5 out of 5

Created By: Alan Spencer

Since I’m viewing this via a full-run DVD release, we’ll mention some extras and commentary here as well.

Was it as goofy as Police Squad!  No, but they both had an exclamation point.  But it also avoided the incredibly uneven spurts of something like Moonlighting, a show mentioned several times in Sledge’s second season – and that I bring up as a reference as a same-era, fourth-wall breaking show – by avoiding character dramatics and just sticking to what worked for it – which was, namely, being an over-the-top cop show with enough straight men (and women) to balance out the slapstick antics of David Rasche.  Also, preceding the drama/comedy shtick of Judd Apatow by literal decades, Sledge! would occasionally show glimmers of being a legit cop show which, as noted by Alan Spencer’s commentary in the extras, was unique for a parody show and also helped to make the joke coming in the next few seconds that much more funny.  The plot is straight-forward enough – totally un-by the books cop Sledge Hammer (Rasche) never remembers procedure but frequently opts for shooting his magnum at the bad guys or into the air as a way to test if you’re paying attention.  He gives his boss – Sergeant Trunk (Harrison Page), always yelling at full volume – heartburn and elicits constant suspension but can’t be let go because, gosh darn it, he always gets his man.  Generally by accident (a nod to Get Smart, an admitted inspiration), but all the same.  He constantly tests partner Dori Doreu’s (Anne-Marie Martin) patience, but she has a grudging respect for his methods.  And integrity… because what sells this is Sledge’s – perfectly portrayed by Rasche – innocence.  He believes what he’s doing is right and doesn’t talk to his gun with a wink, but because he’s truly in love with it.  The show doesn’t always hit its mark, particularly at the beginning of season 2 when it stumbles into too many film spoofs, but an episode later will be back in form, giving the 41 episode run an unusually high percentage of greatness.  The commentary confirms that Spencer is a legitimately funny guy (even if he repeats some jokes) and the press package, TV spots, and behind the scenes extras show that this worked because everyone really enjoyed what they were doing, and was integral to the whole package fitting together.  With the foresight to shoot the show more like a serious show and not a sitcom, Spencer brewed a lasting cup of comedy that – then-timely Miami Vice jokes aside – holds up hilariously well.  And the season 2 “five years earlier” shrug is pure nonsense genius that would never fly today.

The Anchor Bay DVD release doesn’t do too much cleaning up of the video, but that’s fine; I’m not really sure how much you can affect 80s TV and it looks as good as we can remember it.  The brief documentary on the show is mainly a lot of ‘show a clip, then a character tells you how they remember that clip’, but its nice to see the cast in close to modern day with (assumed) honest fond memories of the experience.  The press package from the 80s repeats a lot of what Spencer tells us about the show’s genesis in that documentary, but it gives us a chance to see the creator in his youth and, again, adds to a sense of purity the show had, that it was always intended to be what it was.  The TV spots are actually pretty funny (and would’ve certainly gotten me watching the show), and the commentary is worthwhile as well, with Spencer dropping some shockingly random jokes into the mix.

Meaning both the show on its own AND the DVD release merit high marks.  Woot woot and all.