Sledge Hammer!
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Sledge Hammer! was a satirical police sitcom 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 obviously parodied from Mike Hammer. Despite its brief run, the show has gained a cult following. (Fans of the show are known as "Hammerheads".)
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 dubbed "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 critical (if not commercial) success of the spoof police series Police Squad! 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, but agreed to cast Spencer's first choice for the lead character, the classically trained and well-respected 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 and radio advertisements for the show.
Premise and characters
Inspector Sledge Hammer of the San Francisco Police Department is a violent, sadistic, and insensitive, yet oddly likeable detective whose best friend is a .44 Magnum. Hammer sleeps and showers with his gun—even talks to it. Hammer believes in firing first and asking questions later. His defining moment is in the pilot episode, when he blows up an entire building with a rocket launcher in order to deal with a sniper on the roof.
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 that sports an "I ♥ VIOLENCE" bumper sticker. Fashionwise, he has a penchant for 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).
Despite his irresponsibility and utter incompetence, Hammer always ends up getting his man (or woman)—often through sheer luck. Hammer's unintentionally ironic motto is:
- Trust me. I know what I'm doing.
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 have nothing against women wearing shoes.
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. "How can I repay you?" Hammer asks. "Don't take it," Trunk replies.
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. Fiercely patriotic and xenophobic, he is a warmonger and a registered Republican. He blames gun control, feminism, and rock music for many of the world‘s ills. Indeed, Sledge would be the epitome of the angry white male if it weren’t for his overwhelming goofiness and (ultimate) likeability. One example of such humor:
Sledge Hammer: The two men then pointed their shotguns at the clerk, so I took out my magnum and shot and killed them both. I then bought some eggs, and milk, and some of those little cocktail weenies.'''
News reporter: Inspector, was what you did in the store absolutely necessary?
Sledge Hammer: Oh yes, I had almost no groceries at all.
Physical comedy is another important element of the show. Through his Jack Tripper-like clumsisness, 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. 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 is cancelled!" Sledge replies, "Who, me?"—an obvious reference to the show‘s shaky prospects for a second season. There are numerous references—nearly all of them disparaging—to other popular television shows of the time, such as ALF, The Cosby Show, 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.
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 and memorable 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, shattering 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). Thus, Sledge fires into the screen at a slight angle.
Ratings and second season
Despite critical acclaim and a loyal fanbase, Sledge Hammer! struggled in the ratings. This was due in large part to its being scheduled in the Friday 9 p.m. timeslot, against CBS's Dallas and NBC's Miami Vice, two of the most popular shows on television at the time. In his commentary on the first season DVDs, Alan Spencer remarks that the only series getting lower ratings than Sledge Hammer! was 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. The last scene shows the ruins of city with Trunk's voice screaming "HAMMMMMMMER!" 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. 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.
On DVD
The first season of Sledge Hammer! was released on DVD in 2004. The laugh track, which the network had insisted on including on the pilot and first 12 episodes, is not present on the DVD. The DVD also includes an unaired version of the pilot that runs several minutes longer, has a different ending, and different theme music. An earthquake allegedly hit while Alan Spencer was recording commentary for one of the DVDs; the tape supposedly 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 an apparent earthquake.
Guest appearances
Some notable figures who made guest appearances on Sledge Hammer!:
