Justice Pao is a 236-episode television series from Taiwan, first airing on Chinese Television System (CTS) from February 1993 to January 1994.
The show stars Jin Chao-chun as the legendary Song dynasty official Bao Zheng. It was hugely popular in many countries in East Asia and Southeast Asia.
The series was originally planned to have just 15 episodes. However, the show had high ratings when the initial episodes aired. Due to its popularity, CTS extended the show to 236 episodes.
The rival TVB and ATV Home networks in Hong Kong both bought the series in an attempt to gain viewers. Competition between the two networks during the series’ run was so intense that identical episodes were shown on both channels on the same night. It was also one of the first dramas that used NICAM technology (Dual Sound Switch Cantonese/Mandarin).
1995 – 30th Golden Bell Awards[1]
1. The opening theme, performed by Hu Kua, has the same title as the series. It was originally performed by Chiang Kuang-Chao for the earlier 1974 CTS series also of the same name.
2. The ending theme was "New Dream of the Butterfly Lovers" (Chinese: 新鴛鴦蝴蝶夢; pinyin: Xīn Yuānyāng Húdié Mèng), written and performed by Huang An.
3. Another ending theme song used for some episodes was "Hand in Hand, Let's Travel the World" (Chinese: 攜手遊人間; lit. 'Traveling the World Hand in Hand').
: Channel 9
: Indonesian Educational Television (1995).[2]
: Metrovision (1995) [3]
: Myawady Television (1998), Myanmar Radio and Television (2018 - with Burmese dub), Sky Net Channel 9 Myanmar (2019)
: RPN (1996-2000), ABC 5 (2007-2008)
: Channel 8
: Channel 3 (1995-October 1, 2015)[4]: NEW18 (April 6, 2020 - March 28, 2021 (Every Monday - Sunday from 16: 35-17: 35))On the first few years after its original run ended, at least three video game adaptations of the series were published in Asia. It is unknown if any of them were licensed by CTS.
The first adaptation was the homonymous beat 'em up 包青天 (Bāo Qīng Tiān), published in 1994 by Bit Corporation for the Gamate handheld console in Taiwan. It is the only one out of the three that was licensed by the console manufacturer. Its higher quality and overall polish and country of origin may also be a pointer for it being officially licensed by CTS, although that is uncertain.
The second and third adaptations were both released in mainland China in 1996 for the Nintendo Entertainment System, and it is unclear which went to market first. The most well-known out of the two, usually cited as the first, is a platformer also titled Bāo Qīng Tiān, published by Kai Sheng in Hong Kong and by Family TSI in Thailand. The second is a fighting game titled Impartial Judge, published by Fuzhou Waixing in China.