I had a lot of fun making this one. I rewatched a lot of the original Gladiators as I was writing the script for this video and what a boost of nostalgia it was! If you enjoy the video, I'd really love it if you could subscribe to my channel and give this video a thumbs up. I'll be hard at work on the next video! Thanks all!
Fantastic work - I really enjoyed watching this, thank you! The new series has definitely succeeded with the nostalgia feel and it’s a ratings winner! 🎉
Enjoyed this video. You forgot to mention the crossovers with Australia & USA. Also the un-televised Gladiator Blaze, was infact the legendary female contestant, Eunice Huthart
I was just waking up from heart surgery as a child and Cobra was on the ward, visiting sick children and signing autographs. I wish I could say I remember it, but I was recovering from anaesthetic. 😅 He signed a photo for me anyway. I wish I could thank him.
My kids are as old as I was when I watched the 90s gladiators. And they are loving it as much as I did. Even tho I personally don't think the current one is as good, I still look forward to watching it every Saturday with the kids. ❤
I keep missing it! I saw one and the games aren't as good, I don't know if it's a health and safety or budget thing? I'll try and catch it tonight, maybe it was just teh episode I watched.
@@7Lace77 It's definitely a watered down version of the original. The events featured are mostly from the original - although I think 'The Edge' is new - but it's left out the most creative challenges. My favourite event back in the day was 'The Pendulum' and 'Sky Track'. I'm still enjoying this series though. I've watched every episode and I'm glad it's back. My favourite gladiator used to be Wolf, but for the new series it is Nitro.
@@7Lace77 After 24+ years, I doubt the original gladiators would be at the same level physical fitness as they were back then. The character of 'Big Bad Wolf' was certainly far better than Viper's 'villain' character this time round though.
Seeing all those clips of 90s TV made me feel nostalgic and sad at the same time. It was a great era for tv, as we enjoyed seeing people achieving things and being happy. The noughties then brought this wave of reality tv and quiz shows that promoted tension, fighting and people generally being nasty to one another. It’s no wonder our society is messed up.
Yeah, I’ve been saying this for a while. ‘Reality’ TV and 24-hour news started messing things up even before social media. It really just moved platforms.
WOW incredible! A TV show where members of the public go up against the mighty Gladiators!? Who knew that would be fun! Anyway here's my top 10 Gladiators from the series: 10. Saracen 9. Wolf 8. Warrior 7. Lightning 6. Zodiac 5. Cobra 4. Nightshade 3. Amazon 2. Panther 1. Jet Also the 2024 REBORN version of the show is fantastic and I think that Apollo Phantom Sabre Athena Bionic Diamond Comet Dynamite Electro Fire Fury Giant Legend Nitro Steel and Viper are great names for Gladiators
Great video!!!! Such nostalgia!!! Lightning and Saracen were my favourites and I absolutely loved Hang Tough, Swingshot and Skytrak. The new series is absolutely brilliant and I look forward to Saturday nights to watch it, just like I did in the 90's!!
As a kid in the 80s, one weekend I stumbled across American Gladiators. From that moment I was hooked. I would set the VCR to recored every episode and then we would all watch it as a family on Sunday afternoon. I borrowed a few tapes to friends at school and they were just as impressed. So, when the UK Gladiators was introduced it was the emergence of something special for Saturday evenings and playground antics. Weekend television of the 90s will never be replicated - although the new show is fun, it's missing that _je ne sais quoi._ It's the simplest things in life you don't realise you would miss the most.
I remember the golden age of gladiators. I was around 10-13 I think. I used to collect the weekly magazine and comic. And pull out all the posters to adorn my bedroom walls, next to the dinosaur posters of course! I remember having a nightmare one night that was so real. The poster of Lightning was talking me. Telling me she was going to do some murdery business. I woke up freaked out and tore the poster from my wall. I couldn’t look at Lightning in the show after that without the fear returning. Good times! I also remember the danger zone toy. That gladiators toy line, and to a certain extent the American gladiators toy line were really cool.
Great video, thank you! I loved watching Gladiators as a kid, and recently watched all of the old series on RUclips with my kids - so much nostalgia and excitement in every episode. We’re all enjoying the new series as well! My favourite OG Gladiators were Jet, Lightning, Wolf and Hunter.
You have a really great RUclips channel. I found it today because I wanted to watch a retrospective about Robot Wars. That led me to your video on the topic. I presumed with the high effort quality of your content that you must be a well established channel with dozens of videos and thousands of subscribers. I was shocked that you only had 3 videos. Nevertheless I subscribed and liked the video and was pleasantly surprised to see another video on the Gladiators pop up today. Keep up the good work. Your channel deserves to be way bigger.
