So who would have thought that he’d be a Co-Executive Producer of Austin St. John’s karate video?! Granted, the position of “executive producer” is wide ranging, from being involved with every process of the production to just lending funds, and I’m highly guessing it’s the latter.

Too bad for Austin that Saban Entertainment produced the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Karate Club videos starring Jason David Frank before Austin’s own video was released. Rumors say that Saban got wind of Austin creating his own video, so Saban quickly pushed to get instructional videos produced under the Power Rangers brand.

(Courtesy: HeroPower)

Recently Blake has joined the board Star Points Rangercast to answer fans’ questions, and one of the first questions he answers over there (that I forgot to ask) was what was it like working with Patricia Ja Lee, Selwyn Ward, Tracy Lynn Cruz, and Roger Velasco?

Selwyn was the homie!! Always smiling and laughing. Tracey was like a sister and she used to come over to my house. I’ll post pictures of that some other time, Roger was way cool. He REALLY taught me soccer, and Patty was always studying or riding a longboard skateboard!!!!

Then the following questions are from the wonderful folks from Rangerboard, and I shot Blake a quick email:

From Buzzs_Room: You got to keep your helmet and ranger suit with adult boots, how did the crew/staff allow you to keep it, and why did you sell it on Ebay?

I never sold it. I still have it. I had a manager named ken, and he ripped off some of my stuff, but that’s another story. He tried to sell it!!!!!! The reason I got to keep my costume was this. Shuki and Haim really liked me a lot. When I got the part, My folks and my sister and myself went to Shuki’s house for dinner and to meet the other Rangers. In Shuki’s entrance to the house, He had all the Rangers in costume standing at his fron door ( Inside).. The [mannequins] were so cool with those costumes on, and I ranted all night about how cool they were. Shuki finally told me, that when my Ranger days were done, I could have my costume, so it was put into the contract!

From Splush and Lisa J: Did you get to work with Austin [St. John] and Amy Jo [Johnson] while on the Turbo movie set? If so, how was it?

Yes I did! They were both great! As a matter of fact, Austin taught me some karate stuff, and Amy Jo and I did our ADR work together at Saban headquarters on Wilshire Blvd. I have pictures, and when I can dig them out, I’ll post them. Austin also jumped into my Limo at the [premiere] of Turbo a Power Ranger movie which was at the Grahman’s Chinese Theater on Hollywood Blvd where all the famous hands and feet in [cement] are. All the news stations were there to cover my being introduced as the NEW BLUE RANGER, and Saban had hired limos for all the Rangers individually, but the other cast members just were suppose to show up and be there. As our driver was coming around a corner onto Hollywood Blvd, I saw Austin walking, and I yelled out to him and he jumped into my limo!! Austins a great guy. He almost died because of his diabetes once while doing PRs. He didn’t show up for work, and didn’t answer the phone so production sent someone to his house and they found him in his back yard [unconscious] with his dog licking him. Amy was short. I was as tall as Amy Jo back then, I’d probably tower over her like she were kid now days.

From Buzzs_Room and Lisa J: What was it liked to return to In Space for that one episode “True Blue to the Rescue”? How did you end up returning to the show?

We got a call one day from my agent, and my agent said I was gonna do another episode. I said, “cool” and we did. After that I went on to do Casper with Hilary Duff. It just happened like that. Maybe they had to bring Justin back to leave it open so that one day he COULD return. “Well, if you ever need me, once a Ranger, always a Ranger”

When I went back to do that episode, all the OG Rangers were gone, and it was never the same. It was like Tracey, Patty, Roger and Selwyn were in those Power Ranger costumes, but the thrill was gone for me. They never had the “It” factor working for them and the magic that made the show what it was gone. Don’t get me wrong, I really liked all those guys, but when I cam back for In Space, I hung out with my homies on the set that had been family to me since I started. Banner, Lisa, Koichi, Taka, the alpha stunt guys, all the crew. Andros (Chris) was cool, I guess, but he was NEVER Tommy! And while I was doing that episode, Jason came on set to see other people, and I think Johnny did too. Roger was always cool with me and he was happy to see my return. I actually liked my episode, cuz it gave me a chance to do the Justin thing “One more Time”.

Here’s the link to the video clips that are already on YouTube. Highlights:

- Jason claims that he was going to be part of Kamen Rider Dragon Knight as one of the leads. Steve Wang, one of the producers of the show, called him up to be a part off it, but the “owner of the show” didn’t want him because of the Power Rangers association.

- Jason said that Blake Foster (Justin from Power Rangers Turbo) borrowed $2,500 from him to buy a go-kart, but then Blake’s family filed for bankruptcy and named Jason as one of the claims. Ouch!

- Jason claims that Austin St. John told the MMPR cast that he was mobbed by fans before the show even started.

But wait! There’s more!

I got an advanced copy of the Sunday panel in its entirety, and Jason doesn’t stop there! He joked about his time with Alyson Kiperman (Taylor from Power Rangers Wild Force) on MTV’s Undressed: Throwing her around and her getting a bit winded from certain…scenes, and how his kissing power lead her to become a Power Ranger. All jokes of course. But then he told a story about an awkward moment in a restaurant:

Jason and his agent were in a restaurant in Hollywood one time, and this was around 3 years after Austin St. John, Walter Jones, and Thuy Trang left the show. Jason and the agent take a seat, and guess which one out of the three waited on them? None other than Thuy Trang! Jason said he really felt bad that she was their waitress and wanted to ask her to join them.

Talk about life being an itchbay! May she rest in peace of course…

(Video courtesy: jkahn913 from Rangerboard.)