Short-Lived Shows: Sledge Hammer!

When he was ten years old, Alan Spencer snuck into a showing of Dirty Harry. Spencer fell in love with the concept of the movie and its sequels, but for different reasons than most. While the movies were categorized as drama, Spencer found the idea of such an excessively violent lawman to be utterly hilarious. At the age of sixteen, Spencer wrote a spoof with a main character he called Sledge Hammer who would spout his catchphrase "Trust me, I know what I'm doing" right before doing something unimaginably dangerous.

Studios everywhere rejected the script. However, Leonard Stern, producer of Get Smart! helped pitch the idea to HBO in the hopes of turning it into a half hour comedy. HBO passed on the script and the show was eventually picked up by ABC, where it aired for two seasons from 1986 to 1988.

Even at the age of ten I picked up on the satirical intent of the show and its over-the-top cartoon-like violence, a strange thing to consider when you factor in that every movie studio, and HBO, rejected the idea for being too violent. Why they weren't able to pick up on concepts even my young mind could grasp is for anyone to surmise. The creators were so sure the show would fail (understandable considering all the obstacles they had to face to get it on the air) that they decided to have Sledge Hammer (played by actor David Rasche) destroy both Los Angeles and himself at the end of the first season. When the show was picked up for one more season, it was explained that everything was taking place five years before the explosion.

As I said, I was only ten when the show aired, but I still watched and enjoyed it immensely. Certain aspects of the show, such as the politically incorrect humor and the obvious innuendo that was Sledge Hammer's massive .44 Magnum flew over my young head at the time. While my parents probably enjoyed it for all those reasons, I just liked the idea of watching what amounted to a hysterically violent live action cartoon.