Thanks a lot mate. Yea, my channel is still small. I tend to put quite a lot of time into videos, trying to get better at editing to speed up the process! Working on the next video now. :)
I was a nearly-teen when it first broadcast, probably caught onto it a year or two later, so naturally as a by-then 13 year old boy, Lightning was my favourite! Gladiators will always have a nostalgic place for me, even if the mediocre Sky revival nearly tainted the legacy! I was actually in the audience for the BBC revival when it was recorded last Summer, and my 10-year old daughter absolutely loved getting to experience it first hand.
I used to work for the guy who got his pants pulled off by Wolf on hang tough. Was so weird when one of the other staff members told me about it as remember that episode while eating dinner as a kid.
I was always a Hunter and a Cobra fan. I was born in 95 so I only have memories of the late 90s watching gladiators. I also used to watch re runs as I got older. Such a brilliant show. I hope the new series is good! These guys were like the WWE wrestlers of the uk!
Yea that's a great point, they really were like the WWE wrestlers of our childhood (even though I also watched WWE back in the 90s too!). Such a great show. It's looking like the new series will debut in early 2024.
Thanks for doing the video the only gladiator I had seen was Saracen on the bus i was on quickly had a chat with him nice guy my favorite gladiators Saracen, Wolf, jet ,lightening and Shadow (sad 😢what happened to him ) this show made my Saturday nights
What a great overview of the series. Well-researched, plenty of detail, and without poking too much fun at the show ha! As kids, we went to to the tapings in Birmingham several times during series 2, 3 and the International Gladiators shows. The tickets were free, we didn't live too far away, and it was during the school holidays so why not?! Due to the various game sets being constructed and deconstructed, it took a whole 8 hours to film an hour footage for the TV shows. They would actually sometimes film two episodes concurrently, so you'd sometimes see 8 rounds of the same game being played with the 8 contestants over two episodes before they switched-out the game props. There was about a 30-40 minute interval between each game. And if the Pyramid event was in the show, because the set covered the entire stage, the game would be filmed first before anything else - any introductions, opening applause etc - just straight into the game to save time. The climbing wall on the right of the arena would be raised and the various set pieces would be wheeled in and out of here from backstage. And there was no music played in the arena during the games - that was just for TV. But it was fun and what a great show it was. Thanks for the excellent video and reviving these memories. Looking forward to seeing more.
Wow, thanks for the awesome insight into what it was like to be there! Very interesting about then filming two episodes at once. Makes sense from a logistical point of view I guess. And no music in the arena!? Didn't expect that!
@@officialbackintheday To clarify regarding the music in the arena, they would play the entrance songs you mention in the video, and songs like 'Another One Bites The Dust' so the audience would interact, but the ambient background music you hear on TV during the games wasn't played, that was added in post-production. Also, the commentary by John Sachs was recorded from a little booth in the corner gap between the audience - one time we were seated close enough to hear him recording and re-recording lines. But yeah, even as a child I found it very interesting to see how everything was put together for the show. Thanks again 👍
Watched this every week when it was on. I loved Lightning, she was my fave along with Shadow although I didn't realise he used unscrupulous methods to get where he got! My fave events were duel (I absolutely loved the music just before the start of the fight) and the final assault course - hang tough looked a very tough course for me along with what you said, that hand-bicycle thing.
One spin off I loved as a kid was Gladiators 2000. Which was the youth spinoff of American Gladiators. The cheesy food, Maths, and Science based versions of the games were always fun to watch.
When the US version aired it was then aired on UK TV but it was an unknown show here, with a playtime of about 3am on a Saturday night/Sunday morning. My best friend's Dad used to video it, he'd save it and we'd all watch it. He backed Lace but I was a fan of Gold. The uk followed a few years later and from what i remember (although not the details) the US version had some different games (and they went at it HARD, people being knocked flying on a regular, it was great.). The best event I always liked was the Pugel stick (sp?) and as a 12 year old, watching two huge men whack each other relentlessly for a minute with giant cotton buds was often as frightening as it was hilarious. The best obstacle was the travellator as that made every ending a potential nail biter. Really nice video. Recommended to me today. as i somehow found my way to a robot wars retro yesterday so the algorithm is heopfully nibbling for you right now. This was really nicely put together, well paced and framed the time and the show really well. The lline i remember the referee always saying was "Yoou will goooo on ma fiiiiiiiist whiiiiistle...." ahhh the memories. Big thumb up from me.
Programmes like Gladiators are the reason why I didn’t get into dross like reality tv. I hope for the revival they’ll bring back games like Pendulum, Atlaspheres, Skytrak and Slingshot. Like with Robot Wars another great review/documentary.
Brilliant video. Loved gladiators as a kid. So many cracking memories there. Enjoying all your videos so far. Hopefully more to come, especially love to see more prime Saturday night shows like you bet, generation game,big break, friends like these to name a few. brilliant 👍
More videos on the way soon! It takes me quite a while to put together these videos so the frequency is not as fast as I would like, but quality is better than quantity! Thanks for your support :)
Fun fact regarding the 2008 revival series: The Gladiator "Oblivion" went on to become a professional wrestler and even won the TNA and NWA world heavyweight championships (and is currently one of the on-screen authority figures on WWE television).
