Here it is 2004, and the Pokémon craze is starting to die down (maybe)
Comments: For one thing, when the Pokémon craze originated in the United States/Canada, I did not care nor like it.
However, in 1999, (when I became a Mario fan a year earlier), I had received Pokémon Yellow as a Christmas Present. I seemed to like the game very well, and I couldn't stop. (Now I've caught the PokéFlu).
Not much later, I also began watching the TV show, which was pretty good back then. However, once the show got to its fifth season, I felt that it was starting to get boring, but I watched it well into the sixth season. (Hoenn) I was getting sick of the Johto adventures that were on for three seasons in a row. The other lands, Kanto (Indigo) and Orange, only were traveled for one season each.
Facts: At the beginning of the sixth season, Misty left the show, and was replaced by a new beginning trainer, May (appears as a selectable character in Ruby and Sapphire games).
As explained in my comments about the show, seasons three, four, and five were all dedicated to the Johto journeys. (The seasons [in respective order] were named Johto Journeys, Johto League Champions, and Master Quest).
Each season contains between 50 and 54 episodes (usually 52).
When the Poké Craze was heightening, two of the Mario cartoons, The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3, and Super Mario World, were shown on the newborn PAX network. Unfortunately, I missed a lot of episodes, because it was hard for me to get up early to watch them, and the signal of the faraway PAX affiliate from my location was not very good. The last time I saw the cartoons on PAX was July 25, 1999. I started watching the cartoons somewhere in mid spring 1999.
The Mario cartoons (including the Super Mario Bros. Super Show [the one with the live action skits], which was not shown on PAX) were produced by DIC between 1989 and 1991.
Each of the three series only lasted for one season, the Super Show containing 52 episodes, (plus at least two others that were never shown on TV), SMB3 containing 26, and World having a measly 13. The later two series were shown on NBC, and the Mario Bros. were originally pulled off the air when NBC dropped its Saturday morning cartoon lineup. (This happened in the summer of 1992, when they were showing reruns of Super Mario World) Comment/Disclosure-I have not seen the cartoons when they originally aired, because I was too young to.
The Pokémon TV show is run in a "serial style" format, with "To Be Continued. . ." at the end of each episode, while most of the Super Mario cartoons were in the format of old seven-to-ten minute Technicolor® cartoons that played ahead of two-hour long black & white dramas. (ehh, maybe not.)
BTW, there is a DVD [from UAV, not sure if they still have it anywhere] containing 6 episodes from Super Mario Bros. 3
Opinions: Now that the show takes place in Hoenn, I think it will take twice, maybe three times as many seasons as Johto to go through Hoenn. Eventually, people will get so bored and impatient, that the show might end up cancelled. If people don't start reconsidering their likes of Pokémon, the PokéCraze might last longer than Scooby-Doo (no offense.., I like Scooby-Doo, but like anything else, it died down, then restarted after years. It originally started in 1969 [long before I was born]. {Disclosure-It seems that Cartoon Network is getting saturated with Scooby a bit too much} There have been many Scooby-Doo series over the years).
The show, at least, might even run longer than these sitcoms:
Cheers (11 seasons, 1982-1993),
Frasier (11 seasons, 1993-2004.)
(The Adventures Of) Ozzie And Harriet (14 seasons, 1952-1966)
Animated: The Simpsons (as of 2004, in its 15th season!)
While the games (up to Crystal version) were good for the most part, Red and Blue (the originals) were the best and most flexible [for its day, with all the glitches and bugs]. But when Ruby and Sapphire came out, it was not longer possible to trade with previous versions (Disclosure-A remake of Red and Blue for the GBA is currently in Japan) The advertising remark "Gotta' Catch Em' All" had a real catch: Not only did you have to have all versions, you also had to have two Game Boys (or link up to someone else's Game Boy), I have not tried anything else (except for Stadium 1, and Smash Bros.), because I have no real interest in them.