How DBZ on Cartoon Network worked? Please help explain

[DrBriefsCat]

As someone from outside the US who was introduced to the franchise in the early 10s, seeing the regular CN branding over something that violent does not compute.

Oh, yeah. If you think Cartoon Network is liberal now, you have no idea how awesome they were back in the day! I'm surprised they even needed an [adult swim] block in the first place.

Ha ha ha. No. This airing of DBZ was considered a special event and was one of the few times such violence was allowed on the network.

[DrBriefsCat]

At the time, did you get the sense that the ‘edited for TV’ dub was the main product, and the tapes and DVDs, cut and uncut, were afterthoughts? I.e. basically everyone called him Hercule, not Satan, right?

Nah, especially once the DVD's came out which never contained the edited version.

You put the OP's quotes as mine.

[MasenkoHA]

As someone from outside the US who was introduced to the franchise in the early 10s, seeing the regular CN branding over something that violent does not compute.

Oh, yeah. If you think Cartoon Network is liberal now, you have no idea how awesome they were back in the day! I'm surprised they even needed an [adult swim] block in the first place.

Ha ha ha. No. This airing of DBZ was considered a special event and was one of the few times such violence was allowed on the network.

I think people are remembering DBZ on Toonami as a lot more unedited than it actually was.

Blood was allowed but only if it wasn’t moving or couldn’t pass for red scratch marks. It was more unedited than the Kai episodes on Nicktoons/KidsWb and the Saban overseen episodes of Z but it was
still pretty censored overall. Three episodes still had to merged to two to get around Freeza impaling Krillin.

And there was some weird “dialog censorship” from the already incredibly tame uncut dialog like Burter saying “Bite Me” being replaced with “Turkey!” and Vegeta’s “I’m a friggin genius” being edited down to “I’m an absolute genius!”

[Hellspawn28]

The only way to watch DBZ Uncut on CN was the midnight run which was on a week days (Monday through Thursday). Most of its main audience was probably in bed at the time because they have to awake up early for school. The dub was still terrible even it is uncut.

[MyVisionity]

The only way to watch DBZ Uncut on CN was the midnight run which was on a week days (Monday through Thursday). Most of its main audience was probably in bed at the time because they have to awake up early for school. The dub was still terrible even it is uncut.

I don't think DBZ aired uncut during the Midnight Run. I remember that it was paired with Gundam Wing, which they did air uncut during that slot.

[Arian]

Oh, yeah. If you think Cartoon Network is liberal now, you have no idea how awesome they were back in the day! I'm surprised they even needed an [adult swim] block in the first place.

Ha ha ha. No. This airing of DBZ was considered a special event and was one of the few times such violence was allowed on the network.

I think people are remembering DBZ on Toonami as a lot more unedited than it actually was.

Blood was allowed but only if it wasn’t moving or couldn’t pass for red scratch marks. It was more unedited than the Kai episodes on Nicktoons/KidsWb and the Saban overseen episodes of Z but it was
still pretty censored overall. Three episodes still had to merged to two to get around Freeza impaling Krillin.

And there was some weird “dialog censorship” from the already incredibly tame uncut dialog like Burter saying “Bite Me” being replaced with “Turkey!” and Vegeta’s “I’m a friggin genius” being edited down to “I’m an absolute genius!”

The things you guys are describing were way more FUNimation's call than Cartoon Network's. The edited VHS tapes were out long before Cartoon Network ever starting airing them, so any blame or praise should go to FUNi. Yes, Cartoon Network wanted the show at a TY-Y7 rating so it could be on in the afternoons but they weren't sitting there going, "You guys need more pop culture references."

And the uncut version, like I said before aired as early as 7:30pm on Toonami.

[Super Sonic]

The only way to watch DBZ Uncut on CN was the midnight run which was on a week days (Monday through Thursday). Most of its main audience was probably in bed at the time because they have to awake up early for school. The dub was still terrible even it is uncut.

I don't think DBZ aired uncut during the Midnight Run. I remember that it was paired with Gundam Wing, which they did air uncut during that slot.

Gundam Wing was the only one that did and the DB eps were still edited. Heck, GW was the only Gundam they aired uncut as 08th MS Team and War in the Pocket only aired on Midnight Run with the Y7 rating, and thus causing a lot of edits, though interestingly enough, they made episode 8 of the former longer by combining scenes from "Miller's Report" with the regular episode.

[TheMajinRedComet]

Didnt GT only air on fridays orginally? That was right before toonami went to once a week on saturday night. I still think that was a bad decision that screwed over Yu Yu and Gundam Seed.

[DrBriefsCat]

The only way to watch DBZ Uncut on CN was the midnight run which was on a week days (Monday through Thursday). Most of its main audience was probably in bed at the time because they have to awake up early for school. The dub was still terrible even it is uncut.

I don't think DBZ aired uncut during the Midnight Run. I remember that it was paired with Gundam Wing, which they did air uncut during that slot.

Gundam Wing was the only one that did and the DB eps were still edited. Heck, GW was the only Gundam they aired uncut as 08th MS Team and War in the Pocket only aired on Midnight Run with the Y7 rating, and thus causing a lot of edits, though interestingly enough, they made episode 8 of the former longer by combining scenes from "Miller's Report" with the regular episode.

GW airing uncut was pretty much an experiment that didn't apply to most other Toonami shows at the time. It was also much tamer compared to the other two Gundam shows you mentioned in terms of content CN found objectionable.

[Akira]

I don't know if it pertains to the original questions directly, but I skimmed through the topic and figured I would share a few things I remember from when cartoon network very first started airing Dragonball Z. In 1999, I was a senior in high school, and had a job flipping burgers for a local fast food restaurant. I had gotten into DBZ and was excited to see it in english, when all I had seen so far was fansubbed VHS tapes. Cartoon network aired DBZ at 5pm every weekday, but they also aired the same episode again at 1am. I remember if I had to work after school, and missed the 5pm episode, I'd rush to get the restaurant closed up and be out of there by midnight if at all possible. I lived about 5 miles away at that time and would rush home and take a shower, get some snacks, and catch that 1am airing so I could keep up with the story.

I remember them doing the Tree of Might in the three episode format, and then starting back from episode 1. That had a different dub than the Tree of Might in single movie format. Cartoon Network would run a movie marathon every so often and do them in reverse order Tree of Might, World's Strongest and then Dead Zone.

They ran those ocean group edited episodes through multiple times over the span of a couple of years before they finally started airing the in-house dubbed episodes starting with the Ginyu-Freeza stuff. That was a big deal at the time, and while the voices were jarring at first, I was just happy to see more of the series in english. The fansubbed stuff I'd seen was just a handful of episodes here or there, so I was glad to finally see how everything pieced together.

They ran Trunks-Cell Games all in one year, which was a huge surprise to get a whole "season" that was an entire story arc. The Buu stuff is where they broke it up into three seasons over the next few years so they didn't run out of hype train for the franchise. That stuff got rerun a lot, I was in college by that point, and still tuned in, but I was usually doing homework at the same time as watching. Not long after they'd concluded, I'd started collecting the home DVD releases, and didn't really rely on the television airings much after that when I wanted to watch the show anymore. So you guys chiming in on the later years probably remember more than I do about those parts of the history.