Friday, Febuary 1, 2008
Alan Spencer has been hard at work in development of a new series. As he mentioned on the forums, "Cavemen" was chosen over his and Jim Abraham's "Sledge Squad" type show. But, it could still happen. Read more about it here.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Sledge Hammer! and Police Squad! make #1 in Ten Shows From the Eighties We'd Actually Like Ben Silverman to Revive. Alan Spencer comments on the forums about this with the following:
"The ironic thing about this number one choice is Jim Abrahams and I DID develop a "Sledge Squad!" style show for last season, but the network opted to make "Cavemen" instead of our pilot."
Friday, November 9, 2007
The following is taken from www.pastdeadline.com
As Alan Spencer Can Attest, Being Lucky is Often Better Than Being Smart. But Being Both Doesn't Hurt, Either.
Alan Spencer is old enough to have been around during the last writers strike in 1988, if barely. He was but a lad in his mid-20s, but he already had a canceled series under his belt: the uproarious ABC police spoof "Sledge Hammer!" that survived for a mere two seasons from 1986-88. What makes the show memorable from the perspective of the present WGA walkout, however, is the fact Spencer had two words written into his "Sledge Hammer!" contract (he was creator and showrunner as well as chief writer) that proved particularly fortunate: "disc format."
"I insisted that it be put into my contract that I have profit participation and full creative control in any disc format versions of the show," Spencer recalls. "The reason I did that was I was really into laserdisc at the time. And of course, laserdisc was nothing back then. All the studios cared about was videocassettes. They probably thought, 'Laserdisc, sure, who cares, give it to him, what an idiot'."
Cut to 2004. "Sledge Hammer!" is about to come out on DVD -- which just happens to be a "disc format." The two seasons of the show that were released in separate volumes wound up being a major DVD hit that sold in the six figures in terms of units. And there was Alan Spencer, earning a very healthy chunk of change, rather than the standard zero, due solely to a couple of magic words.
"I'd like to say that I foresaw the future, but the truth is I just totally lucked out. It turns out that a disc is a disc," says Spencer, who was made his living the past several years primarily as a script doctor (including helping rewrite a few $100 million-plus Hollywood blockbusters) and who was busily punching up three movies simultaneously around-the-clock to beat the expiration of the WGA contract on Oct. 31. "Thank God I didn't have them put 'square format' or a specific number of inches. That taught me never to have any inch provisions written into my contract. If it had said 'eight-inch disc format,' I'd have been screwed."
Spencer, who hopes once the strike ends to turn in his first graphic novel as a pilot for a possible series, stands with the writers and has walked the picket line this week in support. He was also planning to attend this morning's mass rally at Fox Plaza in Century City that's expected to attract more than 3,000 WGA members.
"I've never seen anything like I'm seeing now where the showrunner of a hot new series like 'Pushing Daisies' in its first season -- namely Bryan Fuller -- would be walking the line," he says. "Here is a guy with so much at stake just being totally selfless. It's unbelievably heroic and brave to jeopardize his momentum. Same with Seth MacFarlane not doing SAG voice work on 'Family Guy' out of solidarity with the writers. To go up against corporations who hold all of the cards and are unforgiving takes a lot of balls.
"We're really at an historic kind of moment. I understand both sides in this dispute, and the bottom line is they've got to make peace at some point and get back to work. But I get where the writers are coming from. It's all about new media, whose importance can't be foreseen. We can't foresee the mass application of memory chips implanted in the brain that allow you to watch content when you blink. But they'd better get it in the contract now."
Monday,
October 15, 2007
New web site unleashed with lots of gunfire and fanfare. Celebrate by
buying some stuff from The
Official Sledge Hammer Online Store. How's that for a shameless
slug, I mean plug?
Also, check out this interview Contact
Music (A British publication) did with Alan Spencer.
Tuesday,
October 9, 2007
Stay tuned for more regular updates to the site. The
Official Sledge Hammer Online Store is open for business with
all your favorite Sledge gear. Not all of it is bullet proof. But, we
don't live in a perfect world.
