“The Fall Guy” will soon be jumping onto the big screen.
A reboot of the 1980s TV show about a stuntman who works on the side as a bounty hunter starring Ryan Gosling will be released on May 3.
Gosling takes over the role of Colt Seavers that was originally played by Lee Majors during the show’s five-season run.
Unconfirmed rumors say that Majors will have cameo in the movie, but there will definitely be something familiar making an appearance.
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The first trailer for the film reveals that Seavers still drives a custom square body GMC Sierra, just like he did on TV.
The iconic brown and gold truck is one of the most famous star vehicles of all time, thanks to the dozens of incredible jumps featured on the show.
Unfortunately, it’s not one of the several trucks that were used during its production. In fact, there’s only one left that anyone knows of, and it’s very unique.
Kevin Webb owns it. The Tennessee car collector told American Cars And Racing that he’s a huge fan of “The Fall Guy” and managed to get his hands on it six years ago. It’s a stunt truck that was specially built after the first season, because they were wrecking too many trucks and couldn’t afford to keep it up.
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Stunt coordinator Mickey Gilbert had a 1977 body put on a custom chassis with a beefed-up frame and suspension, hoping they could use the same truck over and over. External bracing was added to the front axle and a steel rod replaced the driveshafts in it to help it withstand hard landings.
The biggest change was moving the 350-cubic-inch V8 engine from under the hood to under the hump seat in the middle of the truck, which gave it better balance as it flew through the air. Previously, they had to load the bed up with ballast to keep the regular trucks from landing on their noses, with the added weight just causing more problems.
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The truck went on to make 33 jumps on screen, mostly suffering only body damage and the occasional broken ball joint.
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One thing missing from the design is the secret compartment Seavers had built into the bed, which was accessed through doors hidden in the sides on the hero trucks that were used for close-up photography. Webb suggested that probably would’ve compromised the stunt truck’s structural integrity.
Webb said the truck was put in storage when the series was canceled in 1986 and later given away when 20th Century Fox was cleaning out some old stuff in the early 1990s. It had three owners before Webb, who saw it listed on Ebay, but found it was gone before he got a chance to bid. He contacted the seller anyway, and it turned out that the winner of the auction had backed out of the sale, so he was able to negotiate a deal.
None of the previous owners had done anything with it and it was in rough shape when he brought it home, but he got to work repairing and restoring it to street legal condition. The truck was stripped down and only had enough wiring to make it run, so he had to install a new harness to get the lights and the rest of the electrical equipment working.
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He also fabricated a replica of the Warn brush guard it had lost along the way, since the company had stopped making them. Now he sells them to people who are building tribute trucks and also runs the Fall Guy Fan Page group on Facebook, which has 17,000 members.
Webb drives it often and takes it to auto shows. He was even able to obtain one of the ramps used by the stunt team that he plans to display it with.
As far as Webb or anyone knows, his is the only truck from the show that has survived. The others were either wrecked or ended up in private hands and faded away. He’s researched several vehicle identification numbers, but hasn’t had any luck finding any … although there’s a chance that one is still out there and he’s not giving up the search.
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He said he offered his to the producers of the film to use, but it was shot in Australia and they didn’t take him up on it. As for what he thinks of the reboot, he said he’s looking forward to seeing it, but isn’t sure it’ll meet the expectations of a hardcore fan of the old TV show. Ryan Gosling isn’t the only new thing about it, either.
Along with the classic truck, the trailer shows him — and a dog! — engaged in chase scene with a brand new, brown and gold GMC Sierra 1500 AT4X, which was designed from the factory to be jumped … just maybe not as high as Colt Seavers likes to jump.
This story has been updated with the film’s new premiere date
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