A long time ago a local TV station aired Dragon Ball Z(?) anime on TV. I found it fairly interesting (thankfully I am not prone to seizures). Considering the popularity of such animes, I would love start watching them. Do you have any suggestion of where to start to get familiar with the DB universe?

I would start with the standard Dragon Ball Z show. While you may not understand who most of the characters are (because they all show up in Dragonball before being on DBZ) many of them aren't important enough to keep track of anyway

Watching DBZ will get you up to speed on the most popular of Dragonball overall. Then you are free to watch Dragonball itself which is more comedy and less action based but still entertaining. Just remember that it is quite old so it won't be as good as some more recent stuff you may have seen.

You could also check out GT but that is not the best stuff to watch.

There are also about 15 movies based on DBZ that are worth checking out. You'd have to find a guide to tell you approximately when to watch them. They don't follow the storyline itself but the ages and powers of the characters vary as the show goes on and the movies sort of fit into certain "seasons" of the show.

I know I'm looking into the future a bit here, but if you really enjoy the series and want to see more anime with a similar style, let me know. I have quite a few to recommend if DBZ sucks you into the wonderful world of anime

geeo post is more right. I mean start with places you need to know for the basics before playing the game. So then you would know the choice of characters and people you grow to like. I would understand trying a game but then not knowing enough of that story plot and then it would make you to watch the anime for it. GT is not the best but some seasons are good there.

I would start with the original Dragon Ball if you want to watch it in chronological order, though I also just prefer the original series as a whole compared to Z. After that, go to Z and then (if you'd like) they're airing Super right now and it's decent at best. I would skip GT but only if you have time to kill.