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Sledge Hammer!
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Sledge Hammer!

Sledge Hammer! title screen from 1986 to 1988
Format  Comedy (sitcom)
Created by  Alan Spencer
Starring    David Rasche
Anne-Marie Martin
Harrison Page
Theme music composer    Danny Elfman
Country of origin    United States
No. of seasons  2
No. of episodes     41
Production
Running time    23 minutes (approximate)
Broadcast
Original channel    ABC
Original run    23 September 1986 –
12 February 1988
External links
Official website

Sledge Hammer! is a satirical police sitcom produced by New World Television that ran for two seasons on ABC from 1986 to 1988. The series was created by Alan Spencer and starred David Rasche as Inspector Sledge Hammer, a preposterous caricature of the standard "cop on the edge" character, with a name parodied from Mike Hammer.
Contents
[hide]

    * 1 Origins
    * 2 Premise and characters
    * 3 Sledge humor
    * 4 Intro and theme music
    * 5 Ratings and second season
    * 6 DVD releases
    * 7 Guest appearances
    * 8 Episode list
          o 8.1 Season 1 (1986–1987)
          o 8.2 Season 2 (1987–1988)
    * 9 Trivia
    * 10 External links

[edit] Origins

Inspired by Clint Eastwood's no-nonsense approach to law enforcement in the Dirty Harry films, teenager Alan Spencer dreamed up the idea of a police officer whose approach was even more over-the-top, to the point of comical absurdity. At the age of sixteen, Spencer wrote a screenplay based on this idea. The script and the main character were both named "Sledge Hammer".

Spencer, who at his young age had already written for various standup comedians such as Rodney Dangerfield and television shows such as The Facts of Life and One Day at a Time, was unable to sell the script until the mid-1980s, when the release of the fourth Dirty Harry movie Sudden Impact and the popularity of NBC's Dirty Harry-inspired action series Hunter created demand for a satirical police television show. When HBO approached Leonard B. Stern, former producer of Get Smart, about developing such a show, Stern recommended Spencer's "Sledge Hammer!" idea.

Spencer quickly reworked his script for a half-hour television format. HBO executives did not like it, however, and suggested changes that Spencer found unacceptable, such as casting Dangerfield or Joe Piscopo in the lead role. Surprisingly, last-place ABC was willing to take a chance on the unorthodox script. ABC insisted that the violence be toned down for network television and that a laugh track be included (although it should be noted that some versions, such as that shown by ITV regions in the United Kingdom, do not have this track), but agreed to cast Spencer's first choice for the lead character, the classically trained actor David Rasche. Sledge Hammer! entered ABC's fall lineup in 1986.

Fortuitously, the pilot of Sledge Hammer! was completed just as Peter Gabriel's song "Sledgehammer" became a huge hit. ABC took advantage of this pleasant coincidence by using Gabriel's popular tune in television, radio and film advertisements for the show.

[edit] Premise and characters

Inspector Sledge Hammer of the San Francisco Police Department is a violent, sadistic, insensitive, yet oddly likable detective. His best friend is a .44 Magnum with a customized grip featuring a drawing of a sledgehammer. Hammer sleeps and showers with his gun, and even talks to it. Hammer believes in shooting first and asking questions never. In the pilot episode, he deals with a sniper on a roof by blowing up the entire building with a rocket launcher, then turns to the uniformed cops on scene and says "I think I got 'em"; he also mentions that his favorite charity is "Toy Guns for Tots". Hammer's father was Jack Hammer, a legendary carnival trick shooter whose repertoire of shooting tricks included catching a bullet in his teeth, which saved his son's life in one episode. His mothers name was Armin Hammer.

While purportedly a stickler for law and order, Hammer is rather lax when it comes to following police regulations. He enjoys roughing up suspected criminals, whom he frequently refers to as "brain-dead mutants", "yogurt-sucking creeps", and the like. He is often suspended from duty, and his police file literally requires a wheelbarrow to transport.


Hammer drives a beat-up, bullet-riddled, lime green Dodge St. Regis with an "I ♥ VIOLENCE" bumper sticker. He prefers to wear cheap sports jackets, loud neckties, and dark sunglasses. He is divorced, and frequently makes jokes at the expense of his ex-wife (who makes an appearance in the final episode, played by Rasche's real-life wife, Heather Lupton).

