‘American Gladiators’ dark side revealed in ESPN doc: ‘Like wartime’

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“Many of these games were not safe for humans to play,” one of the show’s producers admits in a new documentary.

Big Deron “Malibu” McBee remembers his first day on “American Gladiators” in 1989 vividly.

The hit competition show, which ran from 1989 to 1996, didn’t have much job security for its participants, who taped as many as four events per day. “Gladiator” creator Johnny Ferraro and fellow big shots insisted on juicing up the physicality of the show’s high-intensity events — like the basketball-football hybrid powerball and the pugil stick joust — in the interest of ratings.

During a round of “Atlasphere” — where participants would ram into each other while inside rounded, metal cages — a medal shard split off and gored an unnamed gladiator in the behind, he recalls in the doc.Games like atlasphere put the health and safety of contestants at risk.“Gladiators” producer Brian Gadinsky admits that the health of the participants was a big concern.

about taking a “handful of Vicodin” after herniating several discs so that he would appear healthy enough for his doctor to sign off on him returning to work.

 

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