The show first of all gave a good sense of the late 80's early 90's things WERE different then. Schrezegger and Stallone ruled at the movies American pride and nationalism were high so this was the right show at the right time. Now its interesting because it really foretold all the competition reality shows we have now days. They dont gloss over the sterorid abuse but at that time it wasn't the same issue as it would be today. Steroids were not well known outside of high end competitive athletes and rules were just starting to go into place mainly due to what was happening with baseball at the time. The big lesson here and you can see it when they interview the producers is hollywood will squeeze and squeeze and then blame it all on the people that had no control. Im betting those producers just moved on the athletes didn't And I remember this show very much they started out when I was in College and the whole football team would get together with woman from Track, basketball and swimming to watch in one of the big training rooms. We loved it. But when they fired everyone (which I just found out is what happened) most lost interest because it was about the gladiators they had been set up like pro wrestlers so they had a certain character and personality and when they dumped those people everyone lost interest. They absolutely if done right could still be going to today. Sam Goldwin Jr. Seems to be the biggest villian in this story for not giving them better money and part of the merchandising and he basically ran over the goose who laid the golden egg.