Despite his irresponsibility and utter incompetence, Hammer always ends up getting his man (or woman), often through sheer luck or brute force. Hammer's unintentionally ironic motto is "Trust me. I know what I'm doing." (Disaster usually follows.) Another expression he often utters is "Don't confuse me", typically in response to any remark that challenges his ridiculously one-dimensional worldview.

Hammer's partner is the beautiful Detective Dori Doreau (played by Anne-Marie Martin), who is competent, kind, sensitive, intelligent, and sophisticated—everything Sledge is not. Doreau is often shocked and offended by Hammer's crass behavior and obnoxious attitude, but she appears to see some redeeming qualities beneath his gruff exterior. (Indeed, it becomes apparent with time that she has some romantic feelings for Sledge.) Hammer's blatant male chauvinism is a running gag in his dialogues with Doreau:

    Doreau: What, you think all women should be barefoot and pregnant?
    Hammer: No, I encourage women to wear shoes.

Doreau's cautious and compassionate approach to law enforcement is a crucial counterpoint to Hammer's reckless and nihilistic quest for justice. Yet Doreau is a tough, agile cop who can handle a gun and deliver a well-timed karate kick when necessary. She frequently saves Hammer from the extraordinary predicaments he invariably gets himself into.

Hammer and Doreau are supervised by the chronically uptight, Pepto-Bismol-guzzling Captain Trunk, played by Harrison Page. Trunk spends most of his time yelling at Hammer for his incompetence or complaining about his migraine headaches brought on by Hammer's antics. If Trunk has any respect or fondness for Hammer, he hides it extremely well. In one episode ("Miss of the Spider Woman") Hammer is about to die from snake venom poisoning but is saved at the last minute when Trunk shows up with the antidote:

    Hammer: How can I ever thank you?
    Trunk: Don't drink it.

[edit] Sledge humor

Most of the humor in Sledge Hammer! is based on Sledge's callous, simplistic, narrow-minded worldview and its unfortunate consequences for those around him. Hammer is like a human tornado, devastating everyone and everything in his path. A camera view of his apartment shows that one of his favorite wall hangings is a "enemy soldier" target on his closet door. He blames gun control, feminism, and rock music for many of the world's ills. One example of such humor:

    Sledge Hammer: Well, Miss, I was in this store when two thugs entered and threatened the owner with shotguns. At that time I drew my magnum and killed them both. Then I bought some eggs, milk, and some of those little cocktail weenies.
    News reporter: Inspector Hammer, was what you did in the store absolutely necessary?
    Sledge Hammer: Oh yes, I had almost no groceries at all.

Hammer's over-the-top but deadpan antics have ranged from pulling a rocket launcher from his trunk and firing it at the building where a sniper is stationed, to forcing a purse-snatcher to beat himself up in order to avoid brutality charges.

Physical comedy is another important element of the show. Through his Jack Tripper-like clumsiness, Sledge is constantly injuring Captain Trunk with, for example, a stray billiard ball to the head, a coffin lid dropped on the fingers, or a misguided attempt at fixing Trunk's sore neck with a little amateur chiropractic adjustment:

    Trunk: (yelling in pain) You sadistic, depraved, bloodthirsty, barbaric...
    Hammer: Is that why you called me in here? To shower me with compliments?

Another running gag is Sledge's reckless driving; he is continually rear-ending and backing into things with his beat-up green jalopy.

Sledge Hammer! also features a good deal of self-referential and topical, pop culture-based humor. For example, in the final episode of the first season, Captain Trunk tells a busted criminal "Your show's been canceled!"; Sledge replies, "You talking to me?", an obvious reference to the show's shaky prospects for a second season. In another episode, Hammer tells a suspect "Every breath you take, every move you make, I'll be watching you. That's police talk!", alluding to the 1983 hit song by The Police.

There are numerous references - nearly all of them disparaging - to other popular television shows of the time, such as ALF, The Cosby Show, Miami Vice, Matlock, Webster, Moonlighting, Designing Women, Dallas, and Murder, She Wrote. (Particular scorn is reserved for Mr. Belvedere.)

The show lampoons popular films of the '80s such as RoboCop, Witness, Flashdance, and Crocodile Dundee, but also alludes to classics such as Casablanca, Cool Hand Luke, Dog Day Afternoon, and A Clockwork Orange.

