In 1996, Funimation Productions licensed "Dragon Ball Z" for an English-language release in North America, after canceling their initial dub of "Dragon Ball" half-way through their originally-planned 26-episode first season. They worked with Saban Entertainment to syndicate the series on television, and Pioneer Entertainment to handle home video distribution. 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. They did, however, release uncut dubs of the first three "Z" movies on home video.