Great video, so many events which aren't on the new series (some with Gladiators shooting foam balls, I can gladly miss). A couple of contestants from the originals stuck in my mind ever since: Wesley "Two Scoops" Berry and Rick Keysvetter (spelling?) ...Wes trained by jumping over cars and Rick, I remember got into a fight with Wolf.
Shadow & Lightening were my favourites, but I also liked Warrior, Cobra, Panther & Wolf. The best show in the 90s. The excitement on a Saturday evening just waiting for the theme tune to start
One minor thing - the Utilita Arena is the former Sheffield Arena which is where the show is currently filmed, not the NEC where it was filmed in the 90s. Also I might be wrong but I think Shadow was fired over allegations he'd taken cocaine. It was Warrior who was dogged by rumours he was on steroids, though whether that's why he left I'm not sure. Great doc, though!
honestly I cannot wait for gladiators to return. I remember watching the re runs on challenge and I fell in love with it and I met jet, panther, lightning, vogue, cobra and hunter at emcon 2022, also my dad and I went to see the new gladiators live back in June, trust me when I say it will be great coz gladiator fans old and new will be blown away.
Wow, you've got me even more excited! I've seen some stuff on social media from people who have attended and it looks incredible. Very jealous you got to go!
Growing up in the 90s I must have caught every episode of this show. Naturally I was always hoping to see Wolf participate and get up to some nonsense.
I was lucky enough to watch the recording of the international series. Can remember seeing the huge pendulum for the first time and getting a yello glad glove😅
Great documentary, thanks so much! Now that The Gladiators has returned, this time to BBC1, I'm back in front of the TV on Saturday early evenings. It's great to see the original series chronicled, which shows the depth of your research. Two things come to mind: 1. Wasn't there a time when Jon Fashanu co-presented with another man? Maybe an American or Canadian? 2. If I remember correctly, The Gladiators had a cameo appearance on the satirical 90s comedy series 'Drop the dead donkey'. I had no idea that there had been a revival series on Sky. I think the icing on the cake, now that we have the BBC's 2024 series would be to see how the original and past gladiators are doing. 👏🏾❤🌟
I'm such a nostalgic person and being a child in the 90's I love your channel! I've just subscribed and I look forward to watching more of your retrospectives! A request would be "The Sooty Show" or "Sooty and Co" (not sure if you're only doing game shows or doing children's TV or not) and "The Krypton Factor". And just an idea because I haven't seen this anywhere else, old Amiga 1200 games retrospectives? Keep up the great work! :)
Thanks so much for the sub - it really means a lot! I'm certainly going to be covering other things like movies, games etc. Games in particular will be a loot of fun. Stay tuned!
NEVER be a patch on the original shows but defo I ll be tuning in Well done BBC for getting the gig to present it it meaans people can watch it & enjoy it without being interriupted by stupid adverts
Pretty sure Blaze was one of the earlier contestant champions. Here in the US watching the American Gladiators Netflix documentary. Grew up watching UK Gladiators but have lived in the US for the past 15 years now.
Nightshade and Falcon were my favourites. I actually meet them as a kid. Still have their autographs. Nightshade wasn't injured, but she did get very sick when filming for the Australia version of Gladiators. She caught a virus and got very ill. She didn't have time to train up for the next series because of that. She lost a lot of muscles mass after she came back to do the UK shows in series 5. You can see the difference in the previous series on how skinny she became. So she decided to leave the show and work on other things. Shadow was fired for taking illegal substance in a club that was in all the newspapers at the time. The show runners said it was due to steroids use officially, but it was later confirmed it was for doing stuff in a club.
Great retrospective although you forgot to include some history on the kids version. I think you hit the nail on the head when you said that Gladiators was awesome because it managed to target any family member, any age. Most of them were great although Wolf is still the legend.
Glad i saw one live at Wembley absolute classic event. If you watched from the start no matter what is said SHADOW was your favourite guy and JET was number one end of... WOLF 🐺 AND THE REF HAVE TO GET A MENTION.
Great documentary, but you forgot to mention the real reason John Fashanu temporarily left Gladiators, which was he got in trouble with the law in late 1996 for allegedly fixing football matches. That is how Jeremy Guscott got to co-host Series 6 and 7. Luckily, after two years, Fash got found not guilty in late 1998-early 1999 and would return for the final series.
Yea I had read about that but didn't want to go into too much detail about it as I wanted the documentary to focus more on the show itself. So many interesting things that could have made this documentary a LOT longer!
I can't say I watched Gladiators back in the day much & I found TV then a bit in your face but I did enjoy Big Break & Beadle's About though. Great Vid though!.
Nightshade went to the same school as I did obviously not at the same time. I loved gladiators as a kid it was family night with house party, big break! I’m enjoying the new series on bbc one be interesting what other people think?
