The Good, The Bad, and The Stupid: The Misadventures of Bulk and Skull

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers introduced a bunch of characters that children quickly fell in love with. There were Zordon and Alpha, the two otherworldly figures that guided a group of teenagers with attitude through their battles against the evil monsters on the moon. The teenagers included the leader, Jason, and his friends Zack, Billy, Kimberly, and Trini. Tommy, a new kid in town, joined the team later in the first season. Some of the teens would leave and eventually be replaced by Adam, Rocky, Aisha, and Katherine. Kids loved their heroes. They also loved the villains from the moon who included Rita Repulsa, Lord Zedd, Squatt, Baboo, Finster, Scorpina, Goldar, and Rito Revolto. And then there were the human comedic foils, Bulk and Skull.

Sometime during the third season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, the producers behind the show decided to try their hands at a spin-off. This new show would follow the adventures of Bulk and Skull. The two comedic characters were getting their chance to be the stars of what would seemingly be a sitcom for children. It was called…

The Good, The Bad, and The Stupid: The Misadventures of Bulk and Skull

Bulk and Skull fled from a monster into a cave. They were supposed to be evacuating people from the area but weren’t brave enough to stay in the vicinity of the fight between The Moon Monsters and Angel Grove’s finest heroes, the Power Rangers. After waiting a few moments for the battle to dissipate, the two junior police officers headed for the exit. Skull remembered that they left the bull horn in the main cavern, retrieved it, and used it to let Bulk know that he was on his way. The noise collapsed the entrance to the cave, leaving the two trapped.

Skull’s plan was to scream for help, hoping that someone would hear them. Bulk knew that wouldn’t work. They were trapped in the cave. Nobody was going to hear their cries for help through the collapsed entrance. Instead, his plan was to have Skull start digging through the wall with a plastic spoon. All the while, they would reminisce about their friendship and all the wacky hijinks they had gotten up to.

Eventually, the spoon was worn down to nothing. Skull hadn’t made any sort of dent in the wall. It was useless. Bulk agreed to let Skull try his plan, and Skull immediately yelled for help. He got a response. Someone was breaking through the entrance. Lt. Stone entered the main cavern and chastised the two teens for being trapped in a cave instead of helping the people of Angel Grove escape the danger of the monster. They were in big trouble. At least they had their friendship.

The Good, The Bad, and The Stupid was meant to be the pilot episode for a potential Bulk and Skull spin-off from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. However, creating a spin-off show would be kind of tough when the pilot episode was nothing more than a glorified clip show. There was a little bit of new footage where Bulk and Skull were trapped in the cave with seemingly no way of escape, but most of the episode was relegated to clips of Bulk and Skull that had been in episodes over the course of the first three seasons. It wasn’t the best way to introduce a spin-off.

The one thing that The Good, The Bad, and The Stupid nailed was the friendship between Bulk and Skull. The clips gave a background to the characters, summarizing their three-year television friendship over the course of forty minutes. It let audiences know that they were the troublemakers at Angel Grove High. It showcased their dynamic, with Bulk being the alpha and Skull being the loyal beta. The pilot episode of the potential spin-off also showed the different activities that the pair had been a part of throughout the seasons, including their desire to unmask the Power Rangers and their work in the Junior Police Patrol. As much as it didn’t give a compelling story because the episode resorted to being a clip show, it did set up Bulk and Skull as characters for anyone who hadn’t seen Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Not that anyone would watch the spin-off without having seen the initial show.

There was one thing that felt unrealized in the framing narrative. Bulk and Skull were trapped in a cavern because one entrance collapsed. There were other tunnels out of that cavern. At no point did either of the characters consider venturing down one of those tunnels, which were lit by the same blue light as the entrance, to see if there was possibly another way out. They decided that either digging with a spoon in the opposite direction of the entrance, or screaming for help, would be the best solutions. The way the cave system looks to be around Angel Grove, there would be entrances and exits all over the place. The two bumbling comedic effect characters could have easily found a way out of the cavern if all they had done was try their luck down another tunnel.

The Good, The Bad, and The Stupid was a one-off pilot for a potential Bulk and Skull spin-off from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. As Jason Narvy, the actor who played Skull said, “No one out there bought it.” Nobody wanted to see the spin-off. Those who did got a clip show that wasn’t worth the hour runtime. Bulk and Skull kept being the bumbling characters they were on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and continued that role throughout the whole Zordon era of the Power Rangers franchise. It was probably for the best.