I will travel across the land! (Pokemon in syndication)

Hey guys! So, when Pokèmon first aired in the United States, it was in first run syndication before going to Kids WB. I created this thread to share memories of it during that time or just early Pokèmon anime memories in general.

For me, most of this stuff will come from research, as I don't recall watching it in syndication (though I was four during the last time it aired on broadcast television in my area). From 1998 until around 2000 or 2001, it aired on our local FOX affiliate. During this time, it was also a Kids WB affiliate (not The WB. Kids WB. Our NBC affiliate carried The WB's prime time programming), so I don't know if its extended run on the channel has to do with this or if it was just a popular program. I only watched it on VHS and later on Cartoon Network, but I might've watched it on FOX at some point. Here's a screenshot of it on the online schedule on February 04, 2001.


Funny to think that at one time, Digimon and Pokémon wereon the same network. What I wouldn't give to have a recording of it from that time.

So, where did Pokémon air in your atea before landing on Kids WB? Was your situation similar to mine?

Mine aired on UPN-69, on the 3:00 PM time slot. Before then was Dragon Ball Z, and after that was Duck Tales at 3:30 PM, Disney's Hercules at 4:00 PM, and Doug at 4:30 PM. Then it was back-to-back episodes of Sister-Sister at 5:00 PM, followed by back to back episodes of Frasier at 6:00, followed by Judge Mathis at 7:00 (though I never actually watched that last program). Also watched it regularly, at least until Disney's One-Too altered things.

^
Pretty cool. I wouldn't have thought Dragon Ball Z would still be in syndication when Pokémon came to the states as Toonami snatched it up.

So, here's a quote from an article around the time Kids WB snatched up. Turns out Pokémon remaining on Fox35 had nothing to do with their secondary affiliation with Kids WB.

"Public Outrage Gets Pokémon Back on Air" said:

Let the joyous news be spread. "Pokemon" the TV show is not dead.

Starting Monday, the phenomenally popular cartoon show from Japan will return to 2:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays on WRLH-Channel 35.

But first came a week without "Pokemon."

We heard from concerned parents; we heard from frantic kids.

Between phone calls and e-mail, WRLH heard from approximately 100 viewers, all wondering where "Pokemon" had disappeared to.

It could have been worse. The Richmond TV market could have lost "Pokemon" entirely.

"Pokemon" is a cartoon (and attendant merchandising) that started in Japan and has spread like wildfire in the United States.

First, it aired in syndication, including Channel 35. In January, however, The WB bought the exclusive rights to the program.

The syndicated version of "Pokemon" ran out last Friday, leaving The WB (seen locally via cable TV's WGN) as the sole outlet.

However, the WB doesn't have a station in this market. And WGN's carriage of The WB on a national basis ends Oct. 6.

WWBT-Channel 12 is now carrying The WB's prime-time schedule, airing some shows at 3 p.m. weekdays, others on the weekend. But the full-time NBC affiliate couldn't find time on its schedule for The WB's daytime programming.

A new deal with The WB will allow Channel 35 to bring the series back starting on Monday. The only time period available was "Pokemon's" original time period.

"It was done out of response to the requests for the show we'd had on that was so popular," said Janet May, regional program director for the owners of WRLH, Sinclair Broadcast Group, explaining why and how "Pokemon" was rescued.

Click to expand...

In my area, when Pokémon was in first-run syndication, it aired via Fox affiliate WSMH 66 out of Flint, MI. During this time, Detroit's station for syndicated Pokémon was then-UPN O&O (now The CW O&O) WKBD-TV 50, which I was able to get via outdoor antenna.

I wasn't into Pokémon at the time, and didn't even bother to watch it until well after it moved to Kids' WB - which I was able to get via what was then WDWB 20 (now myNetworkTV affiliate WMYD), also out of Detroit.

Sadly, a similar deal to what happened in Richmond didn't happen in the Flint/Saginaw/Bay City market, as far as I know. Although NBC affiliate WEYI-TV 25 carried some prime-time WB network programming during the overnight hours, there was no outlet that I knew of in the area that carried anything out of Kids' WB until WBSF signed on via a digital subchannel of WEYI (30.2) in the mid-2000s, followed by an analog signal signing on at channel 46 - by the time that latter event happened, Pokémon was essentially gone from Kids' WB - as by the time analog channel 46 signed on the air, The WB was just days away from shutting down, with WBSF becoming Flint/Saginaw's The CW outlet (which it still is today).