Gladiators Stars in their eyes Blind Date Who wants to be a millionaire among others, Saturday night was absolutely epic during the 90's. TV these days have nothing on those and more I've mentioned
There is nothing more stereotypically American than a title specifying that something is American, even though there aren't any others around the world to set itself aside from yet. They could have just been the original 'Gladiators'!
And for the BBC incarnation they reversed the silliness of the Sky One incarnation and gone for a more tense, dramatic, Brutal, direction of the original.
Jet. Need I say anything more? If you weren't a child at the time and didn't take two broomsticks, tape up two pillows on both ends and do a "Duel" with your siblings or cousins, you've never lived.
Huge fan of this show. My favourite Gladiators were Saracen, Rio, Hunter, Lightning and Siren. Favourite events were Pendulum, Duel, Hang Tough and Pyramid. I've been to a filming of one of the new episodes, and while I won't spoil anything I will say that it's way more in line with the original series than the Sky version.
That's great news. I've seen a few tiktoks and youtube shorts from the filming of it and it does look strikingly like the original which makes me even more excited! Hope you had a good time at the filming!
I was 13 when Gladiators started in Australia. My favourite Gladiators were Flame and Tower. My favourite games were Duel, Hang Tough, Atlaspheres and Gauntlet. I've been disappointed with the 2024 revival here so far. 5 episodes and every single one of them have had Powerball, The Wall, Duel and Pyramid, in varying orders. Rather lacklustre, I think.
I had a lot of fun making this one. I rewatched a lot of the original Gladiators as I was writing the script for this video and what a boost of nostalgia it was! If you enjoy the video, I'd really love it if you could subscribe to my channel and give this video a thumbs up. I'll be hard at work on the next video! Thanks all!
Обожаю Гладиаторов .спасибо,что выложили.если можно выложите с переводом русский язык
Fantastic work - I really enjoyed watching this, thank you! The new series has definitely succeeded with the nostalgia feel and it’s a ratings winner! 🎉
Enjoyed this video. You forgot to mention the crossovers with Australia & USA. Also the un-televised Gladiator Blaze, was infact the legendary female contestant, Eunice Huthart
@@Terra-Hawk There may or may not be a video coming this year talking about the crossovers with Australia and the USA! ;)
Trivia: Josh Fashnu's catchphrase "Awooga!" was borrowed from the short-lived futuristic gameshow CyberZone which John Fashnu was a contestant.
Jet and Lightning were my favourites ❤
I was just waking up from heart surgery as a child and Cobra was on the ward, visiting sick children and signing autographs. I wish I could say I remember it, but I was recovering from anaesthetic. 😅 He signed a photo for me anyway. I wish I could thank him.
Mick is a friend of mine. I'll pass this message on for you 💪🤜
Wow, this really did bring back some Saturday night nostalgia. Doesn't feel that long ago until you realise it's like 30 years.
My kids are as old as I was when I watched the 90s gladiators. And they are loving it as much as I did. Even tho I personally don't think the current one is as good, I still look forward to watching it every Saturday with the kids. ❤
I keep missing it! I saw one and the games aren't as good, I don't know if it's a health and safety or budget thing? I'll try and catch it tonight, maybe it was just teh episode I watched.
@@7Lace77 It's definitely a watered down version of the original. The events featured are mostly from the original - although I think 'The Edge' is new - but it's left out the most creative challenges. My favourite event back in the day was 'The Pendulum' and 'Sky Track'. I'm still enjoying this series though. I've watched every episode and I'm glad it's back. My favourite gladiator used to be Wolf, but for the new series it is Nitro.
@@Bastion90 They should have bought teh original Gladiators back. 😸 Wolf was always good and a clearly memorable one with his character.
@@7Lace77 After 24+ years, I doubt the original gladiators would be at the same level physical fitness as they were back then. The character of 'Big Bad Wolf' was certainly far better than Viper's 'villain' character this time round though.
@@Bastion90 It would be funny though.
As a young impressionable lad, Jet and lightning always the favourites...understandably
Seeing all those clips of 90s TV made me feel nostalgic and sad at the same time. It was a great era for tv, as we enjoyed seeing people achieving things and being happy. The noughties then brought this wave of reality tv and quiz shows that promoted tension, fighting and people generally being nasty to one another. It’s no wonder our society is messed up.
Yeah, I’ve been saying this for a while. ‘Reality’ TV and 24-hour news started messing things up even before social media. It really just moved platforms.
now the dystopian world of social media
WOW incredible! A TV show where members of the public go up against the mighty Gladiators!? Who knew that would be fun! Anyway here's my top 10 Gladiators from the series:
10. Saracen
9. Wolf
8. Warrior
7. Lightning
6. Zodiac
5. Cobra
4. Nightshade
3. Amazon
2. Panther
1. Jet
Also the 2024 REBORN version of the show is fantastic and I think that Apollo Phantom Sabre Athena Bionic Diamond Comet Dynamite Electro Fire Fury Giant Legend Nitro Steel and Viper are great names for Gladiators
Great video!!!! Such nostalgia!!! Lightning and Saracen were my favourites and I absolutely loved Hang Tough, Swingshot and Skytrak. The new series is absolutely brilliant and I look forward to Saturday nights to watch it, just like I did in the 90's!!
