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In 1993 Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers was one of the biggest television shows in the world. The live-action superhero show combined Super Sentai footage from Japan with original American footage to create one of the most profitable franchises of the ‘90s. Thanks to licensing and merchandise, Power Rangers brought in over $1 billion in a single year.

Yet the stars of the series were virtually broke.

Walter Emanuel Jones and Austin St. John starred in the first two seasons as the Black Ranger and the Red Ranger before leaving the series over contract disputes. The two actors recently produced a video for Fanward, where they spoke about the small paychecks they received while working on the show.

“The TV show itself was non-union,” Walter began. “Originally, we got a contract, and the contract was not that great. We were told, ‘Hey, you could take this contract and show it to your lawyers or to your agent, but first person that comes back and wants to change anything, we’re going to fire you.’”

It turns out this was not a bluff. The producers fired the original Yellow Ranger, Audri Dubois, even though she had already filmed the pilot.  

“Of the original five, before Thuy Trang came onboard, there was a wonderful girl. Her name was Audri Dubois. And after the pilot got picked up, she knew then that we were going to get screwed. She went to Haim Saban and was like, ‘Hey, this is jack. You need to pay us more.’ And he fired her. And he liked her. They got along,” Austin recalled.

Austin St. John also recalled the pressure tactics the studio gave him when it was time to sign his original contract.

“It was a week before my 18^th birthday. I didn’t have a parent there. I didn’t have an agent, because I wasn’t an actor. I didn’t know anything. I could remember them looking at me, and I was like, ‘Uh, shouldn’t I have my mom or dad here, or an agent?’ And they looked at me and they’re like, ‘There are about 300 other people outside that door that will sign that if you don’t.’”

According to Austin, he was asked to post-date his contract when he signed it in order to avoid the complications surrounding his age.

“The experience was amazing, although it wasn’t something that made us wealthy,” Walter said. “We were broke,” Austin added.

Because the show wasn’t union, the studio was able to pay the actors and crew lower fees.

“I could remember a lot of the crew coming to me off camera being like, ‘Man, you guys should go union. Look at what they’re doing. You guys are getting screwed.’ Because the crew, they were getting paid even crappier than we were,” Austin said.

Being on the biggest children’s television show wasn’t enough to support them, so the actors were forced to find other ways to pay their bills.

“We started doing car shows,” Walter recalled. “Right now, we’re doing comic cons, back then we were doing car shows. Because now we were understanding our worth. In a weekend we would make what we would make in an entire season, which was crazy. It was like, ‘Hey, we just made that in a weekend? Signing autographs? Just signing my name? We’re signing autographs, and in a weekend, we’re making more than we made in the first season, and that’s crazy! That’s three days, compared to how much time we spent filming 40 episodes.”

The salary issues eventually led to Walter Emmanuel Jones and Austin St. John leaving the series, along with their costar Thuy Trang. Power Rangers wouldn’t become a union show until Hasbro acquired the franchise in 2018. Austin and Walter have returned to the franchise a few times over the years, and when they have, the pay has been better than car shows. However, the two actors are still regulars on the convention circuit because they love interacting with the fans.

“You guys are still with us, and we appreciate you,” Walter said with gratitude.

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How to watch the Power Rangers TV series and movies in order.