here's what i know and remember... back when GMA rebought shaider, they assumed it was going to do really well in the ratings. so to have a longer run, they wanted as many episodes as possible... so the original idea was the space sheriff special [counted as ep49] be included, and to make more episodes, TSP wanted to include the 2 movies [since they already dubbed one of them a long time ago and showed it in theaters with bioman and maskman movie] but since TSP didnt have the rights to the movies, they did their usual "magic" to extend the series.
i was talking this through with the technician in charge back then... the original plan was to cut apart the finale and cut apart the space sheriff special [since you can split the space sheriff special into 3 segments] to make more episodes...
so effectively, the last 6 minutes of the final episode would then be aired with the first 8 minutes of the special, and so on...
however, gma didnt even use these extra episodes which they requested. because shaider didnt even rate well... they had to cancel the first run and barely finished the second run. the ratings werent high enough to even need those extra episodes.
but once hero bought it, these "extra tsp-made filler episodes] were no longer needed and in the confusion, the techs didnt make another uncut copy of the finale.
tsp used to do this a lot. whenever their anime is rating extremely well on GMA, they'd be asked for more episodes and they'd "make their own". They made a couple of "best games" special episodes for slam dunk and "best fight scenes" episodes for hunter x hunter. which in later runs were never seen again.
the space sheriff special wasnt a "short" episode. it was 24 mnutes just like any other episode, iirc.
in fairness to hero, they dont have any idea about what they air. they only air what is provided them. so if tsp provided them edited episodes, that's what they will in turn broadcast. hero is going to air tsp's 8 year old dub of KNIGHT HUNTERS starting today, and i bet just like GMA, they will NOT air that one episode with the priest-killer. [episode 18, iirc]
the last episodes of shaider were dubbed only 4 years ago... the japanese company didnt provide music and effects tracks [technically called ME tracks] anymore. they didnt even provide video. the video was taken from the original DVD and the music and effects tracks were made using "TSP magic"... if there is no dialog and only reactions [ugh! hyaaa!], they just keep the original japanese... if there is dialog, they'd make their own SFX and put in music from a soundtrack CD with BGM's. :laugh:
I see its GMA 7's fault that short special episode of Shaider was deleted..Too bad Hero Tv also didn't air the episode which was a big turnoff for a Shaider fan like me..:redface2:
Oh well at least Hero TV aired the final unaired episodes of Shaider even if the dub mixing was a bit kinda defective(some Japanese audio are still intact)..:thumbs:
iirc this is the butcher cut they aired on GMA, but i didnt think they were going to do the same in hero. and since it was dubbed 4 years ago, i wouldnt know who to ask about it at the studio. :redface2: 
