Within the Nineteen Nineties, no TV present outlined my childhood higher than Mighty Morphin Energy Rangers. I’d have given something to be one of many teenagers chosen by Zordon to defend the Earth from evil… however these emotions have modified since I watched a latest documentary obtainable with a Max subscription.
The third episode of Hollywood Demons, “Darkish Aspect of the Energy Rangers,” reveals some heartbreaking information concerning the stars of the long-running franchise that I had by no means heard earlier than, similar to particulars relating to the dying of Tommy Oliver actor, Jason David Frank, or that authentic Crimson Ranger actor Austin St. John was arrested for fraud. Nonetheless, there was one upsetting behind-the-scenes story that I used to be conscious of and was shocked to search out it was not even briefly talked about within the doc. Enable me to shed some mild on the subject.
The Unique Blue Ranger Actor Was Bullied For His Sexuality
The unique iteration of the Energy Rangers, Mighty Morphin Energy Rangers (which was truly the American replace of Japan’s Tremendous Sentai Zyuranger), solid David Yost because the Blue Ranger, Billy Cranston. In a 2010 interview with No Pink Spandex, the actor first publicly acknowledged that he was homosexual, and likewise revealed that his sexuality affected his time on the present. He was known as an offensive slur on set sufficient occasions that he feared it will lead him to take his personal life.
After Energy Rangers Zeo premiered, Yost walked away from the present in 1996, and spent the following two years attempting to “pray the homosexual away.” This ultimately brought about him to have a nervous breakdown, for which he was hospitalized for 5 weeks. Afterward, he determined to maneuver to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, for a yr, the place he was capable of be taught to just accept his true self.
David Yost Would Reprise Billy Years Later
Regardless of his traumatic reasoning for initially leaving the Energy Rangers franchise, Yost didn’t fully put his “morphin time” behind him. In newer years, the actor has actively attended conventions the place he’s celebrated for his time enjoying Billy. The truth is, his exit from Energy Rangers Zeo wouldn’t be the final we noticed of him within the blue go well with.
In 2023, Yost starred in a Netflix-exclusive, 30-year anniversary particular known as Mighty Morphin Energy Rangers: As soon as & At all times, which additionally reunited him with Walter Emanuel Jones as Zack Taylor, Karan Ashley as Aisha Campbell, and extra from the unique collection. That very same yr, he reprised the position as soon as extra for an episode of the thirtieth iteration of the franchise, Energy Rangers: Cosmic Fury.
The subject of David Yost’s struggles was truly within the information as not too long ago as 2016, when Bryan Cranston (who performed Zordon within the 2017 reboot) apologized for making an offensive joke about Yost’s sexuality throughout a 2009 interview with IGN, which makes his exclusion from “Darkish Aspect of the Energy Rangers” all of the extra stunning to me. Nonetheless, he fortunately did handle to endure his trauma and are available out on high, which, because the doc reveals, fairly a number of of the franchise’s stars can’t say. I suppose the producers of Hollywood Demons have been extra involved with the extra tragic tales, however I nonetheless really feel Yost deserved a couple of minutes to inform his.