I don't understand why the DVD's don't have the correct order...IMDB says that Season 3 has 13 episodes, but the DVD cover says 18 episodes...And I got Volume's 2, DVD 1 (does "Volume" stands for "Season"?), and the episodes are in different order from what IMDB says. Why is this happening? And not only in "Superman", but in other series too.
shareWith kids' animated series, particularly in the 80s and 90s, season lengths are very often wildly inconsistent. The first season of Batman TAS had 60 episodes, the second season had just ten. The first season of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has just five episodes, the second has thirteen, while the third and fourth seasons have over forty episodes each.
Selling "seasons" like that would seem strange to customers (who are used to a "season" being a nice, neat box of 20-ish episodes), so the standard practice is to divide animated shows into "volumes" of roughly equal length. That's what they did with both the Batman and Superman series. "Volume One" isn't season 1, it's the first 18 episodes, then Volumes Two and Three have 18 episodes each. It's just neater that way.
As for them being in the wrong order, I'm not sure what that's about. Sometimes there's a clash between "production order" and "broadcast order" and the numbering of episodes gets messed up. For what it's worth, I've watched all the Superman DVDs and I can assure you that all the major "arcs" are in the right order. Maybe some of the one-off stories are in the wrong place but I wouldn't worry too much about that.
Ok, that's pretty much what I've expected to be. Yes, the first 60 episodes season of "Batman: TAS" was crazy! When did they find time?? I'm sure not all of them are included in the show's DVDs, right?
And are there any episodes missing from the DVDs of "Superman"?
All the episodes have been released, yeah; 3 The DCAU DVDs are pretty good like that ... they know they're dealing with a, erm, "demanding" fanbase.
shareYou are conceptualizing it wrong, based on the season structure that IMDB is using. Batman wasn't produced as a season, but as an order for episodes. That was followed by a second order of episodes. Syndication doesn't exactly work on a season basis, like the networks. The networks are stuck in this cycle as that is how they have always run. New shows debuted in the fall, and then there would be summer replacements (since people would go on vacations, or work in fields, or whatever, disrupting normal viewing patterns from fall and winter; not to mention enjoying longer days and warmer weather). That was later changed to mostly just re-running the original show. In syndication, they are paying for a package of shows, for broadcasting across five days of the week, with 60 (or so) as the magic number, to allow for 12 weeks (or about a quarter of the year) of broadcast. That is why network shows usually didn't enter syndication until after their third season, so they would have that many shows available for syndicated broadcasts. Thus, Fox commissioned 60 shows from Warner Bros. for Batman, then asked for more shows when it became a huge hit. Superman was done the same way. Justice League was done more in a traditional season structure, thanks to the way programming was set up on the Cartoon Network. Fox was operating like a syndicator, while WB was operating as a network (Cartoon Network).
There is also a discrepancy between broadcast order and production order. Not all episodes were broadcast in the order they were produced, due to various reasons, including retakes, budget, and sweeps periods (strong shows withheld to be used for those periods, to get maximum ratings, which led to better advertising rates). I can't remember if the dvds use production order or broadcast order.
All of the Superman episodes are available on DVD, either as the three-volume sets or the complete series mega-set. They are uncut.
Cable networks have more and more been adopting the British tv structure, with shorter "series" of around 13 episodes. This allows for tighter writing and budgets. Personally, I think it presents a stronger overall show than the traditional method, where many shows in a season ae just throwaway filler to round out the season.
"Fortunately, Ah keep mah feathers numbered for just such an emergency!"
Thanks for your reply. How do you know all this stuff??
Ok, I read all you said, I get a better idea now, but why isn't this happening with normal (real people) TV shows or sitcoms? And I'm not talking of course with TV shows like "24" which have a continuation, but older TV sitcoms from the '80s and '90s which got released in DVD's in the 2000's. Why are they divided in correct seasons and airplay? Like all the "Star Trek" series, for example. Why is this mess happening only with kids' shows?
"There is also a discrepancy between broadcast order and production order. Not all episodes were broadcast in the order they were produced, due to various reasons, including retakes, budget, and sweeps periods (strong shows withheld to be used for those periods, to get maximum ratings, which led to better advertising rates). I can't remember if the dvds use production order or broadcast order."
I know that "The Simpsons" use broadcast order.
"since people would go on vacations, or work in fields"
Work in fields? What do you mean? Heh, I'm not sure if...farmers is the target audience of the networks for animated super hero TV shows!