This series was in fact shot and edited in Widescreen.
Somehow info on this got messed up.
According to S.S. Wilson's FAQ guide for the series he says that Sci-Fi channel demanded the show be shot in 4:3 and not 16:9. This is not the case at all.
Proof? Simply goto Hulu:http://www.hulu.com/grid/tremors?video_type=episodeand watch any episode but Feeding Frenzy and Hit & Run as they are cropped in 4:3 but the rest are 16:9. Hulu has 11 of the 13 episodes in Widescreen!
Hit & Run was filmed in 16:9 too as the flash back scenes in The Key are in fact 16:9. So we can also assume the pilot Feeding Frenzy was also shot in 16:9. Just these two prints were not uploaded on Hulu.
Go check out Ghost Dance and notice the effects were even made for a 16:9 display and cropped a little when formatted to 4:3 aspect ratio.
Even the show intro is clearly filmed for 16:9 aspect ratio.
So the show was shot and edited for 16:9 then cropped for 4:3 like older Movies back in the VHS days. They called it open matte.
Before anyone says.... Hulu must have cropped the 4:3 episodes to 16:9? Nope. I played some episodes side by side and the 16:9 episodes had more detail in the shots and wasn't as cramped. They were shot with a 16:9 camera then edited and effects added for 16:9 then cropped in 4:3 as Sci-Fi requested.
Unknown if the digital copies on Amazon or iTunes contain the 16:9 prints. Haven't checked.
Sadly I highly doubt Universal will give a crap enough to re-release these on DVD or Blu-Ray in Widescreen.... After all it took them years to release the series on DVD as is.
Here's a few comparison pics: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-CiIp6kQxazc/Ug_-tE5nhJI/AAAAAAAADv8 /AOUfoNj2wNY/s800/G-Dance%2520cropped%2520vs%2520wide.jpg
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-enqEg5e-3-s/Ug_7mWJub2I/AAAAAAAADvs /PLi612DuC0E/s800/Tremors%2520Series%2520fullframe%2520and%2520widescr een.jpg
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-sIWlPzsC0tc/Ug_-t2-KJOI/AAAAAAAADwE /O6YQ1G4BnQQ/s800/G-Dance%2520cropped%2520vs%2520wide1.jpg
Q&A that says the show was not filmed in 16:9 and intended to be released in 4:3 which is clearly not true:
"Q: Was the show filmed in the 16:9 [widescreen and HiDef] aspect ratio and cropped for SciFi? It
looked 'crowded' and 'cropped' on TV.
A: No, for reasons never clear to us, SciFi insisted that the show be shot in the old TV “square”
aspect ratio (4:3). We argued that this was crazy since everyone in Hollywood knew that in a
few years all TV in the U.S. would go to the HD 16:9 aspect ratio. But they wouldn’t budge.
As for it looked “crowded,” that was how the director of photography liked it."
Source: http://www.stampede-entertainment.com/faq/faq.php?category_id=8&ca t_name=Questions%20about%20Tremors%20The%20Series&pop=0
Sounds like he was given bad info from someone.
Hopefully this clears this up. You can do your own comparisons. Feel free to link your own shots if you feel like making some comparison shots. ;)
Go watch some episodes and you'll see the show was in fact meant for Widescreen viewing. It's more comfortable viewing it this way than the cropped 4:3 they were forced to do for Sci-fi but as you can see they were shot and edited for 16:9 presentations.
Sci-Fi setup this show to fail from the start. They forced the episodes to be cropped in 4:3 then mixed the episode order up when airing them to confuse the viewers of the show.