I've been casually trying to do a bit of research into Karen Roberts, the former head of the Programming Department at San Jose's Channel 54 KTEH1 public television station, as she might well be the single most important figure in defining American "nerd" culture from the 70s through the 90s--she was the one who chased down the licenses to shows like Doctor Who, Red Dwarf, personal favorite Blake's 7--and scores of other shows, including I think Are You Being Served?--for broadcast on KTEH, establishing the foothold that would spread poppier British shows to PBS channels across the United States. I didn't know, though, that in the latter years of her tenure she licensed a LOT2 of anime for the channel. Roberts gets quoted in this 1998 SF Chronicle culture piece on the fourth Fanime Con, "Fans Become Animated About Japanese-Style Cartoons", the conclusion of which features a fansubber being the most correct anyone's ever been.
1 Now a former public television station, as KTEH merged with KQED of San Francisco in the late 2000s.
2 Including, per this blogpost: Tenchi Muyo, Urusei Yatsura!, All Purpose Cultural Catgirl Nuku-Nuku, Bubblegum Crisis, Ranma ½, Serial Experiments Lain, Sakura Wars, Ruin Explorers and the American premiere of Neon Genesis Evangelion.
Cartoon Network's "Adult Swim" carries on where KTEH's Sunday science-fiction night left off, though, and they even showed all of "Evangelion" uncut in 2005 and 2006. It aired on PBS first though, five years earlier and with its credit sequences intact.