American Gladiators

[Hucklebubba]

On a whim, I perused an episode of the new run during dinner. Three things:

1. They seem to have the mix off a bit. Maybe it's just the rose-tinted beer goggles of childhood talking, but I seem to remember the original American Gladiators as being unique in its ability to appeal to both nerds and white trash. Apparently having realized that the latter is the single largest demographic in the country, those at the reins of this new iteration seem to be skewing rather heavily toward the same.

I'm not sure exactly what gives me that impression, but I think it's a combination of having a pro-wrestling icon as host, and the fact that the Gladiators talk way too much.* Remember kids: Muscle-heads should be seen,** not heard.

2. Possibly related to the first point, and definitely related to the third; A great en-massening seems to have taken place in the decade or so since the original show's run. In the old days, the contenders looked like they had been kidnapped from cubicles, and the gladiators were impressively buff. Now the contenders are almost as ripped as the old gladiators were, and the new gladiators are so ridiculously juiced, I'm pretty sure a couple of them were sporting extra heads and giant eyeballs in random places. You know, the kind that dart around eratically and sometimes cry orange pus.

3. I am apparently a little gay. The reason being, that I find big muscley men to not be as repulsive as big muscley women. This could be the result of a fragile male ego, or just because they look gross.


*As in, at all.

**Except in the case of women, who should be neither.***

***Am I in twouble now?

[TheOogieBoogieMan]

I can't really compare the two versions of Gladiators, since I've never seen an episode of the original run (I don't think we got it in Canada, but even if we did, it just wasn't part of my childhood), but my inner couch-potato seems to enjoy the show's cartoonish "athleticism." My inner intellectual enjoys it on a totally ironic level.

Huckle, I'd go so far as to say that it's the contestants that talk too much. At least the Gladiators are, on some level, meant to be ridiculous; hearing the contestants try to muster some sort of witticism or cliche about "going all the way" (and not in the fun way, either) brings pain to my insides. It's that pain that keeps me from watching Deal or No Deal or any of the other neo-game shows that focus way too much on the contestants in order to stretch the game's content to horrendous proportions.

That's the other thing I like about American Gladiators: it's snappy. I don't have to wait through five commercial breaks to find out if some random person gave the correct answer to a painfully easy question. Having rounds last only a minute or so at a time is a breath of fresh air.

That's also the reason why I like the Price is Right. Hooray for Hulk Hogan and Drew Carey!


PS: I should mention that Hulk Hogan gets major points in my book because we have the same birthday. Cool!

[PoolMan]

We did indeed have the original AG in Canada, or at least in my neck of the woods. I used to watch it semiregularly, until I discovered that the same 12 games recycled over and over again eventually becomes extremely boring.

I've watched a few minutes of the new AG, and haven't been impressed or repulsed, so much as amused that it looks SO much like the original, it's ridiculous. Similar costumes, similar games (the ramp at the end of the obstacle course made me laugh the first time I saw it). I'm mostly just surprised at how little retooling it's received, with the exception of the hosting.

But I agree, almost ANYTHING is better than the "tense situation interrupted by the fourth commercial break in ten minutes" style of broadcast that Who Wants to Be a Millionaire popularized a few years ago and nearly every game show since has emulated.

[Lordmoon]

I used to watch AG regularly as a kid and caught an episode of the new AG just the other night. I have to agree that other then the size of the players the rest of the show still seems to be pretty much the same as it was 10+ years ago (did they just reuse the same props?).

I did find it interesting that one of the prizes is a chance to become a new gladiator. Given the size difference between the current crop of gladiatiors and contestants that's a scary idea. That's going to be a hella of a work out to get them up to size before the next season.

[TheLuckyOne]

I've caught a couple of episodes... entertaining, but I agree that the potential for getting old quickly is pretty high. I'm disappointed that I haven't seen my favorite event from the old version, though- do they still do the contest where the gladiators shoot tennis balls out of cannons at the contestants? If not, I'm out.

lordmoon said:

I did find it interesting that one of the prizes is a chance to become a new gladiator. Given the size difference between the current crop of gladiatiors and contestants that's a scary idea. That's going to be a hella of a work out to get them up to size before the next season.

You know, I was thinking the same thing... it's a cool prize, but talk about being the little guy among titans. The winners will have to mainline HGH nonstop for the next two months, because it's coming back in the spring.

Random trivia: in his pre-Scrubs days, John C. McGinley competed in a special celebrity episode of American Gladiators.

-D

[Al]

theluckyone said:

I'm disappointed that I haven't seen my favorite event from the old version, though- do they still do the contest where the gladiators shoot tennis balls out of cannons at the contestants? If not, I'm out.

You're thinking of Assault, and, yes, it's still there (but with explosions!) I haven't watched in a bit, but if I'm remembering correctly, they eliminated Atlasphere, Cannonball, and (I just noticed this recently watching the original show) gave the powerball baskets larger openings. Oh, and the Eliminator is on fire.

[eatmyshorts]

Gosh, I keep missing this when its on. It's one of those shows where I see the commercial and say "I'll have to watch that", which has happened with different shows maybe 100 times in recent years. The only show I thought looked cool and actually watched was "The Moment of Truth", which had too many commercials so I ended up turning it off anyway. Sigh.