I remember it being on Kids WB years ago before Cartoon Network snatches it up years later. It's too bad CN gave it up because Disney was the worst possible outcome for Sun and Moon and future Pokemon series. I mean when the Kanto Episodes aired back in December, it went on like a 4-5 month hiatus before airing 15 Episodes(8 over a span of a week) before going on hiatus yet again after airing Episode 58 over a week ago. Considering how far behind the English dub is with the Japanese dub, it's going to be months before the current Ula'Ula arc even airs(wherein interest in the series will have long died due to Generation 8 likely having been announced).

By the time I got into Pok?mon, Cartoon Network was the one who was syndicating Pok?mon. Boomerang handled reruns on and off. The, along came Disney. Who is doing the worst job I have ever seen when it comes to Pok?mon. I honestly thought that Cartoon Network should have kept their broadcasting rights. It was a stupid move to have Pok?mon move to Disney XD. The Pok?mon dub used to be about ~12 weeks behind the Japanese back when Cartoon Network was handling it. I thought that was super admirable, considering how Kids WB, from what I heard was about a year behind back in the day.

Disney XD puts Pok?mon on hiatus for no goddamn reason and then airs the episode quickly in succession to each other in "marathons", it's really hella annoying that they do this to the show.

I also remember it being on KidsWB. It was on really early in the morning, like 6 or 7AM, and also in the afternoons after school was out.

That's when it was very new to USA TV, and they did re-runs of a lotta the same eps randomly for a while.

I remember Digimon, and Cardcaptors, and etc also being on at that time!

IMO it faired better on WB than it eventually did on CN, at least it seemed to. That could just be thanks to the Pokemon boom the first couple of years it was on TV, though, too. I was a bummer to me that over years they cut it to airing once a week when it was a new ep. I dunno what they do for it now, but for a time also it aired on Boomerang, and that was Kanto and Johto. I'm not sure if Hoenn has ever re-aired though? I wish it would just to attract more fans, but I'm realy biased to that series. lol

I definitely don't remember Pokemon and Digimon ever being on the same networks here. That indeed must've been a sight.

Digimon was on Fox, or subsects of it like Fox Family, along with something equally similar at the time like Monster Rancher.

Pokemon was on the WB, or at rare times, TBS during their WB kid block, so yeah... They literally never crossed paths ever where I live, even now. Pokemon is on CN and Digimon I believe is on Nick or Disney? One of them.

Like Coke and Pepsi, really. Always separate.

Is Pokemon still on Disney now?? That feels really weird.

Enpatsu Shakugan said:

I definitely don't remember Pokemon and Digimon ever being on the same networks here. That indeed must've been a sight.

Digimon was on Fox, or subsects of it like Fox Family, along with something equally similar at the time like Monster Rancher.

Click to expand...

Oh, Monster Rancher!! I loved that show, but I remember my school being split down the middle. Some kids liked Pokemon and some liked Monster Rancher. lol

Yes, Boomerang reran Hoenn. Sinnoh, too. Until 2016 January when it suddenly was gone completely. Two episodes a day Monday through Friday.

Reruns are returning, btw!! Boomerang has pokemon advanced battle slated for 4 to 5 pm starting next week

Pokemon being on Disney was the worst decision. It airs with Beyblade & the assumed cancelled Yokai Watch. I pray to god Disney doesn't take Digimon & ygo too. Keep away

Palamon said:

Yes, Boomerang reran Hoenn. Sinnoh, too. Until 2016 January when it suddenly was gone completely. Two episodes a day Monday through Friday.

Reruns are returning, btw!! Boomerang has pokemon advanced battle slated for 4 to 5 pm starting next week

Pokemon being on Disney was the worst decision. It airs with Beyblade & the assumed cancelled Yokai Watch. I pray to god Disney doesn't take Digimon & ygo too. Keep away

Click to expand...

Oh my god, Boomerang is airing Hoenn soon?? Bless. The bad part of that is, as far as spreading older Pok?mon eps to younger kids, not many little kids watch Boomerang, I doubt. It'll be good for older fans, but ah wellll.

Steven Stone said:

Is Pokemon still on Disney now?? That feels really weird.

Oh, Monster Rancher!! I loved that show, but I remember my school being split down the middle. Some kids liked Pokemon and some liked Monster Rancher. lol

Click to expand...

It's Digimon that's Disney, right?

