Sledge Hammer!: Season 02  (1987)

Theatrical Release Information:
Sledge Hammer!: Season 02

The first season of the lampoonish cop show Sledge Hammer! ended as the title character, a thick-muscled, thick-witted Los Angeles police detective (played by David Rasche), confidently set about to disarm a nuclear device. "I know what I'm doing," said Sledge -- but he didn't, and the season ended with Los Angeles and everyone in it going up in a puff of mushroom-shaped smoke! This bizarre finale had been conceived by series creator Alan Spencer when it seemed as though the series would not be renewed for a second season. However, a renewal came in at the last moment -- and thus it is explained at the outset that season two is a prequel to season one, officially titled Sledge Hammer!: The Early Days. Once we get past this outrageous bit of creative chicanery, it is easy to see that Sledge Hammer is just as arrogant, stubborn, brutal, and stupid as ever, while his partner, Officer Dori Doreau (Anne-Marie Martin), has become quite adept at concealing her superior intellect and allowing Sledge to think that he and he alone has solved all their cases. This season's crop of satirical storylines includes Sledge and Dori's smashing of a college neo-Nazi ring, a close encounter with the ghost of Humphrey Bogart (played by Robert Sacchi), various underground assignments in which Sledge poses as everything from a mob assassin to Australian automobile manufacturer "Crocodile Bruce," and wacky one-shot parodies of Vertigo, Dressed to Kill, and Robocop. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide