Alan Spencer(I)
- Writer
- Producer
- Actor
Alan Spencer is an American writer, producer and director who is best known as the creator of the 1980s satirical TV series ''Sledge Hammer!'' as well as a script doctor for feature films.
While still 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". On the "Young Frankenstein" set, Spencer was befriended by British comedian Marty Feldman who encouraged Spencer to become a professional comedy writer.
Not long after, Spencer began selling jokes to established comedians including Rodney Dangerfield and Garry Shandling. Since the transactions were done through the mail, none of the comedians ever knew they were buying material from a teenager. When Spencer finally met Dangerfield many years later and revealed his age at the time, Dangerfield reportedly said: "Oh yeah, I remember those jokes--they read like they were written by a 15-year-old."
As Spencer's reputation as a gag man grew, producer Garry Marshall hired him to work on sitcoms at Paramount Studios while still attending high school. At the time, Spencer became one of the youngest people to ever join the Writers Guild of America. 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, which has become the stuff of urban legend.
Spencer continued to accrue sitcom writing credits for traditional shows such as "One Day at a Time" and "The Facts of Life" but the relationship with Andy Kaufman focused him on developing more offbeat and unconventional ideas.
After seeing the first "Dirty Harry" film as an adolescent, Spencer wrote a satirical screenplay about a renegade cop in love with his gun entitled "Sledge Hammer!" The script was shown to various agents and executives. Featuring exaggerated, over the top violence and a trigger-happy main character, industry reactions were mostly negative. According to Spencer, one script reader for a production company wrote: "One must seriously wonder about the state of mind of this writer." One person who did appreciate the script was Leonard Stern, the executive producer of "Get Smart", who first learned of Spencer after Don Adams drafted him to write jokes for a troubled feature film. When approached by HBO to develop a "Get Smart meets Dirty Harry" concept, Stern recommended Spencer's "Sledge Hammer!" screenplay. The concept was first developed as a cable series before subsequently being picked up by ABC where it aired in prime time to great critical acclaim.
After "Sledge Hammer!" ended its two-year run, Anthony Perkins asked Spencer to create a sitcom for him to star in poking fun at his macabre image from the movie "Psycho". The pilot called "The Ghost Writer" for the Fox Network featured Perkins as a Stephen King style author trying to manage a blended family, but the pilot didn't sell partly due to Spencer having a prior commitment to NBC's series "The Nutt House" starring Harvey Korman and Cloris Leachman.
Spencer next wrote and directed the feature film "Hexed" released by Columbia Pictures. Originally conceived as a comedy thriller, after an early successful test screening the film was altered by the studio to target younger audiences. This version of the film was eventually marketed as a parody instead of a black comedy over Spencer's objections.
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 providing the voice of an amphibian creature. When this wasn't picked up to series, Spencer next wrote and produced a serious sci-fi MOW called "The Tomorrow Man" starring Julian Sands and Giancarlo Esposito intended as a "backdoor pilot" but this too was not picked up.
Spencer began accepting offers to rewrite and punch up scripts for studios and production companies, garnering a reputation as a sought-after script doctor. Spencer discusses this aspect of his career in the Mike Sacks book "Poking a Dead Frog: Conversations with Today's Top Comedy Writers" for a chapter entitled "Working as a Hollywood Script Doctor".
Spencer also developed and produced his first cable series, the comedic action thriller ''Bullet in the Face'' for IFC/Just for Laughs. The series sparked controversy for mixing graphic violence with broad comedy while featuring a sadistic anti-hero.
In regards to current projects, Alan Spencer has been developing a reinvention of "Sledge Hammer!" which Rolling Stone magazine has ranked it among the "40 Best Cult TV Comedies Ever".
While still 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". On the "Young Frankenstein" set, Spencer was befriended by British comedian Marty Feldman who encouraged Spencer to become a professional comedy writer.
Not long after, Spencer began selling jokes to established comedians including Rodney Dangerfield and Garry Shandling. Since the transactions were done through the mail, none of the comedians ever knew they were buying material from a teenager. When Spencer finally met Dangerfield many years later and revealed his age at the time, Dangerfield reportedly said: "Oh yeah, I remember those jokes--they read like they were written by a 15-year-old."
As Spencer's reputation as a gag man grew, producer Garry Marshall hired him to work on sitcoms at Paramount Studios while still attending high school. At the time, Spencer became one of the youngest people to ever join the Writers Guild of America. 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, which has become the stuff of urban legend.
Spencer continued to accrue sitcom writing credits for traditional shows such as "One Day at a Time" and "The Facts of Life" but the relationship with Andy Kaufman focused him on developing more offbeat and unconventional ideas.
After seeing the first "Dirty Harry" film as an adolescent, Spencer wrote a satirical screenplay about a renegade cop in love with his gun entitled "Sledge Hammer!" The script was shown to various agents and executives. Featuring exaggerated, over the top violence and a trigger-happy main character, industry reactions were mostly negative. According to Spencer, one script reader for a production company wrote: "One must seriously wonder about the state of mind of this writer." One person who did appreciate the script was Leonard Stern, the executive producer of "Get Smart", who first learned of Spencer after Don Adams drafted him to write jokes for a troubled feature film. When approached by HBO to develop a "Get Smart meets Dirty Harry" concept, Stern recommended Spencer's "Sledge Hammer!" screenplay. The concept was first developed as a cable series before subsequently being picked up by ABC where it aired in prime time to great critical acclaim.
After "Sledge Hammer!" ended its two-year run, Anthony Perkins asked Spencer to create a sitcom for him to star in poking fun at his macabre image from the movie "Psycho". The pilot called "The Ghost Writer" for the Fox Network featured Perkins as a Stephen King style author trying to manage a blended family, but the pilot didn't sell partly due to Spencer having a prior commitment to NBC's series "The Nutt House" starring Harvey Korman and Cloris Leachman.
Spencer next wrote and directed the feature film "Hexed" released by Columbia Pictures. Originally conceived as a comedy thriller, after an early successful test screening the film was altered by the studio to target younger audiences. This version of the film was eventually marketed as a parody instead of a black comedy over Spencer's objections.
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 providing the voice of an amphibian creature. When this wasn't picked up to series, Spencer next wrote and produced a serious sci-fi MOW called "The Tomorrow Man" starring Julian Sands and Giancarlo Esposito intended as a "backdoor pilot" but this too was not picked up.
Spencer began accepting offers to rewrite and punch up scripts for studios and production companies, garnering a reputation as a sought-after script doctor. Spencer discusses this aspect of his career in the Mike Sacks book "Poking a Dead Frog: Conversations with Today's Top Comedy Writers" for a chapter entitled "Working as a Hollywood Script Doctor".
Spencer also developed and produced his first cable series, the comedic action thriller ''Bullet in the Face'' for IFC/Just for Laughs. The series sparked controversy for mixing graphic violence with broad comedy while featuring a sadistic anti-hero.
In regards to current projects, Alan Spencer has been developing a reinvention of "Sledge Hammer!" which Rolling Stone magazine has ranked it among the "40 Best Cult TV Comedies Ever".