For my school, it wasn't likes, haha, it was rivalries. Everyone thought Digimon was a ripoff of Pokemon AND Monster Rancher.
Or any variation of that triangle above.

Steven Stone said:

Oh my god, Boomerang is airing Hoenn soon?? Bless. The bad part of that is, as far as spreading older Pok?mon eps to younger kids, not many little kids watch Boomerang, I doubt. It'll be good for older fans, but ah wellll.

Click to expand...

Yes, starting on he 25th of June. Boomerang has completely changed ove the years, so idk how well reruns airing in syndication on there is gonna do this time around.

While i'm here, one good thing Disney did was put every single Pokemon episode ever on demand. I've been spam watching so much Pokemon since I found out

Palamon said:

Yes, starting on he 25th of June. Boomerang has completely changed ove the years, so idk how well reruns airing in syndication on there is gonna do this time around.

While i'm here, one good thing Disney did was put every single Pokemon episode ever on demand. I've been spam watching so much Pokemon since I found out

Click to expand...

Yep every episode can be watched on Demand in Standard Definition. High Definition... eh it?s funky for my provider. I get the first 52 Episodes and then it jumps to midway through Season 12, completely skipping Orange Islands, Johto, Hoenn, Battle Frontier and parts of Sinnoh(including Wallace Cup). I get the rest of Sinnoh, Unova(ugh), Kalos(woot) and all current English dub SM Episodes. Tack on a few movies and you got hours of content to watch. I rewatch XY as a remedy for Sun&Moon.

Palamon said:

Yes, starting on he 25th of June. Boomerang has completely changed ove the years,

Click to expand...

I remember when Boomerang used to be a channel with my parent's cartoons, like the Flintstones and what not.... now it's the cartoons I grew up on...

Enpatsu Shakugan said:

I remember when Boomerang used to be a channel with my parent's cartoons, like the Flintstones and what not.... now it's the cartoons I grew up on...

Click to expand...

Boomerang used to be free too but now it?s $4.99/month if memory serves. Lots of what you can find here are shows I used to watch 20-25 years ago, including shows my parents used to watch as kids themselves. My Mother was a fan of the original Johnny Quest while my Dad was a fan of Popeye(I?ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a Hamburger today) and Flintstones.

Wonder why they don?t include the old Miguzi block that CN aired back in the day. Had Teen Titans, Code Lyoko, Totally Spies and another show that escapes me at the moment. Code Lyoko was an underrated show despite being low budget.

gokaiblue,

I remember Pokemon was on WRLH FOX 35 weekdays at the time. To my knowledge and research, Pokemon aired on the station via tape delay by the owner Sinclair Broadcast Group. This was a similar move the local NBC affiliate WWBT did with selected primetime WB programming replaying during the graveyard hours. All of this came to be when the market's original WB affiliate WAWB was sold and became a UPN affiliate with the calls WUPV owned by Lockwood Broadcast Group. One reason I came up with concerning the network change was to avoid the reverse recompensation sat forth by The WB to its affiliates. I rather prefer WB over UPN but with the lack of available stations in the maket to carry each individual network programming seven days a week made it impossible. The Norfolk-Hampton Roads market had both a standalone WB affiliate and a standalone UPN station. Lockwood Broadcast admitted that they made attempts to prevent a WB station from being built because in my opinion it would have been a major competitor and a threat towards WUPV in the Richmond market. ACME Communications of whom owned several WB-affiliated stations tried to establish a standalone station around 2003 but Lockwood blocked it. I never forgave Lockwood for buying channel 65 out, changing the format/network affiliation and blocking The WB full-time from Richmond. On some good days between 2004 and 2006 with a good antenna and directional points living in Richmond, I did catch some primetime WB programming and some kids shows from WTVZ WB33 in Norfolk when the station was still broadcasting in analog so I did get some satisfaction but it wasn't enough.

I remember it being on Kids' WB mainly in the afternoons after school, I also remember when it moved to Cartoon Network, and they started showing reruns of the older seasons as well as Diamond and Pearl....
On Kids' WB, I'd watch it on WATL WB 36.
To this day, I'm still baffled that it's on Disney now.
(When I didn't have cable or satellite, I would just watch various episodes of Kanto-Hoenn on the Pokemon TV app on my iPad, now I'm just getting the DVD's of those seasons. Won't go past Hoenn, as I like to keep it old school! Though I found Alola to be delightful, especially "Alola, Kanto!")