Bulk and Skull
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| First Appearance: | Day of the Dumpster (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers) |
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| Last Appearance: | Forever Red (Power Rangers: Wild Force) |
| Status: | Hotel/Resort owners |
| Affiliation: | Power Rangers |
| Homeworld: | Earth |
| Portrayed by: |
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Bulk and Skull are fictional characters in the Power Rangers universe. They appeared as permanent cast members from the original series of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers until Power Rangers: In Space, and Bulk by himself was a regular in Power Rangers: Lost Galaxy, making the pair the two longest-appearing characters in the program.
Bulk (Paul Schrier) and Skull (Jason Narvy), from the very beginning, provided much of the comic relief in the series, usually through over-the-top slapstick (often accompanied by a suitable soundtrack). This was no doubt highlighted by their physical appearances: Bulk was fat and Skull lean. Similar comedy duos have appeared in other works to similar effect (see Laurel and Hardy).
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[edit] Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
Bulk and Skull started out as bullies at Angel Grove High School and often hung out at the Youth Centre and Juice Bar. Their actions are motivated by greed and ego in the first seasons. Wacky schemes abound, always ending with their failure and humiliation. It is to note that they are seen with a gang in the episode Food Fight.
During the second season, they attempted to discover the secret identities of the Power Rangers and repeatedly failed. Ironically enough, they did discover the Rangers' identities twice: once, they saved the Rangers when the Ranger team lost their memories and de-morphed in front of them - Bulk and Skull tricked the monster to fire his amnesia beam through a prism, distorting the beam and restoring the Rangers' memories. Unfortunately, Bulk and Skull lost their short-term memories in the process due to being flung back by the amnesia beam and landing on their heads. The second time, a psychic pointed the Ranger teens out to Bulk, but he didn't believe her as they were holding a picture of the morphed Ranger team at the time just given to them by Ernie.
Skull had a crush on Kimberly, and Bulk appeared to want to win Trini's heart as well in a few episodes. Whenever the girls were with the four other Rangers, however, they referred to the girls as "geeks".
A popular change of direction for the duo occurred in the third season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, when they joined the Angel Grove Junior Police Force and first met Lieutenant Stone. Lt. Stone became a permanent character himself, frequently giving Bulk and Skull orders that they failed to perform, leading eventually to his anger (rather than their humiliation). Despite this, Bulk and Skull were close to Lt. Stone and became more likable characters, changing from stereotypical bullies to good natured goofs.
[edit] Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers
Bulk and Skull are regressed into children due to Master Vile's Orb of Doom. Bulk is briefly turned into the "Brat Boy" monster by Rita and Zedd during the course of the mini-series and battles the Aquitian Rangers, but soon rebels against his masters as his human self surfaces from within, prompting Rita and Zedd to return him to normalacy in retaliation.
[edit] Power Rangers: Zeo
During Power Rangers: Zeo, Bulk and Skull remained members of the Junior Police Force until Bulk's attempts to woo the police chief's daughter accidentally caused Lt. Stone to be fired. They quit the force too and joined Stone when he opened his own detective agency. Also, during this time, Bulk and Skull secretly hosted Rito and Goldar, characters who lost their memories after Master Vile's attack at the end of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.
Zeo concluded with Bulk and Skull accepting an offer to work for an agency in France on a top secret mission, and depart much to the dismay and frustration of Stone. This major plot point was dropped without explanation in between Zeo and filming of Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie (most likely due to the desire by the company to treat Turbo like a "redux" initially when Zeo's ratings faired poorly).
[edit] Power Rangers: Turbo
At the start of Power Rangers: Turbo, Bulk and Skull got a chance to rejoin the Police Force when Detective Stone went to replace Ernie as owner of the Gym and Juice Bar. Unfortunately before they can get back to work, they are transformed into chimpanzees by Elgar.
Bulk and Skull remain chimpanzees for several episodes. They are voiced by the actors who play Bulk and Skull, however only the audience can understand them. Jerome Stone takes the chimpanzees into his care (claiming that they seem 'familiar'), and they make several attempts to inform him of their true identities.
