Lee Majors could have been a burned out 70s star during the 80s much like Burt Reynolds and John Travolta, but the former Six Million Dollar Man resurrected his career yet again with "The Fall Guy". Majors played Colt Seavers, a working class Hollywood stuntman who moonlights as a bounty hunter. You gotta love a TV show that was brave enough to have it's star walk around with a name like "Colt". The Fall Guy was full of manly macho bravado, right from the iconic opening lyrics, where Colt gets into full country cowboy mode and laments his status as a Hollywood stuntman. Even though that song is clearly grounded in the late 1970s, with it's references to women such as Sally Field, Cheryl Tiegs, Bo and of course Farrah, it continues to play effortlessly well across the decade. You understand the plight of Colt Seavers. He does all the dirty work for guys like Clint Eastwood and Robert Redford (more 70s stars), but he never gets the girl. It always felt right that Lee Majors would sing about celebrities from the 1970s anyway, even in an 80s TV show. Nobody questioned it, it was like oh wait it's Lee Majors singing, well of course he would be singing about Farrah, Bo and Clint Eastwood in 1984.
This isn't the best written TV show, but for a Glen Larson show it sure is. The concept of Hollywood mixing in with bad guys is a hit out of the park. The creators can always give the audience that extra double wink with what they're doing, after all Colt Seavers is a Hollywood stuntman. It's mind bogglingly enticing to wonder what Stephen J. Cannell (a far better writer who was an 80s TV tycoon that specialized in action-humor) could have done with this show. I'll admit nostalgia plays a huge part in my fondness for The Fall Guy. I can actually remember when this show first aired back in the early 80s. I was 6 years old, and this series was sure bet for Wednesday nights. It even had it's own set of Colt Seavers action figures and toy pick truck modeled after the one Lee Major's used on the show, so you knew this show marketed itself at children as well as adults.
There's something so magical about '80s TV, that even silly TV shows like The Fall Guy can
