Samuell Benta's Operation Overdrive Theme Song - Disney Rejected

Before Power Rangers Operation Overdrive (season 15) aired in 2007, Samuell Benta created and submitted his own song to the list of demos to be considered as the theme song for the show. Benta was also a Rap music artist in addition to being an actor in Britain. However, Disney rejected his "Operation Overdrive" track and chose another demo instead.

I don't think his chorus is that bad compared to the official Overdrive theme song. He can sing better too. It would have been nice if the song was used at least once in the entire season somewhere (maybe in a focus-episode about his character Will?). One of the reasons why I think Disney did not select his song is because of lyrics such as "Black ranger 'cause I'm black!" and "This ain't a program on Sci Fi!" Samuell Benta is the 2nd actor to be black and play a black ranger. Walter Emanuel Jones was the 1st with his role as Zack the Mighty Morphin Black Ranger. There was a controversy way back during the first season of Power Rangers about the black ranger being black and the yellow ranger being yellow (Asian). Disney probably didn't think of it much when they cast Benta as the Black Overdrive Ranger. The lyrics from his song probably brought it to their attention and thus, they figured that there was no way they could use Benta's song without creating a controversy. Hence, the final selection of another song. Either way, they are both rap songs that sound too terrible to be the official theme song of the Operation Overdrive season. Power Rangers has used mostly Rock songs in the past and it makes sense because the show is action-packed which goes really well with the high energy of Rock-style music.

You can listen to Benta's "Operation Overdrive" track below:

Operation Overdrive (Live version) at Power Morphicon 2007:

Saban Registers PowerRider.Org

Photo Courtesy of GoseiYellow from RangerCrew

News has broken that Saban Entertainment recently registered the domain "PowerRider.Org", but there is currently no working link to the site as it is could be under construction at the moment. Our sources come from Liam of the Henshin Justice Unlimited forums. To those who are wondering why Saban didn't register "PowerRider.Com", this domain is already taken. Hence, the alternative .org instead. The acronym "org" is to define sites for organizations (usually non-profit) while "com" is for commercial organizations/companies. However, Saban Brands/Entertainment is all about money and so is his company, so I won't be surprised if they eventually switch to ".com" when that domain becomes available. As for the current ".org", I don't think Mr. Haim Saban would get in trouble for using the .org. It's probably just a name extension that mostly identifies with non-profit organizations, but doesn't necessarily have to be restricted to them. Profit organizations can use it too, but it's more preferable to use .com since that name mostly identifies with profit companies. 

Saban's POWER RIDER - The Next Kamen Rider Adaptation?

It has been announced that Saban Brands filed a trademark for the name, "Power Rider." The request document can be found on the United States Patent and Trademark Office website. Shout out to username Poweranimals from Rangerboard and Rangercrew for sharing the news and link.

Many PR fans believe that this could be a working title for the next Kamen Rider adaptation due to the word "rider." Others predict that Haim Saban might actually go with the "Power Rider" name and adapt Kamen Rider Decade since the character appeared in the Shinkenger/Decade crossover footage that was obtained for PR Samurai from Toei. This nicely sets things up for Power Rangers Samurai to introduce Decade to the audience and give him a spin-off show just like what happened with the Masked Rider/Mighty Morphin Power Rangers crossover years ago in the 90's. It would be Saban's 2nd time adapting Kamen Rider and would be the 3rd adaptation overall in America. The 2nd and most recent one was Kamen Rider Dragon Knight from Adness Entertainment and the first was Saban's Masked Rider, of course.

Given that Masked Rider and Dragon Knight were commercial failures (although KRDK was a success in Japan), I will give Power Rider a chance...that is, if Saban really is making an adaptation. 3rd time's a charm right? I would think that people would learn from the past Kamen Rider adaptation mistakes by now and hopefully make the show successful this time around. However, if this new trademark name has nothing to do with Kamen Rider, maybe it's just a name for the Samurai Rangers' bikes as some fans think. Get it? Power Rider....Power Rangers riding on motorcycles called Power Riders!

Christopher Khayman Lee - NEW LOOK 2006

Hey everyone! I was just surfing around on the RangerCrew forums and I stumbled across a picture of Christopher Khayman Lee that someone posted. Yep, that's right. He played Andros the Red Space Ranger in Power Rangers in Space and this is what he probably looks like nowadays. I did some research and found out that the photo is from the set of an independent film production called "Miles From Home" with Chris being the assistant producer. The film won Awards at the 2006 Independent Black Film Festival. Don't know if he still has the long hair now, but you can see his ponytail in another photo on their Myspace page. I didn't recognize him at first until I read people's thread posts. He has gotten bigger since we last saw him on Forever Red. I noticed he gained a few pounds when watching the episode back then, but now he's put on a lot more weight. There are people on the forum site stating rumors such as Christopher being a fanatic who is addicted to X-men video games and that he really believes he is the reincarnation of some vampire. I'd love to see him make an appearance along with his other Space ranger co-stars at a convention one of these days! We need to give him some motivation to get back into acting. Maybe he could possibly return to Power Rangers in the future either as Andros for guest appearances or a new character similar to Ricardo Medina Jr. returning to play the evil Deker instead of Cole Evans the Red Wild Force Ranger.

Top Left Photo Courtesy of ForeverRanger

Power Rangers Samurai Comic-Con Panel Video 2011

The Official Saban's Power Rangers Youtube channel finally posted a 30-minute video of the Samurai cast panel at the 2011 Comic Con San Diego! Paul Schrier (Bulk) hosted a one-on-one interview with the rangers and then a Q&A from the fans. There were a lot of interesting questions and it's so nice to see Hector David Jr. (Mike/Green Ranger) act so outgoing and connecting with the fans with his PR knowledge. It really shows how fun it is to be part of such a huge franchise and that it is possible for a fan to work their way to become a Power Ranger like Hector has done. Now, here is the video. Enjoy! Samuraizer! Go Go Samurai!

