Back in the day, here in the Los Angeles area, all the game shows I remember watching as a kid, like The Joker's Wild, Bullseye, The $100,000 Pyramid and Bullseye were on independent station KHJ-TV, owned up until the 1990's by RKO, the company who originally released all of Walt Disney's short cartoons in the 1930's and 40's, and AFI's #1 American movie of all time, Citizen Kane.

Simmer down, will ya? It has to do with the fact that in 1989 (a year before the Walt Disney Company took over the station and renamed it California-9, KCAL-TV), it became the Los Angeles home of American Gladiators. While traditional sports (and non-sporting exhibitions of athleticism like wrestling) had been on television since its inception, Gladiators was the first of a new genre of television: the athletic competition show.

Most game show fans debate to this day over whether or not Gladiators is an actual game show (the legendary Encyclopedia of Television Game Shows seems to insist that it is, based on the show's presence within), but that issue is not one we will tackle here. Frankly, that's for you to decide.

As you wish:

The Format: The series is basically a poor-man's Olympics, mixed with small-but-tasty doses of pro wrestling; unlike wresting, it should be noted, Gladiators was an actual unrigged competition. During each one-hour series, two pairs of contestants called "contenders," consisting of two men and two women, faced off with one another (the men competed against one another, the women did likewise). The contenders played a series of athletic games called events, in which they would score points. At the end of the six events, the contenders ran a final obstacle course, called "The Eliminator." In the first two seasons, the Eliminator scored additional points for finishing quickly; the highest score won. Afterward, the scores determined a head start for the contender in the lead; whoever finished the course first won. The series used a tournament format; the winners of each week's competition moved on to the next round. Each season had two "halves;" a male winner and a female winner would be chosen for each half, and the winners from both halves would challenge each other to become the grand champion of the season. Cash and prizes (including a new automobile) were awarded to the winner, but truth be told, it was (surprisingly enough) played more for bragging rights than anything else; the cash and goodies were really just fringe benefits on this show.

The Gladiators' job was to stop the contenders from finishing the task at hand in each game. In some events, the contenders competed directly against one Gladiator (examples: "The Joust," one of the more well-known games, where the contender tried to knock a Gladiator off an adjacent pedestal using a pugel stick; "Hang Tough," where the contender tried to traverse a large grid of gymnastics rings without being pulled off by the Gladiators). In others, one or more Gladiators simply tried to block the contenders' progress (example: the show's most popular game, the rugby/Ultimate Frisbee hybrid "Powerball."). Other than that, they basically ran smack and looked cool.

Now that we've talked about the basic format, I can start where I usually do…

The Host: Originally when the show started, ex-quarterback Joe Theismann was the series host. However, halfway through the first season, they realized that he wasn't all that great, and gave his job to his sidekick. It was that gentleman, Mike Adamle, who proved to be the better broadcaster, served as the host for most of the series, until the last season, when one of the Gladiators, Nitro, took over. (No he didn't. Adamle stuck around for the length of the series. My error.) When Theismann left, another footballer, Todd Christensen, took over as Adamle's sidekick. However, at the start of the second season, Larry Csonka, yet another footballer, became the show's colorman. It was the duo of Adamle and Csonka that helped to give the series a professional edge, as the pair had great chemistry. At the start of the fifth season, sports reporter Lisa Malonsky got Csonka's spot, but unfortunately, while Malonsky was smart and professional, this new pairing lacked the chemistry and camaraderie that Adamle and Csonka had together.

The Announcer: Until the last season, veteran game show announcer John Harlan served as the show's introductory voice. Harlan is also known as the announcer for the ABC version of Password, The $100,000 Name That Tune, and a few others.

The Gladiators Themselves: Most of the show's Gladiators were professional bodybuilders, footballers, and assorted professional athletes. While the male Gladiators were monster-sized, they were still quite intelligent, likable and even personable. Likewise, the females were fit and muscular but most were actually quite pretty, even photogenic. One might even go as far as to say that they were the prototype for Joanie "Chyna" Laurer, although it is unknown if Laurer ever watched this show. Heck, two of the female Gladiators, Zap and Lace, even posed for Playboy magazine, much as Laurer did later.

When the series started, there were three Gladiators of each gender: the men had Michael "Gemini" Horton, who served as the Gladiators' de facto leader until his departure in 1992; Dan Clark, aka "Nitro," a laid-back fellow who was one of the series most popular Gladiators; and Deron "Malibu" McBee. The ladies had blonde bombshell (in more ways than one) Raye "Zap" Hollitt, exhibitionistic Marisa "Lace" Pare, and Cheryl "Sunny" Baldinger. At the halfway mark, Malibu was replaced by David "Titan" Nelson and a Howie Long-lookalike-and-actalike by the name of Jim "Laser" Starr. Laser hung around until the end of the series. Sunny was replaced by bodybuilder Tonya "Gold" Knight and former track star Sha-ri "Blaze" Pendleton.

