Warning: This is a LONG Post! :lol:

Does anyone know of a SINGLE TV Series that lasted so long when the time came for the show to be sold to syndication it was "split up" to appear as multiple TV Series? (I'm not talking about "Franchise" Series such as the Star Trek ones, these were bona-fide separate TV Series).

I know of just one series, Lassie which ran from 1954 to 1973. I was six years old when I was first introduced to the Dawg, by this time the series was well into its "Ranger Years" while it ran on CBS each Sunday Evening. I soon became aware that there were two "Other" versions of this show which was being shown on other Stations in my area on Saturday and Sunday Afternoons, mainly Jeff's Collie and Timmy and Lassie. Believe it or not, it wasn't until the advent of the Internet did I find out that this was, in fact ONE ENTIRE SERIES. This raised the question, why did the dawg change owners? Each series ran to its "End", with no explanation on a change of Charactures. I then found out that Four of the Seasons were LEFT OUT of the Syndication Package, Seasons 4, 9, 10 and 11. Seasons 4 and 11 were the ones where Lassie would change Masters, in Season 4 we would first be introduced to "Timmy" (John Provost) who would become Lassies second Master after "Gramps" passed away and Jeff and his Mother sold the Farm after Ellen got a new job in the City. The Farms new owners, one Paul and Ruth Martin, adopted Timmy as their Son and the series moved on. Season 11 had Lassie change Masters again, this time Paul Martin gets a Business Oppurtunity in Australia, unfortunately that Country had a Quarentine Law that forced them to leave Lassie behind, and she ended up with the Forest Rangers. I would later read that in both cases of Changing Owners, the Actors who played Lassie's Master (Tommy Rettig and John Provost) wanted to move on to other things in their lives. The Final Episode of season Four was supposed to be the Episode where Lassie changed masters, but that got "Pushed Up" when the Actor who played "Gramps" (George Cleveland), died of a Heart Attack while the Series was filming. Five years later, produces anticipated the same thing happening again with Timmy (John Provost), so in Seasons 9 and 10 they had Lassie go through several Multi-Part "Interlude" Episodes where she spent some time away from Timmy and had adventures with Charactures who were, among other things Truck Drivers, Military Personel and yes, Forest Rangers. These Episodes were in fact "Experiments" to see which ones the Audience reacted to in order to determine who would become the dawg's new Master, which of course turned out to be the Rangers. (I sometimes wonder what the series would have been like if the others wound up as Lassies new Master.) :D It wasn't until I saw these four "Lost" Seasons (Thank you y2k3Joker!):thumbsup:, was I finally able to put the pieces together!

Anyhow does anyone know of any other TV Series that was "Split Up" in a simular manner? Or was Lassie a fluke. One way or another I think it would make for an interesting subject. :)

'My Three Sons'. The color seasons (6-11) were syndicated in the 1970's, while the black and white episodes and season 12 weren't shown until they were rerun on Nick at Nite during the 80's.

Gunsmoke ran for 20 seasons and started with Duputy Chester and after a few seasons was replaced by Festus. Blacksmith Newly was added as well. For the longest time the B&W episodes were not part of the syndication deal only the color episodes.

I believe that Gunsmoke was split into three separate syndication packages. When originally going into syndication the half-hour episodes (first six seasons) were given the title 'Marshal Dillon' and sold separately. The black & white hour episodes (seasons 7-11) are offered as a separate package. Currently the encore western channel has the rights to these. Then there are the color episodes (seasons 12-20). TVLAND has had the rights to these for years but they are losing them soon and apparently Metv is picking them up.

The Saint. For years only the color seasons were shown in the united states. RTV started showing the first three black & white seasons this week.

the Beachcombers ran from 1972 to 1990 with 387 episodes produced, they have been syndicated in several differnet packages around the world; American Life Network currently has a deal which only gives them the 1985 to 1989 season episodes (I wish they'd show some of the earlier ones, they've run through those same episodes countless times now)

The Avengers. Not 100% sure but I believe the Diana Rigg, Honor Blackman, and Linda Thorson epiosdes were all split into separate syndication packages. Although I believe in some cases the Rigg/Thorson episodes were offered together.

Well the more current television show "Girlfriends" (2000-2008) was split up. The first five seasons were sold into syndication and BET while the last three seasons weren't airing until 2009 (I think?) on WE TV.

Saved by the bell (1988-2000)
This one's a doozy.

In 1988, it was Good Morning Miss Bliss and then in 1989 was changed and revamped to Saved By The Bell. This went into syndication in 1991 and the 'Miss Bliss' eps were sold as part of the syndiction package. When the students graduated in 1993, some moved to a college spinoff show which lasted a year while the daytime show continued with a new cast and one original (later Dustin Diamond returned to the daytime version as well) and the show aired on NBC untill 2000. The Miss Bliss shows, original class episodes and college years (1988-1994) air as a package while 'The New Class' episodes (1993-2000) haved aired separately in part because it is a different set of actors and not the popular and familiar face we know from the earlier seasons.

