Power Rangers did Billy wrong, both the character and his real life actor. For anyone who didn't know, David Yost was sexually harassed by crew members over his homosexuality, which is a large part of, if not the primary or only reason he quit doing the show.
But what inspired this post was that I'm watching the show and early on in the episode the putties (Rita throw-away offensive line) have surprised attacked the protagonist in their civilian forms while playing basketball. I'm watching, and I'm seeing everyone fight the putties BUT Billy. Jason, Tommy, Trini, Kimberly, Zach, all of them are fighting, martial arts and all, but they have Billy yelping and just barely evading some obscure assault aimed at him (and then it looked like an accident at that
as opposed to him consciously dodging an attack), and then just kind of moving around
looking like he was doing anything. I know he is supposed to be the "geek" and all, but that turns out to be a detriment to his character at much needed times like this. As Blue Ranger, Billy (or, the blue-suited hero that is
supposed to be Billy) showcases behavior that is nowhere in the realm of what Billy the civilian is capable of, and that's exactly why they didn't have him fighting the putties in civilian form on the basketball court, because they know it would look like "wtf?
" Suspension of Disbelief just doesn't accommodate the drastic change in nature of Billy in civilian form and Billy in Blue Ranger form. Everyone else is believable, but the writers dropped the ball on Billy.
I mean, replayed in the beginning of every episode is the iconic footage of Zordon calling for the initial formation of the Power Rangers team: "Recruit a team of teenagers with attitude." (toofunny2: ) How on Earth was Billy pulled with that criteria? Because the writers surely wrote a character void of any sliver of attitude. You will also notice that the writers of Power Rangers gave a martial arts and/or gymnastics background to almost all of the protagonists to subliminally explain how they're able to perform all of the complex martial arts, jumps, and flips, performed in the Japanese Super Sentai (the original incarnation of "Power Rangers," a Japanese show for anyone who doesn't know) footage used in Power Rangers. But Billy has SQUAT for such background! Nothing. So viewers get the smart and total geek complete with stereotypical glasses and overalls in Billy's civilian form, and then the completely continuity-fallacious ass kicking Blue Ranger. How the hell can he do that (nearly everything he does a Blue Ranger)? He can't! Just as we saw on the basketball court!
Luckily this changes in season 2. But
season 1, I mean
