What am I doing?
This is my attempt at putting together a package of episodes based on air date and season. My eventual goal is DVD. I've been steadily working towards that goal since the beginning. One thing that I promised myself was that I would finish the VCD set before starting on the DVDs. It's getting harder to live by that lately. I've been doing some behind the scenes work on the eventual DVD set, which is why updates to my webpage have been few and far between lately. I've done some calculations and experimentation and I've determined that each DVD should have four or five episodes. Then I had to determine which episodes should go on which disc. I also needed to decide if I should order the episodes by production number or chronologically by air date?
Why am I doing this?
I am doing this because FOX/WB have not (or will not) release this show on DVD. The show deserves to be preserved. It was well animated, produced, written, and acted. It won awards for its excellence. I loved the show. And I don't want to wear out my tapes watching them. Besides, if I ever finish this project, the odds of an official release increase ten-fold (if you believe in Murphy's Law).
Episode titles
The episode titles and production numbers shown on this site were the results of hours of research along with a little bit of educated guessing. Just getting the episode titles has been a task, since they don't give you the title anywhere in the show as it airs. I originally got the titles from the on-line TV Guide, something I consulted (and frequently printed out) every week while the show was being aired. The listing often changed and presumeably even had errors. While not perfect, it was good enough to start with. I still have some of the printouts I made back then.
At times episodes had different titles listed than what you see in other online episode guides. A good example is, "Cliffhanger" which is almost universally called "Cliffhangin' With Mr. Super" everywhere else but here. I originally saw this listed in TV Guide as "Cliffhanger" and indeed the show is a complete parody of the classic cliffhanger. Furthermore, it has the highest production number of any episode from season two. Therefore, I concluded that they originally intended to end the season on a "cliffhanger", so to speak.
Another episode frequently listed differently elsewhere is "The Preacher's Life". I first saw this one listed as "The Preacher's Wife" but the listing changed later in the week to "The Preacher's Life". Many of the show's episode titles parody real life movies and TV shows and this one is no different. See The Preacher's Wife.
Episode production numbers
The production numbers were also mostly gathered from TV Guide, but I did have some alternate sources for these. I dug through network logs from 1999-2001 digging for any information I could find. And also some of the online episode guides helped out. I did find discrepancies, but I was able to figure it out with other evidence that came to light. For example, I got screener tapes of several episodes which give the show title and production number. Production numbers helped me decide on the DVD breakdown.
Season/DVD breakdown
Based on my knowledge of the show and the episode production numbers, I reconstructed a list of how the episodes were meant to be aired. I believe the episode production numbers indicated which season the episode was created for. Also, noticing they aired out of order, I made the assumption that some episodes were finished (and ready for airing) before others. So I chose not to sort the episodes by production number. I believe, for instance, that they intended to end season one with "Haiti Sings the Blues". Season one was pretty easy. It was thirteen episodes long and there was a pretty good break between that and the second season. The only challenge was deciding which DVD will have five episodes.
Season One (13 episodes)
DVD-1
PJ-103 Hangin' With Mr Super
PJ-107 Bones, Bugs, and Harmony
PJ-101 The Door
PJ-104 Journal Fever
DVD-2
PJ-102 Rich Man, Porn Man
PJ-105 Bougie Nights
PJ-108 A Hero Ain't Nothing But a Super
PJ-109 He's Gotta Have It
PJ-110 Boyz 'N the Woods
DVD-3
PJ-111 Operation Gumbo Drop
PJ-112 U Go, Kart
PJ-113 House Potty
PJ-106 Haiti Sings the Blues
Here is where it gets a little confusing. When did season two end and season three begin? Season two was supposed to be 22 episodes long. I remember reading this back before the Christmas episode aired. Some online episode guides list season two as only 18 episodes long (17 if you don't count the Christmas special). The Christmas episode is a special that aired between seasons one and two, but it gets included in season two based on it's production number.
