[American Gladiators Movie Download Hd
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American Gladiators[3] 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. Following the success of American Gladiators, other countries began to produce their own versions of the show.
The concept was originally created in 1982 by Johnny C. Ferraro and Dann Carr. Carr gathered the Gladiators and hosted the show, and Ferraro financed and produced the original competition at Erie Tech High School in Erie, Pennsylvania so Ferraro could have the event on film so as to shop the new creation. In 1983 Ferraro financed, developed and packaged the American Gladiators as a movie project. In 1984 Carr sold his interest in a literary purchase to Flor-Jon Films. Ferraro had been the main driving force behind the American Gladiators brand since 1982. In 1987, Flor-Jon Films then licensed the unscripted rights to The Samuel Goldwyn Company (now part of MGM). Ferraro is the sole creator of the 1994 kids' version of the series, Gladiators 2000 (a.k.a. G2).
Flor-Jon Films, Inc and the Samuel Goldwyn Co in 1993 granted a license to Chariot Entertainment in an effort to launch a live American Gladiators show on the Las Vegas Strip, but the president of Chariot became mired in a securities fraud prosecution, through no fault of Flor-Jon Films or The Samuel Goldwyn Co, and the live show went unrealized.[4]
In July 2014, a revival of American Gladiators was planned in the works by A. Smith & Co. Productions[5][6] where it would have incorporated elements that were inspired by the popular film franchise The Hunger Games along with mixed martial arts.
In September 2021, it was reported that MGM Television has teamed up with WWE (formerly WWF) for a reboot of American Gladiators that will feature WWE wrestlers. The project is currently being pitched to broadcasters and streaming platforms.[9]
American Gladiators featured four competitors, two men and two women, in most episodes. The players, referred to throughout the series as "contenders", faced off in a series of physical games against each other and against a cast of costumed athletes looking to prevent them from succeeding (the titular "Gladiators").[13] Each match saw the competitors trying to advance in a tournament, with one man and one woman crowned champion at its conclusion.
When the series premiered in the fall of 1989, ten men and ten women were selected to participate with several more chosen to be alternates in case one or more of the contenders had to withdraw due to injury.
The tournament was spread out over the course of twelve episodes. The first five episodes comprised the preliminary round of play. Eight contenders would advance from this round to play in the quarterfinals. The five winners from each side would automatically advance, as would the three highest scoring contenders that had not won.
Once the quarterfinal brackets were set, the tournament became single-elimination. Any alternates from here on in would come from the pool of defeated contenders, if they were necessary. The winners of the four quarterfinal matchups were guaranteed a prize, which increased based on how far they advanced. A contender eliminated in the semifinals went home with $2,500. The winner of the final match won $10,000, while the runner-up received $5,000.
Initially, the idea for American Gladiators was for the championship winning contenders to become part of the cast of Gladiators for subsequent competitions, a concept that was later adopted for the 2008 sequel series. However, due to the popularity of the initial series of episodes, that idea was done away with. Instead, a second tournament began in early 1990 with a new set of twenty men and women. The two winning contenders from that tournament would then face off with the winners of the initial 1989 tournament in what became known as the Grand Championship, with the winners becoming the overall champions for the season and receiving an additional cash prize as well as a new car.
Six preliminary round matchups were played in each half, with the six winners on each side advancing to the quarterfinals. The winners of the three quarterfinal matchups automatically advanced to the semifinals, with the highest scoring contender that did not win their match receiving a wildcard spot. The tournament then continued as before, with the winners of the semifinals facing off to see who would earn a Grand Championship berth.
For the first time, there were no wildcard spots used in the tournament. Instead, the preliminary round was used for the purposes of seeding, as all eight of the competitors on each side were guaranteed a spot in the quarterfinals, known in this season as the elimination round. After the preliminaries, the contenders were seeded 1-8 based on their performance. The tournament then proceeded as normal.
Each contender was now competing to not only win their match, but to also be one of the four contenders after all of the matches had been conducted with the highest score. Winning a match earned a contender $2,500. The four highest scoring winners advanced to the semifinals, where a win was worth another $7,500 and a berth in the Grand Championship.
In season six, the Grand Championship winners would each receive an additional $15,000 on top of what they had already won, making their total cash prize out to $25,000. Season seven's winners were given an additional $10,000, with their total cash winnings amounting to $20,000. That season's Grand Champions were also given berths as the United States representatives in the second International Gladiators competition, held at the site of the British series in Birmingham, England.
During the first half of the first season, the show's set resembled that of an ancient Roman gladiatorial arena, with the stands raised high above the ground. For the second half, the show's set was changed into a modern indoor sports arena style. An onscreen clock was added in the second half of the season, which allowed viewers to see how much time a contender had left to complete an event.
The hooded figures that officiated the games were replaced by veteran NFL referee Bob McElwee (No. 95). Starting in Season 2, former Pacific-10 football referee Larry Thompson became the referee. In case of ruling explanations, a host would interview the referee for an explanation.
In each episode, the contenders competed in a series of events.[14] Six to eight events were played per show, varying from season to season. Most of the events tested the contenders' physical abilities against the superior size and strength of the Gladiators, who were mostly pro or amateur bodybuilders and former football players. In most events, the contenders were not directly pitted against each other, but against the Gladiators. In each event, the contenders earned points based on their performance. In the first half of season one, the points in each event were given in minimum 5-point increments, with 100 points usually the maximum in every event. After the first half of the first season, single point increments were used.
Some events had objectives where each contender had to perform a certain task against the Gladiator, while the Gladiator was trying to do the same thing to them (such as attempting to knock each other off the platforms in Joust). In these types of events, where a clear winner could emerge, contenders were usually awarded ten points for defeating the Gladiator and five points if the event was a draw. No points were awarded to the contender if the Gladiator won.
Other events had no maximum score, with the objective being to perform a task as many times as possible (such as scoring goals in Powerball) within the set time limit for the event. Points in this case would be awarded based on how many times the contender accomplished the objective during the event.
Season six used a format in which events were referred to as "rounds" due to more than one game played per round. Three games per show were played by both males and females and three were split between the males and females, two each in a round. In split rounds the men went first. Including the Eliminator, ten events appeared in each episode, and the lineup of single and split rounds changed during the season. The sole exception to this format was in the semi-finals and grand championship, in which each round was a single event.
The Eliminator was the final event played in each episode, and determined which contender would win that day's competition. The contenders competed side-by-side to complete a large obstacle course as quickly as they could. In the first two seasons, the Eliminator had a time limit, and both contenders started the course at the same time. Contenders scored points for every second left on the clock when they finished the course; the contender with the highest final score won the day's competition. Beginning in season 3, the contender in the lead was given a head start with each point they led by worth a half-second; the first contender to cross the finish line won.
Of the events that debuted in the show's first season, only six lasted the entire original run on American television: Breakthrough and Conquer, The Wall, Joust, Assault, Powerball, and the Eliminator, although The Wall did not debut until the second half of the first season.
Throughout the series, American Gladiators had several regular segments that were not related to the competition of the day. These segments were used to allow the audience to get to know the Gladiators or to highlight some of the best moments of past competitions.
The show was taped at Universal Studios Hollywood until 1991, then moved to Gladiator Arena (Studio 3) at CBS Studio Center in Studio City for the rest of its initial run. The National Indoor Arena, home to the UK version, hosted the International Gladiators competitions.
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