Heather Thomas' First Starring Role Was In A Sitcom Canceled After One Episode

In the 1980s, actress Heather Thomas lit up television screens in the hit ABC series "The Fall Guy." Starring Lee Majors as Colt Seavers, "The Fall Guy" followed the adventures of three Hollywood stunt performers who use their skills (and Colt's iconic GMC pickup truck) to bust criminals as bounty hunters.

Heather Thomas played Jody Banks, a blonde bombshell turned stuntwoman who gets into wild escapades like posing as a roller derby queen to catching a drug dealer ("Hell on Wheels"), being kidnapped by the Yakuza ("Japanese Connection"), or helping an orangutang who has been framed for murder ("Mighty Myron"). "The Fall Guy" aired for five seasons on ABC and later inspired a 2024 film adaptation starring Ryan Reynolds as Colt, with Thomas making a post-credits cameo appearance as a police officer.

However, "The Fall Guy" wasn't Thomas's first brush with television stardom: her first leading role was in the infamous 1979 sitcom "Co-Ed Fever." Introducing Heather Thomas as Sandi, a student at the fictional Baxter College, "Co-Ed Fever" was a comedy about the all-girls university admitting male students for the first time. With five college girls now sharing their sorority house with three single guys, hormonal hijinks were sure to ensue – but "Co-Ed Fever" was expelled from the airwaves, and CBS canceled the show after only a single episode.

"Co-Ed Fever" was one of three short-lived campus sitcoms that rushed to television following the success of 1978's "National Lampoon's Animal House," one of the best comedies ever made. In 1979, producer Martin Ransohoff insisted to the Montreal Gazette that "'Co-Ed Fever' isn't a rip-off of 'Animal House,'" claiming that the inspiration was his son's experience at Vassar, a former all-women's college. Nevertheless, CBS's special preview of "Co-Ed Fever" flunked so hard with audiences that the series was canceled before its scheduled premiere date.

Over 45 years later, is "Co-Ed Fever" as bad as its reputation? While only a clip of the pilot episode, "Pepperoni Passion," is available on YouTube, the answer is an unflinching "yes." Beginning with an ear-splittingly bad theme song (unbelievably written by legendary composer Henry Mancini), the show features clunky character introductions and blatantly sexist jokes, like frat boy Gobo (Michael Pasternak) declaring that "You women can't handle anything!" Critics found the gendered humor old-fashioned, with the Boston Phoenix's Larry Simonberg telling viewers, "Don't even bother to wonder what decade this is supposed to be taking place in."

In 2004, TV Guide's "Guide to TV" included "Co-Ed Fever" in their list of the "50 Worst Shows of All Time," alongside televised turkeys like "Cop Rock" and "Pink Lady...and Jeff." Thankfully, star Heather Thomas went on to better things. Talking about "Co-Ed Fever" with Star-News in 1984, she remarked, "It was canceled after the third commercial."