Correct Original Airdates of Season One/Three Episodes

[ToddTPM]

I would fix this on the Bulbapedia; however, I am not registered.

Nevertheless, the original airdates in the United States for the following episodes as listed by the Bulbapedia are incorrect: (the dates listed are the correct ones that I have determined)

Season One:
-Pikachu's Goodbye - 11/20/1998
-The Battling Eevee Brothers - 10/27/1998
-Wake Up Snorlax - 10/28/1998
-Showdown at Dark City - 10/29/1998
-March of the Exeggutor Squad - 10/30/1998

Season Three:
-Bound for Trouble - 9/15/2000
-Charizard Chills - 9/2/2000
-Pokemon Water War - 8/26/2000
-Pokemon Food Fight - 8/19/2000

These dates are based on research that I have conducted. First, I have used my original airdate tapes from 1998 to 2000 (I have up to now). Also, I have used my own memory and found information pertaining to the episodes in question in old Usenet threads.

Season Three Evidence:
I don't know if you remember or not, but KidsWB was notorious for airing episodes out of order during the second and third seasons. The episodes Misty Meets Her Match, Bound for Trouble, and Charizard Chills were held off from the second season and aired during the third season in the fall of 2000.

Nevertheless, Pokemon Food Fight and Pokemon Water War had to be the first two episodes shown in late summer/fall of 2000 because these two had the Meowth's Party ending. The English version aired the week before the Japanese version...the English version was shown after Pokemon Food Fight, which means it was shown the week before Pokemon Water War.

The order of the episodes on my tapes are as follows:
- The Mystery Menace
- Beauty and the Beach
- Pokemon Food Fight
- Pokemon Water War
- Charizard Chills
- Misty Meets Her Match
- Pokemon Double Trouble
- Bound for Trouble
- The Wacky Watcher
- The Stun Spore Detour

This order corresponds to the airdates that I have submitted.

Furthermore, there are commercials from the tapes that give more evidence of the order.

- There is a commercial promoting the premiere of Generation O! the following week during Pokemon Food Fight. Generation O! premiered on August 26, 2000, which means that Pokemon Food Fight aired the week before on August 19, 2000.
- Before the Pokemon Water War, there is a bumper stating an "All-New Adventure in the Orange Island League".
- There is a promo during Pokemon Water War for the premiere of Generation O!. It states: "Premieres Next". This means that Pokemon Water War premiered on August 26, 2000.
- There is a commercial during both Pokemon Food Fight and Pokemon Water War promoting the Top 15 Pokemon Countdown, which occurred from Monday, September 4, 2000 to Saturday, September 9, 2000. It promotes 2 all-new episodes airing on that Saturday. Your listings currently have 3 new episodes airing on that date...which is incorrect even according to the commercial.
- Before Bound for Trouble (on my tape) was a bumper saying that it was an "All-New" episode of Pokemon. There are also Fraturday bumpers between the commercials, which means that this episode aired on a Friday.

Finally, the following websites confirm what I have been stating:
- Toonzone (Airdates exactly like mine)
- alt.games.nintendo.pokemon (Talkback for Bound for Trouble from original airdate...says it was new on 9/15/2000)
- alt.games.nintendo.pokemon (Talkback for Pokemon Water War from original airdate...says it was new on 8/26/2000)
- alt.games.nintendo.pokemon (Talkback for Pokemon Food Fight from original airdate...says it was new on 8/19/2000)

NOTE: Bulbapedia lists four new episodes airing on September 9, 2000. I don't believe that more than three episodes aired on the same day...and that only occurred once on March 25, 2000 when Snack Attack, Shipful of Shivers, and Meowth Rules all premiered.

Season One Evidence:

During the initial run of Pokemon, Battle Aboard the St. Anne was the first episode shown on 9/7/1998. The following day, Pokemon I Choose You aired and the series ran as normal. Battle Aboard the St. Anne aired again in its rightful slot the day after the premiere of Electric Shock Showdown. Furthermore, up to March of the Exeggutor Squad was shown. Four episodes were skipped during the first run as well: Beauty and the Beach, Legend of Dratini, Electric Soldier Porygon, and Pikachu's Goodbye. The first three never aired in syndication (only Beauty and the Beach has aired since on KidsWB twice).

