TV Review #8: Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters From Beverly Hills (1994 - 1995)

 

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was probably the biggest hit of the decade of 1990s for kids shows. At least the biggest hit from the years 1993 to 1996. Pokemon probably beat it out but man for a few years that shit was BIG. GABBY HAYES BIG! When you are big like that people tend to rip you off. or cash in. There's a bit of a difference. a Cash in is something similar but still different where as a ripoff is something that's just the same damn thing with a different name and you don't understand how they didn't get sued like there was no tomorrow. Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters from Beverly Hills would fall under the ripoff category. This was literally Power Rangers with different kids. 

It pretty much does EVERYTHNING Power Rangers did. Four teenagers (this time sans attitude) are given super powers by a blobby creature named Nimbar (who apparently has a hand somewhere inside that blobby body of his. I wonder how the hell his body works, also voiced by the fat gay dude from Beetlejuice. How cool is that!?), Nimbar is kind of a jerk. They have to stop a guy named Gorganus who wants to talk over the planet Earth because it has Power Portals that will help him take over the universe. Of course he does this with the help of GIANT RUBBERY ASS MONSTERS. I love GIANT ASS RUBBERY MONSTERS. That's what made me a fan of Power Rangers, sure I enjoyed the goofy SAVED BY THE BELL type antics too BUT what made it great was THE GIANT RUBBERY ASS MONSTERS. I will never stop loving GIANT RUBBERY ASS MONSTERS.  I enjoyed the casts interacting with each other. Laurie, Drew, Gordon and....Swinton. I don't believe anyone has ever had the name Swinton. In fact I refuse to.  They were your usual group of teen characters you'd see in Saved by the Bell. The Poet, the Preppy, the Cheerleader and the Nerd, but the actors honestly play them pretty well but dip into the tongue in cheek kinda acting which works well for a goofy show like this. One episode has Gordon the Preppy wish for the Cheerleader to end up in bra and panties. No joke. That actually happened on a kids show. Man the 1990s was a wild time.

Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters from Beverly Hills ran for only one season, from October 30th, 1994 to December 9th, 1995 on apparently USA Cartoon Express but I'm sure it appeared other places too. It never came on Canadian TV because I would have remembered a show title as amazingly goofy as Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters From Beverly Hills. I would have watched the hell out of this show as I did with all of the other Power Rangers ripoffs at the time. That shit was my jam at 8 years old. The show was created by our good pals at DIC Animation, yep. They did live action too. They did Zoobilee Zoo (that creepy creepy show with the weirdly awful animal costumes), Hey Vern, It's Ernest (the mother fuckin Ernest show. Clearly the best thing they ever did) and ANOTHER Power Rangers ripoff called Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad. I like how they had to misspell Cyber to get that to work but I'm glad they did! 

Final Verdict:  This show was the cheesiest thing that ever cheesed. I like how when they fight the monsters they become COMPLETELY different stunt actors. One of the girls even changes her race! It's great!  I miss DIC. I miss Ernest. I miss the Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad. I even miss those creepy Zoobilee Zoo assholes. I miss being 8.