American Gladiators

The first time I saw "American Gladiators," I was skeptical. The show seemed cheap and I didn't think it would last. I mean, they stopped a Powerball game to staple a scoring bucket back together! From such humble beginnings came one of the most successful syndicated shows of the '90s, not to mention one of my personal favorites.

"AG" was a whole lot of fun to watch, with competitors from all walks of life competing against each other and the colorful Gladiators to prove their athletic superiority. Though the Gladiators wore glitzy red, white, and blue spandex outfits, their own personalities were allowed to shine, instead of adopting some carefully crafted persona like a professional wrestler would have. I think that it made them feel more real. In later years, they would profile some of the Gladiators, which further showed that Gladiators were people, too.

As the show gained popularity, the sets became more elaborate and sophisticated. Gone were the flimsy Powerball cylinders and shrubbery that was often a contender's undoing in Assault. New games were also added; from the bungee craze-inspired Swingshot to the shoulder-popping Whiplash. And from season to season, more grueling versions of the final event, the Eliminator, were born.

By the mid '90s, international versions of the show popped up in the United Kingdom and Australia, and other countries like Germany, South Africa, Russia, and Finland had their own versions, which seemed to cement the broad appeal of the Gladiators concept.

"AG" seemed to just fade from TV screens all of a sudden, and the Gladiators were reduced to performing in dinner theater shows in Orlando. I don't know if they even do THAT anymore. I wish that someone someday will see fit to release the shows on video.

After discovering the show sometime around '94, I watched every episode, including the reruns that were on at the time. The varied competitions made it something of an athletic game show, and it was always entertaining. My favorite was always the Eliminator.

Some people have expressed uncertainty as to why this show left the air. Well, watching the reruns you will never realize it, but the big problem with the show was that near the end new episodes became something of a rarity. The "International Gladiators" specials became more and more common, which eroded their mystique and made them somewhat dull. But in the end it seemed like every week (and I mean EVERY week) was a rerun--especially of the episode with Dean Cain, which must have shown at least twenty times. (An exaggeration perhaps, but not much of one.) So yes, the show was canceled without much fanfare, but that's because most viewers thought the show was already over. One new episode every couple of months isn't enough to hold viewers--I don't care how popular the show is.

I was just thinking about the show the other day and how neat it would be to have a traveling version of Gladiators that would work similarly to American Idol. Perhaps it's just nostalgia on my part, but I think it would be quite cool.

This show my favorite game show of all time and it's another child hood gem. It also believe or not was one of the things that inspired me to take up fitness training. I remember as a kid seeing this always thinking that when I grow up I'll train real hard so I grow up big and strong but also become a contestant on this show.

There really isn't much to say, it's all really just simple physical contests but that why I love it because it's a show that is all about doing and action. The theme song of the show is fantastic it's one of my favorite theme songs of all time, the fact it's done by one of my favorite composers Bill Conti makes it all the more cool that's another great track on the list.

I really like the Gladiator ensemble from old to even new, each of them are colorful, have unique personas, and are really fearsome from how big and strong they are. For the male gladiator my favorite was always Gemini as he's really showed a lot of personality and even says some cool things. For my favorite female Gladiator it is Crush whom is MMA champion Gina Carnino, she is so fraking hot and of course can kick a lot of ass.

But what really makes this show are the physical games which are all unique, different, and most importantly exciting. And sometimes in each season they update them just to keep the games fresh. I remember in each of the games I was always jumping or even standing up from my seat just cheering the contestants or sometimes the gladiators on to get to the finish, get that guy or girl, get that ball in the container, knock the guy or girl out, just about anything that happens. This sort of gave the show a participator factor which I don't see or have often in game shows let alone sports.

There are so many events I'll just state a few of my favorites.

Joust: This one is simply knocking the other guy or girl off the platform by fighting with giant Q tips. The key is really to make the opponent lost his or her balance while maintaining your own. It's no doubt not that easy as some of the hits the gladiators deliver are really hard ones, let alone you have very little platform to balance on. This always made me in suspense hoping one or the other won't fall till time is up or manage to somehow knock the other guy down.

Eleminator: It's the final challenge of the show and it's awesome as it's a giant obstacle course where each obstacle you have to do something in order to get from point A to B. Like running uphill on a moving upward treadmill, the hand bike which I'll admit is a little trick to get the right motion let alone have upper body strength for, the gauntlet which is my favorite it's just fun trying to push though all that obstacle. And in each season they sometimes change the Eleminator up replacing and adding a new kind of obstacle which keeps this event fresh.

Assault: This is my favorite event in the show as it's a shootout. Where you not just try to run from point A to B without getting hit by any of the tennis balls but you have the opportunity to take the shooter out to earn extra points. It's just always cool seeing the contestants use the different kinds of Nerf Weapons like a bazooka, sniper rifle, grenades whatever they can get their hands on. It's suspenseful to as they have limited time to do all this and just hope they can hit the shooter before he or she hits them.

American Gladiators is Gladatorial Fun.

Rating: 4 stars

I'll admit that as a person who does not count themselves a sports fan and who shies away from almost all shows involving actual real physical activity, the American Gladiator show pulled me in from nearly the beginning.

I think that the part I truly enjoyed was all of the interesting contests and the changes to the contests that made it different from everything else out there. I mean, anyone can watch a group of football players who have been training and practicing for this one sport since they were children, but the gladiator contestants were every day people who had no idea what specific events they were going to have to do when they joined.

The fun names of the players, the interesting and yet fairly safe events, and the excitement of seeing the person you've rooted for take home the prize. Yes, I would very much like to see the show on the air again, or even on DVD.

Contestant Rico Constantino, winner of an American Gladiator series went on to work for the WWE under his own name. As of the beginning of 2004, Rico has performed as the fashion designer/manager of Chuck and Billy, two later-shown-to-be-false homosexual wrestlers, and is now wrestling on his own as a flamboyant wrestler of questionable sexual orientation. He is managed by Jackie Gayda.