RollerJam

RollerJam is an American television series featuring roller derby that aired on The Nashville Network (TNN, now Spike) from 1999 to 2000. It was the first attempt to bring roller derby to TV since RollerGames.

RollerJam was derived from the original roller derby, but newer skaters used inline skates to modernize the sport (several skaters, mostly older ones, used the traditional quad skates). The program was taped at Universal Studios Stage 21 in Orlando, Florida, known as RollerJam Arena and now the Impact Wrestling Zone, for the first and second seasons (1999 and 2000) and the former American Gladiators arena in the show's final season. The first few weeks of the show's second season, which ran from August to October 1999, were taped at the MGM Grand Las Vegas.

RollerJam was the brainchild of Knoxville, Tennessee-based television impresarios Ross K. Bagwell, Sr. and Stephen Land. Land, a fan of roller derby in boyhood, was inspired to bring the sport back to television by an obituary for roller derby legend Joan Weston that he had read in the New York Times in May 1997, and shared his idea with Bagwell, his mentor, who gave him a positive response. Between January 1999 and January 2001, Bagwell and Land, under the name Pageboy Entertainment, collaborated with CBS to stage this new televised revival of roller derby.

In May 1998, Bagwell and Land pitched their idea to The Nashville Network (TNN). The network agreed to air the show but wanted it ready by the new year, forcing Bagwell and Land to create a league, recruit skaters, build a track, design logos and uniforms, hire a television crew, and record the program all in a span of about seven months. In an attempt to build continuity between RollerJam and previous roller derby incarnations, Bagwell and Land hired Jerry Seltzer, the son of roller derby creator Leo Seltzer, to be commissioner of their new league. The first episode of the show was taped in November 1998, a week after Thanksgiving.

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