Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The American Gladiators Documentary’ on ESPN+, a Loving Look Back at the Groundbreaking Reality TV Competition Series

It was the greatest sports spectacle of its era; more thrilling than football, baseball, basketball or anything else. American Gladiators was a cultural phenomenon in the late ’80s, pitting everyday competitors against human action figures, and audiences ate it up. In The American Gladiators Documentary, a two-part installment of ESPN’s 30 For 30 series, we get the definitive look inside the arena.

30 FOR 30: THE AMERICAN GLADIATORS DOCUMENTARY: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Gemini. Nitro. Laser. Malibu. If you’re a child of the 1980s and 1990s, then the names immediately conjure up spandex-clad combat: the spectacle of American Gladiators. The greatest reality show of its era, it ran for seven seasons and introduced viewers around the world to a lineup of real-life He-Mans and She-Ras, smashing ordinary joes into the gym mats. In The American Gladiators Documentary, a two-part documentary movie, we get a loving history of the “American Idol of muscles”, told by many of the figures at the center of it.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: ESPN’s 30 For 30 series is an institution at this point, and viewers are right to have high expectations for anything carrying that branding. But in capturing a lightning-in-a-bottle moment from decades ago, a phenomenon that could only exist in one place and time, it recalls one of the most memorable 30 For 30 documentaries, The U, about the glory days of University of Miami football.

Performance Worth Watching: It’s wild to see many of the familiar names from the glory days of Gladiators–people with names like Malibu, Electra and Gemini–show up thirty years later as real people with normal first and last names, people who sit in living rooms rather than standing on a jousting platform. But the most compelling figure has to be Johnny Ferraro, the scheming, Elvis-loving, often-reviled creator of the show, who sits at the center of the documentary.

Memorable Dialogue: “I can’t really say this, but I think in the history of television, I would be in the top ten directors having fun,” American Gladiators director Bob Levy suggests in a sit-down interview. “Not the top ten greatest directors, but the top ten having fun?”, his interviewer clarifies, laughing. “By having fun, it all happened!”, Levy explains, still seemingly having a good time all these years later.

Sex and Skin: There’s a whole lot of spandex and baby oil, but nothing too horny.

Our Take: Even if you loved American Gladiators during its original run, you might not know that it wasn’t supposed to be a television show at all. The concept for the now-iconic competition–the brainchild of Johnny Ferraro–was originally intended to be a movie, an over-the-top production in line with 1980s action movies like The Running Man. Ferraro spent years pitching the idea to anyone in Hollywood who would listen, going so far as to have it narrated onto a tape deck that he could play for studio executives he’d accost at restaurants and bars. When a studio finally did bite, it wasn’t as a movie, but as a television show–and the rest, as they say, is history.

When American Gladiators debuted in 1989, it was an immediate hit–and an immediate source of scorn from media and politicians, many of whom derided it as “crash TV” — something too crass, too sexual, too violent for polite society, a lurid pageant of flesh and blood.

Well, the media might not have loved it, but audiences did. The stable of larger-than-life gladiators with names like Nitro, Gemini, Laser and Malibu were real-life comic-book characters, and aspirational enemies for a generation of amateur combatants.

The tone of The American Gladiators Documentary vacillates between recognizing the incredible camp of the show and celebrating it as a special moment in television history. In this sense, it almost recalls Netflix’s GLOW, the fictionalized series about female wrestlers in the 1980s. Like that much-loved (and sadly-departed) show, it recognizes that these two notions can coexist–that something silly and salacious and circus-like can be special for everyone involved.

The documentary brings in a wide range of figures involved with the production, including Ferraro, director Bob Levy, emcee Mike Adamle, various technical producers, original gladiators and the everyday contenders who tried their game against the best. There’s certainly some harsh differences of opinion–especially as it pertains to Ferraro’s pay rates and “image”-conscious controls of Gladiators’ personal lives–and a number of the most-recognizable Gladiators refused to participate largely because of Ferraro’s involvement. The documentary is candid about how the Gladiators were often treated by Ferraro as interchangeable parts, leading many to compete through injuries and use steroids to stay in the lineup, in some cases leaving them with chronic injuries and struggling with addiction. There’s also the question of whether Ferraro truly created the show, or if he stole the concept from his co-creator, “Apache” Dan Carr.

Still, many of the figures involved seem to retain a genuine fondness for this thing that they made, a show that inspired generations of reality shows after it. Without American Gladiators, there’s no American Ninja Warrior, there’s none of the countless other shows that have come since. It was a fleeting moment in time, but one whose impact still endures.

Our Call: STREAM IT. There was nothing quite like American Gladiators in its prime, and The American Gladiators Documentary captures the magic, weirdness and spectacle of it all in an entertaining and nostalgic package.

Scott Hines is an architect, blogger and proficient internet user based in Louisville, Kentucky who publishes the widely-beloved Action Cookbook Newsletter.