Bulk and Skull - Mighty Morphin Power Rangers

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers

Bulk and Skull started out as bullies at Angel Grove High School. They often hung out at the Youth Center and Juice Bar. Their actions were motivated by greed and ego in the first season. Wacky schemes abound (such as creating an obviously-fake kung fu style called "Cockroach Kung Fu" to attempting to catch fish or claiming reward money for themselves) always ends in failure and/or humiliation. They are also frequently put in detention by Angel Grove High's somewhat-antagonistic principal, Mr. Caplan, who is quick to punish anyone and everyone without a further investigation (even falsely sending the Ranger teens to detention for tampering with a school water fountain, when it was really their clones created by Rita Repulsa, effectively keeping the Power Rangers from performing their duties).

It is notable that they are seen with accomplices in early episodes. A female punk is with them in "Teamwork" and "Food Fight", a black male punk in "Food Fight", and a gang in a never-before-seen original filmed scene from the first episode "Day of the Dumpster"; in the original pilot, Paul Schrier was part of a gang of punks. Early scripts for Season 1 show the female punk was meant to be a recurring character named Sharkie. (The name, though differently spelled, was already in use on Fox Kids).

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 all six as "nerds" and "geeks" (despite the fact that Kimberly originally appeared to be ditzy and materialistic, not intellectual), and occasionally "dorks" and "losers", as well, among other insults. This group of demeaning insults and name-calling would eventually turn against them by the time of the episode "A Friend in Need", when two teenage girls call them as such throughout the episode. This was later explained by Paul Schrier himself that the two were being angry at the world and jealous of the five teens, hence the namecalling, shoving, and bullying that they originally did.

During the second season, they attempted to discover the secret identities of the Power Rangers and repeatedly failed, eventually giving up by the time of the episode "A Friend in Need Part III". During this, Bulk and Skull started showing greater intelligence and initiative than before, coming up with complicated plans and utilising bizarre gadgets. Ironically enough, they discovered the Rangers' identities twice. At one time, they saved the Rangers when the Ranger team lost their memories and de-morphed in front of them - Bulk and Skull tricked the Scatterbrain 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. (They would eventually learn the identities of one set of Rangers and possibly Tommy as well; see "Power Rangers in Space" and "Wild Force")

Often, the duo got themselves mixed up with some of the villains' schemes. In "Green with Evil (Part IV)", the two tried to flee the city in a bus, but were taken hostage by the giant Goldar. The Power Rangers had to summon the Megazord to save them from being thrown over a cliff. In "The Wedding", when they went to Australia with the Rangers for Spring Break, Alpha 5, who was under an evil spell, sent them to the outback, where they encountered Australian wildlife up close. After Alpha recovered from the spell and sent them back, they decided that if anyone asked, "nothing happened!" In the following episode, "Return of the Green Ranger (Part I)", the Wizard of Deception brainwashed them into going to get a lock of Tommy's hair, but failed miserably. The Wizard angrily put them to sleep.

During the early part of the first season, Bulk and Skull would occasionally be presented as threats, physically intimidating or attempting to assault the Rangers or others; Bulk even had a bench press record in "A Pressing Engagement". Over time, while still being antagonists, their more aggressive nature was toned down and they would get some more sympathetic portrayals. In the early "Foul Play in the Sky", which had footage shot later in production and then edited in later, Bulk and Skull were even shown with a normal hobby (plane-spotting) and politely asking to join Kimberly; "A Pig Surprise" would have them happily looking after a pig; and in "A Ninja Encounter" in season two, when Bulk spotted a runaway baby stroller he immediately sprang into action to help out, and the duo would spend the rest of the episode looking after the baby after its father was abducted by Goldar. As noted, they would even get to save the Rangers and would sometimes be imperiled. Bulk and Skull even got to save the Rangers by fighting the Scatterbrain monster. This was also the first time the duo were seen on skateboards which, despite their generally unathletic nature, they appeared moderately skilled at.

A 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 (having heard girls like men in uniform) and first met Lieutenant Stone, explicitly being turned into good natured goofs; Ernie and the Rangers expressed pride at the duo for graduating police training. 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 just their humiliation). Despite this, Bulk and Skull were close to Lt. Stone and would be shown trying to perform police duties (albeit incompetently) and occasionally try to help people out: in "The Changing of the Zords Part 1" they rushed to save children from drowning (who weren't), in "Follow That Cab" they tried to stop a thief who'd stolen Kimberly's car and did manage to apprehend him, in "Rita's Pita" they used their own money as donations to an elderly home to cover for their mistake, and they assisted in a housing project in "Another Brick in the Wall".

A number of season three jokes would also be based around Bulk and Skull constantly running into monsters and being comically terrified; in "The Changing of the Zords", Lt Stone finally questioned why they always seem to run into monsters.