At the start of the second season, Titan was replaced by likable knucklehead (and blonde-haired monster) Billy "Thunder" Smith, and the intense Galen "Turbo" Tomlinson. Zap took a one-year leave of absence and the lusty, busty Erika "Diamond" Andersch and the near-invincible Lori "Ice" Fetrick debuted; Ice and Diamond were two of the show's most popular female regulars (Diamond left when at the end of the fourth season, but Ice, after a sabbatical in the fourth season, came back in the fifth season, and then hung around until the end of the series).

The third season is about where the series really hit its stride. The horrible 80s rock-star costumes the Gladiators wore were replaced by stylish and cool-looking jobs (designed by Star Trek costume designer Robert Blackman). Zap returned, and Diamond sat out the first few episodes, but she returned when Lace was injured. Turbo was similarly injured, and Steve "Tower" Henneberry, the show's largest male Gladiator, who strangely resembled Turbo, debuted in mid-season. Gold was replaced mid-season by Debbie "Storm" Clark (whether she related to Nitro is not known).

In the fourth season, Gemini was replaced by Lynn "Red" Williams, known on the show as "Sabre." (Sabre has his own place in the annals of more "traditional" game show infamy, as we will note later.) Thunder was replaced by "Viper," and Nitro was succeeded by the returning Turbo. Numerous female Gladiators graced the fourth season including the leggy Salina "Elektra" Bartunek, Shirley "Sky" Eson (named in the tradition of Tower), and even a hearing impaired Gladiator, bodybuilder Shelley "Siren" Beattie.

Other notable Gladiators include Lee "Hawk" Reherman, a blonde, flattopped, likable male Gladiator with a tendancy to show-off; he later hosted the USA Network's Cannonball Run, and Shannon "Dallas" Hall who appeared in the show's last season, and later became a female professional boxer, fighting in the heavyweight division.

The Events: the competition itself consisted of various mini-games called events. The ones most people remember are the Joust, Powerball, and The Eliminator. Also used in the six years of the series were "The Wall," an artificial rock-face the contenders tried to scale while the Gladiators tried to pull them off (this event spawned many imitators in real-life; many tourist attractions and gyms have their own version of this event); "Atlasphere," where the contenders roll around in giant metal hamster balls trying to roll them through several scoring pods; "Breakthrough and Conquer," in which a contender first tries to score a football touchdown against one Gladiator, then tries to push another Gladiator out of a wrestling ring; and "Assault," a game where a contender tries to shoot a bulls-eye over the head of a Gladiator firing an air-powered tennis ball cannon at them. There were many others.

Yes, I'm coming to that. Those who saw the recent NBC special The Most Outrageous Game Show Moments will recognize this incident. During Ray Combs' last season as the host of Family Feud, the Gladiators dropped by for a week of competition for charity. At the time, the Bullseye game had just been introduced, and Lynn "Red" Williams ("Sabre") was playing the $5000 question against Erika "Diamond" Andersch.

Combs read the question:

Sabre pressed the famous face-off buzzer first, and the male chauvinist pig in every man took over his mind. He pointed at Diamond's ample cleavage and said:

"Breasts."

Diamond, always the exhibitionist, gave a quick jiggle, and grinned. All in attendance (and those watching at home) got a good belly laugh. (It is not known whether or not Diamond got revenge on Sabre, but evidently, if she did it wasn't all that severe, since he later played Special Forces Major Jax in Mortal Kombat: Annihilation).

After the series ended most of the Gladiators went back into the woodwork. Notable exceptions:

Raye Hollitt, "Zap," always the fan favorite, managed to make a career as a character actor. She has her own website at http://www.rayehollitt.com.

Lori Fetrick, "Ice," also managed to get a few acting roles, but basically faded away. Always the fitness devotee, she runs a gym of her own in Orlando, FL.

Dan Clark, "Nitro," does some work for Athletes and Entertainers for Kids.

Michael Horton, "Gemini," made a quick appearance as a nightclub bouncer in the movie version of the Saturday Night Live sketch, A Night at the Roxbury.

Larry Csonka now does motivation speaking around the country.

Bob Levy, the show's director, now serves in that same capacity for the American version of Weakest Link.

Mike Adamle probably got the best outcome out of everyone: it turns out that he was a talented broadcaster. He was able to parlay his success into a career as a "legitimate" sportscaster. He recently became the sports news director for the CBS affiliate in Chicago.

Frankly, I always liked this show. What started off as a lame cheesy pro wrestling ripoff, became a first rate competition show. The ordinary person could tryout and compete against not only against his or her fellows, but against professional athletes AND still win. Most folks lambasted the Gladiators for just being big dumb muscleheads, but they frequently proved otherwise, showing cunning and smarts along with their tremendous physical ability (ALL of the games required not only athletic ability, but good strategy and planning as well).

Perhaps, one of these days, someone will be crazy enough to revive this series. Perhaps not.

As always, questions, comments, concerns, suggestion, insults (and memories) are welcome at gameshowman@winning.com.

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