Author Topic: American Gladiators (Read 10028 times)

MSTieScott · « **Reply #30 on:** October 22, 2007, 03:49:41 PM »

[quote name=\'Joe Mello\' post=\'167429\' date=\'Oct 20 2007, 10:21 AM\']
[quote name=\'MSTieScott\' post=\'167391\' date=\'Oct 19 2007, 10:06 PM\'](Hopes that they tape a full episode in one day and not just the same game over and over for multiple episodes. Especially if the game is Atlasphere.)[/quote]
Is that what they originally did?[/quote]
I don't know how they used to do it --- I'm just thinking economically. It's faster (and therefore cheaper) to leave the Assault field on the floor and tape five rounds of it in a row than to spend the time to take it down and set it up every day.

Did they play the games in a different order in each episode of the original series? If so, then they couldn't have taped the games in blocks.

--
Scott Robinson

Mr. Armadillo · « **Reply #31 on:** October 22, 2007, 03:49:52 PM »

[quote name=\'MSTieScott\' post=\'167391\' date=\'Oct 19 2007, 09:06 PM\']
Heaven help me, I just requested tickets for both December 1 tapings out of overwhelming curiosity. The ticket request form says I was number 95.

--
Scott Robinson
(Hopes that they tape a full episode in one day and not just the same game over and over for multiple episodes. Especially if the game is Atlasphere.)
[/quote]
Sorry Scott...looks like the latter. At least this (VERY tentative) schedule I found on some American Gladiators forum doesn't list Altasphere anywhere...

Quote

So far, they have 11 days of production set up. We don't have an episode count yet. Rather, they have the events scheduled on each day, which will later be edited into the episodes. Everything is very tentative right now. I see one rough schedule that reads:

Taping Days:
1. Jousting
2. Gauntlet
3. Walls
4. Swing Shot
4. Hang Tough
5. Elimination
6. Championship.

This is real rough and will no doubt be refined and rescheduled. The taping days, however, are scheduled and confirmed, just the events are still undecided.

The fact that Powerball is not listed puzzles me greatly...wasn't that the most popular event?

EDIT: Seeing that Scott just beat me to the post...and has another question...I can't tell you off the top of my head...but the first 15 episodes of Season Six (what is currently airing on ESPN Classic) had only four different lineups of games.

tpirfan28 · « **Reply #32 on:** October 22, 2007, 03:54:01 PM »

[quote name=\'Mr. Armadillo\' post=\'167610\' date=\'Oct 22 2007, 03:49 PM\']

Quote

1. Jousting
2. Gauntlet
3. Walls
4. Swing Shot
4. Hang Tough
5. Elimination
6. Championship.

The fact that Powerball is not listed puzzles me greatly...wasn't that the most popular event?
[/quote]
I'm more pissed that Assault isn't in the list. That was one of the most exciting games in the rotation.

Mr. Armadillo · « **Reply #33 on:** October 22, 2007, 04:06:45 PM »

Remember...that list isn't final and is almost guaranteed to be changed. Also, by Season Six, they had 13 different events in the rotation...if they narrow it down to five, they're bound to leave off a couple popular ones.

But still...Swingshot? Powerball, Assault, and Breakthrough & Conquer all deserve a spot before that...and I'd give Pyramid and Whiplash the nod before it too.

/If I was in charge, it would be Powerball, Pyramid, Breakthrough&Conquer (or Gauntlet), Assault, and Joust.
//In that order.
///Obviously, though, I'm not.

Johnissoevil · « **Reply #34 on:** October 22, 2007, 04:12:30 PM »

I just hope Hogan can do commentary better than he can wrestle.

ObGameShows: Drew Carey participated in the 2001 WWF/WWE Royal Rumble and eliminated himself.

clemon79 · « **Reply #35 on:** October 22, 2007, 04:28:59 PM »

[quote name=\'MSTieScott\' post=\'167609\' date=\'Oct 22 2007, 12:49 PM\']
I don't know how they used to do it --- I'm just thinking economically. It's faster (and therefore cheaper) to leave the Assault field on the floor and tape five rounds of it in a row than to spend the time to take it down and set it up every day.
[/quote]
But at the same time, they're gonna wanna churn the contenders through in one day, right? So they might tape the shows out of order (to, like you said, bang out everybody's Atlasphere at once), but I gotta think that you'd see at least one full show per taping session, and probably more.

(Further, I think when they changed to the "Gladiator Arena" video-game-like studio, it expedited setup quite a bit, as now there are gridmarks on the floor to make it quick and easy for the staff to get props into place. I would bet that switching over the set from one event to another isn't all that time-consuming at all.)

