The Fall Guy: A Restoration and Preservation Saga

The Fall Guy, the popular action-comedy series (1981-1986), has a complex history of releases. Early DVD releases of seasons 1 and 2 suffered from copyright issues, resulting in altered music and cut scenes. While UK’s ITV4 aired seasons 1-3 with the original soundtrack, only season 3 circulated widely. Seasons 4 and 5 remained elusive, available only in poor quality.

Renewed interest in stunt work, partly due to the film “The Fall,” led the US H&I channel to revive the show. They aired four episodes on Thursdays and one on Sundays. However, H&I used the flawed DVD masters for seasons 1 and 2. Season 3 matched the ITV4 captures, but the ITV versions were superior due to H&I’s 16:9 conversion and inconsistent frame rates, causing a jumpy picture in standard definition.

H&I omitted episodes from seasons 4 and 5, likely due to music licensing. Two episodes were cut from season 4 and three from season 5. The remaining episodes, however, featured the original music.

High-definition copies, broadcast on Nitro or Sky 1 in Germany (1080p, 4:3 aspect ratio), offered a solution. Seasons 1 and 2 were HD masters of the flawed DVDs, but with improved quality. These broadcasts included German and English audio, allowing extraction of the English audio for HD seasons 1 and 2.

Season 3 presented a different challenge: HD, but only in German. A laborious process of re-dubbing roughly 80% of the dialogue into English using the UK ITV4 copies began. This time-consuming task was slow but rewarding.

The H&I broadcasts spurred further restoration. Using the German HD broadcasts of Season 4 and H&I audio, a dedicated effort was made to re-dub the entire season. Alternate English audio was sourced for the two missing episodes, completing a HD Season 4 with original English audio.

Efforts continue to re-dub Season 5 using the German HD broadcasts. Alternate audio exists for two of the three missing episodes. Sadly, “Trail by Fire” remains lost, absent from both the German broadcast and H&I. This leaves a gap in the restoration. Now owned by Disney, The Fall Guy’s future regarding official releases reflecting the original broadcast remains uncertain. This fan-driven project showcases the show’s enduring popularity and fan dedication.