Watch 5 Minutes Of GMC Pickup Truck Jumps From The Fall Guy: Video

In the vast swath of 80s TV action shows, The Fall Guy slipped through the cracks of our recollection. Though it also doesn’t help that its five-season run ended before any of us here at GMA were born. But someone loves the show enough to compile a plethora of stunts performed in the show into a five-minute montage of ridiculousness. It’s the perfect show for the mind of a five-year-old, and boy is it great, which Motor1.com found. The stunts are real, with bounty hunter Colt Seavers jumping, sliding, skidding, and otherwise causing havoc with his 1980s GMC pickup truck. 

It’s hard to pinpoint the specifics of the GMC pickup truck because so many were used for the show. The truck is supposed to be an early 1980s GMC 4×4 with a six-inch lift and 37-inch Dick Cepek off-road tires mounted on a 16-inch chrome wagon-style wheel, according to IMDB. Continuity wasn’t an essential aspect of the show, causing several inconsistencies. For example, the truck used in the pilot had two square headlights while subsequent trucks had the quad-headlight configuration implemented in 1981. Bed length was also inconsistent with the long-bed model used more often than the short-bed trim. 

However, with the show buying stock GMC pickup trucks right from General Motors, the constant abuse from the show’s incredible stunts took a toll on the budget. It increased production costs so much the show decided to customize certain trucks to withstand the stunts, adding braced axles, dual-shock suspension, additional safety equipment for the driver. To keep the truck level during jumps, production relocated the engine to the middle. This would help keep the GMC pickup truck level during jumps. Yes – a mid-engined pickup truck built for jumping was made possible out of necessity.

The video harkens back to a time in TV when stunts had to be real. CGI wasn’t an option at the time, so the creators had to resort to real stunts with real people behind the wheel. The 1980s were a time when storyline had character development was pushed aside for crazier and crazier vehicular antics. As one reviewer on IMDB notes, “The Fall Guy was just one in a whole list of classic 80’s fare such as The A-Team, Dukes of Hazzard and Knight Rider.” And that sounds like a win in our book.