[edit] Intro and theme music

The introduction to the show features long, near-sensual closeup shots of Sledge's .44 Magnum as it rests on a luxurious satin pillow. The show's ominous theme music, composed by Danny Elfman, plays in the background. Sledge then picks up his gun, spins it expertly like an Old West gunslinger, and utters his catch phrase ("Trust me, I know what I'm doing") just before firing into the screen, making a hole in it. The original version had Sledge firing directly at the viewer, but ABC executives feared this could be too shocking, possibly even causing heart attacks (and leaving the network liable)[citation needed]. Thus, Sledge fires into the screen at a slight angle.

[edit] Ratings and second season

Despite critical acclaim, Sledge Hammer! struggled in the ratings. This was due in large part to its being scheduled in the Friday 9 p.m. timeslot (popularly known as the Friday night death slot), against CBS's Dallas and NBC's Miami Vice, two of the most popular shows on television at the time; in one episode, Hammer remarks that it must be bad to be between a man from Dallas and a man from Miami, an obvious reference to both shows. In his commentary on the first season DVDs, Alan Spencer remarks that the only series getting lower ratings than Sledge Hammer! was FOX's The Tracey Ullman Show. That actually applied to the second season.

In truth, 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. Hammer! would invariably improve on any time slot the network placed it into.

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; just before the explosion Hammer remarks on his infamous phrase "Trust Me....." . The last scene shows the "Beneath the Planet of the Apes"-style ruins of the city with Trunk's voice screaming "HAMMMMMMMER!", and a graphic flashed:

"To Be Continued... Next Season?"

However, this episode got 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 first episode of the second season perfunctorily explained that it and following episodes were set "five years before" the explosion. Bill Bixby (of Incredible Hulk fame) was brought in to direct numerous episodes. Doreau is Sledge's partner in the second season, a glaring (and unexplained) inconsistency, as the two are portrayed as meeting for the first time in the pilot episode, which supposedly takes place years later (though, it is possible that the explosion takes place five years after the first season and the second season picks up where the show left off). This is more than likely a spoof of cop-out endings to season-ending cliffhangers (a notorious example is Dallas's season opener, where the previous season was revealed to be a dream). In the final moments of the final episode, Sledge asks Dori to marry him, but then claims he was only kidding. The viewer is left to imagine what happens next.

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). It was not renewed for a third season.

[edit] DVD releases

Anchor Bay Entertainment has 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 also includes an unaired version of the pilot that runs several minutes longer and has a different ending and different theme music. An earthquake hit while Alan Spencer was recording commentary for one of the DVDs; the tape kept rolling during the event and was included on the DVD, leaving viewers wondering whether the earthquake was real. The second season was released on DVD on April 12, 2005; the commentary on the final episode ended with Spencer, again, being caught in another earthquake, this time with sound effects and a convenient cliffhanger.
DVD Name    Ep #    Release Date
Season 1    22  July 27, 2004
Season 2    19  April 12, 2005

[edit] Guest appearances

Some notable figures who made guest appearances on Sledge Hammer!:

    * Adam Ant ("Icebreaker")
    * Lewis Arquette ("Witless")
    * Bill Bixby ("Hammer Hits the Rock") - Bixby also directed a number of episodes
    * Bud Cort ("Last of the Red Hot Vampires")
    * Bill Dana ("Haven't Gun, Will Travel")
    * John Densmore ("State of Sledge")
    * Norman Fell ("They Call Me Mr. Trunk")
    * Conchata Ferrell ("Jagged Sledge")
    * Dennis Fimple ("They Shoot Hammers, Don't They?")
    * Sid Haig ("Hammeroid")
    * Evan Handratthy ("Brother Can You Spare a Crime")
    * Mark Holton ("The Secret of My Excess")
    * Clint Howard ("State of Sledge")
    * Brion James ("If I Had a Little Hammer" and "Model Dearest")
    * Davy Jones ("Sledge, Rattle & Roll")

    

    * Bernie Kopell ("Last of the Red Hot Vampires")
    * Dan Lauria ("A Clockwork Hammer")
    * Robin Leach ("The Spa Who Loved Me")
    * David Leisure ("Hammer Hits the Rock" & "Magnum Farce")
    * Peter Marshall ("To Live and Die on TV")
    * Richard Moll ("Hammeroid")
    * Ronnie Schell ("Hammer Gets Nailed")
    * Armin Shimerman ("Hammeroid")
    * Show creator Alan Spencer's hands steal the newspapers in "Under the Gun"
    * Don Stark ("Under the Gun" and "Sledgepoo")
    * Brenda Strong ("Miss of the Spider Woman")
    * John Vernon ("Under the Gun" - parodying his role in the first Dirty Harry film)
    * Ray Walston ("Big Nazi on Campus")
    * Patrick Wayne ("Brother Can You Spare a Crime")
    * Duane Whitaker ("Hammer Gets Nailed")
    * Mary Woronov ("The Spa Who Loved Me")

[edit] Episode list

One episode ("Wild About Hammer") ended with an epilogue that was intentionally miscolored as a parody of the then-popular colorization trend; ABC received so many complaints from viewers thinking it was a transmission error that for a time callers to ABC's switchboard heard a recorded message explaining that it was all a joke.

