 Originally, the opening credits sequence was to have Sledge Hammer  firing his gun directly at the camera and shattering it. But ABCs  standards and practices department feared that Hammer firing  straight at the camera would frighten some viewers and possibly  leave the network liable in case a viewer had a heart attack. A  compromise was reached. Hammer would fire his gun slightly to the  left of the camera but still shattering the screen. Nevertheless, on  the night of the series debut, a person working for a Midwest ABC  affiliate was startled by the opening sequence, panicked and threw  on the station logo thinking something had gone wrong with their  tape machine.