Trivia / American Gladiators

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• Creator Backlash:
  • The original Gladiators weren't too happy with the 2008 revival, citing Hulk Hogan hosting (which Laser thought was a joke, since unlike pro wrestling, AG was all real), the hero/villain roles assigned to the contenders and the Gladiators, the Gladiators not being allowed to speak, and NBC/MGM not taking any advice from anyone who worked on the original (hell, they didn't want anyone from the old show working on the new one!); the original Gladiators were happy when it was cancelled quickly.
  • Possibly Joe Theismann and/or Gladiators Malibu and Sunny, considering the DVD release begins with the episode immediately following their last — which, ironically, was dedicated to recapping the excluded first half of Season 1. Yes, the first half of Season 1 was incredibly ghetto compared to everything that came after it, as well as including various aspects that were dropped (such as the Gladiators being clear villains), but it seemed as if the omission of #1-13 was advertised as a feature.
  • To clarify, many shows have "bumps" during their first year as they figure out what works and what doesn't, which is why a full-season box set is fun to watch. As such, if you advertise that you'll release Season 1, don't end up putting out "Season 1: Episodes 14-27" — and especially not under such a misleading title of "The Battle Begins" (which itself implies a full-season set). A rare mis-step for Shout Factory, who are generally better than this.
  • The DVD commentaries have commentary tracks, and the Gladiators refused to discuss Theismann.
  • It's been alleged said missing episodes weren't released at Theismann's request. It seems not even he wants people to see how flat his hosting was (although this hasn't prevented the episodes from being rerun).
  • However, Theismann has apparently come around to his role, and he said that he added input to the events early on.
• Development Hell: Johnny Ferraro had the idea as early as 1982 (being inspired by a fundraising event he'd set up for a community center), and originally thought it would be a good movie. It took him several years to finally sell the idea; The Samuel Goldwyn Company finally picked it up, but decided it worked better in TV series form.
  • MGM has announced twice in the 2010s another revival, including one backed by Seth Rogen, of all people, but neither seems to have gained any traction.
• Follow the Leader: Being the only survivor of a few "sports entertainment" shows that entered syndication in 1989, AG's wild success prompted a few knockoffs. One of these knockoffs, Wild West Showdown, was actually from the AG producers (Four Point Entertainment and The Samuel Goldwyn Company), and even had a former AG contender as one of the "outlaws".
  • A later knockoff, BattleDome, came after AG itself ended, and attempted to mix pro wrestling storylines and backstage drama (including a crossover "feud" with WCW; it's mostly remembered these days for one of the "warriors" being a pre-Old Spice Terry Crews).
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: Some episodes are missing and aren't in any rerun rotation. Among them are Mark Ortega's preliminary round in Season 3, a missing preliminary round with Annette McBride in Season 4, and a missing preliminary round in Season 6. The first International Challenge of Champions Special from Season 4, notable for being eleven-time champion Peggy Odita's first appearance, has not been rerun since USA Network. There could be others, but these ones are definitely missing.
• The Merch: Mattel had a short-lived line of AG action figures and playsets from 1991-92.
• The Other Darrin: Lace was changed from Marisa Pare to Natalie Lennox in the fourth season.
• The Pete Best: As mentioned above, Malibu and Sunny (who only appeared in the first 13 episodes) are generally not remembered as Gladiators. This might have happened to Zap as well, but she returned later in the run. Malibu would do tours on the live version as well.
• Recursive Import: Exported to the UK; many of the UK trappings, including some events not done in the American series, came to the NBC revival.
  • One could argue the importing began earlier. The season 5 retool seemed to be aimed at making the show a bit closer to the British version: a new star-shaped "AG" symbol that resembled the British "G" logo (further modified in season 7), the replacement of Larry Czonka with Lisa Malosky, who rarely commentated on the events and served more as a sideline reporter (a la the John Fashanu/Ulrikka Johnson pairing), and an overall "futuristic" theme being applied to props and whatnot. They also adopted part of the British Eliminator, mostly in moving the reverse treadmill to the end of the course, followed by a rope swing into a paper barrier.
• Troubled Production: The pilot was a nightmare to shoot, with the equestrian center they used for a taping location being filled with horse manure. The Gladiators themselves considered the events ridiculous, and Samuel Goldwyn Jr. ended up not liking most of it, having trimmed it down to a seven-minute pitch tape. As the show progressed, the Gladiators' injuries began to stack up, and turned to painkillers to keep going (even as new Gladiators were recruited to help).
• What Could Have Been: The first half of the first season said that the winner of the championship would become a Gladiator, but after the retool midway through, this idea was abandoned. Season 1 first-half champion Brian Hutson said that the producers realized that neither he nor women's champion Tracy Phillips had the build to be gladiators, which was why the idea was scrapped. Hutson also wasn't available anyway, as he had signed to play with the NFL's New England Patriots.
  • A third International Gladiators event was planned for 1996, but thanks to LWT (producer of the British Gladiators) refusing to finance another event (it was rather costly) and Australia's Gladiators being itself cancelled (they were supposed to be taping it there) and no other country wanting to host it, it was scrapped. In addition to the usual suspects (US, UK, Australia, Russia and Germany), New Zealand, South Korea, Japan, South Africa and a joint Scandinavian team consisting of Sweden, Finland and Norway were interested in competing.
  • To go along with the 2008 revival, an animated series based on the show was in development, but it never apparently progressed past that announcement.
• Season 4 champion Cheryl Wilson was later murdered by her jealous ex-husband. A contestant on the British version was also killed, in his case while trying to stop a robbery.
• The US revival had a bit of controversy when one of its male gladiators, Militia, was discovered to be a porn star.
• The Finnish version, Gladiaattorit also was hit by controvercy some time after broadcast, as one of the female Gladiators, "Timantti" became involved in two murders, and one male Gladiator "Viikinki" became a controvercial far right member of parliament, and later died by suicide using an illegal firearm.

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