Farkas "Bulk" Bulkmeier and Eugene "Skull" Skullovitch are fictional characters in the Power Rangers universe. They appeared as permanent characters from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers until Power Rangers in Space. Bulk was a recurring character in Power Rangers Lost Galaxy, along with Power Rangers Samurai and Power Rangers Super Samurai, but the duo never returned together as permanent characters. Bulk and Skull are portrayed by Paul Schrier and Jason Narvy respectively.
Character overview Bulk was the dominant member of the duo. His appearance resembled a heavyset teenage punk. Skull was lean and wore more formal attire. Skull often emulated Bulk's behavior or agreed with his statements.
The duo provided slapstick comic relief to the franchise. The duo came with their own theme; a musical combo of Skull's whiny laugh and Bulk's "fat guy tuba". Their actions were punctuated by cartoon sound effects.Black Nerd Comedy : Power Morphicon 2010 (Part 1) - Character Actors (6.48 to 7.11)
Appearances
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers pilots In the pilot for the TV show, a gang of punk bullies included an unnamed character played by Paul Schrier. The leader of the gang, Bulk, was a stereotypical bully. He hits on Kimberly but she rejects his advances. This leads to the entire gang engaging in line dancing at a bowling alley with the five Rangers-to-be. Each one is disposed of by a typical gang manner, such as a generic "Punk #5" played by Paul Schrier sliding into the bowling pins when kicked in the back by Jason. Another gang member is unwittingly hit by Billy. Jason Narvy is not present in the pilot. Schrier got the role, according to him, by turning up ten minutes earlier than the other auditioning actors, so the director standing in for "Punk #5" at the audition got him to do it.Power Morphicon 2010: Bulk and Skull Panel Part 2 02:50 - 04:12
In a second pilot, shown at Power Morphicon 2007, Schrier was playing a named character (Bulk) and was now the leader of the gang, which included Jason Narvy as Skull. Narvy had originally auditioned for Billy and was called back to audition for Skull, as, according to Narvy, the actor who played "Punk #1" in the pilot was thought to look too intimidating to play a comedic character. He turned up to his audition intending to be obnoxious, as he was tired of the industry at the time, which helped get the role; Narvy and Schrier quickly bonded during rehearsals.Power Morphicon 2010: Bulk and Skull Panel Part 2 04:00 - 06:02
This version of Bulk was defeated in a similar slapstick style to the show - he's eventually tied up by a skipping rope - but is more menacing than he'd be in the series, physically intimidating Kimberly (who sounds worried about angering him), using some of the lines from "Punk #1", and throwing aside both the female punk & Skull when they get in his way. The debut of the pilot's Bulk and Skull would end up as the ending scene in the episode "Big Sisters".Youtube:"Power Morphicon 2007- Tony Oliver's Documentary/Closing 2of6"
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Bulk and Skull started out as bullies at Angel Grove High School, usually targeting the Power Rangers in the 'B plots' of the episode. They were regulars at Angel Grove's Youth Center. 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 and dressing up like superheroes calling themselves Bulkster and Super Skull) always ends in failure and/or being humiliated. Often, the duo got themselves mixed up with some of the villains' schemes. They are also frequently put in detention by Angel Grove High's somewhat-antagonistic but well meaning principal, Mr. Caplan.
In early episodes, as with the second pilot, Bulk and Skull had accomplices: a female punk is with them in "Teamwork" and "Food Fight", and a black male punk in "Food Fight". Early scripts for Season 1 show the female punk was meant to be a recurring character named Sharkie. She was written into scripts up into "The Trouble With Shellshock"Project Hexagon: Season 1 scripts (The name, was differently spelled, and was already in use on Fox Kids).
Bulk is seen as the de facto leader of the duo, and drums up the schemes which turns to failure. Skull is shown to be more sensitive and had a crush on Kimberly, while Bulk appeared to want to win Trini's heart, as well, in a few episodes. Whenever the girls were alone, they tried their best to win them over, although it resulted in Bulk and Skull's humiliation. When Kimberly and Trini are with the four male Rangers, they are called six "nerds" and "geeks", 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.
