(Continued from Part 1)

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Tom: How did "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" come about?

Tony: Well, as I said before I was a part of the "brain trust" that Haim would call on from time to time. I guess I was next up in rotation to work on a project and was called into Haim's office. Waiting there was the head of development, Ellen Levy Sarnoff. Haim entered the room and told us that he wanted to show us something that he had just brought back from Japan. It was a live action show called "Zyu-Rangers" and featured these giant latex-monsters and all these people jumping around in different colored spandex. He wanted us to find a way to extract all of the monster scenes and all of the scenes featuring the helmeted spandex clad heroes in action, and then build an American show around it. I told him he was out of his mind, but he paid me a salary, and so Ellen and I went to work on it. We started by basing it on an earlier attempt by Haim and his partner Shuki Levy (no relation to Ellen) to do a similar kind of show around the Japanese character called "Bio-Man". Haim had been convinced for quite some time (over 8 years) that a show like this would be popular in the US. We developed the concept - which was called "Dino-Rangers" at first - and I wrote a pilot episode. We shot it in the fall of 1992 and FOX Kids agreed to air the series. I still wasn't certain that kids would really embrace this show, but it didn't take me long enough to become a convert. I brought one of the first episodes we completed to my daughter's third-grade classroom. It was amazing to watch them watch the show. While the program was running you could hear a pin drop in the classroom. As soon as the picture went black for what would normally be a commercial break the kids would break out into excited and animated conversations about the show. As soon as the show started again you could hear a pin drop once again. After the viewing I asked the kids some questions about the show. In one viewing these kids already knew the names of the characters, their respective colors, their character names and the "DinoZaurs" they used. The kids got it. By the time the first show aired we knew it was going to be popular. But none of us had the foggiest idea that it would become the phenomenon that it was. It took us all by surprise, including Haim who came up with this crazy idea and footed the bill to make it.

Things changed for me quite a bit when Power Rangers hit the air. Prior to Power Rangers I worked mostly on animae programs such as Samurai Pizza Cats, Funky Fables and Wowser, and I wrote and produced a lot of sales and promo presentations. I also wrote and supervised an award-winning animatic video based on "The Jungle Book". Once Power Rangers came about it was like riding a rocket. I was in charge of the scripts and story for the first 40 episodes and then moved over to post production to supervise the looping work. That really occupied my time for a couple of years. I was also in charge of the live-action shows the original Power Rangers cast did the first couple of years. The most memorable of these live show was our first. I was to stage the Power Rangers first public appearance. It was to be at the Universal Studios theme park. They booked us into the small "American Tail Theater" (which no longer exists) and I was to write and produce a short show in which the cast would perform a few moves accompanied by some driving music and some simple pyrotechnics. The day before the show, Universal informed me that they were being inundated by telephone calls. A decision had been made to move us into the Universal Amphitheater. Because of that I had to completely restage the show at 5am the day of performance. Much to our surprise and delight, 50,000 people showed up to see the Rangers in action. Universal had to turn about 20,000 of them away. The CHP had to close down the off ramps on the Hollywood Freeway that led to the theme park because the crowds were causing a huge traffic jam. We filled the 6500 seat theater six or seven times that day.

As I said before, I really spent most of my time concentrating on the looping and postproduction of the show and that turned into a department for me at Saban Entertainment. All the live action shows Saban created during that period was handled through my team including VR Troopers, Saban's Masked Rider and Big Bad Beetle Borgs. In 1994 when 20th Century Fox decided to a movie version of MMPR, and I was sent to Australia (where they were shooting the movie) to supervise looping for the TV series so that we would complete all of our fall sweeps episodes on time. We still had 13 unfinished episodes when the cast left for "down under". I was supposed be there for three weeks. As it turned out, there were production problems plaguing the film, and they got very behind. It became clear that the Rangers would not be returning to the US in time to shoot the episodes we needed for February sweeps, so I was asked to stay and produce the episodes we needed there in Sydney along with Executive Producer Shuki Levy. My three weeks down under turned into almost three months. We ended up shooting three episodes there that became among the most-highly watched of the series.

I left the Power Rangers at the end of the third year, though I stayed at Saban Entertainment. I continued writing shows, including episodes of Power Rangers, The Power Rangers Live Touring Show. I moved on to produce a number of specials for FOX Kids and FOX Family, including "Gotcha!" starring Paul Rodriguez, worked on special projects and Co-Executive Produced and Co-Directed a movie called Rusty: The Great Rescue starring Hal Holbrooke & Rue McClanahan, When I left Saban (now Fox Family Worldwide) almost three years ago my title was Executive Producer of Special Projects.

Tom: How was your experience at the tenth anniversary Robotech convention? (Robocon 10)

Tony: It was really fun. All of the voice actors there had known each other for years. But because the nature of how the series was constructed (three different shows combined to make one), I didn't know that many of these actors had worked on the series. We got a terrific response from the fans and it was great to see that so many were still into the show. I know we all felt very appreciated. The most fun I had was when several of us read a scene live to the picture. It was nice to be together with everyone.

Tom: What is Rick Hunter to you?

Tony: A dangerous question. At first, I used to say that he was your average 17 year-old jet fighter pilot of the future, but that's kind of simplistic. He's a pretty complex character, he's brave, but he's a wimp. An absolutely talented soldier who absolutely hates to fight. He can't make a decision about women to save his life. As a result he's one of the most interesting characters I have ever played, because he's multi-faceted. He's a likable guy, in a lot of respects. A sensitive guy, who does what he needs to do though he seems perpetually confused.

Tom: How do you feel about "The Sentinels"?

Tony: I was disappointed in not being able to do more than three episodes of the Sentinels series. The way the story was being steered, Rick was to be a little less confused and a little more complicated - more of a classic hero. I had the opportunity to read some of what Carl Macek was planning for the series - It was going to be great, but circumstances prevented it from happening.

Tom: What are you doing now?

Tony: These days I'm an independent producer, writer and I'm back in the voice game. I'm currently working on a couple of series as an actor including "Vandread", where I play the main character, which I understand is coming out soon on DVD. I've written quite a bit in the last year including Mon Colle Knights on Fox Kids and have done a bit of voice direction on that show as well as on Transformers and I do a bit of singing including a song for Walker, Texas Ranger last season. But my pet project right now is called Exploration Planet. This is a brand name for a series of new programs both live and on TV that will bring some the many entertainment techniques that have been developed over the last few years into the educational realm. We are developing animated and live action shows for television, publishing properties for the book and computer markets and a thing called the Exploration Planet Encounter in which we will bring some of the characters and shows we develop directly into schools and use them to help teach kids about life skills and critical thinking. Our first live show is in production as we speak and will be performing at elementary schools in the Bradenton/Sarasota FL area starting in late April.

Tom: Would you like to work on Robotech again?

Tony: In a heartbeat! I loved the show, it's been very good to me. It's been 16 years later, and we're still talking about it. So the answer is an unequivocal yes. I'd love to work on Robotech again in any capacity.

*****

Would you like to interview Tony Oliver? Now is your chance to ask your questions to Tony, who has agreed to field fan questions. The questions will be forwarded to him and his answers will be posted in a couple weeks!

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