[edit] Season 1 (1986–1987)
Sledge Hammer! DVD cover.
Number  Title   Original airdate
1   Under the Gun (Pilot)   September 23, 1986
2   Hammer Gets Nailed  September 26, 1986
3   Witless     October 3, 1986
4   They Shoot Hammers, Don't They?     October 17, 1986
5   Dori Day Afternoon  October 24, 1986
6   To Sledge, with Love    October 31, 1986
7   All Shook Up    November 6, 1986
8   Over My Dead Bodyguard  November 13, 1986
9   Magnum Farce    November 22, 1986
10  If I Had a Little Hammer    November 29, 1986
11  To Live and Die on TV   December 13, 1986
12  Miss of the Spider Woman    December 20, 1986
13  The Old Man and the Sledge  January 3, 1987
14  State of Sledge     January 10, 1987
15  Haven't Gun, Will Travel    January 17, 1987
16  The Color of Hammer     January 24, 1987
17  Brother, Can You Spare a Crime?     January 31, 1987
18  Desperately Seeking Dori    February 7, 1987
19  Sledgepoo   February 14, 1987
20  Comrade Hammer  February 21, 1987
21  Jagged Sledge   April 21, 1987
22  The Spa Who Loved Me    April 28, 1987

[edit] Season 2 (1987–1988)
Number  Title   Original airdate
1   A Clockwork Hammer  September 17, 1987
2   Big Nazi on Campus  September 24, 1987
3   Play It Again, Sledge   October 1, 1987
4   Wild About Hammer   October 8, 1987
5   The Death of a Few Salesmen     October 15, 1987
6   Vertical    October 29, 1987
7   Dressed to Call     November 5, 1987
8   Hammer Hits the Rock (a.k.a. Sledge on the Rock)    November 12, 1987
9   Hammeroid   November 26, 1987
10  Last of the Red Hot Vampires    November 19, 1987
11  Sledge in Toyland   December 3, 1987
12  Icebreaker  December 10, 1987
13  They Call Me Mr. Trunk  December 17, 1987
14  Model Dearest   January 7, 1988
15  Sledge, Rattle & Roll   January 15, 1988
16  Suppose They Gave a War & Sledge Came?  January 22, 1988
17  The Secret of My Excess     January 29, 1988
18  It Happened What Night?     February 5, 1988
19  Here's to You, Mrs. Hammer  February 12, 1988

[edit] Trivia
    Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (June 2007)

    * New World's then-subsidiary Marvel Comics released a short-lived comic book based upon the series, only publishing two issues.
    * Al Jean and Mike Reiss, best known for their work on The Simpsons, wrote for the show and worked as story editors.
    * The British rock band Jesus Jones sampled Sledge's famous catch phrase in their song "Trust Me" on their 1991 album Doubt.
    * The phrase "Hammer time!" was used by Sledge in the episode "State of Sledge", a full three years before MC Hammer's "U Can't Touch This" was released in January 1990.
    * In a later episode, after Sledge's badge is taken, he notes that the next time he shoots someone he could get arrested. Frank Drebin says the exact same thing in The Naked Gun, released years later.
    * David Rasche appeared as the President of the United States in the short-lived 2001 television series DAG. His secret service code-name on the series was Sledge Hammer.

[edit] External links
Search Wikiquote    Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Sledge Hammer!

    * Sledge Hammer! Online - Alan Spencer's official site
    * Sledge Hammer! at the Internet Movie Database
    * Sledge Hammer! at TV.com

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sledge_Hammer!"
Categories: 1980s American television series | 1986 television series debuts | 1988 television series endings | American Broadcasting Company network shows | Crime television series | American television sitcoms | Television shows set in San Francisco
Hidden categories: Articles lacking sources from September 2007 | All articles lacking sources | Articles that may contain original research from September 2007 | All articles that may contain original research | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements from July 2009 | Articles with trivia sections from June 2007
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