As a kid in the 80s, one weekend I stumbled across American Gladiators. From that moment I was hooked. I would set the VCR to recored every episode and then we would all watch it as a family on Sunday afternoon. I borrowed a few tapes to friends at school and they were just as impressed. So, when the UK Gladiators was introduced it was the emergence of something special for Saturday evenings and playground antics. Weekend television of the 90s will never be replicated - although the new show is fun, it's missing that _je ne sais quoi._ It's the simplest things in life you don't realise you would miss the most.
I remember the golden age of gladiators. I was around 10-13 I think. I used to collect the weekly magazine and comic. And pull out all the posters to adorn my bedroom walls, next to the dinosaur posters of course! I remember having a nightmare one night that was so real. The poster of Lightning was talking me. Telling me she was going to do some murdery business. I woke up freaked out and tore the poster from my wall. I couldn’t look at Lightning in the show after that without the fear returning. Good times! I also remember the danger zone toy. That gladiators toy line, and to a certain extent the American gladiators toy line were really cool.
Great video, thank you! I loved watching Gladiators as a kid, and recently watched all of the old series on RUclips with my kids - so much nostalgia and excitement in every episode. We’re all enjoying the new series as well! My favourite OG Gladiators were Jet, Lightning, Wolf and Hunter.
You have a really great RUclips channel. I found it today because I wanted to watch a retrospective about Robot Wars. That led me to your video on the topic.
I presumed with the high effort quality of your content that you must be a well established channel with dozens of videos and thousands of subscribers. I was shocked that you only had 3 videos.
Nevertheless I subscribed and liked the video and was pleasantly surprised to see another video on the Gladiators pop up today. Keep up the good work. Your channel deserves to be way bigger.
Thanks a lot mate. Yea, my channel is still small. I tend to put quite a lot of time into videos, trying to get better at editing to speed up the process! Working on the next video now. :)
Just realised due to this comments that this is the same guy i watched earlier in the robot wars video! Lol yeah keep at it man!
Favourites: Jet, Lightning and Wolf and Slingshot, Powerball and Atlas Balls. Going to checkout the revival now. Thanks for the retrospective!
So far the new series is living up to the original and Bradley and Barney are great hosts and we've got Viper as the new Wolf
Agreed, it's pretty damn great. That last ep was an absolute banger.
Yes Saturdays eliminator was the best I have ever seen! Boys and girls!
I am really enjoying the revival too. Especially like Legend.
In latin america we got all those references tp this show but not the show itself. I'm glad i get to know what it actually was.
Thanks for watching!
I was a nearly-teen when it first broadcast, probably caught onto it a year or two later, so naturally as a by-then 13 year old boy, Lightning was my favourite!
Gladiators will always have a nostalgic place for me, even if the mediocre Sky revival nearly tainted the legacy! I was actually in the audience for the BBC revival when it was recorded last Summer, and my 10-year old daughter absolutely loved getting to experience it first hand.
Watching this makes me hope they bring back more of these great old games like Atlas-sphere and Pendulum into the new BBC show (which I’m loving!)
I used to work for the guy who got his pants pulled off by Wolf on hang tough. Was so weird when one of the other staff members told me about it as remember that episode while eating dinner as a kid.
I was always a Hunter and a Cobra fan. I was born in 95 so I only have memories of the late 90s watching gladiators. I also used to watch re runs as I got older. Such a brilliant show. I hope the new series is good! These guys were like the WWE wrestlers of the uk!
Yea that's a great point, they really were like the WWE wrestlers of our childhood (even though I also watched WWE back in the 90s too!). Such a great show. It's looking like the new series will debut in early 2024.
Thanks for doing the video the only gladiator I had seen was Saracen on the bus i was on quickly had a chat with him nice guy my favorite gladiators Saracen, Wolf, jet ,lightening and Shadow (sad 😢what happened to him ) this show made my Saturday nights
What a great overview of the series. Well-researched, plenty of detail, and without poking too much fun at the show ha!
As kids, we went to to the tapings in Birmingham several times during series 2, 3 and the International Gladiators shows. The tickets were free, we didn't live too far away, and it was during the school holidays so why not?! Due to the various game sets being constructed and deconstructed, it took a whole 8 hours to film an hour footage for the TV shows. They would actually sometimes film two episodes concurrently, so you'd sometimes see 8 rounds of the same game being played with the 8 contestants over two episodes before they switched-out the game props.
There was about a 30-40 minute interval between each game. And if the Pyramid event was in the show, because the set covered the entire stage, the game would be filmed first before anything else - any introductions, opening applause etc - just straight into the game to save time. The climbing wall on the right of the arena would be raised and the various set pieces would be wheeled in and out of here from backstage. And there was no music played in the arena during the games - that was just for TV. But it was fun and what a great show it was.
