Alan Spencer

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Alan Spencer is an American television writer, producer and creator of the 1980s satirical action comedy TV series Sledge Hammer! as well as a script doctor for feature films. [1]

Contents

Early years

While in high school, Spencer sneaked onto Twentieth Century Fox Studios to observe Mel Brooks directing “Young Frankenstein”. Sixteen years later, Spencer would co-create a short-lived NBC sitcom with Brooks entitled “The Nutt House”. [2] On the "Young Frankenstein" set, Spencer was befriended by Marty Feldman who invited him back regularly as the comic's guest, encouraging Spencer to become a comedy writer. [3]

Soon after, Spencer began selling jokes to established comedians through the mail including Rodney Dangerfield. None of the comedians ever knew they were buying material from a teen. When Spencer met Dangerfield many years later and told him the story, Dangerfield reportedly said: “Oh yeah, I remember those jokes--they read like they were written by a 15-year-old.” [4] Spencer also wrote material for Garry Shandling and continued to do so throughout his career as they remained friends. [5]

Producer Garry Marshall became aware of Spencer’s reputation as a gag man and hired him to work on sitcoms at Paramount Studios while still attending school. [6] At the time, Spencer became one of the youngest people to ever join the Writers Guild of America. [7] While working on the Paramount lot, Spencer befriended offbeat comedian Andy Kaufman who was co-starring on the sitcom Taxi. Kaufman once invited Spencer to his home and subjected him to two day marathon of The People’s Court episodes. [8] [9] Spencer continued to accrue sitcom writing credits for shows such as One Day at a Time and The Facts of Life but referenced a conversation with Andy Kaufman as focusing him on coming up with more unconventional ideas. [10]

Later Years

After seeing the first Dirty Harry film, Spencer had written a satirical screenplay about a renegade cop who was in love with his gun entitled “Sledge Hammer!” He showed it to various agents and executives. The script featured exaggerated, over the top violence and industry reactions were negative. According to Spencer, one script reader for a production company wrote: “One must seriously wonder about the state of mind of this writer.” [11] One person who did like the script was Leonard Stern, the executive producer of “Get Smart”, who first heard of Spencer after Don Adams drafted him to write jokes for their ill-fated feature film version. [12] When approached by HBO to develop a “Get Smart meets Dirty Harry” style concept, it was Stern that recommended Spencer’s “Sledge Hammer!” screenplay that was developed as a half hour show for the cabler before subsequently being picked up by ABC.

After “Sledge Hammer!” ended its two year run, Anthony Perkins asked Spencer to create a sitcom for him that poked fun at his macabre image. The pilot called "The Ghost Writer" for Fox featured Perkins as a Stephen King style author trying to manage a blended family, but the pilot didn’t sell partly due to Spencer being already committed to NBC’s The Nutt House starring Harvey Korman and Cloris Leachman. [13]

Spencer next wrote and directed his sole feature film Hexed released by Columbia Pictures. Originally conceived as a comedy thriller, the film was heavily altered by the studio after a successful first preview to appeal to younger audiences as well as marketed as a parody over Spencer’s objections. [14]

Spencer returned to television and wrote and produced two science fiction pilots for CBS. "Galaxy Beat" was a half hour comedy about “Galactic Peacekeepers” starring Gregory Harrison and Tracy Scoggins with Roddy McDowell voicing an amphibian creature. When it wasn’t picked up to series, Spencer next wrote and produced a serious sci-fi MOW called "The Tomorrow Man" [15] starring Julian Sands and Giancarlo Esposito intended as a “backdoor pilot” but it was not picked up.

Recent Works

Spencer began accepting offers to rewrite and punch up scripts for production companies and major studios, garnering a reputation as a sought after script doctor. Spencer discusses this at length in the Mike Sacks book “Poking a Dead Frog: Conversations with Today’s Top Comedy Writers” with an entire chapter devoted to his rewriting career entitled “Working as a Hollywood Script Doctor”. [16]

Spencer also developed and produced his first cable series, the comedic action thriller Bullet in the Face for IFC/Just for Laughs. [17] The series generated controversy for mixing graphic violence with broad comedy and featuring an unrepentant, sadistic anti-hero. [18]

Alan Spencer has also mentioned in interviews developing a reinvention of “Sledge Hammer!” [19]

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References

  1. ↑ "Talking with Alan Spencer about 'Bullet in the Face,' Andy Kaufman, 'Sledge Hammer,' and Life as a Hollywood Script Doctor". nymag.com . August 15, 2012.
  2. ↑ McGilligan, Patrick (2019). Funny Man: Mel Brooks. Harper. p. 480. ISBN   0062560999.
  3. ↑ Ross, Robert (2011). Marty Feldman: The Biography of a Comedy Legend. Titan Books. p. 228. ISBN   9780857683786.
  4. ↑ "Producer Spencer Scares Up a Sitcom". latimes.com . August 23, 1988.
  5. ↑ "How did you like the tribute to Garry's show?". September 10, 2011.
  6. ↑ "WATCHING THE DETECTIVES 'SLEDGE HAMMER!' ALTHOUGH ABC'S VIGILANTE COP SPOOF ISN'T AS OFF-THE-WALL AS THE NETWORK'S FAILED POLICE SQUAD, IT COMES CLOSE. IT'S SOPHISTICATED COMEDY, AND VIEWERS NEED TO WATCH "WITH BOTH EYES OPEN" TO CATCH ALL THE GAGS". sun-sentinel.com . September 22, 1988.
  7. ↑ "Alan Spencer". earwolf . Retrieved March 4, 2023.
  8. ↑ "13 high caliber facts about 'Sledge Hammer!'". decades.com . June 28, 2019.
  9. ↑ "Ep. 184 Alan Spencer". www.thematthewaaronshow.com. January 22, 2014.
  10. ↑ "Talking with Alan Spencer about 'Bullet in the Face,' Andy Kaufman, 'Sledge Hammer,' and Life as a Hollywood Script Doctor". nymag.com . August 15, 2012.
  11. ↑ "The Making of Sledge Hammer with Creator Alan Spencer". Cracked . Retrieved September 19, 2022.
  12. ↑ ""TRAILERS FROM HELL" PRESENTS ALAN SPENCER ON "THE NUDE BOMB" (1980)". August 10, 2022.
  13. ↑ "The Lost Projects of 'Sledge Hammer!' Creator Alan Spencer". vulture.com . February 7, 2013.
  14. ↑ "Interview: Writer/Producer Alan Spencer". August 29, 2022.
  15. ↑ "The Tomorrow Man". IMDb .
  16. ↑ Sacks, Mike (2014). POKING A DEAD FROG. Penguin Books. pp. 420–427. ISBN   9780857683786.
  17. ↑ Seidman, Robert (October 6, 2011). "IFC's Original Scripted Comedy, 'Bullet in the Face' Begins Production in Montreal". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on October 9, 2011. Retrieved January 7, 2012.
  18. ↑ "IFC's Violent New Comedy 'Bullet In The Face' Stirs Controversy, Will Make It To Air". deadline.com . May 31, 2012.
  19. ↑ "The Making of Sledge Hammer with Creator Alan Spencer". Cracked . Retrieved September 19, 2022.
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