Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing SLEDGE HAMMER!, a cop comedy which ran on ABC from 1986 to 1988. The entire series can be found on Prime!

Sledge Hammer says to trust him.  Does that mean he’ll be able to find a bunch of missing babies?

Episode 1.10 “If I Had A Little Hammer”

(Dir by Kim Manners, originally aired on November 29th, 1986)

Someone has abducted all of the newborn babies from the local hospital.  Captain Trunk suspects that the babies are going to be sold to couples looking to adopt.  “You mean like a mom and pop operation?” Hammer asks.  Doreau asks to be assigned to the case and Trunk reluctantly agrees.  He has full faith in Doreau.  It’s her partner that worries him.

Most of the humor in this episode comes from the fact that Hammer doesn’t like babies.  The reason why the humor works is because Hammer never changes his mind.  Hammer dislikes babies just as much at the end of the episode as he did at the start.  It provided a nice contrast to not only every other character on the show but also to what we usually expect from television shows.

(Personally, I love babies but I get tired of seeing them in commercials where the whole joke is that they need their diapers changed.)

The babynappers are a brother/sister team.  Brion James plays the brother and it was nice to see that he could handle comedy just as well as drama.  He fit right in with the Sledge Hammer universe.  The big confrontation between him and Sledge Hammer took place inside the warehouse of baby products supplier.  Hey, it made laugh!

This was perhaps the most wholesome show about kidnapping and illegal adoption that I’ve ever seen.