7.1/10 111 votes#1 - Big Nazi on Campus
Season 2 Episode 2 - Aired 9/24/1987
Sledge and Dori investigate the death of a college coed.
Director: Charles Braverman
Writer: N/A
7.2/10 147 votes#2 - To Sledge, with Love
Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 10/31/1986
Hammer is asked to straighten out some young hoods that have taken over their high school. He discovers that the gang is working for a local car theft ring. Hammer convinces the teens to put their violent nature to good use by training them to become cops.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
7.3/10 129 votes#3 - If I Had a Little Hammer
Season 1 Episode 10 - Aired 11/29/1986
Hammer and Dori pose as a couple wanting to adopt a baby in order to discover who is kidnapping infants from a hospital maternity ward. They learn that the hospital’s head nurse and her brother are behind the abductions, which lead to an incongruous shootout in a baby supply warehouse.
Director: Kim Manners
Writer: N/A
7.3/10 136 votes#4 - The Old Man and the Sledge
Season 1 Episode 13 - Aired 1/3/1987
Hammer gets to meet his idol, a retired police detective with a reputation for old school toughness, and gets him a job as a security guard at a local jewelry store. When the store is robbed, the old man is wounded and ends up at a retirement home. Hammer feels responsible for what happened and vows to get revenge on the thieves… not realizing he’s also giving the old man one last shot at glory.
Director: Charles Braverman
Writer: N/A
7.3/10 107 votes#5 - The Death of a Few Salesmen
Season 2 Episode 5 - Aired 10/15/1987
Sledge poses as an Australian car magnate, Crocodile Bruce, to catch the killer of used car dealers.
Director: Bill Bixby
Writer: Rod Ash
7.3/10 94 votes#6 - The Secret of My Excess
Season 2 Episode 17 - Aired 1/29/1988
Sledge tracks down a yuppie's dirty deeds.
Director: Dick Martin
Writer: N/A
7.4/10 154 votes#7 - All Shook Up
Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 11/6/1986
Hammer and Dori are assigned to locate a serial killer who is bumping off Elvis impersonators. In order to flush out the killer Hammer attends The Famous School For Elvis Impersonators where all the victims were once students. Complete with sequins and pompadour, Hammer enters an Elvis contest and sings The Battle Hymn of the Republic… setting himself up as bait.
Director: Jackie Cooper
Writer: Alan Spencer
7.4/10 134 votes#8 - To Live and Die on TV
Season 1 Episode 11 - Aired 12/13/1986
After a winning game show contestant is murdered, Hammer investigates. He learns that the show’s host did the killing, obscuring the fact that he’d also embezzled the prize money. Hammer signs on as a contestant to make the host try to kill again.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
7.4/10 129 votes#9 - Brother, Can You Spare a Crime?
Season 1 Episode 17 - Aired 1/31/1987
When a handsome jewel thief is arrested, he manages to convince Hammer that he’s his long-lost brother… enlisting Sledge’s aid in his rehabilitation.
Director: Charles Braverman
Writer: Gerald Gardner
7.4/10 124 votes#10 - Sledgepoo
Season 1 Episode 19 - Aired 2/14/1987
Hammer's search for a jewel thief leads to an upscale beauty salon, where henchmen rob the society matrons’ homes during their hair appointments. Hammer goes undercover as a hairdresser in order to stop the British thieves who are after the ladies' jewels.
Director: Thomas Schlamme
Writer: N/A
7.4/10 100 votes#11 - Sledge in Toyland
Season 2 Episode 11 - Aired 12/3/1987
Sledge is sent to investigate when a toy manufacturer is attacked by one of his own toys.
Director: Gary Walkow
Writer: N/A
7.4/10 103 votes#12 - Sledge, Rattle 'n' Roll
Season 2 Episode 15 - Aired 1/15/1988
Hammer investigates the mysterious deaths of a heavy metal group and their manager.
Director: Bill Bixby
Writer: N/A
7.5/10 158 votes#13 - They Shoot Hammers, Don't They?
Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 10/17/1986
An escaped convict wrecks havoc in the city, promising even more destruction unless Hammer agrees to meet him in an old west style showdown. The convict is John Kogan, Hammer's childhood rival as well as former partner in the police department. Kogan is also the only man faster on the draw than Hammer… a fact that Sledge is well aware of.
Director: N/A
Writer: Alan Spencer
7.5/10 126 votes#14 - Haven't Gun, Will Travel
Season 1 Episode 15 - Aired 1/17/1987
A gang of silver thieves, working in cahoots with an unscrupulous police psychiatrist, destroys Hammer's psyche when they steal his beloved 44 Magnum… effectively crippling the crime fighter.
Director: N/A
Writer: Gerald Gardner
7.5/10 127 votes#15 - The Color of Hammer
Season 1 Episode 16 - Aired 1/24/1987
When Hammer's favorite hanging judge dismisses charges against a local mobster, Hammer investigates. The judge is found murdered with the only clue leading to a shady pool hall. Sledge poses as a pool shark to uncover the racketeer who has been blackmailing city officials.
