American Gladiators (1989 TV series)

Did You Know?

• In Japan, the series aired under the title Clash! American Muscle Battle on TV Tokyo from October 16, 1992, to March 1993.
• The kids' version Gladiators 2000 (also known as G2) was hosted by Ryan Seacrest and Maria Sansone (later Valerie Rae Miller) and aired from September 9, 1994, until May 5, 1996.
• Superstar American Gladiators, a one-off celebrity special, aired on ABC on May 4, 1995, with teams from ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX competing for $15,000 and the Superstar Gladiator Trophy.

Background and history

The American Gladiators concept began in 1982, created by Johnny C. Ferraro and Dann Carr. Carr recruited the Gladiators and served as host, while Ferraro funded and produced the first competition at Erie Tech High School in Erie, Pennsylvania, filming it to pitch the idea. In 1983, Ferraro financed, developed, and packaged the project as a movie. Carr sold his interest in a literary purchase to Flor-Jon Films in 1984. Ferraro remained the primary force behind the brand from its start. Flor-Jon Films licensed the unscripted rights to The Samuel Goldwyn Company in 1987. Ferraro alone created the 1994 children's spin-off, Gladiators 2000. A one-off celebrity special, Superstar American Gladiators, aired on ABC on May 4, 1995. In 1993, Flor-Jon Films and Samuel Goldwyn licensed a live Las Vegas Strip show to Chariot Entertainment, but the company's president became entangled in a securities fraud prosecution, and the show never materialized. During the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike, MGM Television sold a prime-time revival to NBC, which ran for two seasons. In July 2014, American Ninja Warrior producer Arthur Smith pitched a darker, post-apocalyptic reboot to MGM. In August 2018, MGM pitched another revival with executive producers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, which did not air. In September 2021, MGM partnered with WWE on a potential revival featuring WWE talent.

Competition

Most episodes featured four competitors, two men and two women, called contenders, who faced off in physical games against each other and against the costumed Gladiators. Each match saw contenders trying to advance in a tournament, with one man and one woman crowned champion. When the series premiered in fall 1989, ten men and ten women were selected, with several alternates. The tournament spanned twelve episodes: the first five were preliminary rounds, with winners advancing to the quarterfinals; the three highest-scoring runners-up received wild card berths. From the quarterfinals onward, the tournament became single-elimination. Any contender advancing beyond the quarterfinals received a prize: semifinalists got at least $2,500, finalists at least $5,000, and winners $10,000. Originally, winners were to become Gladiators themselves, but producers decided against it because male winner Brian Hutson and female winner Tracy Phillips were undersized compared to the Gladiators. A second tournament began in early 1990 with twenty new contenders; its winners faced Hutson and Phillips in a Grand Championship to determine the overall season champion.

Production

The series featured several recurring non-competition segments. In season three, Gladiator Moments let the athletes discuss their favorite memories from earlier seasons. Ask a Gladiator, which ran for seasons three and four, had viewers submit questions to their preferred competitors. Season four introduced Csonka's Zonks, a collection of the show's most humorous clips, often featuring hard hits and falls. For seasons five and six, 30 Seconds With first had Gladiators complete fill-in-the-blank prompts, then shifted to them speaking freely on a given subject. Production originally took place at Universal Studios Hollywood, moving to CBS Studio Center's Gladiator Arena in Studio City after 1991. The UK version's home, the National Indoor Arena, was used for International Gladiators events. Trans World International and Four Point Entertainment co-produced the series, with Samuel Goldwyn Television handling distribution. Fran Tarkenton and Tim Wrightman hosted the pilot. The first 13 episodes were taped over two weeks in mid-1989, with the rest of season one shot in January 1990. Season two's entire 26 episodes were completed in five weeks during summer 1990. An early plan to make winning contenders into new Gladiators was dropped, replaced by two separate competitions per season leading to an overall champion.

Other ventures

In 2008, MGM, Reveille and Flor-Jon Films revealed a special American Gladiators U.S. cross-country tour. MGM and Johnny Ferraro developed a cartoon series based on the show that never aired. In 2009, Ferraro pursued a live-action movie, with former Legendary Pictures chief marketing officer Scott Mednick producing. USA Network acquired 104 episodes for reruns, airing them daily from 1992 through at least 1996. Spike TV purchased a rerun package in 2002, airing episodes until 2003, with rights to seasons two through four, special episodes from seasons five and six, season seven, and both editions of International Gladiators. In 2007, ESPN added the entire original series to ESPN Classic, briefly pulling it after the 2008 revival but returning it, then permanently removing it in 2009. In 2017, reruns returned on Sinclair Broadcast Group's Charge! network, alongside edited UK Gladiators episodes, but both were off the schedule by 2020. As of April 2018, SI TV added the original series to its premium channel on Amazon Prime.