Power Rangers is a long-running American children's television series adapted from the Japanese tokusatsu Super Sentai Series, though it is not simply an English dub of the original. Rather, it is a 'new' production with English-speaking actors spliced in with the original Japanese footage in varying ratios. Due to the very Japanese nature of many of the Super Sentai Series' stories and design, the American shows are altered to fit a Western audience. However, many of the action sequences featuring the characters in costume and the mecha (referred to as "Zords" in the English series) are typically dubbed.
The series that began the franchise was Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. The franchise has continued, and as of 2007 has consisted of 15 television seasons, 14 different series, and two theatrical films. The fifteenth season and thirteenth series, Power Rangers: Operation Overdrive, debuted on February 26, 2007, and completed on November 12, 2007. The new series, Power Rangers: Jungle Fury will debut in February of 2008.
The Power Rangers series was distributed by Saban Entertainment from 1993 until the end of 2001 and was broadcast on Fox until the fall of 2002. The franchise was purchased by the Walt Disney Company as a part of the buyout that took place between 2001 and 2002. This resulted in Fox Family Worldwide becoming ABC Family Worldwide. This buyout also included Saban Entertainment becoming BVS Entertainment, from News Corporation, Fox's parent company, and Haim Saban. The show continued to air on Fox until its Fox Kids package was dismantled in the United States. Since September 2002, all Power Rangers shows have aired on various Disney-owned networks. As of 2007, Disney Channel remains the only Disney-owned network that has never aired Power Rangers.