History Series / AmericanGladiators

** Joe Theismann was co-host. (It's said that the first 13 have never been released on DVD at the behest of Theismann.

* UselessCombatRoll: Happened a few times in Assault.

* EpicFail: The Wall had a habit of making this happen, as a few contenders were pull down by the Gladiators who just simply had to reach over from where they were standing. And on at least one occasion, a contender fell before their head start had ended.

* Chekhov'sGunman: Several times Todd Christensen compared a contender to Larry Csonka whenever they bull rushed the Gladiator in the Breakthrough portion of Breakthrough and Conquer. The next year he would be replaced by the aforementioned Csonka.

* Chekov'sGunman: Several times Todd Christensen compared a contender to Larry Csonka whenever they bull rushed the Gladiator in the Breakthrough portion of Breakthrough and Conquer. The next year he would be replaced by the aforementioned Csonka.

* 80'sHair: Perms and mullets abounded in the early seasons.

** Joe Theismann was co-host. (It's said that the first 13 have never been released on DVD at the behest of Theismann. The recap show is quite enough.)

** Joe Theismann was co-host. (It's said that the first 13 have never been released on DVD at the behest of Theismann.)

* SpinOff: ''Gladiators [[Trope2000 2000]]'', a kids' version with two pairs of contestants and Gladiators as coaches. It tried to be educational by shoehorning puzzles and questions related to health and wellness into the games (i.e. the Pyramid became the Food Pyramid by adding oversized food for players to collect, Snapback required placing bones on a diagram of the human body, and the Eliminator incorporated questions into its obstacles for bonus points). MGM put said spin-off back into syndication in 2008 to tie in with the NBC revival.

* SpinOff: ''Gladiators [[Trope 2000 2000]]'', a kids' version where two pairs with Gladiators as coaches. It tried to be educational by shoehorning puzzles and questions related to health and wellness into the games (i.e. the Pyramid became the Food Pyramid by adding oversized food for players to collect, Snapback required placing bones on a diagram of the human body, and the Eliminator incorporated questions into its obstacles for bonus points). MGM put said spin-off back into syndication in 2008 to tie in with the NBC revival.

* ForeignRemake: The [[Series/{{Gladiators}} British]] version (and other European versions) took the format UpToEleven by transforming it into a big-budget, primetime spectacle, which quickly made the U.S. version look tame in comparison! The American audience did get exposed to the British style during the international tournaments, and the NBC revival was based more off the European style too.

Creator/{{NBC}} revived the series in 2008 with a considerably bigger budget (and none other than HulkHogan as emcee), but essentially the same format and most of the same games.

* '''Joust''': Contenders fight Gladiators with military pugil sticks on a raised platform. This type of contest is still very popular at UK {{Fete}}s.

** Joe Theismann was co-host. (It's said that the first 13 have [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes never been released on DVD]] [[OldShame at the behest of Theismann]].)

** The scoring system was on a larger scale. A perfect score in Joust, Breakthrough & Conquer, Human Cannonball, and Assault was 100 points. In future seasons, a perfect score in each of those events was 10.

** Assault [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEDXDw1L3KI looked like a World War II set]], with prop grenades that exploded in glitter instead of tennis balls; the Gladiators also wore sunglasses during this event.

* UnnecessaryRoughness: There were a few instances of the Gladiators and contestants mixing it up in the heat of competition. Once, Turbo actually '''punched''' a contestant during Swingshot.

There was a UK version called simply ''{{Gladiators}}'' (which also got a short-lived revival) as well as Russian and South African versions and the occasional international crossover.

* ForeignRemake: The [[{{Gladiators}} British]] version (and other European versions) took the format UpToEleven by transforming it into a big-budget, primetime spectacle, which quickly made the U.S. version look tame in comparison! The American audience did get exposed to the British style during the international tournaments, and the NBC revival was based more off the European style too.

* AdaptationExpansion: Like its [[{{Gladiators}} British counterpart]], this version plays out less like a small sporting event and more like a pro-wrestling event, complete with {{Kayfabe}} Gladiator personalities.

Originally the Gladiators were to be larger than life characters with fake backstories, but this was dropped from the original pilot and instead they were portrayed as normal ex-jocks with fancy names like Ice, Turbo, Nitro, Sabre, Hawk, Tower, etc. The popularity of the Gladiators helped keep the show going, even as Gladiators themselves left the show with a great deal of regularity over the course of the first couple of seasons. The most popular include Lori Fetrick (Ice) and Lee Reherman (Hawk), the later of which went onto the most successful career of the Gladiators after the show was cancelled. Also of note was contender Rico Constantino, who would later have a short stint in the Wrestling/{{WWE}} as...[[TheDanza Rico]].

* BrawnHilda: Hellga

* TheOtherDarrin: Lace was changed from Marisa Pare to Natalie Lennox in the fourth season.