"'Fall Guy' is a kids' show," Heather Thomas explained. Lee Majors added, "We know kids watch shows like this and try to emulate them...We want to show the skill, the preparation, the equipment used for film stunts. Kids watching our show will know that you don’t just jump off a building or drive a car off a bridge."
Although 'The Fall Guy' offered visibility for its stars, their roles usually lacked character development. Markie Post recounted, "I felt like a typewriter more than an actor on 'The Fall Guy' because my role basically called for doing most of the exposition. I’d hang around the set 15 hours a day just to...come on and say what the caper was going to be and then come on at the end and congratulate them on the caper, and every once in a while get mixed up in the caper, usually to be saved by somebody...It doesn’t grow a lot."
"My role was basically an ancillary character," Heather remembered. "The first season of any series should be used to establish the characters and I didn’t mind that Jody Banks wasn’t involved as much as Lee's character, Colt Seavers." Douglas Barr recalled, "Howie was supposed to be a comedic character, but in typical television fashion, they changed the character but not his dialog."
In December 1984, one episode featured an actor with Down’s Syndrome, Jason Kingsley. Lou Shaw pointed out, "(In 1983) I tried to put some content into 'Fall Guy' so I did a show on paraplegics. I insisted on a paraplegic (Jim Knaub) for the part, and it worked beautifully. It turned out to be our highest-rated show ('Wheels') of the season, and it stunned everyone. Why shouldn’t people with handicaps and disabilities mainstream into society? Why take a person with 2 good legs and have him play a paraplegic?"
The episode in 1984 called 'The Winner', "He showed all of us that with a little love and education youngsters with Down's Syndrome can do virtually anything anyone else can. That’s the message we hope to convey to the world via 'The Winner' episode of 'The Fall Guy'! We staged a Special Olympics for the show, with 150 to 200 entries. And we had 3 guest stars, Larry Holmes, Lou Ferrigno and Bruce Jenner. Lee was fabulous with the boy. It was a touching scene when they had a wrap party, and Jason brought a cake for everyone." However Lou Shaw made the point, Jason had dialog to learn on 37 of the 56 pages script, "I realized that if he couldn’t play it, we could go 10 or 12 days over shooting schedule, and it would be a disaster. It was a tremendous responsibility, but I decided to go for the gamble."
