FX developing a show set in the world of Hollywood stuntmen who don't chase fugitives in a cool pickup truck

By Sean O'Neal | February 20, 2013 | 10:04pm

Aux Features TV

The perilous world of the Hollywood stuntman seems ripe for exploring in a TV series, perhaps one in which that stuntman also drives a boss pickup truck and chases down fugitives in his off-hours with the help of a perky blonde, and also he’s Lee Majors. But FX has gone in a decidedly different direction with its in-development series Crash And Burn, a slightly more realistic spin on the world of movie fakery following stuntmen in the ‘70s, that pre-digital era before all stunts were performed by hurling computers off of tall buildings.

The project from Walking Dead producer Gale Ann Hurd and Necessary Roughness writer Jeffrey Lieber is based on Kevin Conley’s non-fiction book The Full Burn, and concerns a stuntman named Doc Dixon who’s trying to survive his daily grind of smashing cars into things and occasionally jumping over things, like smashed cars, while also trying to keep peace within his family and the stuntman’s union. The plot description also says he does this “all with the understanding that if his work doesn’t kill him… the weekends probably will,” because he barbecues using dynamite or something. We’re not entirely sure what that means. We know it definitely doesn’t involve chasing fugitives in a pickup truck.