American Gladiator
| American Gladiators | |
|---|---|
The first American Gladiators logo, from 1989–1993.
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| Genre | Sports/Game Show |
| Created by | Dan Carr John Ferraro |
| Directed by | Bob Levy |
| Presented by |
Mike Adamle (1989–1996) with Joe Theismann (1989) Todd Christensen (1990) Larry Csonka (1990–1993) Lisa Malosky (1993–1995) Danny Lee Clark (1995–1996) |
| Narrated by | Joe Theismann (1989) John Harlan (1990–1993) |
| Theme music composer | Bill Conti |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of seasons | 7 |
| No. of episodes | 139 |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) |
Trans World International (1989–1992) Four Point Entertainment (1989–1996) Samuel Goldwyn Television (1989–1996) |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | 60 minutes |
| Distributor | MGM Worldwide Television |
| Release | |
| Original network | Syndication |
| Picture format | 480i (SDTV) |
| Audio format | Stereo |
| Original release | September 9, 1989 – May 11, 1996 |
| Chronology | |
| Followed by | American Gladiators (2008) |
| Related shows | Battle Dome, Hip Show |
| American Gladiators: The Music | |
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| Soundtrack album by Dan Milner, Bill Conti | |
| Released | March 3, 1993 |
| Length | 38:19 |
| Label | Sandstone Music |
American Gladiators is an American competition television program that aired weekly in syndication from September 1989 to May 1996. The series matched a cast of amateur athletes against each other, as well as against the show's own gladiators, in contests of strength and agility.
The concept was created by Dan Carr and John C. Ferraro, who held the original competition at Erie Tech High School in Erie, Pennsylvania. They sold the show to The Samuel Goldwyn Company (later MGM) where the concept was enhanced and became American Gladiators.
An effort in 2004 to launch a live American Gladiators show on the Las Vegas Strip became mired in a securities fraud prosecution. However, the television series was restarted in 2008. Episodes from the original series were played on ESPN Classic from 2007 to 2009. Several episodes are available for download on Apple's iTunes Service.
American Gladiators featured four competitors, two men and two women, in most episodes. The players went through a series of seven physical challenges with the goal to eventually become the season's overall winner, referred to as the Grand Champion. This was determined by a season-long tournament.
In the first two seasons, two tournaments were held in each season. Twenty contenders (ten of each sex) in each half-season tournament were chosen from a nationwide contestant pool based on tests of strength and agility, with several alternates chosen in case a contender could not continue due to injury. Five preliminary round matchups were played with the winners automatically advancing to the quarterfinal round, along with the three highest scoring losers. Any alternates from that point on came from the previous round's losers.
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