Fernsehserien.de lists 4 seasons by now. ZDF Tivi, however, only mentions two: 1 = 1+2+3, 2 = 4. IMDb also combines the first 78 episodes into a single season (in a different order and with a common air date of 5 Sep 2012 for a lot of them).

We need to figure out how the episodes originally aired on KiKA. That's the season split we want to use as the original order, and the other ones can all be created as alternative orders.

Fernsehserien.de lists 4 seasons by now.

It looks like the Amazon /iTunes seasons.

ZDF Tivi, however, only mentions two: 1 = 1+2+3, 2 = 4

This is also the season split mentionned here.

But the KiKA website do not seem to have any season split: https://www.kika.de/die-biene-maja/buendelgruppe1756_page-0_zc-6615e895.html

Kika always enumerates episodes continuously without any regard for seasons whatsoever.

According to Fernsehserien.de, the four seasons premiered throughout April 2013, September 2013, January/February 2014 (with 26 episodes each) and in November 2017 (52 episodes).

@banana_girl wrote:

We need to figure out how the episodes originally aired on KiKA. That's the season split we want to use as the original order, and the other ones can all be created as alternative orders.

I'm under the impression that we won't find a conclusive answer and have to choose ourselves between production order (2 seasons) and airing order (4 seasons). Here's why:

1.) If I'm not mistaken, this is an official facebook page for the show: https://www.facebook.com/DieBieneMaja.

2.) When you click on "Beiträge" (Posts), you'll get a list of all posts from the past: https://www.facebook.com/pg/DieBieneMaja/posts/?ref=page_internal.

3.) Now, search for the word "Staffel" (Season) in all posts!

4.) The first search result from September 28th, 2018, states:

"Die 2. Staffel der Biene Maja ist ab sofort auf DVD erhältlich. 52 summsationelle Folgen warten auf Euch." (My translation: "The second season of Maya the Bee is now available on DVD. 52 episodes are ready to watch.")

So, this official post follows the production order (2 seasons).

5.) The fourth search result from September 7th, 2013, states:

"Im ZDF läuft morgen Früh die erste Folge der 2.Staffel! Lasst euch die Folge "Die Falsche Wespe" um 7:05 Uhr nicht entgehen." (My translation: "Tomorrow morning, the first episode of season 2 will air on ZDF. Don't miss the episode "Die falsche Wespe".")

So, this official post follows the airing order on ZDF (4 seasons) - I checked with fernsehserien, it matches.

6.) The fifth search result from September 10th, 2013, states:

"Ohhhh schnell nach Haus, um 18:15 Uhr laufen im KiKA die beiden letzten Episoden der 2.Staffel "Der große Streit" & "Libellen-Luftpost"." (My translation: "Oooh, get home soon, at 6.15 pm the last 2 episodes of the second season, "Der große Streit" and "Libellen-Luftpost", air on KiKA."

So, this official post follows the airing on KiKA (4 seasons) - I checked with fernsehserien, it matches ("Der große Streit" and "Libellen-Luftpost")

Conclusion: We have 3 official posts that use different orders. Both older posts from 2013 use the order in 4 seasons, referring to the 4 blocks of original episodes that aired on ZDF/KiKA (as stated by @Crissov in the post above). The younger official post from 2018 uses the production order, referring to the 2 blocks of how all episodes were produced (78 episodes plus 52 episodes).

In my opinion, we just have to choose one of these two orders as our original airing - I don't think we will find a sufficient official answer. Just for fun, I googled "Die Biene Maja" and added a few German tv journals to the title of the show (Hörzu + TV Today + TV Spielfilm + TV Digital). I think the majority of those publishers follow the production order, but when you dig deeper, you can see that they indeed use both orders frequently.

I personally prefer the 4 season split - it's closer to the airing time instead of the production.

PS: The first 4 episodes of the show originally aired on ZDF (not KiKA), and the episode Der falsche Glücksbringer never aired on KiKa for reasons nobody seems to know (which means I couldn't find out). I'm not sure how/if we should make that clear here on TMDb?!?

I personally prefer the 4 season split - it's closer to the airing time instead of the production.

I'm not sure which one is the right one, so that sound good to me. Thanks for the research and for your imput!

The first 4 episodes of the show originally aired on ZDF (not KiKA), and the episode Der falsche Glücksbringer never aired on KiKa for reasons nobody seems to know (which means I couldn't find out).

KiKA really seem to be the main network. So I think the episode that never aired on KiKA (and ZDF?) really have to be in the Specials. I'm really grateful for the episode groups.

As for the four episodes that aired a few days earlier on ZDF... I guess we could use the air dates? But maybe it would be less confusing to use the Kika air dates for all episodes. If you assume KiKA air the episodes as four seasons, then I guess ZDF uses a different season split.

@banana_girl wrote:

I'm not sure which one is the right one, so that sound good to me. Thanks for research and for your imput!

