Gareth Hendrix and the Bunker Bigfoot [TriCube Tales Solo][Actual Play], Part 3 (on this History of Jack Fall and The Bigger They Fall)

If you go to YouTube and Search "Science Quest with Dr. Emmanuel John Fallard" you will find a few old videos, seventeen still available, starring a skinny guy in his 30s with oversized glasses wearing a comically on-the-nose lab coat and a funny hair cut. 

Starting in September 2009, each week (every two weeks, by the end), Dr. Fallard would "STRIKE OUT ON A QUEST" to answer some science question. The sort that could largely be answered with sixth-grade science and a few home chemicals and tools. Often, but not always, featuring various nature shots of western Tennessee along with the nearby town of Yarsburg. Sheets of cardboard poster board nailed to trees and taped to walls with hand painted words like "Castle" and "The Moon" on them. 

Sometimes he would be joined with neighborhood kids identified by only their first name: "Mike" and "Emily" and "James". Or local business people, always with a "Mr." or "Mrs." preceding their first name. Mr. Bob. Mrs. Yolanda. 

The Q was a stylized question mark: SCIENCE ?UEST WITH DR. EMMANUEL JOHN FALLARD. 

The on-screen personality of Dr. Fallard was as outsized as his lab coat and glasses and hair: a strange mismatch of Bill Nye and Blippi. The videos are pleasant enough to watch, though, in a micro-budget early YouTube sort of way. The "doctor" was not a lie, Fallard had a doctorate in communications and broadcasting. Cut his teeth doing some behind the scenes work at Turner Broadcasting. 

There was an eighteenth episode (16th in production order): "On a Quest to Find Bigfoot." March 12 of 2010. Dr. Fallard hammed it up, as always, and talked to some local Yarsburg folk about the history of bigfoot sightings in the place. You can now see it on the first season Blu-Ray of Bigger They Fall. Most of those Science ?uest videos would consider a few thousand views to be a godsend. Checking the Wayback Machine, that episode had 104k views and 12k likes before it was pulled.

The next time Dr. Fallard showed up in the public eye was in 2012 on the PBS kids show Cassy Asks It starring Cassandra Knole. She was young and beautiful and freckled and a natural sweetheart (her background was in children's counseling). Every episode had four to five questions asked by kids in pre-taped segments and then she would talk to experts, do experiments, or just talk to kids about serious topics. The information was solid, if not perfect. 

The science segments regularly featured Dr. F. By this time Dr. Fallard had stripped about 2/3s of his oversized persona and had added on a few pounds while still leaning a bit thin and silly. Cassy's numbers were good but by the second season, Dr. F was a younger black woman that fit the overall tone of the show a lot better. Dr. Susan Ferris had a physics background. An actual subject expert. 

Behind the scenes, it was Fallard's decision. He was tired of play acting. He had spent years honing his ability to read people, to sniff out stories, to get behind the mask. He started training himself to research human behavior, to know when people were lying or hiding a truth. Was pursuing a second doctorate in criminal psychology. It was time to let let Dr. F go. [1] 

In 2016, a now divorced Jack Fall [2] (the new online name for Emmanuel John Fallard) posted a series to YouTube called "Alone Enough to Heal". Hair cut shorter. Skin tanned. Physique much more rugged. Early 40s but looking more fit than his geek persona ever managed, the divorced Fallard turned his grief into a life experiment. A solo journey up the Appalachian Trail. Ostensibly about a prolonged bout of solitude, the "Alone" was much more figurative than literal. He did his own camera work but had a support crew making sure he had supplies at every step, batteries for the cameras he would set to film himself. 

And he was good with the locals. He would regularly stop and chat with other hikers. Talk to people in small towns he visited. Talk about legends. About politics. About grief. 

In one of the most talked about episodes he meets an old woman who is distraught and depressed because her grandson had been taking her pills and her checks. He actually went into town - a sprawling but not huge place called Blue Maple, Virginia - tracked down the grandson, and brought him back. The grandson, in tears, breaks down in front of the grandmother. She hugs and forgives him and they both thank Fall for helping when no one else would. No doubt the grandson returned to his shadier ways shortly after the cameras had moved on but Jack Fall had a hit. For the first time in life, he hit a million plus views for an episode when that still meant something for a viral Youtube video. Clips made it to Reddit, Facebook, and even news stations. [3]

Next episode, he met up with some bigfoot hunters. It was a much more joke-filled episode, despite the guys being True Believers. That episode got half as many views and none of the extended coverage but the light in his eyes was there. 

One of those men, Thompson Wainwright, kept up communication with Fall and the two of them formed the Wain Fall company (logo a little kid watching stylized rain drops) and the Wain Fall company pitched The Bigger They Fall. Not just another bigfoot hunting series, this one would combine Wainwright's expertise with Fall's ability to get into the mind of his subject and to explore beyond the normal boundaries. Hunting bigfoot and solving petty crimes in the American East and Southeast. Finding tracks and then spending half the episode talking to a small town cafe owner about a family recipe. Americana and Cryptid with a host that was fully in control of the camera. 

By the end of the first season, Fall owned the whole company (Wain Fall became Fall Bigger) and claimed the title of resident bigfootologist while Wainwright was pushed out. Fallard had seen too many dreams end up short and knew it was time to take the reins and make sure this one succeeded. 