Wednesday,
April 28, 2004
The service hosting the previous message boards was discontinued. Thankfully
a very nice fan, Mark Rathke, took it upon himself to archive the thousand
or so odd (and I do mean odd) posts and has set up new boards for everyone
to begin all over again from scratch.
Mark is also a talented musician, as archiving message boards would be
a ridiculous occupation, who has his own band called "Baboon Rising."
Mark's version of the "Sledge Hammer!" theme will be heard on
our forthcoming DVD menus.
Isn't it silly that they call them menus? I wonder if there's such a thing
as a "Low Carb DVD Menu?"
Friday, April 15, 2004
Daily Variety wrote an almost front page story (it wound up on page two)
announcing the "Sledge Hammer!" DVD release, the cult of "Hammerheads"
as well as the current feature film discussions. It included a photo of
David Rasche and his beloved co-star... the gun! The article was written
by Joe Adalian (a real nice guy) and is called "It's Hammer Time!"
Click
here to see Variety article.
Thursday,
December 4, 2003
Alan Spencer is one of four high profile Hollywood scribes interviewed
in the current issue of "Creative Screenwriting." Scott Frank,
Kenneth Lonergan, Ed Solomon and our own Alan all discuss their experiences
as "script doctors" in an article entitled "The Craft of
Rewriting." This is probably the only time that Alan will ever be
featured in a publication that features Nicole Kidman on the cover...
as "Mad" and "Cracked" are more his caliber.
Monday September 15, 2003
Alan Spencer is one of the celebrity guests attending
a dinner honoring "Get Smart!" in Los Angeles with the classic
series' cast and crew. For ordering tickets or any additional information,
please click on the banner below.
Wednesday July 2, 2003
Alan Spencer has become
a popular attraction within the pages of "Razor"
magazine. In the current issue, the July / August edition on newsstands
now, he authors "My Sixth Sense Worth"... detailing his adventures
as an
amateur telephone psychic. The prediction is: You'll laugh.
|
 |
Tuesday July 1, 2003
A wonderful fellow
has started a website devoted to an event that will be
happening next year www.sledgefest2004.com.
None of us are quite sure what
will take place at this little get together, but it seems fairly certain
that it will be VIOLENT!
Monday, April 28, 2003
There are updates
to the show history, critical acclaim and image sections.
The bio is also now online. Enjoy! And if you can't enjoy, then I guess
just
needlessly suffer.
Monday, January 20, 2003
Attention "Sledge
Hammer!" fans. The show's creator, Alan Spencer, is a
frequent contributor to "Razor" magazine, the fastest growing
men's
lifestyle publication in North America. (Despite it's "men's mag"
status,
women like it too.)
In the tradition of
"Playboy" and "Esquire," every issue of "Razor"
features
bold editorial content as well as cutting edge humor. The classy photography
also tends to be easy on the eye. (Nudge nudge, wink wink -- know what
I
mean?)
Alan wrote this month's
cover story on newsstands now: "Role Reversal: How
The Tough Guys Became Girls & Vice Versa" chronicling the decline
of macho
men on television. You'll also get to see a recent photo of Alan, where
he
attempts to look "cool," or at least... like a Jewish "Reservoir
Dog."
Follow
this link to "Razor Magazine's" website, where
you can not only read
excerpts from the February issue -- but also subscribe for a special low
rate. You'll be glad you did. (Oh, the editor is a major "Sledge
Hammer!"
fan... so he's got extremely good taste!)
Friday, November 22, 2002
Alan Spencer, creator
of the hysterical and eccentric cop show
"Sledgehammer!", will be at the Other Network live and in-person
to
introduce "GALAXY BEAT", a hysterical and eccentric sci-fi comedy
starring
Gregory Harrison and Tracy Scoggins. More
info
Sledge
in 2007:
Send Paris Hilton to Gitmo, Barak Obama to Pakistan, and Hillary Clinton
to an insane asylum. Now, that would be a patriotic act.
Alright, I admit it. I'm jealous of Al Gore. He won the Nobel Peace prize. I wish I could've been nominated at least. After all Alfred Nobel invented the blasting cap.