how come i don't remember this show? - Sledge Hammer! (1986) Discussion

[–] boramaster 9 years ago

I don't remember it either. I found it referenced on boingboing and watched the pilot. It is great. As I was a TV addict at the time, my guess would be that it was on opposite, say, Police Squad. Networks were odd about that. The Munsters would be on opposite The Addams Family and Star Trek against Lost In Space. I always wondered how they knew to have similar type shows to compete...

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[–] bregund 9 years ago

thanks for filling me in, I thought my brain was going

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[–] marchodge 9 years ago

It was brilliant and is still fresh today unlike most 80s shows, it was put up against Miami Vice and Dallas at the same time so season one never stood a chance in the ratings, it did get a second season (great!) but then put up against the awful Cosby Show which was by far the no 1 show so again never stood a chance!

A big shame as Sledge was the kind of show that could have ran and ran...

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[–] NexusFields 9 years ago

There's a tribute upcoming, so the show is now getting its due:

http://sfsketchfest2016.sched.org/event/4jDf

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[–] clarks58 8 years ago

All u need

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[–] clarks58 8 years ago

Hulu

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[–] mwmtampa 8 years ago

MeTV

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[–] MaximRecoil (4619) 6 years ago

I remember it, and it was my favorite sitcom. I watched it on Sunday nights with my father and older brother (I was about 12 at the time). Then, in '89 or so I came across a tape at the video rental store called "Sledge Hammer! Hammered: The Best of Sledge"...

https://www.amazon.com/Sledge-Hammer-Hammered-Best-VHS/dp/6303320260

... and it was like striking gold. My friends and I rented that tape at least a dozen times, and laughed hysterically every time we watched it. It has four episodes on it:

Under the Gun (s01e01)
Witless (s01e03)
All Shook Up (s01e07)
Wild About Hammer (s02e04)

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[–] SomeCodhopper (76) 6 years ago

[deleted]

[–] MaximRecoil (4619) 6 years ago

Yeah, I have the entire series on DVD now, and have since the DVDs were released in the mid '00s. I was following the progress of the then-upcoming DVD release on Alan Spencer's forum back then. A few years prior to that (early 2000s), Alan Spencer was selling the entire series on eBay on VHS tapes. I was tempted to buy them, but they were very expensive (a couple hundred dollars).

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[–] RobBase086 (44) 6 years ago

It was on ABC back in 1986 and ran for two seasons. ABC put Sledge Hammer on the same time slot as The Cosby Show on NBC to try to beat them out in ratings. The creator or the show did not like Mr. Belvidere too well and would make jokes about that TV show. I thought it was hilarious to watch when I was a teenager. The last time I saw this on TV was in the early 90's in reruns on KPLR TV Channel 11 and then about 2 or 4 years ago METV used to show it late at night on Friday or Saturday nights because it was not "Politically Correct."

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[–] TimMC (9143) 4 years ago

I was in college.
Working.
Having fun.
Very little TV in 1986/1987.

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[–] [deleted] 3 years ago

I remember this show very well, right down to the theme song. I watched the entire series in first run.

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[–] nufsaid16 (685) 3 years ago

A couple of months ago, the Decades channel picked SLEDGEHAMMER as one of their binge weekend shows. I hadn't seen it in years, and had forgotten just how funny and damn crazy it was---to me, the show was a spoof of the Dirty Harry character from the Dirty Harry films. I actually ended up laughing out loud at one episode, because it was so damn funny. The show's on DVD, for anyone who wants to see it----it's a show with very dark, whacked-out humor that manages to be clever, insane, deranged and whacked-the-hell-out all at the same time. It also kind of makes fun of the character's insane attachment to guns, too.

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