This week: Austin St. John looks back at the unaired pilot, the people who shaped Jason’s leadership, and the fan memories that keep the original series alive.

The first time you watch something, you are simply trying to figure out what happens next.

When you return years later, the story may be exactly the same, but you are not. A scene brings back the room where you watched it, the people who were sitting beside you, or a part of your childhood you had not thought about in years.

For fans, the first episode of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers can unlock all of those memories at once. For Austin St. John, looking back is a little more complicated because the first version he filmed was not the episode audiences eventually saw

Before Power Rangers officially premiered, Austin and the original cast filmed a pilot that looked very different from the finished series.

There was another actress playing Trini, a different actor playing Skull, and a female punk character who disappeared completely when the show was reworked. The pilot was also much more violent than what eventually aired, so the cast was brought back to film it again.

That means the first time fans met Jason was not the first time Austin played him.

More than three decades later, even Austin cannot recall every detail of those early days without something prompting the memory. A photograph, a convention panel, or a story from another cast member can suddenly bring back a moment he had completely forgotten.

When Austin sits beside Walter Jones, David Yost, Amy Jo Johnson, or Paul Schrier, he often finds himself quietly listening. One person remembers what happened in front of the camera while someone else remembers standing ten feet away and seeing the entire moment from another angle.

Together, their memories begin filling in the pieces.

Austin’s first look at anything resembling Power Rangers may have happened during the audition process.

The producers showed him only a few seconds of Japanese footage featuring the Red Ranger performing martial arts poses. There was no explanation of the larger story, and they did not show him the Japanese actors whose footage would later be combined with the American scenes.

The first time Austin saw more of the Red Ranger was inside a small recording booth. He watched the suited character move across a television screen and recorded the grunts, reactions, and dialogue that would become Jason’s voice during the action scenes.

At the beginning, all Austin really knew was that the producers wanted “teenagers with attitude” and that he was reading for the Red Ranger.“I thought it was just noise,” Adu laughed, listening back to a rescued mini-disc. “Turns out it’s the hook.”

With almost nothing else to work from, Austin had to decide what kind of leader Jason would become.

Austin did not build Jason by studying another superhero. He looked at the leaders he had already known throughout his life.

His mother was one of the first female police officers in her department during the 1970s. She faced people who actively wanted her to fail, yet continued proving that she belonged there.

His father began his military career as an enlisted Marine and eventually became a major. He was also a martial artist, giving Austin an early view of how leadership could change depending on the people, environment, and responsibility involved.

Austin’s own martial arts training added another layer. He earned a black belt at a young age and was required to teach other children, which meant learning how to explain, encourage, and correct rather than simply performing the techniques himself.

Those experiences shaped the version of Jason he wanted to play.

Jason did not need to be the loudest person in the room. He needed to remain steady, understand the people around him, and know when someone else had the knowledge he lacked.

Austin believes fear can make people follow directions, but it usually creates only the minimum amount of effort required to avoid getting in trouble.

Inspiring someone produces a very different result.

A good leader explains the goal, makes the important expectations clear, and then gives talented people enough room to create something better than the leader may have imagined alone.

That freedom comes with risk. People will make mistakes, and sometimes those mistakes will be significant. Austin does not see that as a reason to control every decision.

It is an opportunity to take responsibility, fix what went wrong, and keep moving.

For Austin, accountability is not the same as living in guilt. A leader should be able to say, “I made the wrong decision,” explain the solution, and help everyone move toward the next step.

That idea was built into Power Rangers from the beginning. The characters failed, lost confidence, made bad choices, and occasionally became evil versions of themselves. What mattered was that the team continued fighting to bring one another back.

Fans shared memories of discovering Power Rangers in completely different places and at completely different times.

One first watched the Japanese Super Sentai series while visiting family in Korea, then returned home and became hooked on the American version. Another remembered watching Dino Thunder at three years old with a Red Ranger plush nearly as large as he was. Someone else recalled fighting imaginary Putties in a dirt field with his mother’s butter knife.

The details are different, but the feeling is familiar.

The show is connected to Saturday mornings, childhood homes, family members, friendships, and versions of ourselves we may have almost forgotten. Watching an episode again does not only bring back the Rangers’ story. It brings back our own.

That is why Austin continues asking fans to tell him where they were when they first discovered the show. Some answers make him laugh, others bring him to tears, but every story adds another piece to what Power Rangers became.

Where were you the first time you watched Mighty Morphin Power Rangers? Share your memory in the comments, then watch the whole video here to hear Austin revisit the original pilot, Jason’s leadership, and the fan stories that still surprise him.

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