The other day we were pleased to see
a post at the Home Theater Forum discussion website, from a relatively recent member by the name of Steve Kale (welcome to HTF, Steve, and thanks for the tip-off), that talked about an internet rumor about
T.J. Hooker coming to DVD.
Steve's post pointed us toward
the TJ-Hooker.com fansite, which currently has the following bit of news at the top of their main page:
T.J. HOOKER IS NOT AVAILABLE ON DVD - YET!
To answer the many, many e-mails we receive on this subject: T.J. Hooker is NOT YET available on DVD. HOWEVER: We have recently been contacted by a representative of Sony, who is handling the restoration of the episodes and their upcoming DVD release.
We are pleased to announce that T.J. Hooker will be making its debut on DVD in August, 2005.
That's right, you read it correctly: T.J. Hooker will be available on DVD in August! As of right now, plans are only to release a collection of seasons 1&2 are as a test run to see how viable it is to release the entire run of the show.
So if you care about Hooker, and care about seeing all the episodes released on DVD, make sure to purchase a copy when it comes out. Better yet, purchase two copies. And buy one for a friend. And one for your parents. And one for one of their friends. Spread the word!
We followed up on this with several sources, starting with the studio of course. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has not announced this title as of yet. However, unconfirmed reports say the shows' DVDs *are* in the works, and will be out
August 23rd, though that date may change. Special features are unknown at this time.
T.J. Hooker coming to DVD doesn't surpise us, frankly, especially in light of all the attention that star William Shatner has gotten since his Emmy Award for his guest appearance as Denny Crane in
The Practice, a role he parlayed into a Golden Globe-winning performance in the new ABC series
Boston Legal. With reports of other new, hot ABC series coming to DVD in the late summer (
Lost, Desperate Housewives), it's probably that
Boston Legal would hit DVD around the same time. And a
T.J. Hooker box set being available at the same time would be a natural tie-in.
Stay tuned, of course, and we'll let you know anything further we find out.
