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About the Series:
Staying Power
by
Elizabeth
'Fatima' Bales
Much to the
bemusement of former production staff members, GR (as it's
known among fans) has sparked a loyal, almost cult following
in the years since it first aired in 1986.
The show boasts a fairly tightly knit fan community that maintains two Internet mailing lists (although one generates very little traffic) and a number of Web sites. Writers produce fan fiction, or fanfic, that continues the rangers' stories and explores new ideas. List members meet regularly on
IRC
to chat about the show, discuss fan fiction, and just shoot the breeze. Some staff members are in touch with the fan community: two of the writers lurk on the mailing list, and others have been receptive to contacts by individual
community members. Those fans who can manage it even meet in person at
RangerCon, a small gathering (usually in Seattle, Washington) that, at its fourth
year in 2001, is making a fair bid at becoming an annual event.
A series of 13 videotapes was released while the show was running, but at
$69.95 a pop, they were outside the price range of many fans at the time. Nowadays tapes are extremely hard to come by, though fans dub free copies for each other while hoping for an official
re-release. It's not uncommon to find GR memorabilia being hawked on
eBay, either--one more sign that the show has a small but faithful following.
Although the characters and the universe are probably the central draw, some fans also cite the show's refusal to take itself too seriously as a major
attraction. Comedic stories abound, and the dialogue is liberally sprinkled with references to '80s culture, music videos, Westerns, and Japanese animation. Writers even gave Niko one line cribbed from the animated Beatles flick "Yellow
Submarine." Catching the in-jokes can be half the fun.
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