They are eventually transformed back into humans, but a temporary side-affect renders them invisible. This state only lasted for a few episodes before they finally returned to normal and attempted to take on proper jobs (Jerome Stone arranged for them to get a new one most episodes) ranging from pizza delivery to construction.
[edit] Power Rangers: In Space
During Power Rangers: In Space, Jerome Stone left the series and Bulk and Skull spent their time helping the rather loony Professor Phenomenus locate and capture extraterrestrial life.
The best transformation and growth of Bulk and Skull's characters is shown in the climax finale, Countdown to Destruction. Towards the end of that episode, Astronema's forces have conquered Earth. She asks rounded-up citizens of Angel Grove where the Rangers are - getting no response, she prepares to attack the citizens. Before she is able to do so, Bulk, Skull and Professor Phenomenous pretend to be Rangers to buy the real team some time. A minute or so later, when Astronema doesn't buy the ruse, the real Rangers teens show up, and breaking with tradition, morph in front of everyone, showing their identities to the world. They begin to fight the hundreds of Quantrons and Piranhatrons in the area.
At this point, Bulk can't stand to see the Rangers he adores against these odds, so leads the citizens of Angel Grove in a fight for their city, and everyone joins in fighting the monsters alongside the Rangers. The cry for everyone to "get in there" to fight alongside the Rangers is widely seen as the finest hour for Bulk and Skull's characters.
[edit] Power Rangers: Lost Galaxy
Bulk and Professor Phenomenus board the space station Terra Venture for its interstellar journey. Skull, however, did not wake up in time and was left behind. At the end of the series, Terra Venture arrived on Mirinoi along with Bulk and Phenomenus.
[edit] Power Rangers: Wild Force
During the Power Rangers: Wild Force episode Forever Red, Bulk and Skull made a special cameo appearance. It is not explained how Bulk returned from Mirinoi, but his presence was not criticized by fans, most of whom were glad the duo were back together for such a special episode.
Bulk and Skull were shown as servers and managers of a tropical-themed bar called "Bulkmeiers". Tommy Oliver, the former Power Ranger, is also present. In this episode, Bulk and Skull were shown having a conversation about the early days of Power Rangers - in particular, Bulk is bragging to Skull about how he once saw Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa despite the fact that Skull saw them also. This contradicts the fact that Master Vile regressed time and erased everyone's memories of the Power Rangers and the villains.
Interestingly, they seemed afraid of disturbing the resting Tommy, to a degree indicating both respect and fear of something greater than martial arts, suggesting that they had learned of his identity as a Power Ranger by this time.
This was their (to date) final appearance on any incarnation of Power Rangers.
[edit] Extra Information
- The characters' full names are Farkas Bulkmeier and Eugene Skullovitch.
- Both actors were Shakespearean-trained.
- Despite his outward appearance, Skull is in fact an adept classical pianist, and has been seen in an episode of Power Rangers: Zeo playing Chopin's Revolutionary Etude.
- During the filming of "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie", the actors playing Bulk and Skull felt underused. To make up for this, they were given the position of assistant director for the Power Rangers TV episodes that were being filmed at the time.
- Paul Schrier directed a "Mighty Morphin Alien Ranger" episode "Attack of the 60' Bulk", which he also appeared in briefly, despite his character at the time being reduced to the age of a child.
- Bulk and Skull are the first comedic duos in Power Rangers history; even two series has comedic duos such as Marah and Kapri in Power Rangers: Ninja Storm and Cassidy and Devin in Power Rangers: Dino Thunder.
- The actors who played Bulk and Skull, Paul Schrier and Jason Narvy played best friends on the series, and were also best friends in real life.
- Bulk and Skull were transformed into monkeys so Narvy and Schrier would have time to work on a proposed spin-off series for the characters which would have seen them operate a hotel and feature El Vez, the "Mexican Elvis", a local personality in Southern California. The attempts never made it to a final production and the actors returned full time to the series.[1]
- Paul Schrier is one of three PR Alum which made the transition from "Toku Adapt" to Anime. Johnny Yong Bosch and Patricia Ja Lee are the other two.
- Between the Lost Galaxy and Wild Force seasons, Paul Schrier was still involved with the PR Crew, voicing a monster in both the Lightspeed Rescue season (Infinitor) and the Time Force season (Severax).
