Kids WB Airing Of Pokemon "Beauty And The Beach"

Okay, looking into original air dates more closely, I think I can hypothesize which song was used. I couldn't find much with a preliminary look into archived fan sites, so this will have to do for now (I initially miscalculated, so I had to rethink when I was almost done writing this*).


The Pikachu's Jukebox segments, like the PokéRap segments, seem to have aired in a specific order of rotation. The PokéRap segments were often aired out of order, due to both banned episodes and English dubs airing in a different order than the Japanese ones, but would eventually work themselves out. Episodes with Pikachu's Jukebox also sometimes aired in a different order than the Japanese originals, but unlike the PokéRap episodes, they seem to be consistent with the rotational order of the Jukebox segments (on TV, anyway, the DVD sets are a different story, as episodes on those sometimes feature a different song than they do in broadcasts and streaming platforms).


Pikachu's Jukebox started with the second broadcast season (which is different from the home video seasons, which follow arcs and opening theme songs, rather than 52 episode chunks that have breaks in between them). The first episode of the second broadcast season was "Princess vs. Princess." The next episode "The Purr-fect Hero" had four episodes following it, "The Case of the K-9 Caper!," "Pokémon Paparazzi," "The Ultimate Test" and "The Breeding Center Secret," which were aired at the end of the first broadcast season, and thus had PokéRap segments instead of Pikachu's Jukebox. This explains the gap in chronological episodes in the upcoming list. The order of the segments went:


"Princess vs. Princess" - "My Best Friends"

"The Purr-fect Hero" - "Double Trouble"

"Riddle Me This" - "What Kind of Pokémon Are You?"

"Volcanic Panic" - "Together Forever"

"Beach Blank-Out Blastoise" - "2.B.A. Master"

"The Misty Mermaid" - "Viridian City"


And it continues on from there, with the songs in that exact order, until "Friends to the End," which skips to "Together Forever" when it should have had "What Kind of Pokémon Are You?" It probably has something to do with the controversy around "What Kind of Pokémon Are You?" in which people misheard the last word in the line "Good luck with Muk and its Poison Gas/Make one wrong move and it'll kick your Grass." The song was skipped in a couple of rotations until it was reinstated in "Stage Fight!" presumably because the video was edited to replace this line with another line from the song ("Dratini comes first when you choose Dragon/But evolution's the solution if you're gonna win!"). Once more it continues, uninterrupted, in the original order I gave, until "The Mystery Menace," which was the last episode to premiere in English before the special premiere presentation of "Beauty and the Beach." "Holiday Hi-Jynx" and "Snow Way Out!" were considered to be regular episodes in the dub rather than specials, so "The Mystery Menace" is the last episode of the second broadcast season. "Beauty and the Beach" was aired as an off-season special, and the next episode to premiere after it was "Pokémon Food Fight!," the first episode of the third broadcast season.


Now, here comes the tricky part. "The Mystery Menace" has "What Kind of Pokémon Are You?" for its Pikachu's Jukebox segment, so you'd assume "Beauty and the Beach," given its position, would have "Together Forever" and "Pokémon Food Fight!" to have "2.B.A. Master," right? Well, not so fast: though "Pokémon Food Fight!," was originally followed by the English version of "Meowth's Party" instead of Pikachu's Jukebox, reruns all feature "Double Trouble" as the Pikachu's Jukebox segment. So what's wrong here? Well, it seems to be based on weeks rather than episodes!


"The Mystery Menace" premiered on May 6, 2000, "Beauty and the Beach" premiered on June 24, 2000, and "Pokémon Food Fight!" premiered on August 19, 2000. There are seven weeks between "The Mystery Menace" and "Beauty and the Beach," and there are eight weeks between "Beauty and the Beach" and "Pokémon Food Fight!" Taking a look at the bigger picture, there are fifteen weeks between "The Mystery Menace" and "Pokémon Food Fight!" If you go fifteen segments after "What Kind of Pokémon Are You?" you'll get to "Viridian City," not "Double Trouble," but that's another twist: the episode that premiered after "Pokémon Food Fight!" was "The Pokémon Water War," which actually aired before it in Japan. And while the premiere of "The Pokémon Water War" had the Japanese version of "Meowth's Party" instead of Pikachu's Jukebox, reruns feature "Viridian City." At this point the episodes were aired so out of order, they probably stopped keeping track (after "The Mystery Menace," it should have been "Misty Meets Her Match," "Bound for Trouble" and "Charizard Chills," then "The Pokémon Water War" and "Pokémon Food Fight!").


So, which song is seven weeks after "What Kind of Pokémon Are You?" and eight weeks before "Viridian City?" That would be "Together Forever." If my convoluted and somewhat revised hypothesis is correct, "Beauty and the Beach" ended with "Together Forever." As for why the order is messed up after that, I can't explain. I could be totally wrong, but this the best I've got right now.


*Somehow, I initially calculated that "The Mystery Menace" and "Pokémon Food Fight!" aired seventeen weeks apart; if that were true, "Double Trouble" would indeed have been the correct song.