English-language version
When Saban licensed the Japanese version, they learned that because the original show hadn't performed well in Japan, Tatsunoko had not preserved the original production documents.[11] This led to the localization team being handed scripts that were either translated poorly, not translated at all, or missing entirely. The writers essentially had to assemble a show out of 54 episodes of raw Japanese footage and what little production materials they did have. However, they were also relatively unrestricted in how they produced the dub and chose to make it more blatantly comedic with contemporary pop culture references, puns, meta-jokes, sardonic humor, and fourth wall breaks in almost every episode. Script writer and voice actor Michael McConnohie commented in response to a fan question about the production: "There were no chains upon us. We were free to look at it and say 'That would be funny... that might work... we'll do that! Who's gonna tell us not to?'"[12][13]
The theme song contains the line "As soon as someone finds the script, we might begin the show", a reference to the lack of proper translations given to Saban for production on the American version.[14]
The English version of the series first aired in the United Kingdom on ITV on August 31, 1991,[15] with repeats continuing until 1995. In Canada, the series first appeared in 1992, on YTV,[16][17] and in 1996, in the United States, on first-run syndication.[18] The series was broadcast on Australian television on the weekday Seven Network morning kid's wrapper programme Agro's Cartoon Connection, from April 1992. A repeat run occurred in the same time slot in early 1994.
Madman Entertainment released the show on DVD in Australia initially in two collections, with four discs in each set. Collection 1, containing episodes 1–26, was released on October 16, 2013;[19] collection 2 containing episodes 27–52, was released on December 4, 2013.[20] A box set of the complete series was released by Madman on April 6, 2016.[21]
In 2012-13, Discotek Media announced the release of the show in both the original Japanese-language version and the North American English-language version dubbed by Saban. DVDs were released in region 1 format, with the Japanese version in Dolby Stereo 2.0 and English version in Dolby Digital Mono. The Kyatto-Ninden Teyandee: Complete Uncut Japanese Language Collection was released on April 30, 2013 and the English-dubbed version, Samurai Pizza Cats: Complete English Language TV Series Collection – 8 Disc Set, was released on July 30, 2013.[22] The Kyatto-Ninden Teyandee: Complete Uncut Japanese Language Collection set includes all of the 54 original episodes (including the two clip-show episodes that were never dubbed into English) while the Samurai Pizza Cats: Complete English Language TV Series Collection set includes all 52 English-dubbed episodes.[23][24]
A Blu-ray version, titled Samurai Pizza Cats: The Complete Collection, was released on January 19, 2016. This release featured every episode in standard definition on a single disc.[25]
