Lewis Arquette ("Witless") Bill Bixby ("Hammer Hits the Rock") – Bixby also directed a number of episodes Mark Blankfield ("State of Sledge", "Comrade Hammer", and "The Secret of My Excess") Bud Cort ("Last of the Red Hot Vampires") Bill Dana ("Haven't Gun, Will Travel") John Densmore ("State of Sledge") Michael Des Barres ("Sledgepoo") Sarah Douglas ("Play It Again, Sledge") Norman Fell ("They Call Me Mr. Trunk") Conchata Ferrell ("Jagged Sledge") Dennis Fimple ("They Shoot Hammers, Don't They?" and "If I Had a Little Hammer") Kurt Fuller ("Hammer Hits the Rock") Sid Haig ("Hammeroid") Mark Holton ("The Secret of My Excess") Clint Howard ("State of Sledge") Brion James ("If I Had a Little Hammer" and "Model Dearest") Davy Jones ("Sledge, Rattle & Roll") Bernie Kopell ("Last of the Red Hot Vampires") Dan Lauria ("A Clockwork Hammer") Robin Leach ("The Spa Who Loved Me") Beverly Leech ("Wild About Hammer" and "A Clockwork Hammer") Lance LeGault ("The Spa Who Loved Me") David Leisure ("Hammer Hits the Rock" and "Magnum Farce") Peter Marshall ("To Live and Die on TV") Richard Moll ("Hammeroid") Ronnie Schell ("Hammer Gets Nailed") Armin Shimerman ("Hammeroid") Don Stark ("Under the Gun" and "Sledgepoo") Brenda Strong ("Miss of the Spider Woman") John Vernon ("Under the Gun" – parodying his role in the first Dirty Harry film) Ray Walston ("Big Nazi on Campus") Patrick Wayne ("Brother Can You Spare a Crime") Duane Whitaker ("Hammer Gets Nailed") Mary Woronov ("The Spa Who Loved Me") Actor Jackie Cooper directed a few episodes including "Witless", "All Shook Up" and the first season finale, "The Spa Who Loved Me". Production history Inspired by Clint Eastwood's no-nonsense approach to law enforcement in the Dirty Harry films, teenager Alan Spencer dreamed up the idea of a police officer whose approach was even more over-the-top, to the point of absurdity. At the age of 16, Spencer wrote a screenplay based on this idea. The script and the main character were both named Sledge Hammer. Despite his youth, Spencer had already written for Rodney Dangerfield and such television as The Facts of Life and One Day at a Time. He sold his script upon the release of the fourth Dirty Harry movie Sudden Impact and the popularity of NBC's Dirty Harry-inspired action series Hunter; the latter property created demand for a satirical police television show. When HBO approached Leonard B. Stern, former producer of Get Smart, about developing such a