Ryan Gosling does well in drama, comedy, or adventure and that’s nothing new. Those who grew up in the 1980s will enjoy that after an iconic Ken in Barbie, the actor will revive one of TV’s great characters in his next film, The Fall Guy. If you are over 40 years old, you may remember the original series that inspired it. Yes, it it the same.

The original aired between 1981 and 1986

When The Fall Guy premiered on ABC in the United States, the world loved actor Lee Majors, best known at the time for another successful series: The Six Million Dollar Man.

At the turn of the 1980s, even though he was one of the biggest TV stars in the world, Lee was in decline thanks to a scandalous divorce from Farrah Fawcett (who then starred in Charlie’s Angels) and his success as the bionic man also didn’t yield the same amount of ratings. However, when he agreed to buy the idea of recording the pilot for The Fall Guy, he created another iconic character: Colt Seavers, a Hollywood stuntman who works as a bounty hunter. Immediate success.

Shown on TV Globo (on Sunday afternoons), until it went off the air (the rerun was on Rede Record in the early 1990s), The Fall Guy was extremely entertaining as it featured a series of famous actors and other shows such as Colt Seavers (Lee Majors) was the stunt double. For example, he bumped into his ex, Farrah, backstage at Charlie’s Angels. He also crossed paths with Magnum‘s Tom Selleck and even got punched by Hulk (Lou Ferrigno) in The Incredible Hulk.

The series followed Colt in his extra jobs, where he was accompanied by his cousin Howard Munson (Douglas Barr) and his colleague, Jody Banks (Heather Thomas), who was the one who hired Colt and Howard, generally to protect people sworn to death by gangs. or hunt down criminals on the run from the law.

Real-life inspirations and merchandising success

The Fall Guy was inspired by the 1978 film Hooper, starring Sally Field and Burt Reynolds. In turn, Hooper was a tribute to the famous stuntman Jock Mahoney, Sally Field’s stepfather, who she later accused of sexual abuse.

The universe of stuntmen has always enchanted Hollywood and to this day they are very prominent in action films, including an exclusive category in the Actors’ Union award. Stars like Steve McQueen, Tom Cruise, and Lee Majors are famous for being friends with their stunt doubles and enjoying recording action scenes, which is why Colt Seavers was so well received.

Lee Majors starred, produced, and directed the series, including singing the opening theme (Unknown Stuntman). The car he drove, a GMC Sierra pickup truck, was a huge sales success, and as Colt’s physical abilities included stunts involving cars, many of the sequences were “sponsored” by General Motors, which provided specially adapted trucks for the stunt sequences.

The series ran for five years, being canceled in 1986, but maintaining a loyal fan base over the decades.

More than 40 years later, the reboot in theaters

In the early 2010s, talk began to take place in Hollywood that the franchise The Fall Guy would be adapted for the star Tom Cruise (it would have been perfect!), but, over the next decade, before stopping at Ryan Gosling in 2024, it was considered having Keanu Reaves, Nicolas Cage, Jason Statham, or Dwayne Johnson as Colt Seavers. It’s hard to say who would be better, right?

Ryan Gosling was perhaps the most effective choice as Drive would have been the greatest proof of his skill in films of the genre.

In the version that hits theaters, Lee Majors will make a cameo appearance and the title song is the same as the one from the series, now sung by Blake Shelton and actress Emily Blunt is the one who inherits the new version from Jody Banks, who has the surname “Moreno” and is now the director who works with Colt (and is his girlfriend too).

Perhaps fans of the series took a while to associate The Fall Guy because the translation of the title in Brazilian Portuguese changed. In English it has a double meaning: in addition to being literally what the stuntman does – he is the fall guy – it also means that he is a person who is the scapegoat, that is, pointed out as the culprit when those responsible escape. What the trailer makes clear is that it has all the potential to be a hit with new generations. Ryan Gosling and Lee Majors deserve it.

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