''Sleepwalkers'' is an American

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

series which began airing on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

in late 1997. It tells the story of a team of researchers who used technology to enter the dreams of

psychiatric Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders. These include various maladaptations related to mood, behaviour, cognition, and perceptions. See glossary of psychiatry. Initial psychi ...

patients in order to diagnose their problems. It briefly revived NBC's Saturday night supernatural/paranormal

programming block Block programming is the arrangement of programs on radio or television so that those of a particular genre, theme, or target audience are united. Overview Block programming involves scheduling a series of related shows which are likely to attra ...

, Thrillogy, but the show was canceled after two episodes. The show was created by Stephen Kronish and

David S. Goyer David Samuel Goyer (born December 22, 1965) is an American filmmaker, novelist and comic book writer. He is best known for writing the screenplays for several superhero films, including ''Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. (film), Nick Fury: Agent ...

Cast

Bruce Greenwood Stuart Bruce Greenwood (born August 12, 1956) is a Canadian actor and producer. He is known for his role as the American president John F. Kennedy in '' Thirteen Days,'' for which he won the Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion ...

as Dr. Nathan Bradford *

Naomi Watts Naomi Ellen Watts (born 28 September 1968) is a British actress. After her family moved to Australia, she made her film debut there in the drama '' For Love Alone'' (1986) and then appeared in three television series, '' Hey Dad..!'' (1990), '' ...

as Kate Russell *

Abraham Benrubi Abraham Rubin Hercules Benrubi (born October 4, 1969) is an American actor. He is known for his appearances as Jerry Markovic on the long-running medical television drama '' ER'', for his first role as Larry Kubiac on the series ''Parker Lewis C ...

as Vincent Konefke *Kathrin Nicholson as Gail Bradford *

Jeffrey D. Sams Jeffrey D. Sams is an actor known primarily for his television work. Sams has been a main cast member of several television series, few of which have made it past their first season. These include ''Medicine Ball'', '' Sleepwalkers'', Rob Thom ...

as Ben Costigan

Cancellation

Although nine episodes were produced, NBC canceled national airings of the series after just two episodes. Five episodes went on to be seen only on the

West Coast West Coast or west coast may refer to: Geography Australia * Western Australia *Regions of South Australia#Weather forecasting, West Coast of South Australia * West Coast, Tasmania **West Coast Range, mountain range in the region Canada * Britis ...

and the show's final two episodes were never broadcast in the United States but did air elsewhere.

Episodes

Releases

All nine episodes were released on VHS in Japan during the late '90s by

Columbia TriStar Home Video Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (abbreviated as SPHE) is the home video distribution division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. Background SPHE is responsible for the distribution of the Sony Pictures lib ...

, but were rental-only titles and could not be purchased directly. Warner Vision in Germany released most of the episodes on DVD as both individual PAL Region 2 titles and as box sets. The German releases feature a

Dolby Digital Dolby Digital, originally synonymous with Dolby AC-3, is the name for what has now become a family of audio compression technologies developed by Dolby Laboratories. Formerly named Dolby Stereo Digital until 1995, the audio compression is lossy ...

5.1 track in German, but the English track is the same

Dolby Surround Dolby Pro Logic is a surround sound processing technology developed by Dolby Laboratories, designed to decode soundtracks encoded with Dolby Surround. Dolby Stereo (also known as ''Dolby MP'' or ''Dolby SVA'') was developed by Dolby in 1976 f ...

that the show was originally broadcast in. On October 20, 2005 it was released by

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

Home Entertainment in Australia as a three-disc set but it only features six of the episodes in random order. Each disc features two 45-minute episodes combined into one 90-minute film ("Something Is Buried in Bethlehem – Night Terror," "Forlorn – Counting Sheep," and "Eye of The Beholder – A Matter of Fax"). To date,

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (abbreviated as SPHE) is the home video distribution division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. Background SPHE is responsible for the distribution of the Sony Pictures lib ...

does not currently have any plans of releasing the show on DVD in the United States.

Shout! Factory Shout! Factory is an American home video and music company founded in 2002 as Retropolis Entertainment. Its video releases include previously released feature films, classic and contemporary television series, animation, live music, and comedy ...

listed a complete series DVD set as part of their inventory, but it is unknown whether the company ever released it or whether it is currently available. Mill Creek Entertainment announced the complete series on DVD, but has to date made no efforts to release it.

References

External links