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(To ward off criticism, the producers promised steroid testing. It was the late 1980s and early 1990s, so no one should be surprised that the use of steroids ran rampant. The gladiators - who went by names like Nitro, Gemini, Malibu, Zap, Blaze, Laser and Titan - became stars, and then had to deal with huge fame and tiny salaries. There’s a middle school math teacher going up against the gladiators. And would see themselves in the competitors that were on the show. “Because there was a David-and-Goliath aspect to the show, everybody wanted to compete.
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By the second half of the first season, the gladiators had been cast as villains, competing against average Joe and average Jane contestants.
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There’s an arc to the story - from the inept inception of the series through its rise in popularity. And it’s not an exaggeration to say that the gladiators were exploited by the show’s producers. “Muscles & Mayhem: An Unauthorized Story of American Gladiators” is a serious documentary about something that’s kind of silly.Īnd, in addition to all the absurdities, there were a lot of dark sides to the “Gladiators” saga. … But who were the people behind the scenes, and what were the stories that we didn’t see? Because we knew that there had to be an equally crazy story behind the production.” “So what we wanted to know going into it was, man, who were these actual people? I mean, they were all playing these larger-than-life personas. It was just a huge part of the zeitgeist.
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It was hilarious.” It “encapsulated … all the things about the late ‘80s and early ‘90s in such a fun way from the perspective of pop culture. “The show was absurd,” said Hess, who’s best known for directing ”Napoleon Dynamite.” “I mean, it was crazy.
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