For some unknown reason, Pikachu's Goodbye was held off in the initial run and aired on 11/20/1998. I am assuming this was because they might have been running late with the 'The Time Has Come' music. This was during the second run of episodes and aired the day after the repeat of Electric Shock Showdown. I have Pikachu's Goodbye from its original airdate on tape and I was wondering why the episode was shown then. I started taping the series during the repeat of Challenge of the Samurai on 11/5/1998. Coicidentally, I saw the repeat of Pokemon I Choose You on 11/2/1998, but I did not see any of the episodes during their initial run. Therefore, I did not know that Pikachu's Goodbye was originally aired out of order on 11/20/1998. I thought it was a little weird though that I had not seen most of the scenes shown in the goodbye montage. Nevertheless, I knew something was up a few weeks later when Pikachu's Goodbye aired again on 12/22/1998 after the repeat of Ditto's Mysterious Mansion. (I also have the repeat on tape as I did not have the heart to shut the VCR off).

I can make a copy of the syndication schedule available upon request if people doubt my results.

Sorry for the long message but I want this information to finally be corrected. The original Season One airdates have been inaccurate since 1999 and I would only want for the correct information to be known in the Pokemon community. I've been a fan since the beginning and I'd hate for people just getting into Pokemon as well as older fans to learn false information. That's the problem with the Internet...the original airdates for the series have been used by many Pokemon fansites out there and they are unintentionally spreading fall information.

Nevertheless, history should be correct now.

Hope this information helps,
ToddTPM (Original member/lurker of every major Pokemon board since 1999....I never post so my account always expires and I end up lurking...names been the same though)

 

[Zhen Lin]

Finally, someone goes out to do the research I've been looking for. (And, annoyingly, at this difficult time. If you do wish to carry out the edits yourself, I will be more than happy to make an account for you - simply tell me your desired username and email address)

I had originally compared two sources to obtain this [bp=User:Zhen_Lin/US_broadcast_date_discrepancies]list of discrepancies[/bp], however, you have brought up some episodes not on that list, and on the other hand, there are some episodes on that list you have not brought up.

 

[ToddTPM]

These are the correct airdates for the episodes in question:

-The Ghost of Maiden's Peak - 10/2/1998
-Clefairy Tales - 9/25/1999
-Lights, Camera, Quacktion! - 10/8/1999
-Go West, Young Meowth - 10/9/1999
-A Shadow of a Drought - 3/3/2001
-Fowl Play - 4/28/2001
-Forest Grumps - 6/2/2001
-The Psychic Sidekicks - 8/11/2001
-Fortune Hunters - 5/19/2001
-Fossil Fools - 9/15/2001
-Hassle in the Castle - 9/29/2001
-A Hot Water Battle - 9/22/2001
-Ariados Amigos! - 11/17/2001
-The Grass Route - 11/3/2001

I am not 100% sure of these because I will have to check my original airdate tapes...but they seem accurate to me
- I am positive that Clefairy Tales was on 9/25/1999 because that was the same day as Battle of the Badge.
- Fortune Hunters definitely aired way out of order in May of 2001.
- I remember Grass Route airing way ahead out of order (Maybe shown a day where 3 episodes aired...2 new).
- Fossil Fools aired aired after 911 because I think my original airdate copy has an American flag behind the KidsWB logo.
- Season Four episode airdates were changed all around due to 911 so I am not surprised that there are errors...some websites still have the original intented airdate but never updated to the later, pushed-back airdate.

 

[Trainer Lisa]

Wow!

That's amazing, ToddTPM!


I think you have a lot more Pokemon tapes than I do.


And I didn't start taping Pokemon till around the end of the first season (I had most of the first season already on tape, cause of those official VHS tapes I own).

Unfortunately, I missed taping Beauty And The Beach those 2 times that it aired, cause I didn't know how to tape stuff back then. X_X


But, anyway though, it seems like you've kept much better track of all your tapes than I have.

I mean, I always tape Pokemon in the order that KidsWB shows the episodes.

Although, on my 1st and 2nd season tapes, I forgot to put labels on those. So, what I have to do is watch a tape in order to see which episodes are on it.

Anyway, putting the date on the tapes, why didn't I think of that? That's a pretty good idea.