Thanks for the excellent video and reviving these memories. Looking forward to seeing more.
Wow, thanks for the awesome insight into what it was like to be there! Very interesting about then filming two episodes at once. Makes sense from a logistical point of view I guess. And no music in the arena!? Didn't expect that!
@@officialbackintheday To clarify regarding the music in the arena, they would play the entrance songs you mention in the video, and songs like 'Another One Bites The Dust' so the audience would interact, but the ambient background music you hear on TV during the games wasn't played, that was added in post-production. Also, the commentary by John Sachs was recorded from a little booth in the corner gap between the audience - one time we were seated close enough to hear him recording and re-recording lines.
But yeah, even as a child I found it very interesting to see how everything was put together for the show. Thanks again 👍
That's really interesting, thanks and sharing and glad you enjoyed the video. Share it around if you can! :)
Watched this every week when it was on. I loved Lightning, she was my fave along with Shadow although I didn't realise he used unscrupulous methods to get where he got! My fave events were duel (I absolutely loved the music just before the start of the fight) and the final assault course - hang tough looked a very tough course for me along with what you said, that hand-bicycle thing.
Growing up I liked watching Jet, Jet, Jet and Jet.
I love that Alan Partridge has a framed photo of Jet on his bedside table
I love watching the OG Gladiators even if I was a baby in it's final series.
I still can't believe that Falcon is gone 😢.
😥
One spin off I loved as a kid was Gladiators 2000. Which was the youth spinoff of American Gladiators.
The cheesy food, Maths, and Science based versions of the games were always fun to watch.
Maaaan, I'd forgot how many events there were in Gladiators, and quite frankly, this has made the recent reboot look like a bare bones effort tbh
Excellent work.
Absolutely loved this is a kid.
Cheers, glad you enjoyed!
@@officialbackinthedayWolf is one of my favourite gladiators with Jet Lightning Cobra and Saracen
When the US version aired it was then aired on UK TV but it was an unknown show here, with a playtime of about 3am on a Saturday night/Sunday morning. My best friend's Dad used to video it, he'd save it and we'd all watch it. He backed Lace but I was a fan of Gold. The uk followed a few years later and from what i remember (although not the details) the US version had some different games (and they went at it HARD, people being knocked flying on a regular, it was great.). The best event I always liked was the Pugel stick (sp?) and as a 12 year old, watching two huge men whack each other relentlessly for a minute with giant cotton buds was often as frightening as it was hilarious. The best obstacle was the travellator as that made every ending a potential nail biter. Really nice video. Recommended to me today. as i somehow found my way to a robot wars retro yesterday so the algorithm is heopfully nibbling for you right now. This was really nicely put together, well paced and framed the time and the show really well. The lline i remember the referee always saying was "Yoou will goooo on ma fiiiiiiiist whiiiiistle...." ahhh the memories. Big thumb up from me.
Great vid, glad this is back on TV now but they do need to pump it up a bit, its a bit tame compared to the good old days.
Programmes like Gladiators are the reason why I didn’t get into dross like reality tv. I hope for the revival they’ll bring back games like Pendulum, Atlaspheres, Skytrak and Slingshot. Like with Robot Wars another great review/documentary.
Thanks mate. Yea they don't make TV shows like they used to!
The GLAAAADIIIAAAATOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRSSSSS!!
3, 2, 1..!!
Ready!!!!????
Brilliant video. Loved gladiators as a kid. So many cracking memories there. Enjoying all your videos so far. Hopefully more to come, especially love to see more prime Saturday night shows like you bet, generation game,big break, friends like these to name a few. brilliant 👍
More videos on the way soon! It takes me quite a while to put together these videos so the frequency is not as fast as I would like, but quality is better than quantity! Thanks for your support :)
I can't believe Jeremy Guscott's easy charm, infectious personality and incredible sense of humour didn't resonate with audiences.
I had that danger zone toy too! Jet, Lightning, Wolf & Saracen were my favourites!
Fun fact regarding the 2008 revival series:
The Gladiator "Oblivion" went on to become a professional wrestler and even won the TNA and NWA world heavyweight championships (and is currently one of the on-screen authority figures on WWE television).
As a 90's kids , Saturday night has certainly got a lot worse
Completely agree. I guess my longing for those times inspired this channel!
My favourite gladiators:
- Panther
- Falcon
- Jet
- Fox
- Hunter
- Cobra
- Saracen
Wolf was my favourite male Glad. Jet probably my fave female.
The music for Powerball is probably indelibly ingrained into my brain. 😅
For me it's the Duel music. Love the way it starts as they are squaring up for battle haha!
Great video, so many events which aren't on the new series (some with Gladiators shooting foam balls, I can gladly miss). A couple of contestants from the originals stuck in my mind ever since: Wesley "Two Scoops" Berry and Rick Keysvetter (spelling?) ...Wes trained by jumping over cars and Rick, I remember got into a fight with Wolf.
