Bio-Man

This article is about a/an pre-series in the Power Rangers franchise.

Bio-Man was an American television pilot developed by Haim Saban in 1986 serving as a one-episode adaptation of the Super Sentai series, Chodenshi Bioman. Although it didn't result in a series, Saban would later successfully adapt the 16th installment of Super Sentai, Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger in 1993, starting the Power Rangers franchise.

Production[]

During a trip to Japan in the 1980s, Haim Saban had watched Chodenshi Bioman in his hotel room and became fascinated in the idea of multi-colored spandex superheroes defeating rubber monsters, later adopting an idea similar to Stan Lee's previous idea of adapting Taiyo Sentai Sun Vulcan. The process of doing so was not at all similar to the Dynaman parody that had aired on television that same decade, which was an English dub of a Super Sentai series, but rather splicing the original Japanese footage in varying ratios with newly filmed scenes featuring English-speaking actors together. As a result, Saban successfully created one episode of Bio-Man and pitched it to multiple networks.

However as many networks turned the idea down for various reasons, Margaret Loesch, who was head of FOX Kids at the time, had noticed the similarity of the pitch Saban had submitted to the one Stan Lee had years ago. In 1993, the idea was given the green light, the Bio-Man pilot was ultimately scrapped and unaired in favor of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, which adapted a more recent Sentai as Chodenshi Bioman was considered outdated.

Story[]

Bio-Man is a "space adventure series" about five kids with identical "bio-rhythms" who defend Earth against Zadar's attacks, an evil half-human, half-robot villain who wants to conquer the world. ^[1]

Characters[]

Main article: Bio-Man (team)

Rangers[]

Color	Role	Actor
Biorhythm Red	Victor Lee	Mark Dacascos
Biorhythm Green	Zack Taylor	Miguel Núñez
Biorhythm Blue	Billy Cranston	Tom Silardi
Biorhythm Yellow	Trini Crystal	Tricia Fisher
Biorhythm Pink	Kimberly Harte	Rebecca Staples

Allies[]

Alpha-5

Villains[]

Zadar

Notes[]

Ultimately, Bio-Man was never picked up due to various reasons that have been revealed since:
- Chodenshi Bioman was considered outdated, leading Saban and Losech to adapt the more recent Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger instead.
- Several of the original actors were participating in a United Actors Guild dispute at the time, meaning they would have had to be recast if the pilot was picked up.
The pilot's title card shares the same font as the Bioman logo from the Techno Brace.
Footage from the pilot was reused in a promo Saban Entertainment made for Bandai in 1992 entitled Galaxy Rangers using Zyuranger footage instead of Bioman footage. It can currently be seen on bonus disk one of the MMPR boxset as a hidden easter egg.
- Although the pilot footage wasn't revealed entirely, a snippet from the first episode of Bioman was used in the Day of the Dumpster pilot.
Four out of the five main character names were carried over to Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (with Trini's surname changed to Kwan and Kimberly's to Hart).
Though the Rangers of both Bio-Man and Chodenshi Bioman were referred to by color, Bio-Man's Rangers designated with the prefix "Biorhythm", whereas the Bioman's Biomen were designated by a number instead, e.g. Red1.
Both Dacascos and Núñez Jr. have acknowledged their involvement in the pilot as precursors of Power Rangers.^[2]^[3]