Magnum Farce

"Magnum Farce"
Sledge Hammer! episode
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 9
Directed by	Chuck Braverman
Written by	Jim Fisher, Jim Staahl
Original air date	November 22, 1986
Guest stars
Janice Lynde, Mark Rolston, David Leisure, Jay Rasummy, Kathleen Bailey
Episode chronology
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List of Sledge Hammer! episodes

"Magnum Farce" is the ninth episode of the television series Sledge Hammer!. It originally aired on ABC in the United States on November 22, 1986. The episode is a parody of the 1973 film Magnum Force.^[1]

Plot summary

Hammer is drying his hair when he hears on the radio that a man had just been gunned down by an unknown vigilante, which marks the third such incident. Upon arriving at the precinct, he meets District Attorney Evelyn Collins (Janice Lynde), who demands to see Trunk. Seeing that Hammer is on his way to Trunk's office, she follows him until she realizes he led her to the men's restroom.

At Trunk's office, Hammer exchanges words with Collins until she tells Trunk that the three victims were mobsters who were each gunned down the day after they were exonerated of their crimes. She then points out that drug pusher Rudy Medwick (Jay Rasummy) is next, as he was just cleared of his charges.

Hammer and Doreau track down Medwick to a massage parlor, where he is relaxing in a sauna. Medwick refuses police protection as he argues with the duo, who are then summoned out of the sauna room by a phone call. Two police officers in motorcycle gear enter the sauna and gun down Medwick. Hammer returns to the sauna and sees Medwick barely alive, but unable to speak. Before dying, Medwick mimes to Hammer the assailants, which Hammer does not understand.

Back at the precinct, Trunk shows Hammer the bullet casings found at the murder scenes. Hammer takes a bite on one and immediately identifies it as police-issue. They suspect that rogue policemen are behind the murders. Seeing that Hammer is the perfect man to infiltrate their secret organization, Trunk and Hammer stage a fight to attract the vigilantes' attention. Officers Jackson (David Leisure) and Braddock (Mark Rolston) see the fight and a potential recruit in Hammer.

Later after the fight, Hammer receives an invitation by the vigilantes and passes it to Trunk. He returns to his apartment and meets Jackson and Braddock, who blindfold him and take him to their hideout. There, they tell him his initiation rite is to kill Collins.

He heads to Collins' office, where she reveals herself to be mastermind of the vigilantes. He already figured it out when he smelled her perfume while he was blindfolded at the hideout earlier on. She invites him over to her home, where they dance and he admires her gun collection. He asks her for the list of vigilantes, but she walks out of the living room to change her clothes. While searching around the room for the list, she calls him upstairs, where she invites him in the hot tub. Upon acquiring the list in the room, he draws his gun at her, but she attacks him with a spear gun. While being chased by Collins, Hammer shoots at her, forgetting that he loaded his gun with blanks for the prior initiation. She is armed with a shotgun, but has a bad aim and misses Hammer during the chase. He is cornered when Doreau appears and points her gun at Collins. Doreau tells Hammer she followed him and she was not convinced by the fight he staged with Trunk. However, Jackson and Braddock appear behind her and force her to drop her gun. Trunk suddenly arrives on the scene and disarms the two vigilantes. He reveals to Hammer that he lives next-door and happened to hear gunshots. While being arrested, Collins requests to give a final word to Hammer. She punches Hammer in the face before being taken away.

Back at the precinct, it is revealed that Collins conducted her own defense and was released on a technicality. Upon leaving Trunk's office, Hammer is confronted by Collins, who points a gun at him. But due to her bad sense of aiming, she misses, and is arrested promptly.

Production notes

Creator Alan Spencer and actress Kathleen Bailey went to school together in the 1970s. Spencer did not realize Bailey pursued acting until the day she auditioned for her role.

Not too long after this episode aired, David Leisure became Joe Isuzu, the lying salesman in the Isuzu commercials. He returned to this show as a prison guard in the season 2 episode "Hammer Hits the Rock".

References

1. ^ The Official Sledge Hammer! Website - Magnum Farce