MovieChat Forums > Sledge Hammer! (1986) Discussion > Los Angeles/San Francisco

Los Angeles/San Francisco

posted 17 years ago by Dave-36
8 replies | jump to latest

"Sledge Hammer!" supposedly takes place in San Francisco, but has anybody else noticed that street signs, area codes and store signs pretty much tell you that they're filming in and around Los Angeles? When Sledge and Dori walk down streets the area code (213) is always in the background, and there are shops like Hollywood Souvenirs visible, as well as several businesses with 'Valley' in their names. Love the show and yeah I guess I'm nitpicking but anybody notice these things?

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] geode 17 years ago

Only the pilot actually took place in San Francisco. The rest of the episodes were a fictitious city or even LA, as the San Fran police department didn't want to be depicted as having a full blown loon on the force.

I just noticed when watching the episode "To Sledge, With Love" that the station Sledge works out of clearly had the letters "San Francisco Police" on tope of the entrance.

Oh Lord, you gave them eyes but they cannot see...

[–] Fluke_Skywalker 17 years ago

I didn't notice any SF connection until I was going through the stills gallery on the season 1 DVD and they had a picture of Sledge's ID [I think] and it said 'San Francisco PD' on it.

I think Spencer was initially trying to play up the Dirty Harry connection. Maybe in the end it just made more financial sense to not be specific about the city. They filmed in LA and the geography/iconography of SF & LA are quite different and would've been a tough sell.

’Cause there’s thunder in your heart... Every move is like lightning!

[–] qdmg 17 years ago

One of the members of the sledgehammeronline.com forum recently located the buildings which served for the "precinct" office, as well as the exterior views of Sledge's appartment. Unfortunately, the appartment building is no longer standing, but the "precinct" building is still there and recognizable. The actual address is: 1125 West 6th Street, Los Angeles, California 90017. Pictures of the building as it exists today (September 2007) are available here: http://sledgehammer.1.forumer.com/index.php?showtopic=315&st=30&#entry24705

[–] toallitas 10 years ago

I'm watching "Vertical" and the station entrance has "San Francisco Police" above it. They use the distinctive seven-pointed star badge that SFPD uses. But you're right the locations don't look like San Francisco, which is too bad.

[–] jefgg 10 years ago

Wasn't it mentioned at least once on the show that Sledge was born is Passaic, NJ? What was up with that?

[–] dbitz7958 8 years ago

The abandoned Western theme park in "They Shoot Hammer's, Don't They?" was the Western town at Paramount Ranch, part of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area just outside of Agoura Hills, CA. They used the town and other areas of the park for this episode. While Paramount Ranch is a historical and recreational park for the public, filming is still allowed and encouraged. A few short years later, the town would become the home to Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. In more recent times, another quirky comedy series, Hulu's Quick Draw shot most of their episodes at the ranch. The town will be seen in, we think, the last two episodes of Aquarius, then, sometime towards the end of the first season of Westworld on HBO.

[–] marchodge 8 years ago

Don't think they actually ever said which city they were in...