My Name Is Gladiator... But You Can Call Me Malibu

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There was once a time, on this great rock we call Earth, where men settled their differences like men... by battling in giant, rolling, metal cages painted blue and red. Or by clinging from the underside of a metal grate and kicking one another.

Women too, competed in such a fashion. Wielding oversized, leather-covered Q-tips in a effort to knock each other off of literal pedestals. By using a rope to hurl their own bodies against a Gladiator in an attempt to bash him to the ground. By dunking an undersized basketball into a 3-foot high, traffic cone... Ahem. Okay, it wasn't all awesome.

Well, in addition to other, less exciting announcements, it seems that NBC is contemplating bringing back American Gladiators.

Silverman confirmed that he's looking to develop a new take on the campy 1980s franchise "American Gladiators" via his old Reveille banner. Given the success of "Heroes," a reality show with superhero themes seems logical. Exec refused to discuss how the show may fit into NBC's brand, however, dismissing a question about the project by saying, "There's no deal done."
This could be interesting. I liked the original. Packed with insane stunts and super-charged Gladiators like Blaze, Nitro, Zap, Louis* and Diamond... True, I also liked tree-forts, prank-calling neighbors and being 11, but, it might work.

Do they stick with the campy, over-the-top ridiculousness?

Or do they modernize it? I could see them trying to make it more "reality-based." Setting it on a faux, street-corner set. Sending a man down a dark alley where suddenly a muscle-bound behemoth bursts through a wall and the man is forced to defend himself with a lamp post turned baton.

Maybe they could bring back the greatest of all-time, Nitro, as the world-weary veteran who's seen it all, to mentor and train the newest batch of rookie Gladiators.

They'd do well to remember that the best episodes featured a former athlete/marine/ninja who turned the tables on the Gladiators, enraging them at all turns for the entire episode, only to get smited in the end.

And to get rid of "Powerball."

TheCoolerKing is betting you can help shift the "no done deal" part of the story by signing this petition he found. So far they've got 10,261 signatures. Is that a lot?



* I wish there'd been a Gladiator named Louis.

web address: http://suicidegirls.com/news/all/21937/My-Name-Is-Gladiator...-But-You-Can-Call-Me-Malibu/