What a hilarious spoof of Dirty Harry this was. David Rasche played a tough as nails (but completely clueless) man who loves his gun so much it's kind of sick. He shoots first and thinks later. Very funny spoof, it's hard to find but definitely worth watching.

I just bought the entire series on DVD. One of my better investments. Anyone who loves Leslie Nielsen's "Police Squad" series will truly love this farce on Dirty Harry. Nothing but fun violence. Like Harry Callahan, Sledge Hammer seems to always happen upon robberies in progress while eating something including a "sushi dog" (yummy!) I'm surprised Hammer didn't say: "Nobody, I mean nobody puts ketchup on a sushi dog!" Most of the guest stars are no-names but you'll recognize some of them even if you don't read the credits. In one episode Hammer deals with a black widow Cal Worthington-type used car salesmen-husband serial killer played by an unknown actress. I was thinking Carol Burnett would have been the perfect actress for that one. I guess maybe her show was on a different network or she was too busy. I'm sure she loved the comedy aspect of the show though. You've got to buy the series now available on DVD. Trust me. I know what I'm doing.

After a seemingly endless run of abysmal slasher flicks, the popularity of Clint and Ahnold helped make shoot-'em-up action movies the dominant genre of the 80s and this show hit the airwaves in 1986 to send them up along with every other silly thing from the Reagan era.Inspector Sledge Hammer was a right-wing, gun-happy, anything-for-the- sake-of-justice lawman / thug and his nutty rants were the source for much sharp satire on Reaganist politics, in amongst the movie parody silliness.Note that the show originally featured a laugh track, at the network's insistence, but that was removed for the DVD release. Series creator Alan Spencer hated it, and felt it was unnecessary. He was right of course. No audience watching this show for ten minutes remained unaware that it was a comedy.The fun then continued for a second season, as nihilistic Neanderthal action hero Sledge returned for more gun crazy mayhem replete with movie parodies ("Wild About Hammer" is a dead on send-up of Play Misty For Me) and great guest stars (famed Bogart impersonator Robert Sacchi appears in the 1940s detective spoof "Play It Again, Sledge"). Indeed, the second season showed little letup in story ambition or quality compared to the first. Clearly the show's creators had a lot left for the remainder of the show's run.

I grew up watching the slapstick comedy legends such as Chaplin,Lucy,Lewis,Three stooges,Marx Bros. etc...Sledge Hammer truly captured the slapstick of the past but with an EDGE(Dirty Harry meets Jerry Lewis)! This show was perfectly casted with brilliantly-stupid cop stories that no other show in T.V. history can even come close to!I hope the creator will finally release the Slege Hammer movie that's been rumored about. Apparently He does not want the movie to be made without David Rashe reprising his role as sledge,but various movie companies want a young actor to play sledge with a young/new cast!10 out of 10! "You, Yogart Sucking Mutant!" & "You, Egg Sucking Leech!"(pun intended!) THANK GOD BOTH SEASONS ARE ON DVD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!