Intermission - ReBoot in the UK

The history of ReBoot's broadcast in the UK was a rather tumultuous one, infamously ending with the show getting taken off the air just over halfway through the third season. However, a lot of the information on this topic is scattered throughout the internet and can be somewhat hard to find if you don't know where to look. Therefore, for this post I thought I would try and piece together all the information that I have found over the years of trying to figure out what the heck happened so that it's all together in one place. Some of this information could be false, however, but I'm going to aim to be as accurate as possible.

ReBoot made it's UK debut in January 1995 on CITV, ITV's programming block for children's programming (which then had it's own dedicated channel in 2006 with children's programming on the main ITV channel getting slowly cut down over the years since then). The program was acquired by Meridian Broadcasting, the branch of the ITV network responsible for broadcasting in the South and South East of England (although ReBoot was networked and shown in all ITV regions). As well as broadcasting the show, Meridian also contributed towards the show's funding, so their logo was attached to the end credits of ReBoot for it's UK broadcast.

ReBoot was initially shown on Tuesday afternoons at 4:40 PM, debuting with The Tearing on 3rd January 1995. The show was sponsored by Skips crisps, who produced special Skips flavours and bendable figures to tie in with the show. As well as this, special idents were broadcast between episodes. This run was moderately successful, with the program getting 60% of the overall viewership. From this point, the next eight episodes (Racing the Clock to Wizards, Warriors, and a Word From Our Sponsor) were shown. During the end credits of the last episode of this run on 28th February 1995, the continuity announcer announced that next week, they would be broadcasting a special 'making of' episode of ReBoot. While this ended up getting pulled from broadcast last minute, one fan managed to get hold of a review copy after contacting ITV. This eventually found it's way to YouTube, and was then featured as a bonus feature on the ReBoot DVD Box Set released by Shout Factory in 2011.

The episode is an interesting one. Rather than being your standard behind the scenes documentary, segments are linked together by footage of Megabyte, who has managed to get hold of a file that serves as a portal to a parallel universe with 'organic lifeforms' (i.e. our world). It serves as a fun look behind the scenes of the show, and gives off the impression that working at Mainframe at the time was a lot of fun.

After that, ReBoot was absent from UK screens until January 1996, changing from Tuesdays to Thursdays and starting with The Great Brain Robbery. This run contained most of the episodes from Season 2 and the episodes that had yet to be broadcast from the first season:

4th January 1996: The Great Brain Robbery

11th January 1996: Talent Night

18th January 1996: Infected

25th January 1996: When Games Collide

1st February 1996: High Code

8th February 1996: Bad Bob

15th February 1996: AndrAIa

22nd February 1996: Identity Crisis Part 1

29th February 1996: Identity Crisis Part 2

7th March 1996: Nullzilla

14th March 1996: Gigabyte

21st March 1996: Trust No One

28th March 1996: Web World Wars

This broadcast looks rather... interesting. For some reason, rather then being aired sequentially, the Identity Crisis two parter was aired in between AndrAIa and the four part season two finale arc. I'm not sure why ITV/Meridian decided to wait until then to broadcast those episodes rather than after Talent Night, since it just seems a bit bizarre, especially since it means that AndrAIa gets introduced then suddenly vanishes for two episodes. Asides from that oddity, the only thing particularly noticeable about this run is the absence of Painted Windows. Apparently, there was a technical fault that prevented The Great Brain Robbery from being broadcast during the previous run. Because of this, the episode was broadcast as the first episode of the next run. However, there weren't enough allocated weeks for ITV to air all the episodes, meaning one episode had to be dropped from the run, which happened to be Painted Windows. Painted Windows was eventually broadcast in a short run in March 1997. This run consisted of four episodes: Painted Windows, Gigabyte, Trust No One, and Web World Wars. 

Now we get to Season 3, which is of course, where things get really interesting. Even though Season 3 was 16 episodes, Meridian only purchased the first 10 episodes of the season for broadcast.  However, the first six episodes of the season were first broadcast in the UK  in July/August 1997, about a month before the season made it's debut in Canada, meaning that the season made it's worldwide premiere in the UK. This is somewhat ironic considering what ended up happening with this broadcast.

While the episodes were, for the most part, aired uncut, there were some slight alterations made to a couple of episodes. The scene where Dot smashes a lamp over Ash's head in 'To Mend and Defend' was cut, and during the sequence where the binomes ReBooted in 'Icons', the original panning shot showing them ReBooting one by one was replaced with static shots of the characters with a purple light engulfing them. It's possible that these edits were made due to the flashing lights.

After the first six episodes were broadcast, the run suddenly stopped. This wasn't planned when the broadcast started, but due to a changeover of staff at the ITV Network Centre (who were responsible for scheduling the various programs broadcast on ITV) in August 1997, the scheduling of the next few episodes was pushed back. When contacted about the matter, Meridian said that while they did provide funding for ReBoot, they weren't obliged to purchase all the episodes, but would definitely buy them if the high ratings continued. 

