American Ninja Warrior is a worse version of Japanese Ninja Warrior
use to love watching Ninja Warrior, but i've been able to get into the American version. Something about it just seems so overproduced and soulless. Loved American Gladiators.
Not really fair, the ball wasn't thrown properly at the orange guy.
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American Gladiators was the GOAT athletic competition show if you ignore the abomination that was the 2008 "revival"
How did it fail? I missed it but I didn't watch a lot of TV then. In 2008 I had just moved out of my parents house and didn't have cable. I just played video games and worked basically.
Japanese "Ninja Warrior" was fun because it was so competitive. It was just a bunch of people fucking around. But of course America has this fascination to want to turn everything into some "game show" and made it take itself way too seriously. I admire the people who can do the courses, but it's just not as fun to watch imo.
How did it fail? I missed it but I didn't watch a lot of TV then. In 2008 I had just moved out of my parents house and didn't have cable. I just played video games and worked basically.
It failed in almost every way imaginable.
They made it way too much of an overblown spectacle. A lot of the charm of the OG version was the more low-budget, amateurish look and feel of it. Probably the biggest reason I'm skeptical a reboot could ever work in today's world where everything (especially a primetime network show, which AG is not a fit for at all) has to be incredibly slick and overproduced with tons of lights and effects and editing. The shit like the unnecessary giant pool, and fire and pyrotechnics everywhere detracted from the proceedings rather than adding to it.
Ridiculous overspecialization of the gladiators. The whole point is supposed to be that they're good all-around athletes who could be dropped into any of the show's events and put up a good showing. This version had several gladiators that literally only showed up in like one or two different events that played to their strengths.
Hogan and Ali's hosting was poor at best and came across as more of a "look at us, we're famous" than an attempt to have someone who knew how to conduct contestant interviews. IIRC there was someone else never seen on-camera who did the play-by-play commentary during events because they sucked so much.
A broken tournament format. Since they had 10 episodes a season instead of 26 like the original series everything was compressed with a format that first-round winners being ranked by their eliminator times and getting eliminated despite winning if they didn't make the top four or something. Speaking of which,
An Eliminator course that was so stupid it pretty much rendered the entire rest of the show pointless. Courses on the original run typically took contenders about a minute to finish, give or take. The one here went on forever, with swimming under a bar of fire, climbing up the pyramid, and more stuff I'm probably forgetting added on top of the stuff that was previously there. I think it took probably 3-4 minutes for a *good* run if somebody could actually do it without getting winded. But what really ruined it was
The inclined treadmill. Like the later seasons of the original, it was at the end of the course. Unlike the original, there was no "three attempts and then you can go around it" rule, you kept at it until you did it. Which lead to several episodes where someone with a big lead spent minutes falling on it and catching their breath over and over while the tortoise slowly catches up and wins because they went so slow they're not winded enough to be unable to do it. And at least a couple episodes had BOTH contestants get stuck there to the point they had to edit out several minutes of constant waiting and failed attempts before someone finally wins with a time of something like 10 or 13 minutes. I'm sorry to rag on this point so much but this one is what really ruined the show for me more than anything else.
Constant contestant sob stories. This is really a NBC game show thing and has been for decades now, but they feel the need to cast mostly people who have some "inspirational" reason why they're competing that they need to stop and drill into our heads constantly. I'm pretty sure nobody cares. The worst was when they had a contestant with a metal prosthetic leg competing and they acted like it was the most amazing thing ever despite the fact that he didn't do very well and literally couldn't get up the Eliminator treadmill with his leg until they shut it off, meaning as much as I or anyone else might feel for him, he really never had any chance and probably shouldn't have been there to begin with.
Also the referee was completely forgettable unlike Larry Thompson and the Gladiators in general just didn't seem very likeable or sportsmanlike but I've ragged on way too long already
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I just watched the whole documentary last week, it was pretty interesting. I thought Malibu was on there longer than the first season. I also learned Ice was a lesbian (and a smoker).
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Japanese "Ninja Warrior" was fun because it was so competitive. It was just a bunch of people fucking around. But of course America has this fascination to want to turn everything into some "game show" and made it take itself way too seriously. I admire the people who can do the courses, but it's just not as fun to watch imo.
The best part of the OG is how quick they did everything like the backstories, the courses and the fails of course
ANW does take itself too serious and takes FOREVER introducing contestants and the commentary is so flat compared to the og
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i still keep up on ANW since i been watching it since season 4 and seen sasuke before then(japanese version). but yea even people on the show have posted on reddit that the show only selects people with some kind of sob story or something. they need the people to have some gimmick instead of just being a great athlete. definitely gets old but it's fine to throw on in the background and watch runs of people you like and then watch the finals. but yea like probably like seasons 4-7ish were the best and been downhill since. i didn't mind the first 3 seasons either although it was like a weird bootcamp instead trying to be like a reality show.
american gladiators i loved as a kid and loved the snes game although it kinda sucked and know some of the challenges i didn't even know how to do for years since i was so young playing.
never watched the revival. just seen some clips of it. apparently they're working with WWE to revive it and do it with wrestlers. but that says it was 2021 and seems like nobody has picked it up yet. granted with the strike it's hard to but i doubt that's gonna last long. probably only a season or 2 tops if it happens.