All in the family/Archie Bunker's Place (1971-1983)

It's obvious this is one show with the identity of two. In 1979 when Jean Stapleton wanted out of her contract. When she agreeed to do a few eps for the next season, the show was revamped so more of the action would shift to Archie's Bar. So in syndication, we have All in the Family airing separate from Archie Bunker's Place.

Bewitched (1964-1972)

Since the 80's until the late 90's/early 2000's, Bewitched was aired in syndication with the color episodes from 1966-1972. Nick at Nite aquired the rights to the black and white eps from 1964-1966 and aired the B and W eps for two years and then canceled the show. In 1994, NAN aquired the rights to the black and white eps again (I believe). NAN eventually got the color eps as well and stopped airing the B and W eps for a while and then eventually aired them all as one package. Hallmark Channel has also aired them as one package with the B and W eps "colorized".

Bonanza - Only the 1959-70 epsidoes have aired in local syndication and on TV Land, while the 1970-Jan. 73 aired as "The Lost Episodes." However on Hallmark reruns, these "Lost Episodes" aired w/ the 1959-70 episodes.

Hawaii Five-O - Only the bulk of the 1st 11 seasons and only the 1st and last episode of S12 ("Woe to Wo Fat" was the series finale) aired in local syndication. But in the mid-to-late '80s, the S12 eps. aired under the title as "MacGarett" on CBS.

Mannix - for a good while, the only seasons that would not air in syndication were S1 and S8.

'My Three Sons'. The color seasons (6-11) were syndicated in the 1970's, while the black and white episodes and season 12 weren't shown until they were rerun on Nick at Nite during the 80's.

Minor correction: Seasons 6-10 formed the package; season 11 went with 12.

The long-running "Death Valley Days" was split up into several different packages for syndication, each re-titled with names like "Call of the West," "Trails West," "Western Star Theater," and such. Used to confuse me endlessly when I was younger, assuming them to all be different series.

Alvin and the Chipmunks (1983-1990): Only the first 5 seasons that were produced in association with Ruby-Spears, and the first half of season 6, which was produced in association with Murakami-Wolf-Swenson, were syndicated by Lorimar-Telepictures in 1988.

They also reedited those MWS episodes so that the opening credits from the first half of season 6 (the placeholder one with clips from the 1987 movie The Chipmunk Adventure), would be replaced by the original 1983-1987 opening credits (even though the 1988 theme song stayed on the MWS episodes), and included the Valentine's Day and Reunion specials, both of which originally aired as primetime specials, because in U.S. syndication, Saturday morning cartoons are generally required to have a minimum of 65 episodes. Seasons 6-7 were from when the show was simply retitled The Chipmunks, and season 8 was when the show was retitled The Chipmunks Go to the Movies. The rest of seasons 6-8, which were produced in association with DiC were never syndicated.

The long-running "Death Valley Days" was split up into several different packages for syndication, each re-titled with names like "Call of the West," "Trails West," "Western Star Theater," and such. Used to confuse me endlessly when I was younger, assuming them to all be different series.

I verified this last night. I was watching an episode of this show from a set I bought from sell.com. The Opening Title said "Trails West".

A similar thing is happend on TV Guide Network. They only bought syndication rights to the Charlie Sheen seasons and it seems they don't plan to air the Michael J. Fox seasons.

Minor correction: Seasons 6-10 formed the package; season 11 went with 12.

Actually half of season 11 was in the "color shows" package with seasons 6-10. Was a very odd way to split it.

I can't think of any recent one's, but I know they rarely air the first season of "Law & Order" anymore.


"America's Funniest Home Videos"

They are split up into:

"The Bob Saget Years": These episodes air occasionally

"The Daisy Fuentes Years": I have never seen these episodes in syndication

"The Tom Bergeron Years": These air most frequently as they are the most recent.

I can't think of any recent one's, but I know they rarely air the first season of "Law & Order" anymore.


"America's Funniest Home Videos"

They are split up into:

"The Bob Saget Years": These episodes air occasionally

"The Daisy Fuentes Years": I have never seen these episodes in syndication

"The Tom Bergeron Years": These air most frequently as they are the most recent.

Pretty sure they aired the Daisy Fuentes ones (she was also with another co-host, right?) on ABC Family in say 2003 or so when they first started airing AFV and it was on weeknights at 6pm.

Pretty sure they aired the Daisy Fuentes ones (she was also with another co-host, right?) on ABC Family in say 2003 or so when they first started airing AFV and it was on weeknights at 6pm.Yes, John Fugelsang

Many episodes of sitcoms get cut out when there's a cash/barter deal depending on the distributor. I notice this happens all to often with TV Land and Nickelodeon because they're cheap. This makes the series seem a lot shorter than it originally was, cutting a large amount of filmed content.

Garfield and Friends:
Up until the Boomerang and/or possibly Cartoon Network reruns, at least here in the U.S., only the 1st 5 seasons of Garfield and Friends was rerun in syndication and on cable.

Plus (thanks to the fantastic **sarcasm** job of Program Exchange) they also replaced the original opening credits from the 1st 2 seasons which had the "Friends are There" version and the Garfield and the Green Acres characters fighting over the screen with the Season 3 opening credits, which was the 1st season to use the "We're Ready to Party" theme and new scenes taken from the previous episodes.

