Bruce Kalish

This article is about a/an producer and writer in the Power Rangers franchise.

Bruce Kalish

Bruce Kalish is the former executive producer and head writer of Power Rangers, he joined the series in 2005 when Disney requested a fresh direction for the new season Power Rangers: SPD. Amongst his other credentials include work on Black Hole High, The Fall Guy, Jett Jackson, and The Incredible Hulk.

Kalish's style brought a whole new feel to the series, such as more comedic characters, Rangers with specific catchphrases ("Buttery" for Bridge in SPD, "Plan Xander" for Xander in Mystic Force), larger supporting casts present in the opening credits, and an even greater use of pyrotechnics. The explosions had started in Ninja Storm (and are the work of stunt coordinator Mark Harris who was hired onto the show beginning with that season) but reached greater heights during Kalish's time.

A more infamous element of the mid to late Disney Era were the so called "Kalishsplosions" which were named after Kalish himself. Said term described describes a villain firing some energy attack and then the next shot showing a massive orange explosion of fire where one or more Ranger goes flying. The camera would then zoom in and slow down on them flying and screaming. However, that name in of itself was a misnomer since executive producer Koitchi Sakamoto was the one to actually construct them. They were created due to Disney broadcast standards which didn't allow for explosions in front of the Rangers.

He also returned the show to adapting the sentai plots more often, as it had done from Lightspeed Rescue to Wild Force. In regards to the adaptation, Kalish has claimed that his contract with Disney was to adapt the sentai rather than produce original work. He has also recounted that some of the crew ("a nameless director") took the view "why bother, it's just Power Rangers... well, they're not going to work for us then". Jackie Marchand has said another reason for using sentai plots simultaneously with original would have been for budget and time reasons (adapting was easier and cheaper), as well as because some of the senta plots were worth using.

Staying in contact with the fandom for much of 2005, Kalish became the subject of both initial praise and encouragement, to eventual ridicule and hatred from a vast portion for some of his decisions in producing (as well as for admitting he'd deliberately watched no past episodes), leading him to withdraw from consistent communication completely. There had also been a rumour that SPD had gone overbudget, which Kalish has strongly denied (John Tellegen has said it was because of Disney's budget decisions and Disney kept Kalish on the show for three more years, which they wouldn't do if he'd wrecked the budget). Before withdrawing, he made an appearance at Youmacon where he acknowledged the criticism and deadpanned "some people love it and some people hate it and some of the people who hate it still watch it every week to hate it again.

Marchand has said that Kalish (like Judd Lynn) had a collaborative, writing room approach where all writers would get together and choose what to do, with Tellegen saying Bruce is a "great boss" to work with. At the same time, Disney was demanding the use of more stock footage to save money - "there was one exec there that said 'just dub the whole show'" - and the show had to balance these cheaper episodes with more money spent elsewhere. The show was given a very low budget to work with and Disney had lost interest by Bruce's time. He joked at a convention that the writer's room had no furniture - a joke Marchand confirmed was true but Tellegen claims isn't (and that he started it)

After Jungle Fury, he left the series to work on Aaron Stone, a new live-action series for Disney XD.

In 2009, Jack Olesker attempted to get fans on Rangerboard to make Power Rangers pitches which he could then take to Disney as part of his own proposal . Kalish heard of it and went to the head of Disney's programming to check it was authorised (as it could have caused major legal trouble for both Disney and Rangerboard); Olesker was sent a cease-and-desist and forced to apologise to the fandom.

Writing credits

• Power Rangers Dino Thunder
  • Isn't it Lava-ly
• Power Rangers S.P.D.
  • Beginnings-Part 1
  • Sam-Part 1
  • Shadow
  • Perspective
  • Messenger-Part 1
  • Robotpalooza
  • Missing
  • Wormhole
  • Resurrection
  • Endings-Part 2
• Power Rangers Mystic Force
  • Broken Spell
  • Stranger Within
  • Scaredy Cat
  • Dark Wish-Part 2
  • The Light
  • The Return
  • Mystic Fate-Part 2
• Power Rangers Operation Overdrive
  • Kick into Overdrive-Part 1
  • At All Cost
  • One Gets Away
  • One Fine Day
  • Crown and Punishment
• Power Rangers Jungle Fury
  • Welcome to the Jungle-Part 1
  • Can't Win Them All
  • Bad to the Bone
  • Maryl and the Monkeys