkin patch of eternal evil only for Zordan to report back that he already knows about it, what the hell man, and for Tommy to just mosey along to his karate match. These are the people responsible for the safety of planet Earth.

Returning to the Kim's storyline, What Trick or Treat lacks as a game show premise it makes up for with presentation. Monty Conte hosts from a gravestone podium equipped with electric candles which I swear will one day be the basis for a mood table. His co-host is one-half bride of Frankenstein and one-half Elivra. There are pumpkins, fog, and poor lighting choices ahoy. Best of all both the contestants and audience members must attend in-costume.

Let's run a costume contest here. Honestly I'd place Kimberly at the bottom of the list as her pink princess outfit is both generic and a bit of an eyesore. Next up is Billy who's costume is decent but doesn't quite match with his comrades who were clearly aiming for a three musketeers group effort. Instead he looks like a blue playwright. Bulk comes in a little higher by attempting the difficult task of being an overweight toilet-paper mummy. He manages to pull it but it's still a trashy costume. Zack and Jason tie for their musketeers suits. Trini comes out swinging in a midriff bearing genie costume, good on you sister. Without a doubt the winner is Skull whose prisoner outfit includes allusions to Jean Valjean in a stunning bit of cultural awareness for a show where teenagers kick space-monsters.

Speaking of kicks, it's finally time for the thing every kid really tuned-in to see, some action. Zordon finally calls in the kids about the evil pumpkin issues, despite said fruit doing nothing of note so far, which results in Kimberly having to forfeit the game to go save the world. Zipping over to the command center the teens are informed that the pumpkins can attach to a persons head rendering them incapable of sight or the ability to breath. Naturally upon arrival at the pumpkin path four of the rangers immediately place the deadly gourds next to their heads to investigate which, as expected, leads to them slowly dying from fruit-based asphyxiation. As the only power ranger not dumb enough to tempt fate it's up to Kimberly to provide fruit surgery to her friends.

With the four dullards out of danger it's time for the next phase of battle consisting of two whole rounds of new pumpkinheaded putties (oh my Christ have I used the word pumpkin a lot). More than anything this scene reminds me why I was so enamored with this series. Here's a group of proactive teenagers clad in skintight colorful dinosaur costumes using martial-arts to take out gourdmen from beyond the moon all while awesome metal music blats through the speakers. It's heaven through the filter of an 11-year-old boy drunk on his mothers wine-coolers.

After slaughtering a forty or so putties the team can finally tackle the big bad of the week, a monster legendary for its tacky nature, The Pumpkin Rapper. As the name implies he's a pumpkin, who spits mad rhymes, and has a tendency for tying people up, points for double-meaning in the name. Despite warnings from Zordon that this monster distracts people with rhymes all five heroes stand allow the beast to make a mockery of basic English all while disarming them and engaging in his twisted pastime of plant-bondage. Time to call in Tommy to save the day which causes him to forfeit his karate tournament. Quite efficiently in fact as the fight only lasts another thirty-seconds or so upon his arrival.

In a rare twist there is no giant-robot battle in this episode. The reason for this stems from the footage source. After the producers ran out of usable Super Sentai footage they managed to convince Toei to film brand-new fight scenes which are commonly refereed to as Zyu2. Only some of this material was used due to issues like being too violent, suggestive, or even sacrilegious, and in this case the giant fight was shelved until a later episode where it got recut with footage featuring different robots which is an absolute mess. Regardless of senseless usage this fight, like most Zyu2 battles, was some of the most enjoyable nonsense to ever appear on this series.

Evil vanquished it's time tom move onto the moral of the story. Tommy and Kim both mope about their shared losses until realizing they don't have to win in order to feel like winners, though it'd certainly help. That's when Bulk and Skull arrive to show off the new wheels. Their triumph doesn't last long before a woman claiming to be a producer arrives and claims they are to be stripped of their winnings due to cheating and takes off with their ride. I should note the producer never actually provides proof of her identity and could just be a great thief. Or maybe that's just how things work in Angel Grove, making it the one place where claiming to be a boob inspector is guaranteed to nab you some action. As is customary of so many episodes, Bulk endures physical injury when his mummy costume is caught in the car door as the “producer” speeds away. Everyone has a hearty laugh at the injured chubby guy and the credits roll, man this show is twisted.

All things considered, Trick or Treat is a pretty stupid piece of television. Even so it still has the power to instill some real seasonal spirit into the viewer. It hearkens back to a time when you didn't sweat Halloween details like building decorations or buying the bucket of batteries required to make them run flawlessly. It's entertainment for those who are at the mercy of someone else's checkbook. Those who adore small gifts from outside sources such as the existence of pumpkin putties. This show can still provide that tiny rush of gratefulness so long as you can tolerate or enjoy the dumber aspects of the show. I for one love the feeling this late in the month when it fills like there's so little time to enjoy all that's left. Not unlike smelling the roses it can pay to watch a girl in pink spandex punch fruit off her dumb friends heads. May we never forget such simple pleasures.