Back in March we
reported that Shout! Factory is prepping a
July 14th DVD release of
American Gladiators - The Original Series: The Battle Begins, with episodes from the first season of the show. At the time, we said that "
you'll get all 26 episodes, including the mid-season recap in the thirteenth episode" on this 3-disc set.
After a discussion yesterday with our friends at Shout!, we've come to find out that the original information we posted was a regrettable misunderstanding: the only content included on this release are the episodes beginning with the mid-season recap show, going forward, for a total of 14 episodes on this collection. That means the first dozen episodes, co-hosted by NFL great Joe Theismann, won't be found on this release (however, their events will be summed up in the mid-season recap show).
While Shout! Factory did not comment on the reasons for this, Dan "Nitro" Clark - one of the
Gladiators - has responded to fan e-mails about this and indicated that the primary reason for this limitation was cost (including cost of the release to the consumers). Clark has also revealed publicly that he, along with Jim "Laser" Starr and Raye "Zap" Hollitt, recorded commentary tracks for selected episodes: The Mid-Season Recap, The 1st Round of the Preliminaries (next episode after recap), the 4th Round of the Quarterfinals (last episode on Disc 2), and the Finals (on Disc 3; not to be confused with the Grand Championship episode). Additional bonus material, per Shout!, is an Interview with Contestant/Actor Billy Wirth (
The Lost Boys, Powder Blue). Stay tuned for the full press release with all the details Our thanks to reader "Seby " for the e-mail about this.
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