their new console, the Dreamcast. Sonic Underground started production in early 1997, around the same time the development of both the Dreamcast and Sonic Adventure had started. The show bible was written as early as March 1997. The show was publicly announced as early as December 1997. When the show was in development, two episodes per week were produced, and the writers felt that they were not given enough time to "tie everything together" in the plot, being limited to a three-part "Origins" saga for coherency. DIC used cattle calls to generate episode plots. Periodically, about twenty unaffiliated writers were brought into the studios to learn about the established characters and brainstorm possible plots for episodes, after which about one or two would be selected. According to Mike Piccirillo, when he was writing songs for the show, there were no storyboards done yet, so he could only work off of the scripts, which often said what moral or lesson the song should be about in each episode. The show's animation was outsourced to the Taiwanese animation studio Hong Ying Animation with the main title animation done in Madrid, Spain by Milimetros, S.A. (also responsible for the animation in the Saturday morning Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon), pre-production services provided by Le Studio Ellipse, layout services by Arles Animation and video and audio post-production services by Les Studios de Saint-Ouen. According to Robby London, Sega of Japan had an active role in the approval process for Sonic Underground, going so far as to force DiC to reanimate the characters with five fingers instead of the usual four due to the Japanese association of four fingers with the Yakuza. While it was once believed that 65 episodes were made of which only 40 aired, Ben Hurst, a main writer from Sonic the Hedgehog (dubbed SatAM by fans), who was also involved in Sonic Underground'''s production, stated in a chat at the Sonic Amateur Games Expo 2008 that only 40 were planned to be produced from the beginning. Airing and Broadcast FranceSonic Underground first premiered in France on 6 January 1999 and aired on TF1 on the TF! Jeunesse block on Wednesdays and Sundays. United Kingdom The show made its English premiere in the United Kingdom on May 2, 1999, airing on ITV's GMTV strand, on the Disney-produced block Diggit, which was programmed by the show's distributor Buena Vista International Television and had also