His book published between the second and third seasons, The Man Who Found Bigfoot, was a best seller. It not only offered advice from many well-known bigfoot hunters (Wainwright not included) but it had Fall's signature style of bringing in the other story, of getting behind the mask. Anecdotes about rural life and the struggle of the common man right next to info boxes with scientific what-if-ery. Chapter eight offers twenty-seven recipes Fall had come across while in the field. He listed the chefs that had shared them by name. Each becomes "a celebration of a certain Forgotten America," reads one review on BookList. 

While on break between the third and fourth season, COVID hit and the show got postponed. Jack Fall released a second book, this one eschewing bigfoot to talk about his travels along the trail. 

Alone Enough to Heal: the Jack Fall Story, was a huge hit. People dug up the Appalachian Trail videos to watch while stuck indoors. He himself returned to YouTube for a third time with a new season/arc of Alone Enough to Heal, this time channeling a blend of outdoor ruggedness with a politically apathetic stance on Social Distancing. "Why stand six feet apart when you can be 60-miles out in the woods?" It crossed over the Red State and Blue State line. Eco-friendly, manly, socially conscious, and authority bucking. One review it said that the real Jack Fall had never been hunting Bigfoot, he had always been hunting himself. 

In 2022, Jack Fall was ready to relaunch his show. There were two impediments. Thompson Wainwright filed a lawsuit seeking a significant portion of not only Bigger They Fall's profits but for all the works Fall had done after their brief partnership, claiming there would be no "Jack Fall" without their collaboration (which is wildly untrue). Wainwright went on to drop the lawsuit after Fall went public with proof of Wainwright's shady dealings. Fall made it clear that his distancing from his old partner was because of drug trafficking Wainwright had been using the show to cover (a lot of side trips on the shooting budget just so Wainwright could meet clients). Thompson Wainwright fled out west somewhere before any investigation could be brought to bear. [4]

The second wrinkle was trickier. Tiger King-mania had already died down but the producers thought maybe dialing up the antics was the way forwards. Despite the pre-COVID ratings and during-COVID resurgence, who really wanted to see earnest shows about fishermen telling downhome tales about their favorite creek bed when, instead, Fall could be comically falling into that same creek and or setting up more elaborate, clearly staged set pieces? Imagine a funny Bigfoot costume being the mascot. 

Someone mentioned bringing along Fall's ex-wife as a classic foil. Mrs. Fallard hamming it up as the put upon victim of Fall's passion. Fall angrily refused. They threatened his budget. Fall gave an ultimatum: increase his salary and give him full control or he would see the producers replaced. Surprisingly his gambit worked, if only for a time. The producers have thin skin and one screw up will end up with them getting their way. [5]

Now, in his fifth season, Bigger They Fall looks to reach out to people in places not normally associated with bigfoot legends. The pressure is on Fall to deliver but he sticks to his original idea of small stories driving the big picture. 

The season finale will be shot in Italy and talk about the bigfoot mythos at large. But first, he will be looking at spots along the gulf coast, trip over to New Orleans, and visit a few spots in the Midwest. And on that list is Bunker, Alabama. Where a photograph was taken of a hairy beast in the woods. 

Looking at that photo, blurry and indefinite as all the evidence he has seen, Jack Fall, born Emmanuel John Fallard, knows this will be the ticket to an even bigger adventure. 

-- Mechanical Notes -- 

1. "Were there any scandals involved in his leaving?" Ace into Queen of Spades. Dice roll = 6, a Twist. Leading to 2, 4 on the image chart: the mask. Interpreted, since it is bad for the safety of the pack plot line, that Fallard is good at sniffing out a story. Not just a pompous figurehead but someone who might actually learn the truth of the Kai Yote pack. 
2. Emmanuel John Fallard / Jack Fall is Crafty Journalist and Outdoorsman who is a keen observer but suspicious. 
3. Queen of Diamonds. Standard Crafty challenge requiring 2 effort. A focus on things. 
4. 9 of clubs. Standard Crafty task. 10 of Clubs for a broad focus, task deals with actions. 
5. 8 of diamonds. A task about money/transactions. 8 of spades: an easy Crafty conflict. 

-- Doug Notes --

The bit about "Science Quest" and a kind of burned out Fallard becoming "Jack Fall" was initially going to be a short side scene to spend a couple of paragraphs introducing a person who probably wasn't going to be the main antagonist (or after all, might be) and as I went I decided to take some of my freeform backstory approach and turn it into a series of scenes prompted by various tables and notions. The end result is that Jack Fall is not just a flaky showman but now he is a much more established person with things to lose. I also decided, based on a few rolls (such as the oracle question about scandal) to see if he was a good or bad person and generally I got...a mostly good person who is willing to push buttons and challenge himself. 

He is somewhat a lot like a kind of person Gareth could become and so possibly could be a force good for the young werewolf. Possibly.

Some of the names and companies are real, most are just made up or based off real ones. I cut out a few references to other Youtubers and such. Just a sprinkle of reality for the last fifteen years. 

The story of the grandma getting her meds and checks stolen is about the only small town trauma I let seep into this one. It's a sucky situation that happens. As noted, the grandson almost definitely went back to his crappy behavior afterward.