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 antagonistic, their more aggressive nature was toned down and they would get some more sympathetic portrayals. In the first-season episode "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 ask to join Kimberly and her Uncle on a flight; "A Pig Surprise" would have them happily looking after a pig; and in the three-part "The Ninja Encounter" in season two, when Bulk spotted a runaway baby stroller, he and Skull immediately sprang into action to help out, and the duo would spend the rest of the episode looking after the baby boy until his father escaped Goldar's clutches. This was also the first time the duo were seen on skateboards which, despite their generally unathletic nature, they appeared moderately skilled at.
During the second season, they attempted to discover the secret identities of the Power Rangers and repeatedly failed either due to their bumbling nature, or the Rangers' interference. The duo eventually give up by the time of the episode "A Friend in Need: Part III". During this time, Bulk and Skull started showing greater intelligence and initiative than before, coming up with complicated plans and utilizing bizarre gadgets. While a majority of their plans were harebrained, a few of them were actually clever, like making a cement cast of the Power Rangers' footprints so they can see if any civilians' feet match. 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 two prisms, 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 did not believe her as they were holding a picture of the morphed Ranger team at the time when it was just given to them by Ernie.
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 Patrol (having heard girls like men in uniform) and first met Lieutenant Jerome Stone, explicitly changing from bumbling bullies into good-natured knuckleheads, the duo gradually becoming friends with the ranger teens themselves; 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 usually failed to perform, leading eventually to his anger (rather than just their humiliation). Despite this, Bulk and Skull were close to Lt. Stone and took their new job seriously as they would be shown trying to perform police duties (albeit incompetently) and occasionally try to help people in trouble: in "The Changing of the Zords: Part I" they rushed to save children from drowning (who were not), in "Follow That Cab" they tried to stop a thief who'd stolen Kimberly's car and managed to apprehend him, ironically after they inadvertently helped him, and 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: Part II", Lt. Stone finally questioned why they always seem to run into monsters. The best way to describe them is "monster magnets".
Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers Bulk and Skull are regressed to children due to Master Vile's Orb of Doom. They would act like the bullies they were in the first season. Bulk is briefly turned into the "Brat Boy" monster by Rita and Zedd during the course of the mini-series and battles the Aquitian Rangers, but soon rebels against his masters as his human self surfaces from within, prompting Rita and Zedd to return him to normal in retaliation. When the Zeo Crystal was reformed and undid the time Reversal, Bulk and Skull, who were on playground swings and trying to see who could go the highest, where the first to return to their normal ages. When the swings break and they land next to each other, the two are puzzled as to why they are there and agree not to tell anyone.
Paul Schrier directed a few "Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers" episodes, including "Attack of the 60' Bulk", which he also appeared in briefly, despite his character at the time being reduced to the age of a child. Schrier (under the name of Paul Schrier II) had also directed a few episodes of Power Rangers: Turbo during the first half of the season (while his character of Bulk was a chimp).
Power Rangers Zeo During Power Rangers Zeo, Bulk and Skull remained members of the Junior Police Force (even getting a new motorcycle with a sidecar). They remained members until Bulk's attempts to woo the police chief's daughter accidentally caused Lt. Stone to be fired. They quit the force out of loyalty to Stone and joined him when he opened his own detective agency. While they initially continued to be scared of monsters, their sub-plots would shift towards their detective work after they switched jobs. In "The Joke's On Blue", they also had to clash with a rival gang of detectives, Humphrey and Bogart, who were trying to frame a new student named Robert for a series of practical jokes all over town, until Kat and Tanya helped expose the rival detectives as the practical jokers with the help of the owner of the novelty shop in identifying both Humphrey and Bogart as his best customers.
Also, during this time, Bulk and Skull secretly hosted Rito and Goldar, who lost their memories after setting up the bomb that destroyed the Command Center at the end of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, adopting them as their "pets" (though the two monsters really were more like Bulk and Skull's servants). However, when Rito and Goldar regained their memories, they turned on their masters and went back to Lord Zedd and Rita.