TV

by Daniel McQuade

American Gladiators

Effort contestants on the new American Gladiators said they’d give: 100 percent, 110 percent, 200 percent. Animals they compared themselves to: mongoose, spider monkey. Number of times points became larger, as in “she denied Christie five big points”: six.

Along with the Spice Girls reunion, NBC’s revival of this Saturday-morning show popular in the early 1990s can be viewed as another attempt at instant ’90s nostalgia. But viewing American Gladiators as a parody of over-the-top American sports coverage makes an already fun show even better.

The show is fairly similar to the original. There’s no Atlasphere—where contestants roll around in giant metal balls—but almost every other major former event is reincarnated. And the final event is still the Eliminator, with contestants going through an obstacle course involving a pool of fire, a 30-foot cargo net and a conveyor belt.

In some ways, the new American Gladiators is simply preparing us for the Olympics this summer, also on NBC. Every contestant has a back-story: The New York firefighter, the ex-Marine, the guy who waited 13 years to try out, the woman doing it for her kids. Host Hulk Hogan is so committed to these pointless back-stories he ends up asking questions that all begin like, “Chad, you’re a skateboarder from California ... ”

Hogan gets most of the show’s best lines, talking like he’s doing an interview in a wrestling ring. “I can see the eye of the tiger,” he tells one contestant, “and I can tell you got a big heart.” Every performance in every event is the best thing Hulk Hogan has ever seen.

As an average game show American Gladiators is a solid addition to the Monday-night lineup. But viewed as a parody of American sports—it’s even on right before the American game show parody Howie Mandel Opens Briefcases for One Hour—it becomes a must-watch.