a lead character being "crazy", so they insisted on a change. The DVD release uses an updated heavy metal version of the theme music by Baboon Rising on the main menus. Ratings and second season Despite critical acclaim and garnering high ratings in a special time slot just for the debut, Sledge Hammer! struggled in the ratings partly due to being repeatedly bounced around ABC's fall schedule. During the same season "Sledge Hammer!" made its debut, ABC scheduled a high-profile comeback vehicle for a then 75-year-old Lucille Ball entitled Life with Lucy that was not well received by critics or audiences. After only eight episodes aired, Ball’s show was canceled and “Sledge Hammer!” was given her timeslot. Sledge Hammer! attracted weekly viewership of nineteen million viewers who followed the show religiously through its many time slot shifts. The fact that the series appealed to key target demographics also kept it on the schedule. Because ABC intended to cancel the series, the last episode of the first season ends with Hammer accidentally destroying the city when he attempts to disarm a stolen nuclear warhead. This episode received much better than expected ratings, in large part because the network had moved the show to a better time slot. ABC changed its mind and renewed the show for a second season. The second-season premiere perfunctorily explained that it and following episodes were set "five years before" the explosion, though Doreau is Sledge's partner in the second season, despite being introduced to him in the pilot, and despite the presence of references to contemporary events, rather than those of five years earlier. The second season suffered from another extremely undesirable time slot (this time against The Cosby Show), a reduced budget, and lowered filming standard (down to 16 mm film from the previous season's 35 mm). The cutbacks contributed to the show not being renewed for a third season. Home media Anchor Bay Entertainment released the entire series on DVD in Region 1. The first season of Sledge Hammer! was released on DVD on July 27, 2004. The laugh track, which the network had insisted on including on the pilot and first 12 episodes, is removed on the DVD version, for which Spencer hired an experienced sound designer. The DVD features a documentary on the series featuring interviews by Spencer, David Rasche, Anne-Marie Martin and Harrison Page. The DVD also includes an unaired version