Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters from Beverly Hills

The only reason I even sat thru this horrendous excuse for a TV show was because it came on USA Network around 4PM right before Knight Rider (watching an automated black Trans Am and a guy with the same leather jacket in every episode was choice entertainment for me :P) So anyways yes, I had the un-pleasure of watching T.T.A.F.F.B.H. It was a wierd and nonsensical show that seemed like an even less palatable version of Power Rangers (which I hated more than Barney, Masked Rider was okay, talking cars RAWK!)

I always wondered about those similarities, like the Tatoo's seem to have the same function as the Ranger's communicator watches. And what the heck was that thing that they always called upon in some Captain Planet-esque fashion to vanquish the bad guy? It looked like a 2 dimensional cardboard cut-out. Old Godzilla flicks had better costumes and special effects. Zodiac signs? Elements.. sure. Animal totems..Why not? But Zodiac signs? WTF? Maybe they should fight the bad guys with mood rings too?

This show was good for laughs and thats about all it was good for. Welp, I'm gunna go watch Knight Rider on the SF channel. Skareeew you 1990's and your damned 70's flashback bell-bottom hippy crap. Long live the 80's! Witness the re-birth of MY decade! Behold, clueless trend-mongers! It is coming!

*insert maniacle laughter*

-BFK

Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters from Beverly Hills is the super ghetto knock off of Mighty Morhpin Power Rangers. This series was actually funnier though because of its cheap qualities. They all had a tattoo of a zodiac sign I think, and then they would turn into zodiac warriors and fight these foam rubber monsters. Their mentor was also a house plant, probably of the ficus family. This show is great pop culture, because it is so terribly lame and short lived. If this ever re-airs it means the end of the world but go ahead and watch it because you will laugh your hinder off.

I loved this show which contained the campy youthful humor of shows like Saved By The Bell and California Dreams and mixed it up with action to capitalize on the Power Rangers / Superhuman Samurai / VR Troopers / Beetleborgs craze of the 90s! Four teens were given the power to turn into giants to fight equally gigantic monsters, and strangely enough, always in the same city set! The monster suits were cheesy even by campy Godzilla standards and when necessary, the teens joined together to form...not a giant robot, but a cheesy knight in shining armor! By not taking itself seriously, it was actually more entertaining to me than the higher budgeted shows aforementioned. I'd love to see them collected on DVD but am equally sure they never will be. From the USA Network!

Wow. I can't believe how relieved I am that this show actually exists.

You see, I clearly remember it from way back when I was a little kid. Four teenagers with strange magical tattoos would tel-port into this black room with a pedestal. On the pedestal was a blob of slime called Nimbar that gave the teens missions. They would then transform into laughably bad costumes and fight villains. The whole thing was like an incredibly low budget power rangers. I honestly don't remember much of what went on, but for years I've remembered this show but have never seen anything else about it until now. It just vanished like the vapor it was.

I only remember one episode, in which a monster sprayed the teens with a gas, then all sorts of bad things happened, including the death of Nimbar. Finally the token African girl said that everything bad had happened since they got sprayed. Then they will themselves to wake up. They had been sharing a dream, or something for 18 minutes since they'd been sprayed, and THE MONSTER FREAKIN' DID NOTHING the whole time they were asleep. Even at seven I wondered what the Kessel was with that.

That is how dumb this show's plots were.

I came across this gem of a program during an episode where somehow, for some unknown reason, the 2 male characters and 2 female characters switch bodies. Basically the female voices were coming out of the men's bodies, and vice versa. Before my friends and I had a chance to catch the real name of the show, we lovingly referred to it as "The Gender Morphers".

But my glee turned to horror the day of my birthday. On that day, we were all gathered round the tube, watching this horrible show, when the character named Lechner announced it was HIS birthday. I HAVE NEVER LIVED THIS DOWN!! I am reminded every year that, yes, I share a birthday with a badly stitched puppet named Lechner from an ultimately campy show named "Tatooed Teenage Alien Fighters".