American Gladiators: la storia non autorizzata

Watching this documentary reminds me of the time when I showed my kids an episode of He-Man. And the cartoon looked so old. I was never very into the American Gladiators program, but I remember watching it from time to time and thinking that it looked very good. I mean aesthetically it looked very good. But clearly I was mistaken. It does not look good at all. About the actual events of the story, I'm struck by a few different thoughts. The first is that it was really strange how concerned the production was that their athletes might have been using steroids, when they did not care at all about basic safety procedures to protect their athletes. And the other thing is that the show was only on for seven seasons, but it could have kept going if the company had wanted to keep investing in its development. They had a chance to create a new sport entirely. It seems like they were only interested in squeezing out as much money out of the idea as possible in the quickest amount of time. So it's kind of strange how they sacrificed a lot of potential money for a little bit of real money. As for the athletes themselves, only a few seem to be sympathetic characters, but that doesn't mean that they deserved to be exploited and after watching this series that's exactly what seems to have happened. So if you watched the show when you were younger, or you want to have free good explanation of a pop culture phenomenon from 30 years ago, it's a good watch.

This is worth watching just from the 90's nostalgia as theres lots of clips of commercials back then and it really brings you back into that time. As a kid who watched this show I think on re-runs in the mid to late 90's on saturday mornings...I loved the nostalgia. But even better is getting to know who the characters were behind the camera which was probably the most interesting thing about it. It also shows you how the show was made and all the funny stories that go into that, as well as the drama that happened as well. Excellent doc, and the pacing is extremely good and keeps you watching.

As "Muscles & Mayhem: An Unauthorized Story of American Gladiators" (2023 release; 5 episodes ranging from 36 to 46 min each) opens, we are reminded that American Gladiators ran from 1989 to 1996, and that it was a different world then (no smart phones; no streaming, etc.). We then go to "1987" as Johnny Ferraro comes up with the idea, but the transition from idea to actual TV show is easier said than done, as the pilot show is borderline disastrous... At this point we are 10 minutes into Episode 1.

Couple of comments: the mini-series comes on the heels of ESPN's The American Gladiators Documentary. "Muscles & Mayhem" is co-directed by Tony Vainuku (Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn't Exist) and Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite). Here they reassess the TV ratings success that was American Gladiators. Not that the early years made it inevitable. In fact, American Gladiators was an "overnight success 4 years in the making" (my own words). The film makers were able to get a lot of the gladiators to participate including Nitro, Blaze, Gemini, Laser, etc. Ample attention is given to the many injuries the gladiators kept incurring. And then there are the steroids. And let's certainly not forget the mayhem that was the American Gladiators live tour in 1991-92. As American Gladiators was filmed in Los Angeles, we get a lot of footage from the late 80-early 90s and I could not believe how sleepy and unbusy the city looked in those days (30+ years ago). Bottom line: the episodes are quite short and it all breezes by quickly. This mini-series was entertaining for sure, but it really doesn't bother to dig to deep. So with this mini-series and the recent ESPN documentary, I>'m still not sure that we've heard the definitive American Gladiators account.

"Muscles & Mayhem" premiered on Netflix last week. I just caught up on it. If you were a fan of American Gladiators, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

I was never a fan of Gladiators in the UK let alone American Gladiators which was the original show that went on to spawn the international versions.

Therefore my decision to watch Netflix's mini-series Muscles & Mayhem was a highly speculative one.

Having now watched all five episodes I am glad that I did watch, I found this to be a genuinely interesting, entertaining if "unauthorised" take on the once hit series.

I will take most of what I heard as gospel as it came from the mouths of the major gladiators themselves, and as they were there, they sure ought to know what went on!

Perhaps rather surprisingly I warmed to the featured gladiators almost without exception and felt genuinely sorry that they did not share in the vast revenues that were generated.

Goes to show how important either having a good contract or a better agent is when it comes to this business called show.

Their sacking from the show no doubt precipitated the show's demise and can be seen in retrospect as the beginning of the end.

Nonetheless, it was a show that went on to "inspire" many other shows that followed in its wake.

I would recommend this series without hesitation.

Amazing flow and depiction of what really went on behind the scenes of one of my favorite shows growing up. Powerful, honest and authentic. Really connects toll you to the real people who played the larger than life characters that played your favorite gladiators. Netflix really hir it out of the park with this one for sure. I highly recommend this to anyone who is looking for a good documentary to watch on Netflix. I can't say enough good things about it. I binge watched the entire series in one day. Very easy to get deeply involved with the content. I'm going to watch the whole thing again at some point because it was so good.