The Saga of Goku is the first season of the original DragonBall TV series for the North American market. The episodes currently released on those particular discs (episodes 1-13) are the first season as-is from their original syndication run on American television in 1995. This means they are edited, English-dubbed only (with the Ocean Studios cast, as opposed to FUNimation's cast), and were distributed by KidMark prior to their acquisition by Lionsgate. For more information on the KidMark/FUNimation licensing fiasco, please refer to the "Newbie Guide".

FUNimation had re-dubbed this season with their own in-house actors (which have also done the rest of the series; this re-dubbed first season was primarily produced for airing on Cartoon Network). While FUNimation had expressed their intent to release "all" of the series uncut on a home format that also includes the Japanese version, the above-noted contractual obligations and prior negotiations forbid them from releasing these home-format versions for a number of years. Their own dubbed versions of the episodes, however, have aired via non-physical-format means such as "on-demand" with major cable networks.

These first thirteen episodes have been released on DVD with both the uncut re-dub and the original Japanese language track in the same style as the rest of the TV series, but only in Australia. Madman, an Australian distributor that works closely with American anime companies, released "The Saga of Goku" in the PAL, Region 4 format. The very fact that FUNimation allowed the distribution of this material clearly implied their eagerness to release it to their American audience once the sub-license had expired or was otherwise contractually-worked-around.

FUNimation's original releases of the original DragonBall TV series contain varying numbers of episodes, and typically do not move to a dual-layer format unless the situation absolutely warrants it. High amounts of compression are visible, and are a result of crunching a massive amount of video and audio onto the discs. The series was also released out of order, with the 23rd Tenka-ichi Budôkai coming out, for example, much earlier than the middle of the series.

Several years after their release, FUNimation allowed the series to go out-of-print. Certain volumes of the series (namely the Tournament Saga) reached around $100 on second-hand retail sites.

All of FUNimation's original releases (volumes two onwards) contain the first animation for the opening theme, and the second animation for the ending theme (despite the changes to it that occur over the course of the series). The reason for these non-changes is that FUNimation had not been given the original TV masters from each episode to work with (which is also the case with the previews; no sound was given to them to go along with the video for next-episode previews). Eye-catches were updated to the second animation where appropriate, however.

Here is a breakdown of when the animation changes are supposed to occur:

• "Makafushigi Adobenchâ!" 1st animation: Episodes 1-101
• "Makafushigi Adobenchâ!" 2nd animation: Episodes 102-153
• "Romantikku Ageru Yo" 1st animation: Episodes 1-15
• "Romantikku Ageru Yo" 2nd animation: Episodes 16-101
• "Romantikku Ageru Yo" 3rd animation: Episodes 102-132
• "Romantikku Ageru Yo" 4th animation: Episodes 133-153
• Eye-catch 1st animation: Episodes 1-42
• Eye-catch 2nd animation: Episodes 43-153

While news slowly leaked online for weeks leading up to its official announcement, FUNimation formally announced on 04 July 2009 during their panel at Anime Expo in California that the original DragonBall TV series was receiving a new "remastered" release, which would finally include the first 13 episodes of the series released on a physical, home-video format in North America, uncut and dual-language for the first time ever. Like the DragonBall GT sets (and unlike the DragonBall Z sets), the series would be released in its original/correct 4:3 aspect ratio. These sets began their release in September 2009, with no word on exactly how many sets will be released (assumed to be five based on the episode count per set), how long it will take to release the series in this new format (assumed to be completed in 2010 based on the current release schedule), or if the recent "Dragon Box" release for the DBZ TV series will have any impact on whether or not the original TV series gets a "Dragon Box" set.