Power Rangers Back With Some Answers
When last we left the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, they were on the brink of destruction. Their Zeo Crystal had been shattered, its pieces flung to the winds; their temporary helpmates, the Alien Rangers, had fled Earth; and the Power Rangers’ steel-girded command center had exploded, leaving them powerless and fearing that their master, Zordon, had perished.
Devotees among 2- to 11-year-olds were left, back on Feb. 17, with a kiddie version of a cliffhanger. Granted, it hasn’t created quite the buzz of “Who shot J.R.?” on “Dallas,” or “Who shot Mr. Burns?” on “The Simpsons.”
But the idea was the same: to whip up renewed interest in a well-established series that, being so familiar, had seen its ratings level off.
Taking a gamble with the most popular children’s show on television, the Fox Children’s Network put “Power Rangers” into reruns, then began vigorously promoting a new version, “Power Rangers Zeo,” in which the cliffhanger questions will be answered.
The new show arrives Saturday morning, complete with new characters in new uniforms and new Zords, the vehicles the teen-age Rangers command.
For more than two years, “Power Rangers” has been the highest-rated children’s “strip,” a show running five days a week. Last November, its Friday slot was given over to the new “Goosebumps,” a series based on R.L. Stine’s horror stories.
“Goosebumps” is the highestrated single show among children under 12, averaging a 7.2 rating. (Each point represents 959,000 households.) “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” has been averaging a 5.7 for five days a week, Monday through Thursday plus Saturday morning.
Fox obviously thinks that the “Zeo” version will reinvigorate the show: the network ordered enough new episodes to carry the series through August 1997.
ABC yanks ‘Muppets’
ABC Entertainment continues to fine-tune its faltering lineup in preparation for the May rating sweeps, which get under way on Thursday, April 25.
Friday, the network announced it is pulling “Muppets Tonight!” after this week’s broadcast for an indefinite rest pending a return in a new time period “to be announced shortly.”
After Friday, the Muppets will be replaced in the 8:30 time slot by “Boy Meets World,” which “Muppets” had displaced on March 8. The change is designed “to maximize” the network’s Friday TGIF lineup during the May sweeps.
Although the Muppets gang got great reviews from family entertainment-starved critics, it’s averaged only a 7.9 rating and a 14 percent audience share in its first five outings, compared with the 10.5/18 that “Boy Meets World” had averaged previously in the same time slot.
Bartender quits ‘Murphy’
Raise a glass for Pat Corley.
The actor, who plays the bartender Phil on CBS’ “Murphy Brown” will serve his last on-air beverage at the end of the season.
Corley is leaving the series to pursue other acting opportunities. As previously reported, Grant Shaud, who plays neurotic executive producer Miles Silverberg, will also be leaving at season’s end.
Corley recently appeared on ABC’s “Murder One,” and has been in the films “Bad News Bears” and “The Onion Field.”
Reinhold gets sitcom
Judge Reinhold (“Beverly Hills Cop,” “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” “Ruthless People”) will star in “Secret Service Guy,” a pilot for a Fox series about a security guard who joins the Secret Service and is assigned to protect the President’s daughter after inadvertently saving the President’s life. Michael McKean (“Larry Sanders”) co-stars.