After To Mend and Defend was broadcast, the ITC (now known as Ofcom), the UK's broadcasting authority, received 19 complaints from parents about the violence in the episode. This ended up being reported by The Independent. Meridian stood up for the show, and while the ITC took their defence on board, their point of contention was the use of characters from the Evil Dead, a film which was rated 18 by the BBFC, and advised Meridian that the sequence was in breach of the programming code, and not suitable for broadcast at that time in the afternoon.

The sequence was later used by the ITC in a study on cartoon violence published in March 1998. Based on the report, it appears that the children who watched the clip (which was presumably shown out of context) generally enjoyed what they saw, and while they found some parts a little scary, they knew that it would be okay in the end. However, the mum's who also viewed the sequence did not approve. While I can somewhat agree that it might be a little too much for incredibly young children, it's no worse than what can be seen in programs like Doctor Who which is similarly enjoyed by a young audience. 

As for why I think that the show got complaints from parents over here but not overseas in the US and Canada, I mainly think it's down to the landscape of TV over here at the time in comparison to overseas. While Cable/Satellite TV was pretty common in the US and Canada at the time (as far as I know), in the UK, it was pretty rare for anyone to have cable or satellite TV. This meant that, unlike in the US/Canada where they had access to several different channels, most households in the UK were only able to access the five terrestrial channels (four in some cases as getting a good reception from Channel 5 was dependent on where you lived). Because of this, the parents who were likely to complain had a 1 in 4 or 5 chance of coming across the show while channel surfing. While nowadays, everyone has access to at least freeview TV, parents still seem to complain every Easter when Watership Down is shown. In the case of both ReBoot and Watership Down, one solution is if you'd rather your child didn't watch what one channel was showing, either turn off the TV or change the channel.

After the broadcast of 'Where No Sprite Has Gone Before' on the 21st August 1997, ReBoot wasn't seen again until February 1998. This run began with Trust No One on the 12th February 1998. After that, there was five more weeks of reruns (skipping To Mend and Defend and Between a Raccoon and a Hard Place) before going into Number 7. After Return of the Crimson Binome, the run was stopped with no announcement on the channel that this would be the last episode they would be showing. 

ReBoot fans with access to the internet at the time were aware of this, however, since ITV stated that they would be showing 9 episodes rather than 10. Around the time, fans took this to mean that they would be omitting To Mend and Defend from the run (which ended up being the case). The week that Return of the Crimson Binome aired, they planned to contact ITV/Meridian asking for them to air the remaining episodes and broadcast the show in a later time slot where it can be watched by both children and adults. 

When Meridian and ITV replied to the fans who contacted them, the reasoning behind the show's disappearance varied from the different replies. Some replies stated that the show's dwindling popularity made them cautious about acquiring the remaining episodes, and would only purchase the episodes if ratings improved (not sure how ratings can improve if they aren't even showing it, but ah well). Other replies stated that the show was pulled as the ITV Network Centre deemed the content unsuitable. 

Looking at the alt.tv.reboot group, Mainframe's PR representative Mairi Welman talked about potentially getting another UK network to pick up the show, most likely a cable/satellite channel. Sadly, nothing came of this for unknown reasons. However, I think it might have something to do with the broadcasting rights for all of Eastern Europe (including the UK) ending up with German company TV Loonland AG, who presumably didn't try and get a UK broadcaster for the show/weren't aware that Season 3 never finished airing over here. While ReBoot was never shown in the UK again, a brief clip from The Tearing was shown during CITV's 20th birthday special.

That's pretty much the whole story with regards to ReBoot's UK broadcast. If ITV's reasoning about dwindling ratings is true, I have several thoughts on why that could have been the case. The first of these is how the show was broadcast over here. ITV essentially treated the program as filler for when they didn't have enough of their own programming to air, so they'd cram episodes into their schedule where they could, meaning that the show wasn't able to build up a big enough audience. Another is lack of advertising - there was no advertising for the show at the time (at least, not outside of CITV, and even then, the only advertising I can recall is the continuity announcer announcing that ReBoot would be on after the ad break), meaning that the show wasn't able to gain a potential audience through advertisements. Heck, I found the show by complete accident. As well as this, the nature of Season 3's continuing storyline made it somewhat harder for new viewers to jump on and watch the show while understanding what was going on. 

Whatever the reason, the show was pretty poorly handled over here (something that's pretty common with shows on CITV as both Beast Wars: Transformers and New Captain Scarlet were treated equally as shabbily). Luckily, we were able to eventually see the ending we were deprived of, even if this was through unofficial means thanks to the lack of an official home video release. Sadly, there doesn't appear to be a market for animated shows on DVD/Blu Ray over here with a few exceptions, meaning that it's highly unlikely that ReBoot will ever see a PAL release. The show's best bet to reach an audience over here would be the slim chance that it eventually appears on Netflix in the UK.

Next week: We begin Season 4 and get introduced to a new threat in 'Daemon Rising'