American Gladiators: Difference between revisions

''Three, two, one...'' }}

* '''Earthquake''': A game introduced in the revival series, where the contender wrestles a gladiator atop a raised, free-swinging platform, the goal being to throw one's opponent off the side. (Thinkthink Flash's duel with Barin in the ''[[Flash Gordon (film)|Flash Gordon]]'' movie, but without the spikes.).

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 [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]] as...[[The Danza|Rico]].

* [[Bonus Round]]: ''Technically'' the Eliminator.

* [[Golden Snitch]]: In the most well-known version, the points from the first six games were converted to half-seconds of head-start time in the Eliminator. And yes, large deficits ''have'' been overcome.

* Personnel:

** [[The Announcer]]: John Harlan did normal announcing duties during the first years of the original run. Van Earl Wright did play-by-play in the revival.

** [[Game Show Host]]: Mike Adamle hosted for the entire run, with Joe Theismann for the first 13 weeks. Theismann was replaced by Todd Christensen for the remainder of that season followed by Larry Csonka from 1990-93, Lisa Malosky from 1993-95, and Danny Lee Clark for the final season (1995-96). Hulk Hogan and Laila Ali hosted the NBC revival.

** [[Studio Audience]]

* [[Amazonian Beauty]]: Most of the [[Action Girl|female gladiators]] are pretty ripped and their [[Leotard of Power|clothing did]] [[Stripperiffic|very little]] [[Bare Your Midriff|to hide that.]]

* [[American Title]]

* [[Early Installment Weirdness]]: The first 13 episodes had a ''lot'' of differences.

** Instead of a referee, there was a guy dressed like a Medieval executioner who would use a thumbs-up or thumbs-down to judge rule infractions.

** The Powerball arena was just a semicircle.

** The first two swings of Cannonball were not shown, and contestants were allowed to kick the Gladiators. (Thethe only event, it was pointed out, where the contender had the advantage, as a result.).

** Assault looked like a World War II set, with prop grenades instead of tennis balls; the Gladiators also wore sunglasses during this event.

** Joust had a balance beam instead of a platform, and the pugil sticks looked like giant Q-tips.

** Instead of running the same event for the men and women twice in a row, it was just randomly thrown together; Swingshot was for the women only and never televised.

** The contestants looked like they dressed themselves, while Mike Adamle wore a sweat suit instead of a business suit.

** Joe Theismann was co-host. (Itit's said that the first 13 have [[Keep Circulating the Tapes|never been released on DVD]] [[Old Shame|at the behest of Theismann]].).

* [[Foreign Remake]]: The [[Gladiators|British]] and European versions amped-up the format into a primetimeprime-time spectacle way beyond the cheaper-looking style the American version used. The American audience did get a chance to see the British version during the international tournaments, and the NBC revival seemed to be based more off the European versions by default.

* [[Meaningful Name]]: The first Lace wore lace stockings.

* [[Rugby Is Slaughter|Powerball Is Slaughter]]: The male Gladiators tended to treat personal fouls as a [[Unnecessary Roughness|job well done]].