Series Review: "Muscles & Mayhem: An Unauthorized Story of American Gladiators" (2023).

From the directors of Murder Among the Mormons and Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn't Exist comes Muscles & Mayhem: An Unauthorized Story of American Gladiators. This documentary film directed by Jared Hess and Tony Vainuku. The film chronicles the meteoric rise, dramatic fall, and gripping behind-the-scenes stories of one of the biggest spectacles on television during the height of the '90s. Told first hand from the stars who lived through it, this five part series reveals untold stories of the iconic American Gladiators’ triumph, turmoil, and ultimate price of fame.

From September 1989 to May 1996, the American competition television program, American Gladiators, aired weekly in syndication. The series matched a cast of amateur athletes against each other, as well as against the show's own "gladiators", in contests of strength and agility. The show featured four competitors, two men and two women, in most episodes. The players, referred to throughout the series as "contenders", faced off in a series of physical games against each other and against a cast of costumed athletes looking to prevent them from succeeding (the titular "Gladiators"). Each match saw the competitors trying to advance in a tournament, with one man and one woman crowned champion at its conclusion. Following the success of the show, other countries began to produce their own versions of the show. The concept was originally created in 1982 by Johnny C. Ferraro and Dann Carr. Carr gathered the Gladiators and hosted the show, and Ferraro financed and produced the original competition at Erie Tech High School in Erie, Pennsylvania so Ferraro could have the event on film as to shop the new creation. In 1983 Ferraro financed, developed and packaged the American Gladiators as a movie project. In 1984 Carr sold his interest in a literary purchase to Flor-Jon Films. Ferraro had been the main driving force behind the American Gladiators brand since 1982. In 1987, Flor-Jon Films then licensed the unscripted rights to The Samuel Goldwyn Company (now part of MGM). Ferraro is the sole creator of the 1994 kids' version of the series, Gladiators 2000 (a.k.a. G2). An all-star, one-off primetime celebrity special, Superstar American Gladiators aired on ABC on May 4, 1995. Flor-Jon Films, Inc and the Samuel Goldwyn Co in 1993 granted a license to Chariot Entertainment in an effort to launch a live American Gladiators show on the Las Vegas Strip, but the president of Chariot became mired in a securities fraud prosecution, through no fault of Flor-Jon Films or The Samuel Goldwyn Co, and the live show went unrealized.

This is about American Gladiators, intrinsically. We follow the eight-year build of the reality show that will soon be rubble, we see the rehearsals and the logos plastered everywhere but it's about showing that there are no small parts too. In terms of giving fans a better idea of the countless moving parts involved in a project like American Gladiator, and in terms of spotlighting a few of the many people who labor behind the scenes, the series is a very satisfying coda to the show.

Simon says Muscles & Mayhem: An Unauthorized Story of American Gladiators receives:

Also, see my reviews for Murder Among the Mormons and Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn't Exist.