Photo Courtesy of Saban's Official Facebook Page

Questions in the video:

- Tell us how you feel about yourself & your place in the Power Rangers casting? (1:19)
- Did you watch any of the shows before yours? (3:30)
- Can each of you tell us about a nostalgic memory you have of watching the original PR? (4:59)
- Do you guys see yourself hopefully making a PR movie? Bulk as a ranger in future? (7:07)
- We only saw a little bit of Bulk & Spike interacting with the cast in 1st season. Why? (9:07)
- Bulk, what do you like about Samurai & what don't you like as your character? (9:49)
- How do you guys feel about the series compared to the original Shinkenger? (12:00)
- How do you feel about being on Nickelodeon? (4:20)
- Have you watched any of the other Super Sentai series besides Shinkenger? (15:17)
- Where would I look for casting calls for Power Rangers? (17:42)
- Is there any chance of the white ranger (Tommy) appearing in the show? (19:28)
- What does Alex (Jayden) think of teaming up with 20 red rangers, 2nd Forever Red? (20:19)
- Since you guys have been cast, have you guys been wearing your colors more often? (21:05)
- Girl rangers, how do you feel about being role models for little girls growing up? (23:39)
- Are the Disney era seasons in continuity with Samurai? (24:41)
- Will there be an episode where all the rangers from every season come together? (25:38)
- Which of you (cast members) is the serious one, the funny one/prankster in real life? (26:15)

Power Rangers Samurai at San Diego Comic-Con International 2011!

The newest team of Power Rangers from the new Saban Brands make their appearance at this year's San Diego Comic-Con convention! The cast of the current Samurai season will be featured in their own Q&A panel called "The Origins of Samurai Power Rangers" on Saturday, July 23 at 7:30 pm, says a source from TVGuide.com. There will also be an exclusive sneak peak of a brand new Never-Before-Seen episode which will be moderated by Paul Schrier, the actor who played Farkas “Bulk” Bulkmeier from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers to Lost Galaxy and recently returned to play the same character in Samurai.

Photo Courtesy of Henshin Vault

Omnicon 2011 - Johnny Yong Bosch & Jason David Frank Q&A Panel

Former Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Johnny Bosch (who played Adam Park) and Jason Frank (who played Tommy Oliver) answer questions at the McAllen Convention Center for Omnicon 2011. The following videos were filmed at the convention by TheJediwarrior2012. I will include special notes for each one. Enjoy!

Part 1: 
- Introductions, Once a Ranger (6:42), Forever Red (6:57), JDF's Favorite Scene (7:18) 

Part 2:

- Silliest moments while working on PR (0:03), Injuries from double flips (3:57), Skydiving (6:34), Working on Dino Thunder with younger generation (8:05)

Part 3:

- Does JYB hate frogs? (0:34), Pranks (1:00), Stunt doubles in suits? (1:40), JDF's favorite ranger color (2:41), Bleach & Hollow Ichigo laugh (3:23), Strikeforce (4:59), JDF says "It's Morphin Time!" (5:57), Will JDF do Anime voice work? (6:50)

Part 4:

Part 5:

Ricardo Medina Jr. Joins the Power Rangers Samurai Cast!

The rumors about Ricardo Medina Jr., who played the Red Wild Force Ranger, are true. He now plays a new character named Deker. You can see his human form for the 1st time in the PR Samurai episode, "I've Got A Spell On Blue."

Samurai Theme Song/Opening

The opening theme song to the PR Samurai season is finally here! Thanks to Saban, it sounds so much like the Mighty Morphin theme, an updated metal rock version of it. Rangers together, samurai forever!

Power Rangers Samurai - Bulk RETURNS!!

There has been many rumors floating around when Saban Brands announced that it would have "Surprise Castings" for the upcoming Samurai season. Some sources have led fans to believe that Paul Schrier and Ricardo Medina Jr. are going to return to Power Rangers once again. We recently discovered from Saban's announcements that Paul is reprising his comedic role as Bulk from the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers! He is the last original cast member to leave the original season and is the 3rd MMPR member to reprise his role. The 1st was Jason David Frank, who reprised his role as the legendary Tommy Oliver in the Dino Thunder season, and the 2nd was Johnny Yong Bosch, who reprised his role as Adam Park for the 15th anniversary special in the Operation Overdrive season. Although Bulk won't be part of the main Samurai cast, he will be a recurring character who spends his time teaching his nephew Spike. Who is Spike anyways? Well, he is none other than the son of Bulk's best friend Skull!! They do look extremely alike. Many fans wonder is Kimberly Hart is the mother of Skull's son, but that would mean that Skull had to have gotten the girl pregnant in high school. We all know Kim is smarter than that right? Maybe it's not her after all. As far as the rumors go for Ricardo Medina Jr., the actor who played Red Ranger Cole Evans in PR Wild Force, we don't know if he's been casted for sure. Even is he was casted, would he reprise his role or play as a new character? This just gets more interesting because we all want to see how Saban makes Ricardo's character look different than when he was on Wild Force. Anyways, be sure to take a look at these previews of the one and only "Bulk," Bulkmeier!

PR Samurai PROMOS

Check out these awesome Samurai Promos as we wait for the exciting premiere on Monday, February 7th, 2011.