Original air dates

[Eithne]

Does anyone know when LOTSW first aired in America? Or first episode aired there? I'm just curious. I expect there will be more than one answer because although PBS buys the rights to air programs, the individual affiliates may or may not choose to use them. For me, in San Antonio at the time, I first saw it in 2000. It was season 16. I have never seen any episodes aired here that were not Foggy episodes. (Thank goodness for YouTube and DVD's or I would have missed a lot).
This isn't unusual. We never got the first season of One Foot in the Grave, where I am the series starts with the house being burnt down. They will also absent episodes inexplicably. The episode of Waiting for God in which the residents threaten to drop Baines out of a window ("Let him drop!") was not aired in my area.
We do this to our own programs. I have seen the same episodes of TOS Star Trek in three different states and seen affiliate editing three different ways.

 

[maltrab]

Maybe due to contractual rights by different artist in different countries, Getting them on DVD is a much more relaxed viewing experience, no adverts and more recently PC editing

 

[Sarkus]

My understanding is that a lot of these shows are not sold as complete in the US market. They break them up and the buying channel sometimes only buys parts of the offering. US PBS stations are also going to look at who is in the show to see if its someone US viewers might already be familiar with from something else. For example, the first time I saw LOTSW in the US they started with Series 19. Why? Because that's when Frank Thornton joined the cast and Are You Being Served? has done well in the US so viewers know him.

As for actual original air dates, its hard to find those for the first run in the UK, let alone for different PBS stations, which is where the show would have popped up in the US back then.