Kimberly Ann Hart

 

Kimberly was one of the original five Power Rangers chosen byZordon when Rita Repulsaattacked Earth following her release from "The Space Dumpster". Her four teammates were coincidently her closest friends; Jason Lee Scott, Zack Taylor, Billy Cranston and Trini Kwan. Kimberly received the Pteradactyl Power Coin and the Pterodactyl Dinozord, thus becoming the Pink Mighty Morphin' Power Ranger. She was a capable gymnast and would later show that she also has some musical and artistic talent.

 

Kimberly starts the series as a typical valley girl, but with a heightened awareness for her friends. Throughout the series, she is the member of the team most likely to fire off a sarcastic or witty retort. Though as MMPR progresses, she becomes a more friendly and kind hearted person.

 

Skull, one of the local bullies, had a crush on her until she became involved with Tommy Oliver. However in Season 3, it is shown that Skull still had some lingering feelings for Kimberly when she was placed under a spell that made her—albeit briefly—reject Tommy.

 

Lord Zedd once wanted Kimberly to be his queen before marrying Rita, and ordered Goldar to capture and train her into being his queen, but the magic dust didn't work and she retained her memories as a Ranger; she then did a Rita impression to fool her captors and give Billy and Trini enough time to rescue her from her "training". Beauty and the Beast

 

All the members of the team possessed unique fighting styles. She used a blend of gymnastic maneuvers followed by punches, elbows and kicks. She often used the environment around her as a springboard for her attacks. Kimberly was often called upon to finish off monsters with physically visible weaknesses such as the Terror Toad's second mouth once he had been weakened by losing his horn and the Snizzard’s golden apple on top of its head.

 

When Rito Revolto destroys the Thunderzords, Kimberly and the other Rangers travel to the Desert of Despair and gain new powers from the creator of the Power Coins, Ninjor. Kimberly becomes the Pink Ninja Ranger, harnessing the spirit of the crane and controlling the Pink Crane Ninjazord . She later moves in with Aisha's family when her mother becomes engaged to a painter and moves to France; Zedd creates a monster, Artistmole, from Kimberly's nightmares about her mother's fiancee, but Kimberly defeats it. A Brush With Destiny Kimberly was sad when her mother was not present for the 1995 holiday season, but she returned from France to surprise her daughter.

 

Midway through Season 3, Amy Jo Johnson requested that Kimberly was written off the show because she wanted to pursue other opportunities in acting. The character was accommodated with a 10-episode story arc focused on Kimberly, leading up to her departure. Kimberly was replaced by Katherine Hillard. The veteran Ranger was targeted for elimination when Katherine (aka "Kat"), under Rita's spell, stole her power coin, granting her access to the Ninjazords.Kim as the Pink Ninja RangerThe coin being in the hands of evil also served to drain Kimberly of her life force as the Ninja Powers were linked directly to the life of the Ranger, unlike the Dinosaur-based power set. To take advantage of this, Rita launched a campaign to keep Kim overexerted in battle, knowing that, at the same time, she was focusing all of her personal time to gymnastics training for the Pan Global Glames. Her coach, the famous Gunthar Schmidt, grew increasingly impatient with Kimberly's apparent lack of dedication to her training. On one occasion, Kimberly trained late at Ernie's Gym and Juice Bar after hours and, depleted, she fell from atop the balance beam. She is discovered unconscious on the floor by Katherine, overriding the evil spell she is under. Katherine calls '911' and Kimberly is hospitalized. She recovered and later Katherine manages to give Kimberly her power coin back. However, Kimberly almost abandoned her gymnastics training after that, until she is encouraged to go back to it. In a turn of events, Katherine took a dramatic approach to inspiring Kimberly to pursue gymnastics again by revealing to Kimberly a scrapbook of her own athletic achievements in the sport of high diving. After hitting her head on the board, she gave up on the sport, just short of her entrance into the Olympics. Katherine lured Kimberly to a local pool where she arrived just in time to see Katherine perform a fearful, yet expert high dive for her first time in years. This, and Zordon's declaration that her recruitment as a Ranger is over, prompts Kimberly to leave in order to train full-time with Gunthar Schmidt for the Pan Global Games in Florida. She selects Katherine as her replacement. A Different Shade of Pink

 

Tommy was Kimberly's boyfriend and the two shared many dates and tender moments. Unfortunately, in the subsequent series Power Rangers Zeo, Kimberly breaks up with Tommy via a "Dear John," letter because she finds someone in Florida. The letter breaks Tommy's heart and leads him into a relationship with her replacement, Katherine, who was secretly in love with Tommy while she was under Rita's spell.