This ABC comedy ran from September 1986 to June 1988 and was ostensibly a satire of the Dirty Harry genre of movies and various hard-case cop TV shows.
The show starred David Rasche as Detective Inspector Sledge Hammer – badge number 6316 – who believed his .44 Magnum (which he called “Gun”) was the answer to all law enforcement dilemmas – and many of life’s as well.
Hammer would fire warning shots at jaywalkers and demolish a 16-storey building to bag a sniper. His favourite charity was “Toy Guns for Tots”, and according to the mayor, Hammer made “Rambo look like Pee Wee Herman.”
When a gun-toting female criminal scoffed that he would never shoot a woman, Hammer gunned her down and drawled, “Call me a feminist.”
His oft-repeated tagline was, “Trust me. I know what I’m doing.” The truth was, of course, that it was usually his beautiful young partner Dori Doreau (Anne-Marie Martin) who knew what she was doing, and more often than not, Sledge bungled the case, and she was the one to solve it.
Dori had a background in martial arts, came top in her class in hand-to-hand combat, and was an expert shot. She was single and lived in an apartment at 102 Las Palmas Drive.
At the end of season one Sledge ended up destroying Los Angeles, which meant the second season had to be set five years before the first!
Sledge Hammer poked fun at nearly everything, and the sight gags were so outrageously funny (unless you were hopelessly mired in political correctness), that in spite of being scheduled opposite hit series like The Cosby Show, Family Ties, Dallas and Miami Vice, it managed to hold on for two seasons, with a total of 41 episodes aired.
Sledge lived in apartment 13 at 5517 Stafford Street.
Det. Inspector Sledge Hammer David Rasche
Officer Dori Doreau
Anne-Marie Martin
Captain Trunk
Harrison Page Officer Mayjoy
Leslie Morris Officer Daley
Patti Tippo Norman Blates
Kurt Paul
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