Director: Bruce Bilson
Writer: N/A
7.5/10 128 votes#16 - Comrade Hammer
Season 1 Episode 20 - Aired 2/21/1987
Hammer is assigned to protect a Russian scientist who is being pursued by the KGB, leading to a cross country train journey fraught with peril.
Director: Bruce Bilson
Writer: David Ketchum
7.5/10 111 votes#17 - Play It Again, Sledge
Season 2 Episode 3 - Aired 10/1/1987
When Sledge and Dori get suspended from the force, they open a private investigation firm with counseling from Bogart's ghost.
Director: Bill Bixby
Writer: David Ketchum
7.6/10 169 votes#18 - Witless
Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 10/3/1986
After a mobster puts out a “one week only” million-dollar contract on Hammer, every killer in the city, and some financially strapped cops, tries to claim the prize. After an attempted hit takes place in Capt. Trunk' s office, Hammer is ordered to spend the week in a small "Hamish” village. Hammer proceeds to disrupt the lives of this pacifistic community. By the time the hired gunmen arrive, the formerly peaceful farmers, who Hammer corrupted into the ways of violence, assist him.
Director: Jackie Cooper
Writer: Alan Spencer
7.6/10 142 votes#19 - Magnum Farce
Season 1 Episode 9 - Aired 11/22/1986
When a group of vigilante cops begin killing criminals who have gotten off due to legal technicalities, Hammer is assigned to infiltrate the group. To test his loyalty the rogues assign him the task of killing a female district attorney who is out to stop them. While this same D.A. tries to seduce Hammer in her home, Sledge learns that she is really the leader of the vigilantes and plans to kill him.
Director: Charles Braverman
Writer: N/A
7.6/10 128 votes#20 - Miss of the Spider Woman
Season 1 Episode 12 - Aired 12/20/1986
Hammer is poisoned by a mysterious woman and learns that he has only twelve hours to live. Hammer learns that the only cure for the poison is held by a group of monks in the Andes who have taken a vow of silence. Severely weakened, Hammer must hunt down the perpetrators before it’s too late… made worse by the fact that it’s also daylight savings time.
Director: Charles Braverman
Writer: Al Jean, Mike Reiss
7.6/10 136 votes#21 - State of Sledge
Season 1 Episode 14 - Aired 1/10/1987
When Hammer arrests the leader of a Satanic cult, Internal Affairs insists that the cultist be allowed his one phone call. Soon after the cultist makes the call, the precinct headquarters is surrounded by hundreds of demented devil worshippers. With communications to the outside cut off, Hammer devises a risky plan to lift the state of siege.
Director: N/A
Writer: Al Jean, Mike Reiss
7.6/10 128 votes#22 - Jagged Sledge
Season 1 Episode 21 - Aired 4/21/1987
Hammer goes on trial for the murder of the city's leading crime boss. Capt. Trunk and Dori are called upon to give damaging testimony against Hammer and everyone is convinced he’s guilty, including Hammer himself.
Director: Reza Badiyi
Writer: Chris Ruppenthal
7.6/10 116 votes#23 - A Clockwork Hammer
Season 2 Episode 1 - Aired 9/17/1987
Vile Video Concepts conditions cops not to testify against a mobster; Hammer meets a computerized version of himself.
Director: Reza Badiyi
Writer: Chris Ruppenthal
7.6/10 106 votes#24 - Vertical
Season 2 Episode 6 - Aired 10/29/1987
While suffering from vertigo, Sledge must protect the girlfriend of a mobster.
Director: Reza Badiyi
Writer: David Ketchum
7.6/10 101 votes#25 - Dressed to Call
Season 2 Episode 7 - Aired 11/5/1987
Sledge must discover who's making threatening calls to a radio psychologist.
Director: Jackie Cooper
Writer: N/A
The Worst Episodes of Sledge Hammer!
Every episode of Sledge Hammer! ranked from worst to best. Explore the Worst Episodes of Sledge Hammer!!
Sledge Hammer! is an American satirical police sitcom produced by New World Television that ran for two seasons on ABC from 1986 to 1988. The series was created by Alan Spencer and stars David Rasche as Inspector Sledge Hammer, a preposterous caricature of the standard "cop on the edge" character. Al Jean and Mike Reiss, best known for their work on The Simpsons, wrote for the show and worked as story editors.
Genres:ComedyCrime
Network:ABC
Lowest Rated Episodes Summary
The worst episode of "Sledge Hammer!" is "Big Nazi on Campus", rated 7.1/10 from 111 user votes. It was directed by Charles Braverman and written by N/A. "Big Nazi on Campus" aired on 9/24/1987 and is rated 0.1 point(s) lower than the second lowest rated, "To Sledge, with Love".