In early September the folks at Image Entertainment
announced that on
December 13th they will release
Sledge Hammer! - The Complete Series on DVD. This set with both seasons of the comedy cop show is meant to replace the discontinued season sets (4 discs each) which Anchor Bay had put out in 2004 and 2005. However, at the time of the original Image announcement, we didn't have cover art for the set, nor any details about what would be included (for instance, would all the wonderful bonus material from the old DVDs be carried over?)...all we had was the title, date and the $34.98 SRP price tag.
Now Image has revealed that this will be all 1025 minutes' worth of episodes from both seasons, squeezed onto 5 DVDs. The cover art, shown at bottom, re-uses the same image seen on the old first season release from Anchor Bay. The audio is 1.33:1 aspect ratio, and the audio is English mono; there are no subtitles or closed captioning included. Also, no bonus material was listed with Image's updated information.
Show creator Alan Spencer is an old friend of our website's, and he took time out from putting together his new show (
Bullet in the Face; look for it on the IFC channel in 2012) to talk to us about Image's new
Sledge Hammer! DVD release. Alan confirms that this set won't have any of the extras, and that Image - who wanted this title available to consumers in time for Christmas - didn't pause to get Alan's involvement in the release at all. He says Image spoke to him about a possible Blu-ray release of the show down the line that he could be involved with, but as the man behind the program Alan informed the studio that he doesn't consider that feasible in the least, as
Sledge Hammer! was mastered on standard-definition tape (not on film or any other high-def compatible media).
So Alan's take on this is that passionate fans who want the best possible DVD release of
Sledge Hammer! should still consider the now out-of-print Anchor Bay releases as the "definitive" version of the show on home video, as this new "discount version" release from Image is aimed at more casual fans who want to own the program at a budget-conscious price. That's fair enough. Here's that cover art:
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