I just compared all original air dates between KiKA and ZDF at fernsehserien, and I think it kind of explains the difference:

1.) KiKA aired all episodes as double episodes daily in 4 blocks, which is why it would make sense to speak of 4 seasons regarding this specific airing (in my opinion):

• episodes 1-26 from 1.4.2013 to 12.4.2013 (= season 1) -> break
  
• episodes 27-52 from 29.8.2013 to 10.9.2013 (= season 2) -> break
  
• episodes 53-78 from 24.1.2014 to 5.2.2014 (= season 3) -> break
  
• episodes 79-130 from 3.11.2017 to 28.11.2017 (= season 4)
  

2.) ZDF aired the first 78 episodes as single episodes weekly on Sundays in continuation, which is why 3 seasons wouldn't make sense regarding this airing (in my opinion):

• episodes 1-26 from 29.3.2013 to 1.9.2013 -> no break
  
• episodes 27-52 from 8.9.2013 to 23.2.2014 -> no break
  
• episodes 53-78 from 2.3.2014 to 10.8.2014

They continued airing reruns until 27.12.2015, took a break and aired reruns from 10.7.2016 to 9.4.2017, and took another break until they began airing the newly produced episodes as double episodes weekly on Sundays:

• episodes 79-130 from 1.4.2018 to 9.9.2018

Conclusion: The ZDF airing was a lot slower in 2 blocks (= seasons), while the KiKA airing was first and we could speak of 4 blocks (= seasons). However, I think that's a decision we have to make: Do we want to follow the airing blocks of KiKA or the production blocks that are also similar to the ZDF airing? Like I wrote above, I prefer the airing in 4 seasons.

KiKA really seem to be the main network.

Yes, definitely.

So I think the episode that never aired on KiKA (and ZDF?) really have to be in the Specials.

Indeed, this episode also did never air on ZDF as of now! It first aired on Junior on 28.2.2014 (that's the pay tv channel of the production company of the show, now associated with network SKY), after that on ORF eins in Austria and TV24 in Switzerland. I have no idea why it was never shown on German tv - weird!?! KiKA just aired a rerun of episode 1.06, and ZDF just skipped it.

I'm really grateful for the episode groups.

Oh yes, but I just saw that the current data seems a bit off -> this episode should be 3.23, but it is currently 3.25. Perhaps it's just a minor mistake because of this episode never airing in Germany?!? I can't really see on my old notebook, haha ...

As for the four episodes that aired a few days earlier on ZDF... I guess we could use the air dates? But maybe it would be less confusing to use the Kika air dates for all episodes.

The difference is not very big:

Episode 1 -> KiKA = 1.4.2013 vs. ZDF = 29.3.2013
Episode 2 -> KiKA = 1.4.2013 vs. ZDF = 29.3.2013
Episode 3 -> KiKA = 1.4.2013 vs. ZDF = 29.3.2013
Episode 4 -> KiKA = 1.4.2013 vs. ZDF = 31.3.2013

All other episodes after that (and except for 3.23 as explained above) first aired on KiKA! I think we could argue that the earlier ZDF airing was just a teaser and use the KiKA dates?!? Or we argue we want to go with the first airing? I think both would be okay - we just have to decide for one.

PS: A weird thing that I noticed for the newly produced episodes at fernsehserien: KiKA started airing episodes 1 and 10 (3.11.2017), and 4 days later they aired episodes 9 and 2 (7.11.2017). That doesn't really make sense, because it mixes up production numbers and airing numbers, in my opinion. The same happens again with episodes 29 & 24 (14.11.2017) and 23 & 30 (17.11.2017). I can't figure out why fernsehserien shows the data this way -> I think it's the wrong order?!?

Seasons 1-3 should be good!

That doesn't really make sense, because it mixes up production numbers and airing numbers, in my opinion.

So fernsehserien do not list the episode in the original airing order. Good to know! I tried to double-check the air dates, but the archives are pretty bare. The data seem to match fernsehserien's though (episode 2 was re-broadcast on KiKA on November 8). Any idea how we can double-check the weird air dates?

@banana_girl wrote:

Seasons 1-3 should be good!

So fernsehserien do not list the episode in the original airing order. Good to know!

Yes, it looks like it. What I still can't figure out: Where did they get those different numbers from - which source? I assume it's the production number, but I can't find those anywhere ...

I tried to double-check the air dates, but the archives are pretty bare. The data seem to match fernsehserien's though (episode 2 was re-broadcast on KiKA on November 8). Any idea how we can double-check the weird air dates?

Unfortunately, my old notebook doesn't open the archive link properly. I'm trying again when I'm back to normal. A different idea would be to check German tv listings in newspapers/journals and look for the episode titles (2017 isn't that long ago). But I'm not sure if I can find those titles listed for KiKA - it's not one of the big channels/networks. I'm going to try ...

There is a mistake in the 3 season. The listing of Fernsehserien.de is the right one, because the series consists of 130 episodes and not as described in Kika of 129. The correct lineup should therefore read as follows:

Staffel 3, Folge 23 Der falsche Glücksbringer Staffel 3, Folge 24 Dicke Luft Staffel 3, Folge 25 Der große Fladen Staffel 3, Folge 26 Eine Überraschung für Maja

@JensMG wrote:

There is a mistake in the 3 season. The listing of Fernsehserien.de is the right one, because the series consists of 130 episodes and not as described in Kika of 129. The correct lineup should therefore read as follows:

Please read the discussion above! I wrote in a PS on October 9th:

"PS: The first 4 episodes of the show originally aired on ZDF (not KiKA), and the episode Der falsche Glücksbringer never aired on KiKa for reasons nobody seems to know (which means I couldn't find out). I'm not sure how/if we should make that clear here on TMDb?!?"

And later:

"Indeed, this episode also did never air on ZDF as of now! It first aired on Junior on 28.2.2014 (that's the pay tv channel of the production company of the show, now associated with network SKY), after that on ORF eins in Austria and TV24 in Switzerland. I have no idea why it was never shown on German tv - weird!?! KiKA just aired a rerun of episode 1.06, and ZDF just skipped it."

Which is why @Banana suggested to put this episode into the Specials here:

https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/61740-biene-maja/season/0

I still haven't found any time and motivation to check the correct data for season 4, so I couldn't create proper episode groups fot the show, yet ... I'm not sure when this will happen ...