Shadow & Lightening were my favourites, but I also liked Warrior, Cobra, Panther & Wolf. The best show in the 90s. The excitement on a Saturday evening just waiting for the theme tune to start
My favourite Gladiators were Jet and Zodiac.
I'm loving the reboot but damn theirs so many games missing they can bring back , hope they do for next season and going forward
You should've mentioned the International shows, for without those, I never would have known about the UK version.
One minor thing - the Utilita Arena is the former Sheffield Arena which is where the show is currently filmed, not the NEC where it was filmed in the 90s. Also I might be wrong but I think Shadow was fired over allegations he'd taken cocaine. It was Warrior who was dogged by rumours he was on steroids, though whether that's why he left I'm not sure.
Great doc, though!
Actually the Sheffield Arena and the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham are both called 'Utilita Arena' now haha!
@@officialbackintheday whoops!
honestly I cannot wait for gladiators to return. I remember watching the re runs on challenge and I fell in love with it and I met jet, panther, lightning, vogue, cobra and hunter at emcon 2022, also my dad and I went to see the new gladiators live back in June, trust me when I say it will be great coz gladiator fans old and new will be blown away.
Wow, you've got me even more excited! I've seen some stuff on social media from people who have attended and it looks incredible. Very jealous you got to go!
@@officialbackintheday yeah, also I forgot to say, R.I.P falcon.
Growing up in the 90s I must have caught every episode of this show. Naturally I was always hoping to see Wolf participate and get up to some nonsense.
R.I.P John Anderson... best referee there was. He didn't take no Bullshit from Wolf.
I love the UK Gladiators! 🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧
I was lucky enough to watch the recording of the international series. Can remember seeing the huge pendulum for the first time and getting a yello glad glove😅
Wow that's amazing! I would have loved to have had the opportunity to see it live in the 90s
I was very lucky. My friend's dad worked for Express and Star newspaper and somehow got tickets from his work.
Great documentary, thanks so much! Now that The Gladiators has returned, this time to BBC1, I'm back in front of the TV on Saturday early evenings. It's great to see the original series chronicled, which shows the depth of your research.
Two things come to mind:
1. Wasn't there a time when Jon Fashanu co-presented with another man? Maybe an American or Canadian?
2. If I remember correctly, The Gladiators had a cameo appearance on the satirical 90s comedy series 'Drop the dead donkey'.
I had no idea that there had been a revival series on Sky. I think the icing on the cake, now that we have the BBC's 2024 series would be to see how the original and past gladiators are doing. 👏🏾❤🌟
Jet and Lightening was so fit
Just an interesting fact my godfather helped set the UK gladiators set up. Only found this out today from my dad
I'm such a nostalgic person and being a child in the 90's I love your channel! I've just subscribed and I look forward to watching more of your retrospectives! A request would be "The Sooty Show" or "Sooty and Co" (not sure if you're only doing game shows or doing children's TV or not) and "The Krypton Factor". And just an idea because I haven't seen this anywhere else, old Amiga 1200 games retrospectives? Keep up the great work! :)
Thanks so much for the sub - it really means a lot! I'm certainly going to be covering other things like movies, games etc. Games in particular will be a loot of fun. Stay tuned!
NEVER be a patch on the original shows but defo I ll be tuning in Well done BBC for getting the gig to present it it meaans people can watch it & enjoy it without being interriupted by stupid adverts
Absolutely. Really looking forward to it!
Danger Zone was based on the American Gladiators game “Assault” while Duel was played as “Joust” in the USA.
Pretty sure Blaze was one of the earlier contestant champions. Here in the US watching the American Gladiators Netflix documentary. Grew up watching UK Gladiators but have lived in the US for the past 15 years now.
Yep, that was Eunice Huthart. She's gone on to have quite the career in Hollywood as a stunt performer and coordinator.
Blaze was Eunice Huthart, she won the 3rd series
@@PBL187 THAT was the one. She was a great contestant.
Nightshade and Falcon were my favourites. I actually meet them as a kid. Still have their autographs.
Nightshade wasn't injured, but she did get very sick when filming for the Australia version of Gladiators. She caught a virus and got very ill. She didn't have time to train up for the next series because of that. She lost a lot of muscles mass after she came back to do the UK shows in series 5.
You can see the difference in the previous series on how skinny she became. So she decided to leave the show and work on other things.
Shadow was fired for taking illegal substance in a club that was in all the newspapers at the time. The show runners said it was due to steroids use officially, but it was later confirmed it was for doing stuff in a club.
Don't know if you're aware, but Falcon died from cancer earlier this year. :(
Favourite gladiators: Warrior, Hunter, Lightning and Scorpio
Favourite events: Atlaspheres, Pyramid, Swingshot, Skytrack and Hang Tough.
help me out here because I swear there was a show that was similar to gladiators, but it was on ice
Ice Warriors. I really liked it, but it got hated on so bad.
