Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Classic (?) TV: The Fall Guy (1981)

Producer Glen A. Larsen moved his tack from Universal to 20th Century Fox in the early 80's, but his output at Fox was, well, middling.

Larsen's 1st offering for Fox was The Fall Guy, an action series that told the story of a stuntman, who, along with his cousin and a female stunt performer, moonlighted as bounty hunters in order to make ends meet.

Fall Guy was a comeback vehicle for Lee Majors (ex-The Six Million Dollar Man), who had the title role as stuntman-bounty hunter Colt Seavers. The series lasted 5 seasons (1981-6), but good luck finding it on DVD or cable. For some reason, it ain't out there, though the first season was released on DVD to poor sales.

Larsen went back to Universal for one last series, Knight Rider, then his next project for Fox was the infamous Manimal, both series for NBC. Fall Guy, however, was the first series to give Larsen's production company its own logo. Go figure, after all the work he'd done at Universal..........!

Majors also sang the show's theme song, "The Unknown Stuntman", which sounded like it was worthy of a run on the country music charts at the time, which is being kind, since Majors' singing debut, on Six Million a few years earlier, was Golden Throat level. Anyway.........



Now comes word that the series is the latest to be resurrected as a feature film. Dreamworks has picked up an option, and has cast wrestler-actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson in the title role. Given that Johnson is a proven box office draw, that would 1) put the series back on cable and 2) bolster demand for a complete series DVD release. Not that I'd be interested, since I wasn't too crazy about this show, though my late father was.

Rating: B-.

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