Sledge Hammer: Season 2 (1987-1988)

9/27/06

In the Christmas season of 1999 I watched a made for TV movie called The Three Kings, which my mother had taped off of ABC in 1987. My first memory of the cult 80's program Sledge Hammer, comes from this tape on which I found a promo for the series featuring a talking gun. Now that instantly made me curious about the show, 'what kind of program was this?' I wonderd. Years later I saw the first season of Sledge Hammer for sale at a local Boarders, and in conversation later learned that the show was a favorite of a friend of mines while growing up. Anyway about a year and a half ago I net flixed the first season, and got a chance to introduce the program to a number of friends of mine. Only now though, have I finally gotten around to the 2nd season of this comedy series, which was inspiried by the early cop films of Clint Eastwood.

Sledge Hammer was the creation of studio wonderkid Alan Spencer, whose later series The Nut House I do kind of remember. Sledge Hammer was orignally intended to be a feature film, but ended up in a weekly half hour formate. The series stars David Rasche as over the top cop Sledge Hammer, and one time Mrs. Micheal Crichton, Anne-Marie Martin, as his decidely more compatent partner Dori Doreau. Harrison Page played their often exasperated boss Captian Trunk. In its first season the show came across as mostly a satire of popular movies, TV shows, and genra conventions, but by season two had really established its own identity as both comedy and character piece. Season two production values give testment to the shows slashed budget, but the writers and production crew made do as best they could. While season one was funnyer, season two is satisfying in its own way, and I think more so if you've seen season one. If you get or rent either season, be sure to listen to all of creator Alan Spencers audio commentarys, he excels at them. Also check out the title sequence to get a sense of the series.