But S6 still used the "We're Ready to Party" theme but used newer scenes for the credits and the original CBS broadcast of S7 used the "Rap Theme of Crap" (called by some Garfield fans) for the 1994-95 season.


The Smurfs

The Smurfs at least here in the U.S. reruns only aired the 1st 7 seasons, all of which used the butchered up opening credits from Season 4 (1984-85) for the opening titles re-packaged as "The Smurfs' Adventures"

And the closing theme tune from S4, replaced the original closing theme tunes from the 1st 3 seasons. Also, on Boomerang reruns and or some other U.S. reruns, none of the special 4-part eps. such as "Smurfquest" and the one to introduce Wild Smurf ever aired since its original NBC broadcast run.

The final 2 seasons of The Smurfs never reran in the U.S.

But in international Boomerang reruns, they reran S8 and S9, with S8 the 1st to introduce Nanny Smurf and Smoogle, while S9 became the horrific (IMO) Time Travel Season.


Muppet Babies

I believe all eps., except for the 2nd half of the 2nd-to-last season and the final season while rerun here in the U.S.

And the 2nd-to-last season and the last season used new music bumpers for the episode title cards.


Pokemon
On Boomerang and Cartoon Network reruns they don't rerun consecutive seasons like they did in local syndication reruns. They air the seasons as separate packages. Ex: The Johto Journeys gets rerun and then once that season finishes they go back to the beginning of that season or in some cases go to an entirely different season.

Plus some eps. were removed from reruns due to controversial content in some eps.

I think the same can be said for cable reruns of Scooby Doo (especially the ABC years, 1976-86), except unlike Pokemon its doesn't have controversial episodes removed from rerun rotation.

Many episodes of sitcoms get cut out when there's a cash/barter deal depending on the distributor. I notice this happens all to often with TV Land and Nickelodeon because they're cheap. This makes the series seem a lot shorter than it originally was, cutting a large amount of filmed content.

Last year a friend of mine purchased the complete set of Hogan's Heroes because he liked the series but was dismayed with all the commercials that were shown while it aired. The first thing he noticed were episopes he had never seen while the show was aired. He bought several other box sets of other shows he and his family liked, and they noticed the same things with those shows. Earlier this year their contact for Satellite TV Service expired, and he abruptly cancelled his subscription to them. :p

Pretty sure they aired the Daisy Fuentes ones (she was also with another co-host, right?) on ABC Family in say 2003 or so when they first started airing AFV and it was on weeknights at 6pm.

yeah, but they haven't been aired since.

Actually half of season 11 was in the "color shows" package with seasons 6-10. Was a very odd way to split it.

When I've seen My Three Sons most recently on a local indie station, only seasons 6-10 aired as part of the package. As soon as the last ep of season 10 aired, the station went back to the start of season 6 and Mike & Sally's wedding.

Alvin and the Chipmunks (1983-1990): Only the first 5 seasons that were produced in association with Ruby-Spears, and the first half of season 6, which was produced in association with Murakami-Wolf-Swenson, were syndicated by Lorimar-Telepictures in 1988.

They also reedited those MWS episodes so that the opening credits from the first half of season 6 (the placeholder one with clips from the 1987 movie The Chipmunk Adventure), would be replaced by the original 1983-1987 opening credits (even though the 1988 theme song stayed on the MWS episodes), and included the Valentine's Day and Reunion specials, both of which originally aired as primetime specials, because in U.S. syndication, Saturday morning cartoons are generally required to have a minimum of 65 episodes. Seasons 6-7 were from when the show was simply retitled The Chipmunks, and season 8 was when the show was retitled The Chipmunks Go to the Movies. The rest of seasons 6-8, which were produced in association with DiC were never syndicated.

I don't know if this is true or not but I think the only time anywhere in U.S. Syndication that the DiC-era eps. of AatC were reran was on USA's Cartoon Express.

What about The Carol Burnett Show?

In syndication it was shown as Carol Burnett and Friends and used an animated version of Carol Burnett along with a voiceover that named the stars of the show and only the episodes from around the early to mid 1970s was shown? None of the final season eps. were reran under this package.

Is this correct?

Another new one here, folks:

Petticoat Junction - none of the B&W seasons (the eps. from 1963-65) aired in local syndication. My local area only aired the color episodes from 1965-70.

The Edge of Night's cable run on USA during the mid-to-late '80s also had this practice happen as did another P&G soap in Another World during its Soap Net run. For the former they only aired the eps. from the very tail end of the '70s and the eps. from the early-'80s-late 1984, while SoapNet only aired the AW eps. from 1987/88 until the very early '90s eps.

Same also happened with Ryan's Hope as well. SoapNet only aired the eps. from the 1970s-until the very early '80s eps., though they did sneak in a few post-early '80s eps. a few times.

I don't know if this is true or not but I think the only time anywhere in U.S. Syndication that the DiC-era eps. of AatC were reran was on USA's Cartoon Express.

You're half-right, although I think it was just the final season.

You're half-right, although I think it was just the final season.

Was that from AatC: Go to the Movies?

Yep, that's the one.