* They made it way too much of an overblown spectacle. A lot of the charm of the OG version was the more low-budget, amateurish look and feel of it. Probably the biggest reason I'm skeptical a reboot could ever work in today's world where everything (especially a primetime network show, which AG is not a fit for at all) has to be incredibly slick and overproduced with tons of lights and effects and editing. The shit like the unnecessary giant pool, and fire and pyrotechnics everywhere detracted from the proceedings rather than adding to it. * Ridiculous overspecialization of the gladiators. The whole point is supposed to be that they're good all-around athletes who could be dropped into any of the show's events and put up a good showing. This version had several gladiators that literally only showed up in like one or two different events that played to their strengths. * Hogan and Ali's hosting was poor at best and came across as more of a "look at us, we're famous" than an attempt to have someone who knew how to conduct contestant interviews. IIRC there was someone else never seen on-camera who did the play-by-play commentary during events because they sucked so much. * A broken tournament format. Since they had 10 episodes a season instead of 26 like the original series everything was compressed with a format that first-round winners being ranked by their eliminator times and getting eliminated despite winning if they didn't make the top four or something. Speaking of which, * An Eliminator course that was so stupid it pretty much rendered the entire rest of the show pointless. Courses on the original run typically took contenders about a minute to finish, give or take. The one here went on forever, with swimming under a bar of fire, climbing up the pyramid, and more stuff I'm probably forgetting added on top of the stuff that was previously there. I think it took probably 3-4 minutes for a *good* run if somebody could actually do it without getting winded. But what really ruined it was * The inclined treadmill. Like the later seasons of the original, it was at the end of the course. Unlike the original, there was no "three attempts and then you can go around it" rule, you kept at it until you did it. Which lead to several episodes where someone with a big lead spent minutes falling on it and catching their breath over and over while the tortoise slowly catches up and wins because they went so slow they're not winded enough to be unable to do it. And at least a couple episodes had BOTH contestants get stuck there to the point they had to edit out several minutes of constant waiting and failed attempts before someone finally wins with a time of something like 10 or 13 minutes. I'm sorry to rag on this point so much but this one is what really ruined the show for me more than anything else. * Constant contestant sob stories. This is really a NBC game show thing and has been for decades now, but they feel the need to cast mostly people who have some "inspirational" reason why they're competing that they need to stop and drill into our heads constantly. I'm pretty sure nobody cares. The worst was when they had a contestant with a metal prosthetic leg competing and they acted like it was the most amazing thing ever despite the fact that he didn't do very well and literally couldn't get up the Eliminator treadmill with his leg until they shut it off, meaning as much as I or anyone else might feel for him, he really never had any chance and probably shouldn't have been there to begin with. Also the referee was completely forgettable unlike Larry Thompson and the Gladiators in general just didn't seem very likeable or sportsmanlike but I've ragged on way too long already
Wow dude, thanks for the detailed reply to my question. It sounded like a train wreck.
I watched the Netflix documentary too, and it sounded like injuries to the gladiators was a major issue, especially with the Human Cannonball event. I think there is plenty of room to tweak the format and steer clear of the "reality TV" drama that they tried to do. Just get some normal Crossfit dudes/chicks and pair them against REAL bodybuilders and keep the editing to a minimum. Bring back the amateur feel. It can't be hard.
* They made it way too much of an overblown spectacle. A lot of the charm of the OG version was the more low-budget, amateurish look and feel of it. Probably the biggest reason I'm skeptical a reboot could ever work in today's world where everything (especially a primetime network show, which AG is not a fit for at all) has to be incredibly slick and overproduced with tons of lights and effects and editing. The shit like the unnecessary giant pool, and fire and pyrotechnics everywhere detracted from the proceedings rather than adding to it. * Ridiculous overspecialization of the gladiators. The whole point is supposed to be that they're good all-around athletes who could be dropped into any of the show's events and put up a good showing. This version had several gladiators that literally only showed up in like one or two different events that played to their strengths. * Hogan and Ali's hosting was poor at best and came across as more of a "look at us, we're famous" than an attempt to have someone who knew how to conduct contestant interviews. IIRC there was someone else never seen on-camera who did the play-by-play commentary during events because they sucked so much. * A broken tournament format. Since they had 10 episodes a season instead of 26 like the original series everything was compressed with a format that first-round winners being ranked by their eliminator times and getting eliminated despite winning if they didn't make the top four or something. Speaking of which, * An Eliminator course that was so stupid it pretty much rendered the entire rest of the show pointless. Courses on the original run typically took contenders about a minute to finish, give or take. The one here went on forever, with swimming under a bar of fire, climbing up the pyramid, and more stuff I'm probably forgetting added on top of the stuff that was previously there. I think it took probably 3-4 minutes for a *good* run if somebody could actually do it without getting winded. But what really ruined it was * The inclined treadmill. Like the later seasons of the original, it was at the end of the course. Unlike the original, there was no "three attempts and then you can go around it" rule, you kept at it until you did it. Which lead to several episodes where someone with a big lead spent minutes falling on it and catching their breath over and over while the tortoise slowly catches up and wins because they went so slow they're not winded enough to be unable to do it. And at least a couple episodes had BOTH contestants get stuck there to the point they had to edit out several minutes of constant waiting and failed attempts before someone finally wins with a time of something like 10 or 13 minutes. I'm sorry to rag on this point so much but this one is what really ruined the show for me more than anything else. * Constant contestant sob stories. This is really a NBC game show thing and has been for decades now, but they feel the need to cast mostly people who have some "inspirational" reason why they're competing that they need to stop and drill into our heads constantly. I'm pretty sure nobody cares. The worst was when they had a contestant with a metal prosthetic leg competing and they acted like it was the most amazing thing ever despite the fact that he didn't do very well and literally couldn't get up the Eliminator treadmill with his leg until they shut it off, meaning as much as I or anyone else might feel for him, he really never had any chance and probably shouldn't have been there to begin with. Also the referee was completely forgettable unlike Larry Thompson and the Gladiators in general just didn't seem very likeable or sportsmanlike but I've ragged on way too long already
Nailed everything right here
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