The Fall Guy and Trauma Center


The Fall Guy (1981-1986)
Trauma Center(1983)
Type: Crossover

   First he was a cowboy in the 60's, then a astronaut/test pilot turned cyborg in the 70's and finally a stunt man in the 80's (Oh, and in the 90's he was a Green Beret turned Private Eye). Basically in every decade Lee Majors starred in a TV show playing somebody who bound to end up needing to see a doctor. So it should have come as no surprise that when his stuntman show The Fall Guy did a crossover it was with the medical drama Trauma Center.

   The Fall Guy starred Lee Majors as a Hollywood stuntman who moonlighted as a bounty hunter. Helping him out were his friends stuman Howie Munson and stuntwoman, and hottie, Jody Banks. Each week, Colt would pick up a new assignment from one of a variety of bail bondswomen, who changed from season to season, and then he was off after the bad guys. Some fun things about the show included the theme song sung by Lee Majors which lamented about the life of a stuntman, including a reference to being seen with "Farrah", Majors' real life ex-wife.

   Even weirder is the fact that film legend Richard Burton appeared on an episode as himself. In the episode, Colt has an adventure on a train that Richard Burton is traveling on and he keeps running into him. This is the craziest thing I ever saw. It's like tuning in to CHiPs and finding Sir Laurence Olivier doing a guest spot. The jokers on the show Mystery Science Theater 3000 made some comments about Richard Burton having been on the show and I thought they were full of crap until I saw it with my own eyes. Mindblowing.

   "But why do I care?" you ask. "I'm here to hear about a crossover, remember?" Yeah yeah yeah. Pipe down, I know why you're here. And unfortunately its not as interesting as the stuff listed above. In 1983, The Fall Guy did a crossover with a new medical show also airing on ABC named Trauma Center. The obvious logic was to start a story on The Fall Guy, finish it on Ryan's Four and thereby trick the audience of The Fall Guy into giving this new show a shot. Well, if fans of The Fall Guy did give it a try it didn't help. Trauma Center didn't even last for more than a couple months. As for what actually happened on the crossover, even though I actually watched it, at this point in time I don't entirely remember. I believe it partly involved stuntman Howie getting injured and so being rushed to the hospital where Trauma Center was set but even that I'm not positive of that. With most shows I'd go look up the specifics somewhere online but there aren't many episode guides for shows that only aired for four months. And all that the Fall Guy guides tend to say is "there was a crossover" and not much more. See, I told you, not all that interesting. Before you move on to something else in sheer boredom, give that Richard Burton thing another read and if you can remember it play that catchy theme song in your head and go away at least partly entertained.


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