Animators believed the film would be released four months prior to the 1980 election accompanied by a $1 million promotional budget and a national "Pogo for President" write-in campaign. Distributor 21st Century Communications broke all their promises and only released it as a video rental through Fotomat huts.
In spite of the one-sheet movie poster and the ads in Variety, I Go Pogo was never released to theaters by 21st Century Distribution (no relation to 20th Century Fox or 21st Century Entertainment, nor Fox's 21st Century Fox, Inc.) , nor any other distributor. It was screened once in NYC circa late August 1980 and a planned screening at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC (also in August of 1980) never materialized.
The initial release was via Fotomat in mid-September 1980 on VHS and Betamax videotapes, in a plain generic Fotomat box with a plain label. The beta tape retailed for $54.95.
The original version has not been seen since HBO premiered a re-cut version on cable TV in October 1982 (adding narration by Len Maxwell) that made the already talky film even talkier and confusing. It ran on HBO then played off and on on other cable movie stations (Cinemax, TMC, Showtime) through February of 1991.
In 1984 Disney Home Video released what was essentially the "HBO cut" on VHS tape, and then United American Video re-released this same version to the "sell-through" home video market in 1989.