When did season two end and season three begin? What makes it confusing is the show moved to the WB network mid-season. Most on-line episode guides start season three with the first episode that aired on the WB network "Boyz Under tha Hood". However, the production numbers say otherwise. "Boyz Under the Hood", "Scarthroat", "Red Man's Burden", and "Clip Show" were intended for season two. This fits because FOX started having problems with the show (including a contract dispute with Eddie Murphy) around mid-season two and FOX started to lose faith in the show. Subsequently, the show was sold to WB Network and episodes started airing on that network immediately.
Season Two (22 episodes)
DVD-1
PJ-210 How the Super Stoled Christmas
PJ-201 Home School Daze
PJ-203 The Postman's Always Shot Twice
PJ-202 The Preacher's Life
PJ-205 The HJs
DVD-2
PJ-204 Haiti and the Tramp
PJ-207 Smokey the Squatter
PJ-208 Weave's Have a Dream
PJ-218 Let's Get Ready to Crumble
PJ-212 Who Da Boss?
DVD-3
PJ-213 Fear of a Black Rat
PJ-209 Ghetto Superstars
PJ-215 What's Eating Juicy Hudson?
PJ-206 The Jeffersons
PJ-216 Robbin' HUD
DVD-4
PJ-222 Cliffhanger
PJ-214 The Last Affirmative Action Hero
PJ-217 Parole Officer and a Gentleman
PJ-211 Scarthroat
PJ-219 Boyz Under the Hood
Based on the above listing, that leaves eight episodes for season three. Why is the season so short? The answer is that WB also had problems with the show and ended its run prematurely (dispite the fact that they had already ordered 22 episodes). The show must've started failing because of Eddie Murphy's absence, or because of the frequent airing of reruns. They even chose not to air two episodes that were already in the can: "Clip Show" and "Red Man's Burden" (these two episodes eventually aired in when the show was in syndication in Europe and Australia). It does make me wonder what state the remaining 14 episodes are in.
So season three sits at an unusally short eight episodes. This, besides the move to WB, is probably one of the big reasons people like to group "Scarthroat" and "Boyz Under the Hood" into season three. Still, short season or not, these are the episodes I am grouping with season three.
I have decided on one compromise. If I include "Red Man's Burden" and "Clip Show" with season three, I could keep season two at 20 episodes which would fit nicely at five episodes per DVD. Those two episodes could be considered wild cards since they did not air originally. They both also use an alternate voice actor (Phil Morris on "Red Man's Burden") for Thurgood instead of Eddie Murphy. So they do fit nicely into the season three's episode lineup.
Season Three (8 episodes)
DVD-1
PJ-221 Red Man's Burden
PJ-220 Clip Show
PJ-301 Smoke Gets in Your High-Rise
PJ-302 National Buffoon's European Vacation
PJ-303 Cruising for a Bluesing
DVD-2
PJ-304 It Takes a Thurgood
PJ-305 Miracle Cleaner on 134th Street
PJ-306 Survival: In tha Hood
PJ-307 Let's Get Ready to Rumba
PJ-308 A Race to His Credit
So what's next?
Well, I am still compiling episodes from a variety of sources, including European PAL broadcasts. I've already used a couple of PAL episodes for the VCDs and am ready to start the DVD set. I have done some preliminarey design work on the DVD menu (nothing too fancy), and have decided on the DVD breakdown (as described above). I've also decided on DVD encoding bitrates. I have one alternate Thurgood animation to use for an "extra" on one of the DVDs too. And I'd like to get a copy of the original demo tape to include on the first DVD.
I am sort of on the fence, but I may end the VCD project prematurely. Still it'd be nice to finish the VCD set since I am now into season three. Maybe I will start the DVD project with season three. I also plan to make an mp3 CD with the audio from all the episodes, the PJs soundtrack CD, the soundbites CD, and songs featured in episodes. I might as well put some photos and screen caps on there too.
Stay tuned...
Update
Mar.2.2007
In case you haven't noticed, I have abaondoned the VCD project and am going full steam ahead into the DVD set.