<P> Throughout the production, the voice actors were tasked with playing different characters and performing their lines on cue, switching between roles as necessary . The voice actors were unable to record the lines separately because of the close dialogue timing . When asked if juggling the different voices of Goku, Gohan and Goten was difficult, Masako Nozawa said that it was not, and that she was able to switch roles simply upon seeing the character's picture . She did admit that when they were producing two films a year and television specials in addition to the regular series, there were times when they had only line art to look at while recording, which made giving finer nuanced details in her performance difficult . </P> <P> Series Director Daisuke Nishio left the series after personally directing Episode #202 . Nishio left the series to become series director of Aoki Densetsu Shoot! . The role of series director was not officially filled for Episodes #200 - 291, despite Nishio's directing of Episode #202 . </P> <P> In 1996, Funimation Productions licensed Dragon Ball Z for an English - language release in North America . They contracted Saban Entertainment to help distribute the series to television, and Pioneer Entertainment to handle home video distribution . The Vancouver - based Ocean Studios were hired by Funimation to dub the anime (Funimation had previously used the Ocean voice cast in their short - lived 1995 dub of Dragon Ball). Saban musicians Ron Wasserman and Jeremy Sweet, known for their work on the Power Rangers franchise, composed a new background score and theme song (nicknamed "Rock the Dragon"). Funimation's initial English dub of Dragon Ball Z had mandated cuts to content and length, which reduced the first 67 episodes into 53 . It premiered in the United States on September 13, 1996 in first - run syndication, but halted production in 1998 after two seasons . This was due to Saban scaling down its syndication operations, in order to focus on producing original material for the Fox Kids block . Pioneer also ceased its home video release of the series at volume 17 (the end of the dub) and retained the rights to produce an uncut subtitled version, but did not do so . </P> <P> On August 31, 1998, reruns of this cancelled dub began airing on Cartoon Network as part of the channel's weekday afternoon programming block Toonami . Due to the success of these re-runs on Toonami, Funimation resumed production on the series' English dub without Saban's assistance, but could no longer afford the services of the Ocean voice cast due to financial constraints . This led to Funimation forming its own in - house voice cast at their Texas - based studio . The Saban - produced soundtrack from the first two seasons was replaced with a new background score composed by Bruce Faulconer and his team of musicians, which was used throughout the rest of Funimation's Dragon Ball Z dub . This renewed dub featured less censorship (due to fewer restrictions on cable programming) and aired on Cartoon Network's Toonami block from September 13, 1999, to April 7, 2003; continuing in re-runs through 2008 . Kids' WB briefly ran Dragon Ball Z in 2001 on its short - lived Toonami block . </P>

When did dragon ball z premiere in america