The Pop Singer Who Secretly Helped Create ‘The Fall Guy’

One of my favorite shows from the early eighties is The Fall Guy, which starred Lee Majors as a Hollywood stuntman who also moonlights as a bounty hunter to make ends meet. I loved this show because it had the “Six Million Dollar Man” in it, and I’ll be darned if Mr. Majors didn’t really seem to have a great sense of humor about his role as Colt Seavers.

But this story isn’t about Lee Majors. Instead, I want to talk about a feller named Dave Somerville, whom you’ve likely never heard of — and how this ’50s and ’60s pop singer, and a tune that he wrote, had a huge hand in the creation of The Fall Guy.

How a pop singer unintentionally helped create The Fall Guy

The first thing you need to know is that Dave was part of a vocal group called The Diamonds. They had a few hits in the fifties and sixties, their biggest being “Little Darlin'” and “Why Do Fools Fall in Love?” To understand how that ties in to The Fall Guy, we need to talk about prolific TV producer Glen A. Larson.

Prior to making television shows, Glen in a vocal group of his own called The Four Preps. At some point, Glen left that group, and Dave joined. I don’t believe that they were ever in the group at the same time, but clearly, there was a connection — one which allowed them to form a friendship that would yield a song that, I believe, transcends anything that either group produced on their own.

At some point in early 1980, Dave and Glen were vacationing together at one of Glen’s homes in Hawaii, and Dave was lamenting about this great song that he had written for a TV program that wasn’t going to end up getting made.

When Glen heard the song, which was a rough version of “The Unknown Stuntman,” it got him thinking about an idea for a show, which ended up evolving into The Fall Guy. After some further brainstorming, Dave tweaked the song a bit and Glen got to work on writing a pilot script. And before you can say, “I’ve been seen with Farrah,” ABC had a hip program on their hands that ran for five seasons.

Dave’s song “The Unknown Stuntman,” sung by Lee Majors himself, was a big hit over in Germany. Not so much over here in the States, but I’ll say this for the German people: they are a pretty good judge of talent. Just ask David Hasselhoff.

For those folks interested in learning more about the origin of the song as well as Dave and Glen’s friendship, I’d encourage you to check out this article.

What happened to Dave Somerville?

In 2015, Dave died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 81. While he was never truly a household name, he was a member of the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, the Doo-Wop Music Hall of Fame, as well as the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. All definitely accolades worth mentioning here.

I hope that no one takes my saying that Dave wasn’t a household name as me discounting his achievements. If you think about it, most of us have been impacted by this man’s work, whether we’re talking about the origin of The Fall Guy or those classic hits by The Diamonds. Without a doubt, the late, great Dave Somerville found a way to meaningfully connect us all.