 This article is about a/an production company in the Power Rangers franchise.
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The final Saban Entertainment logo, as attached to Power Rangers Zeo.
The former Saban Entertainment logo, as available in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
Saban Entertainment was an independent television production company formed in 1980 by music and television producers Haim Saban[1] and Shuki Levy as Saban Productions, a U.S. subsidiary of Saban International Paris (now SIP Animation). The company also established Saban International (now part of Disney-ABC International Television) for international distribution of its shows. Finally, in 1988, the company renamed itself Saban Entertainment. In 1996, Haim Saban and News Corporation started Fox Kids Worldwide, Saban Entertainment merged with Fox Children's Productions and became a subsidiary of Fox Kids Worldwide.[2] Also in 1995, the company established Saban Interactive. In October 2001, Saban was sold to Disney as part of the sale of Fox Family Worldwide,[3][1] After the sale, Saban Entertainment was renamed BVS Entertainment.
Saban Entertainment produced and distributed the first eight Power Rangers shows, including Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Power Rangers Zeo, Power Rangers Turbo, Power Rangers in Space, Power Rangers Lost Galaxy, Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue, and its last program, Power Rangers Time Force. Saban also produced Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (1995) and Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie (1997) in association with 20th Century Fox. It should be noted that even though Power Rangers Wild Force began it's run on Fox, Saban only did the pre-production of the series, when the filming began, Disney had already acquired the franchise.
In 2010, the company was revived as Saban Brands.
Subsidiaries[]
- In 1994, Saban Entertainment also released a set of packaged food for children based on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers under the Saban Foods brand.
- Saban Music Group
- Saban Home Entertainment: Released Alpha's Magical Christmas
- Saban Interactive: Founded to release CD-Rom video games. Was acquired by Disney Interactive in 2001.
Theme song[]
The advertisements for the company included a song titled We Turn it On. It was also used at the beginning or the end of every VHS release. The music video was released on January 16, 1995.
Lyrics[]
Saban! Saban! We turn it on!
So don't look any further if you're looking for fun, 'cause we got the power, and if's Saban, you know it's number #1!
Saban! Saban! We turn it on! Who's #1? Saban!
Entertaining kids is our biz! Saban! Saban! We turn it on!
Saban! Saban! We turn it on!
Entertaining kids is our biz! Saban! Saban! We turn it on!
S-A-B-A-N, number #1, yeah!
Criticism[]
While Saban Entertainment would achieve tremendous ratings success for the Fox Network, the company would be frequently criticized for its business practices, particularly pertaining to its treatment of its actors and crew.
The company’s many questionable practices would not come to light until the success of Power Rangers. Early into the second season, three of the shows stars (Austin St. John, Thuy Trang and Walter Jones) would be fired from the show shortly after requesting a pay raise. Up until this point, the actors low pay and the productions non-union status was not publicly known.
Despite a barrage of negative publicity, Haim Saban and Shuki Levy would keep the wages well below the industry standard for the entirety of Saban Entertainment’s existence.
Shuki Levy would deliver a controversial statement in 2017 regarding the wages to the actors. “The financial side of the company was more Haim’s realm, but from my standpoint, we were giving unknowns a chance to be stars. I think it’s a bit ungrateful to demand more when none of them were really known before that.”
Austin St. John would be one of the actors to respond. “I didn’t think we asked for much. We just wanted to be paid a living wage. The company was making so much money thanks to the success of the show and we weren’t seeing a dime of it.”
Haim Saban would come under fire in October of 2001 following the sale to Disney, as producers, actors and crew members were left in the dark about the sale. Many stated that they were not aware until they showed up to work the day after the sale had transpired. It has been speculated that Saban had even kept the sale hidden from Shuki Levy but this has not been confirmed or denied by either party. While Saban would receive roughly $2 billion from the sale, the majority of Saban Entertainments staff were jobless after the remaining productions were wrapped.
Notes[]
- to be added
External Links[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Haim Saban
- ↑ Fox Family Worldwide Inc Saban
- ↑ Corp. and Haim Saban Reach Agreement to Sell Fox Family Worldwide to Disney for $5.3 Billion July 23, 2001, Saban
Footnotes[]