Also Vulcan who was in Australia version, so they brought him in the uk version and simply had a rivial with wolf.
Very fond memories. I'd be surprised if If 'shadow' was the only one juicing though.
subbed
Thanks mate!
I am looking forward to the Reboot
It is better than watching Simon Cowell and X Factor 😎😎😎
The only Gladiator i remember from the show is Wolf.
Jet only sticks in my mind cos she was referenced in one of the Bottom live shows.
Jet.😍
RIP John Anderson :(
So sad to hear of his passing :(
Before we had RUclips boxing they had this
I liked Ulrika the most.
Great retrospective although you forgot to include some history on the kids version. I think you hit the nail on the head when you said that Gladiators was awesome because it managed to target any family member, any age. Most of them were great although Wolf is still the legend.
Glad i saw one live at Wembley absolute classic event. If you watched from the start no matter what is said SHADOW was your favourite guy and JET was number one end of... WOLF 🐺 AND THE REF HAVE TO GET A MENTION.
Jet was always my favourite. She's still hot now.
Also Wolf, because he was a textbook wrestling heel character.
Great documentary, but you forgot to mention the real reason John Fashanu temporarily left Gladiators, which was he got in trouble with the law in late 1996 for allegedly fixing football matches. That is how Jeremy Guscott got to co-host Series 6 and 7.
Luckily, after two years, Fash got found not guilty in late 1998-early 1999 and would return for the final series.
Yea I had read about that but didn't want to go into too much detail about it as I wanted the documentary to focus more on the show itself. So many interesting things that could have made this documentary a LOT longer!
Jet, just jet !!!
I can't say I watched Gladiators back in the day much & I found TV then a bit in your face but I did enjoy Big Break & Beadle's About though. Great Vid though!.
Nightshade went to the same school as I did obviously not at the same time. I loved gladiators as a kid it was family night with house party, big break! I’m enjoying the new series on bbc one be interesting what other people think?
amazing...thankyou
The new one is pretty good.
Gladiators
Stars in their eyes
Blind Date
Who wants to be a millionaire
among others, Saturday night was absolutely epic during the 90's. TV these days have nothing on those and more I've mentioned
For me 3 out of four on your list couldn't stand stars in their eyes
There is nothing more stereotypically American than a title specifying that something is American, even though there aren't any others around the world to set itself aside from yet. They could have just been the original 'Gladiators'!
Jet … Jet … that is all
KnightRider (1982) was not created in the same era as Friends (1994) - otherwise great documentary really enjoyed it!
Knight Rider was rerun quite a lot in the 90s though!
My friend played Malibu in the American version.
Loved the video man what do you think of the revival?
I personally love it although it would be cool to see some of the old glads come back to help
And for the BBC incarnation they reversed the silliness of the Sky One incarnation and gone for a more tense, dramatic, Brutal, direction of the original.
It's back 2nite ❤❤❤
Can't wait!!
@@officialbackinthedaywill be making a video about the new series one day?
@@SRC267 Yea I've got a couple of videos up on the channel now about the new series :)
Vt editor at the time is clayton park he sadly got killed in a Car Accident
Tilt was axed due to safety
Whos doing this voiceover cos sounds like an actor i know! Paul Birchard x
Just me, but I'm not Paul Birchard haha!
Hehe you sound like him 😂
Jet. Need I say anything more?
If you weren't a child at the time and didn't take two broomsticks, tape up two pillows on both ends and do a "Duel" with your siblings or cousins, you've never lived.
Huge fan of this show. My favourite Gladiators were Saracen, Rio, Hunter, Lightning and Siren. Favourite events were Pendulum, Duel, Hang Tough and Pyramid. I've been to a filming of one of the new episodes, and while I won't spoil anything I will say that it's way more in line with the original series than the Sky version.
That's great news. I've seen a few tiktoks and youtube shorts from the filming of it and it does look strikingly like the original which makes me even more excited! Hope you had a good time at the filming!
@@officialbackinthedaymy favourite games were the wall and Swingshot
Great video. Are you going to look into the Ashes and World Championship series as well?
Sounds like a good idea for a future video :)
My favourites events
Duel
Powerball
Hang Tough
Gauntlet
Pyramid
Only one fired for steroids. Every single one of those fellas was on the juice 😂😂
Danger zone is my favourites and skytrax
I loved the Danger Zone toy I had as a kid, definitely one of my favourites!
When tv was good.
9:10 yeah because the rest of them were natural :D
I was 13 when Gladiators started in Australia. My favourite Gladiators were Flame and Tower. My favourite games were Duel, Hang Tough, Atlaspheres and Gauntlet.
I've been disappointed with the 2024 revival here so far. 5 episodes and every single one of them have had Powerball, The Wall, Duel and Pyramid, in varying orders. Rather lacklustre, I think.
I definitely need to check out the Australian reboot! Not sure how to watch it from the UK.
Jon Fashnu got sacked after he was caught taking drugs.
Jet and vogue