Mr. Armadillo · « **Reply #36 on:** October 22, 2007, 07:30:21 PM »

[quote name=\'clemon79\' post=\'167614\' date=\'Oct 22 2007, 03:28 PM\']
[quote name=\'MSTieScott\' post=\'167609\' date=\'Oct 22 2007, 12:49 PM\']
I don't know how they used to do it --- I'm just thinking economically. It's faster (and therefore cheaper) to leave the Assault field on the floor and tape five rounds of it in a row than to spend the time to take it down and set it up every day.
[/quote]
But at the same time, they're gonna wanna churn the contenders through in one day, right? So they might tape the shows out of order (to, like you said, bang out everybody's Atlasphere at once), but I gotta think that you'd see at least one full show per taping session, and probably more.
[/quote]
For the love of all that is good, please never use the phrase 'bang out everybody's Atlasphere' again.

Ever.

clemon79 · « **Reply #37 on:** October 22, 2007, 07:45:37 PM »

[quote name=\'Mr. Armadillo\' post=\'167627\' date=\'Oct 22 2007, 04:30 PM\']
For the love of all that is good, please never use the phrase 'bang out everybody's Atlasphere' again.

Ever.
[/quote]
"Not that there's anything wrong with that!"

/click, pop, boing

Joe Mello · « **Reply #38 on:** October 23, 2007, 04:07:27 PM »

[quote name=\'clemon79\' post=\'167614\' date=\'Oct 22 2007, 04:28 PM\']
(Further, I think when they changed to the "Gladiator Arena" video-game-like studio, it expedited setup quite a bit, as now there are gridmarks on the floor to make it quick and easy for the staff to get props into place. I would bet that switching over the set from one event to another isn't all that time-consuming at all.)[/quote]
However, I can't imagine them taping more than one episode in a day under that procedure. I'm thinking that in later years, especially when practically every game was being played in every episode and the Eliminator became elaborate as hell, they started grouping games together.

Matt Ottinger · « **Reply #39 on:** October 23, 2007, 04:07:48 PM »

OK, someone's going to WAAAYYY too much trouble to promote this thing. I just got a press release e-mail sent to me from someone with a gmail account tied to the show. Attached was a 2002 Usenet post I made praising the original series, which appears to be the entire reason I was sent the promotion.

TLEberle · « **Reply #40 on:** October 23, 2007, 10:46:25 PM »

[quote name=\'MSTieScott\' post=\'167609\' date=\'Oct 22 2007, 12:49 PM\']I don't know how they used to do it --- I'm just thinking economically. It's faster (and therefore cheaper) to leave the Assault field on the floor and tape five rounds of it in a row than to spend the time to take it down and set it up every day[/quote]That might be faster, but eventually you aren't going to have enough players to make a full day worthwhile. The Grand Championship would take a week.

It seems like an adept property crew could get several of the games up quickly (Powerball, B&C) which would balance out the ones that are labor intensive or require rolling out heaps of foam mats. And the Wall just stands there, which would only require dropping a tarp over for hiding.

tvwxman · « **Reply #41 on:** October 24, 2007, 11:20:28 AM »

Do any of the old-schoolers here know how it was done 20 years ago? I gotta think that in this day-and-age of shooting lots in little time, this is the way to shoot AG2.0

parliboy · « **Reply #42 on:** October 24, 2007, 11:52:16 AM »

[quote name=\'tvwxman\' post=\'167744\' date=\'Oct 24 2007, 10:20 AM\'] Do any of the old-schoolers here know how it was done 20 years ago? I gotta think that in this day-and-age of shooting lots in little time, this is the way to shoot AG2.0 [/quote]

Mark Kibort put up videos from his apperances on YouTube, and he's been fairly vigilant in watching the responses to his videos. I'm sure if someone bugged him there, you'd find an answer.

Jeremy Nelson · « **Reply #43 on:** October 24, 2007, 02:26:05 PM »

During transitional periods wher ethe crew set up and took down events, there was someone keeping the crowd going, whether it was a warm-up guy, or a cheerleader. I know this is how it was done for most of UK Gladiators, but I'm not sure what they did for AG.

Mr. Armadillo · « **Reply #44 on:** October 24, 2007, 08:48:31 PM »

Actually, I think it may have changed for later seasons, because starting with season 6, they scrapped the elimination-bracket system almost entirely and instead had 15 preliminary heats, bringing back the 4 highest-scoring men and 4 women, and then held a semi-finals and Grand Championship.

In seasons 1-5, it may have worked differently.

Quote

However, I can't imagine them taping more than one episode in a day under that procedure. I'm thinking that in later years, especially when practically every game was being played in every episode and the Eliminator became elaborate as hell, they started grouping games together.

To clarify, for those who haven't been reading up on this as much as I, for some reason, have, in season 6, they played 9 of their 13 games in each episode. Three events were played by both the men and the women, 3 were played by only the men, and 3 were played by only the women, meaning that taping was almost certainly done in spurts. This was not done in any of the earlier seasons, so they could have easily done it differently back then.

(I think I recall hearing it was done differently then...something about each episode being taped in halves, but I can't remember off the top of my head.)