Sledge Hammer!
I had never seen, nor heard of this TV show called Sledge Hammer! that ran for two seasons from 1986-88. I watched a clip of it online and it was pretty good, certainly calling to mind the short lived TV show Police Squad from 1982 that ended up turning into the Naked Gun series of movies that ironically came out in the last year of Sledge Hammer. What I really want to talk about is the very excellent Star Trek spoof series from 1979 called Quark. At least I remember it being excellent, but on the other hand I recently tried to go back and re-watch some episodes of another show I recalled as being brilliant, The Young Ones, and found it hard to sit through. Enough about Quark. An episode of Sledge Hammer! features the time-tested comedy archetype of someone jumping on a skateboard without having complete technical mastery, in this case, an nice looking Alva Street Fire.
– Thanks to Mike D for the tip.
Season one, episode two of Sledge Hammer! – “Hammer Gets Nailed”
Hammer ends up as an elementary school crossing guard, shooting a car when it runs the stop sign. The remaining police are overwhelmed but Trunk refuses to rehire Hammer. They get word that an extortionist has planted a bomb in the downtown district, and Trunk sends Doreau to deal with it. Hammer hears about it on the radio and takes a skateboard to check it out. He meets with Doreau, who reveals the extortionists have tied the dynamite to a clock. Unfortunately, it’s a clock store.
Ermergency! Grab a skateboard and skate as slowly and unsteadily as you can to the bomb site!
Get in the surfer pose.
Wobbles for justice!
Look out for those pedestrians!
Oooooh. To add insult to injury, the hapless victim already has two broken arms.
And that’s it. Here’s the part of the relevant episode on YouTube, and it looks to be uploaded by the actual copyright holder, so it might be up for a while. The skateboard section is short and doesnt’start until around the 8:45 mark. It’s really only worth watching if you are a fan, or to get an idea of how the show was.
I used to love that show when I was kid.
Our family were HUGE fans of Sledgehammer
ok that wasn’t in English
Kilwag, thats because you have to be a drunk or old and english to enjoy the young ones.
or drunk on old english.
member; they had the madness “our house” as the theme?
I was a big fan of Sledgehammer when I was a kid, too
Jake, no way dude, the theme was “The Young Ones” – SOURCE, They did have Motorhead and MAdness as guests though.
Adam Ant appeared on Sledge Hammer! too. 1987 (Season 2, Episode 12) as “Lionel Dasham” SOURCE
sledgehammer ruled deroe!
Yup,the theme was “The Young Ones” originally made famous by Cliff Richard. Musical guests included (from memory), 9 Below Zero, Motorhead, The Damned, Madness (twice), Rip Rig and Panic, Dexy’s Midnight Runners, Amazulu, John Otway. Comedian Alexi Sayle did a song once I think.
Ok i got my bbc comedies mixed up-it was the theme for “my family”…a thousand apologies, your majesty.
But didnt the simpsons do a bit on the young ones-like homer makes an erroneous pledge for PBS or something and the clip they show is a parody of the young ones,something to the effect of:
“whadja get me this Christmas”?!
“a smash on the noggin”
“oy, thats what i got last year”!
and btw, try the Young Ones again. The first episode is naff, so if you watch that again after 25 years you will be put off, but other episodes are still ace.
for modern comedy try The IT Crowd or Little Britain
His catch phrase was “Trust me I know what I’m doing.” On the last episode, he blew up Earth. Sledge hammer ruled.
SLEDGE HAMMER! Don’t try the eye poke with sun glass thing.. it really hurts! Loved that show… along with Street Hawk, Airwolf and Max Headroom.
sledge hammer was so good. loved that show almost as much as the fall guy
Vyvyan of The Young Ones ruled.
Mighty Boosh FTW
Even I watched the Hammer as a kid (probably reruns a few years later).
The guy was funny as hell.Don’t let the above stillshots with the ‘Police Academy quality’ fool you.