Police Squad: the Zucker Brothers’ seminal early TV series that introduced Leslie Neilson’s comic masterpiece Lt. Frank Drebbin. Everyone remembers it, despite there only having been six episodes (yes, really), and despite it having bombed massively when first shown.
Strangely, pretty much nobody remembers Sledge Hammer, despite it having been a considerable success in its day. Essentially a Dirty Harry pastiche, the series presented a terrific counterbalance to Miami Vice and all the other tacky 80s cop shows, in a way that nothing else did until McG’s Fastlane. Which, ironically, appears to have failed because people thought it was trying to be serious.
If you’ve no idea what I’m talking about, try here and here for a refresher. But the chances are you simply don’t remember the series, because precious few people seem to. Curious.
I remember Sledgehammer. Even now, I’m still known to quote the “Trust me. I know what I’m doing” line (a great line to use especially when it’s clear to all and sundry that you don’t have a clue what you’re doing). I quite enjoyed the series at the time. Unfortunately it shared the same fate as most American imports shown on ITV at the time – they were shunted around the late evening tv schedule at such a rapid rate that the only way you could hope to catch it was to turn your tv on at random and hope that it just happened to be on. BBC2 were also infected with this practice when it came to Seinfeld annoyingly enough.
I should also probably point out that I’ve pretty much been appointed head geek at work, since not only do I remember these things, but people now know that I remember these things. I suspect there’s a good chance people avoiding claiming knowledge of shows like Sledgehammer lest they suffer a similar fate.
Does anybody know if there will ever be a DVD with the series? I remember watching Sledgehammer when I was a kid, and I am only 24. I was just a small (portugueese) kid when I watched it and still it was a million laughs… Oh the good old days…
SLEDGE HAMMER! makes its American DVD debut on July 27th. A major story in Variety talked about it, as well as the possibility of a feature film.
I google “a similar fate” after just using it in my blog entry on the Weimar Republic, and got pulled in by your title, “Trust Me, I Know What I’m Doing.” Whoa, from *Weimarer Republik* to “nobody remembers Sledge Hammer!” Curious, indeed.
SH was a hoot. A feature film would be good, maybe “Sledge Hammer in Fastlane!” Another good series prematurely cancelled.