Saban Entertainment

In an unusually strong action by the Screen Actors Guild, the union has declared television producer Saban Entertainment "unfair to performers," and charged the company with the "economic exploitation of children." In a letter sent to SAG members this week, the guild ordered its members not to work for any of the company's shows until it signs an overall agreement with the union. Saban, which last year entered a joint venture with Fox Kids television and its parent, News Corp.

They look like Power Rangers. They fight like Power Rangers. They even morph like Power Rangers. But these heroes battling five sword-wielding females in gray masks and miniskirts during a TV shoot on a recent winter day are arguably better than the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. They are Ninja Rangers--the next generation of America's hottest youth heroes from the people who created them in the first place--Toei Studios of Japan.

Under a glass dome in Haim Saban's office sits a gold-plated Power Rangers toy figure--a symbol of how fortunes can be mined from just one TV show. Saban is the producer of "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers," the mega-hit children's TV show that has spawned the hottest-selling toy in the country and thrust Saban's small, Burbank-based production company to the forefront of independent Hollywood producers.

News Corp., the media company controlled by Rupert Murdoch, may be forced to buy the rest of Fox Family Worldwide Inc., a low-rated cable-television venture, from partner Saban Entertainment Inc., Saban said. News Corp. and Saban each own 49.5% of Fox Family, which runs the Fox Family Channel. Under terms of the venture, Saban has the option to require News Corp. to buy its stake for "fair market value in cash," Saban said in a statement.