Amy Jo Johnson Angered Fans When She Quit Power Rangers, Here's The Real Reason Why She Did
Before Mighty Morphin Power Rangers debuted on television in 1993, there was no way for anyone involved to know how popular the show would become. As a result of Power Rangers' great success, the franchise has continued for decades, there have been movies with talks of more to come, and the show has been ripped off.
As amazing as it is to see how far the Power Rangers franchise has come, many fans still have a special connection to the show's original stars. For that reason, there still is a lot of interest in what happened to the Power Rangers actors from the '90s.
When people think about the Power Rangers stars from the '90s, two actors come to mind first and foremost. Although Jason David Frank didn't appear until the 17th episode, he is one of them and the other is Amy Jo Johnson.
Since many fans loved Johnson's performance as Kimberly Hart, the original Pink Ranger, they were very upset when she quit the show. Now that it has been decades since Johnson's departure, it is fascinating to look back on what motivated her to quit and empathize with why she made her decision.
Why Fans Were So Upset That Amy Jo Johnson Quit Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
During the first three seasons of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Amy Jo Johnson portrayed Kimberly Hart in 137 episodes. Johnson also notably starred in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie and had a supporting role in the sequel Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie.
During all of those episodes and movies, Johnson did such a great job playing the original Pink Ranger that many fans deeply invested in her character. On top of that, fans also came to care about Kimberly's romance with Tommy, the character Jason David Frank brought to life.
Since viewers cared about Johnson's character so much, some of them felt deeply sad and even angry when Kimberly disappeared. Once some of those sad fans learned that Kimberly left the show because Johnson quit the role, they directed their frustrations at the actor.
Why Did Amy Jo Johnson Quit From Mighty Morphin Power Rangers?
Right off the hop, it is important to note that no actor owes it to their fans to stay in a role once they want to move on. That said, it is intriguing to know what motivated Johnson's decision to quit.
In 2012, Johnson made an appearance on a podcast titled "No Pink Spandex". During the resulting conversation, Johnson spoke about her experience during her tenure as a Power Ranger and she made her motivations for quitting pretty obvious.
During the first several seasons of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, the show became immensely popular with young audiences which resulted in great ratings and merchandise sales. With that in mind, fans likely assumed Johnson and her co-stars were getting rich.
During Johnson's aforementioned podcast appearance, she revealed just how little she was paid during her Power Rangers tenure. "I mean, we were a non-union show. Literally, we were being paid, I think, tops $600 a week. No residuals; absolutely not one residual."
Given how successful Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was, Johnson being paid just $600 per episode seems insane. Amazingly enough, however, Johnson went on to reveal in the aforementioned podcast appearance that things actually were worse than that.
"It was like that and we were doing two episodes a week. [Laughs] I don’t remember; I can probably find an old pay stub, but it was nothing! We had no agents. I had no agent at all!"
From there, Johnson spoke about how nervous becoming famous while at the same time making very little money made her at the time.
"I think the frustrating thing for me — not frustrating, but nerve-racking – that, it was school and we weren’t hugely compensated. And it became so popular that …that’s what gave me nightmares. It was sort of overwhelming, you know? Like, if that show stopped tomorrow I’m going to have to go down the street and become a waitress again."
During the same interview, Johnson spoke about how dealing with some overzealous Power Rangers fans could be scary for her as a young woman.
On top of all the other reasons that Johnson had to be upset with her Power Rangers experience at that time, she also had legitimate reasons to fear for her life. The reason for that is when Johnson spoke about starring in the Power Rangers movies during the podcast, she revealed she and her co-stars weren't kept safe enough.
"That was Non-Union, as well. [Laughs] So I just remember — there were times when they had us dangling over fire pits and…There were times when I was a little bit nervous about my life."
"Seriously! It was this Non-Union movie and it just felt really dangerous at times, to tell you the truth! Me and David caught on fire on set once!" Years later in 2017, Johnson penned an article for Variety where she referred to instances that put her at risk while making the show.
"Now, despite the fact that this was a non-union television series and I was paid peanuts and almost died a few times because of the makeshift low-budget stunts we performed."
Given everything that Johnson said about her experiences as a Power Ranger and the "long, hard hours" she put in on set, it makes perfect sense she quit According to Nicki Swift, Johnson wanted to quit being a Power Ranger so bad that she agreed to star in a TV movie called Susie Q if producers let her leave the show.
Why Amy Jo Johnson Didn't Appear In Power Rangers: Once & Always
Once Amy Jo Johnson quit Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, she went on to star in the hit show Felicity for three seasons. On top of Johnson's most famous post-Power Rangers role, she also appeared in several other projects including starring in the Canadian crime drama Flashpoint.
No matter what else Johnson has done with her life, there will still always be a lot of people who only associate her with her Power Rangers role. For that reason, there was a lot of disappointment when it was learned that Johnson wasn't part of the Netflix special Power Rangers: Once & Always.
After fans learned that she wasn't involved, Johnson went on Twitter and revealed why she wasn't part of the special.
"For the record I never said no…I just didn’t say yes to what was offered."
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