I always tried putting the episode titles on my tapes (but that made no sense really, cause I was never able to fit all the titles on there).

 

[ToddTPM]

Thanks for your kind comments, PokemonTrainerLisa. I actually became so obsessed with taping Pokemon that I have every episode from KidsWB from its original airdate, the first 40 episodes shown in syndication from my locate UPN affiliate, every single episode shown during KidsWB's 'Road to Indigo' saga in 2002 when it aired all of the episodes from the beginning up until Season 5 (January - October), repeats of new episodes shown on Fridays from 2002 and 2003, at least 3 cycles of episodes from Cartoon Network (so I could get all of the 'Next Time on Pokemon on Cartoon Network' promos), etc., the list goes on. I've got over 100, 6 hour VHS's filled with Pokemon stuff on them.

I've since stopped taping so much and since late 2003, I've only taped the new episodes when they originally air.

Finally, I've checked through Seasons One and Four and all of the airdates seem to be the correct ones. Hopefully, the later seasons are correct...I believe people were better at record-keeping from 2002 on so I didn't check them. And if that's all true, then that is the first and only accurate Pokemon episode guide with original airdates.

Glad I could be of service.

 

[Zhen Lin]

I guess, then, that the dates listed on that list of discrepancies should be resolved in favour of ToonZone? (Or are you saying that aside from the ones you already raised in your first post, Bulbapedia is already correct?)

Actually - I know some people who have further questions about the early-early days of dub Pokémon - you might be able to answer their questions.

(As for Battle Aboard the St. Anne - I prefer to have the in-sequence date, instead of the actual first airing. Of course, I don't really know what the in-sequence date is either - September 28 is my guess, but it said September 27 before.)

 

[Sunain]

The other question you might what to ask is which station/country are you basing the dub air dates on. YTV in Canada was often ahead of KidsWB in Johto and the same is now true about Toonami in the UK for Pokemon Advanced.

 

[Zhen Lin]

Ah, wait, I have a question - does Orange Islands start in EP081 (Pallet Party Panic) or EP082 in the dub (A Scare in the Air)? The original had a new theme song at EP081.

 

[ToddTPM]

All airdates are always based on American broadcasts from either syndication (UPN, Fox, etc.) or KidsWB. It is possible that I could compile a list of original airdates for Canada and UK, etc., but that would be way too much work and it would not be worth the effort.

I ended up changing all of the airdates to the correct ones. Some of Toonzone's were wrong as well. The correct list is a combination of both sources from the discrepancies list.

I'm not completely sure but I've always considered and heard (since back in the day) that Pallet Party Panic is the last episode of the Indigo Saga.

Battle Aboard the St. Anne premiered on 9/7/1998 and was repeated on 9/28/1998 and 11/23/1998 (as for dates in 1998).

 

[FabuVinny]

The other question you might what to ask is which station/country are you basing the dub air dates on. YTV in Canada was often ahead of KidsWB in Johto and the same is now true about Toonami in the UK for Pokemon Advanced.

Nope. Toonami still hasn't shown the Snorunt episode yet.

According to the guides at Pokemopolis (that seem to have been written at the time) Charizard Chills was the last episode for moths, before Pokémon Water War was the first one to air in September. Pokémon Water War was also the first season 3 episode when Toonami UK started their current run.

 

[Trainer Lisa]

Ah, wait, I have a question - does Orange Islands start in EP081 (Pallet Party Panic) or EP082 in the dub (A Scare in the Air)? The original had a new theme song at EP081.

Well, actually Zhen Lin, I think both "Pallet Party Panic" and "A Scare in the Air" still had the first season Pokemon theme.

The Orange Island theme started with the episode, "The Lost Lapras", which was the first episode of that season.

 

[Sharpshooter]

Nope. Toonami still hasn't shown the Snorunt episode yet.

According to the guides at Pokemopolis (that seem to have been written at the time) Charizard Chills was the last episode for moths, before Pokémon Water War was the first one to air in September. Pokémon Water War was also the first season 3 episode when Toonami UK started their current run.

I remember that, it was actually because of that farcical delay that I stopped watching pokémon for while.

Does anyone know the first air date for pokémon to air in the UK and what episode it was? I have a funny feeling it didn't come until 1999.