After Glen A. Larsen moved his production company from Universal to 20th Century Fox, his production began to trickle down. The Fall Guy was, really, his last big hit, as the other shows he made for Fox didn't exactly have any good fortune. We've previously discussed Manimal as well as Fall Guy. Now, let's take a look at a CBS entry from Larsen/Fox that a clear case of tragic misfortune.
Cover Up told the story of a widow (Jennifer O'Neill) who takes on her late husband's job as a government agent. Her partner is a former Special Forces operative (Jon-Erik Hexum, ex-Voyagers!), who poses as a model, as the widow is a photographer by trade. The series marked the return of Richard Anderson (ex-The Six Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman, Dan August) to series television.
The tragedy? Hexum died on the set a month into the season when he was playing Russian roulette with what he thought was a prop gun. It was big news at the time. Antony Hamilton, who would later resurface in the remake of Mission: Impossible, took over for Hexum, but the accidental death cast a pall over the show for the rest of the season.
CBS scheduled Cover Up on Saturday nights, and as memory serves was the first series that Larsen had sold to CBS since his days with Universal. Unfortunately, ABC still had The Love Boat. Game, set, & match.
Following is the episode, "Death in Vogue", with guest stars Herbert Jefferson, Jr., who worked for Larsen on the original Battlestar Galactica, Hoyt Axton, and Tristan Rogers (General Hospital). Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out For a Hero", which was a huge hit mere months earlier, is the show's theme song, performed here by singer-voice actress E. G. Daily, who would later do another Tyler cover on The Voice several years later.
No fair rating. Never saw the show.
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