i mean what’s so special about about the number 13?
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This is basically a standard in the TV industry, not just for animated series, but also for non-animated series. It was based on a TV “season” that ran from September to April or May, combined with how making episodes fit into a production schedule. Producers found that 26 episodes worked to fit into this pattern, back in the 1960s. Sometimes, when networks ordered a series to be produced, they would purchase a full season of 26 episodes, and sometimes they would purchase only a half of a season, which was 13 episodes. They’d choose the 13 episodes to produce if it was a mid-season replacement (starting January rather than September) or if they didn’t have the budget for a full 26, or if they didn’t feel confident enough about the show to do 26, and wanted to see how the early episodes did before committing the budget to 26.
Then as production values went up over the decades, particularly in the 1990s, it became more difficult to do 26 episodes in the allotted time so this gradually shortened until 22 episodes per season became the norm. But the half seasons just stayed at 13 episodes. So ordering 13 episodes of a given animated show fit this pattern of 13 episodes being a standard low episode order to see how a show did before making a larger commitment.
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