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Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always celebrated the franchise's 30th anniversary and featured actors reprising their original roles, including a special tribute to Harvey Garvey. Harvey Garvey was a talk show host in the Power Rangers series and made his first and only on-screen appearance in season 2, episode 33. In the film, a tombstone engraved with "Harvey Garvey 1953-2022" is shown, indicating that the beloved talk show host passed away, serving as a heartfelt callback and shoutout to actor Kim Strauss.

Fans were certainly not expecting the reference to Harvey Garvey in 2023's Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always, but they certainly welcomed it with open arms. First created in 1993, Power Ranges became such a huge pop culture sensation that spawned not only multiple TV shows and movies, but also a massive series of Power Rangers-themed toys, video games, and even comic books that feature the Rangers as zombies.

The "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always" anniversary special is a pure treat for the fans. Unlike the previous crossover specials, which had the current generation of Rangers team up with older ones for some emergent threat, this special focuses solely on the first show — the titular Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and its two generations of Rangers that actually met and interacted 30 years ago. Because of this, "Once & Always" has the ability to go more specific in its references, and its loving tributes.

Indeed, this is a love letter to the franchise as a whole, as the script considers the entire canon of "Power Rangers," both the multiple iterations of the show — like Aisha and Adam now being part of the predecessors of Space Patrol Delta from "Power Rangers S.P.D." — to even the expanded canon like the mention of J.J. Oliver from the comics. That being said, the best...

This Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once and Always article contains spoilers.

Near the beginning of the Netflix special Power Rangers: Once and Always, the Rangers fight Robo Rita and her newly rebuilt monsters of Minotaur and Snizzard in a graveyard. The Rangers are barely able to hold their own but original Black Ranger Zack leaps into the fray to help Billy the Blue Ranger. This angers Minotaur so much he smashes a gravestone that reads,

“Harvey Garvey. 1953-2022.”

That sure is a name, right? Only in Power Rangers. The shot of the gravestone is held on for just enough time to clue the audience in that this isn’t just a random gravestone placed there by the production team. This is a reference. A deep cut reference at that. Yes, Harvey Garvey is a character in the Power Rangers universe. He’s not a Ranger. He’s not a mentor.

For anyone who grew up watching Power Rangers in the '90s and 2000s, it's hard to forget the catchy theme songs, fight scenes, and villains. Many can agree that some of the best series were the earliest ones especially Power Rangers Lost Galaxy.

Related: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: 5 Characters We Want On Our Team In A Zombie Apocalypse (& 5 We Don’t)

While the American version stayed true to its Japanese villains and main characters, it added more persona that made them so memorable for fans. Some even had a crush on the Red Ranger (Danny Slavin) and feared Scorpius (Kim Strauss), a heinous and vile evil creature. Some Power Rangers were more fan favorites than others and many of the villains didn't sit well with the audience.