Tuesday, November 27, 2007

America! ____ Yeah!

As I continue to bask in the glory of Man Vs. Wild returning for a second season (even though I have to catch up on the episodes), another television phenomenon has hit my radar. It was brought to my attention on Sunday night, as I watched the Eagles put on a classic performance against the Patriots. In typical Philadelphia fashion, they made it a nail-biter until the very end, and lost (Have I mentioned how lucky I am to be a Philly fan?) I suppose I should be happy that they proved everyone wrong, eliminated the hype of the Patriots being favored by 25 points, and played well with a backup QB. Well, I'm greedy -- I wanted the glory of winning!!

Anyway, the advertisement I saw was for an updated edition of the classic "American Gladiators." If you remember this old classic, you know how awesome it was. A competition-heavy show, American Gladiators picked contestants to challenge their strength, endurance, and stamina in a series of events against a crew of meatheads that appeared to have bathed in steroids. One of my favorite events was a battle zone, where one of the gladiators manned a giant gun that shot tennis balls at excessive speeds. The contestants tried to avoid those tennis balls as they ran between stations, using different weapons in attempts to hit a target above the gladiator. These "gladiators" had great names like Gemini, Zap, Laser, Nitro, and Turbo. Personally, looking back, my favorite was Malibu, a Cali-surfer type who was dumb as a rock and almost always got beaten by the contestants. How can you beat interviews like this one...

I didn't know stoner-surfer personas could also be meatheads. Malibu eliminated those boundaries.

I'm hoping this revival will not be as horrible as most revivals are (except for Creedence Clearwater Revival of course). The obstacle is that, although I really enjoyed the show when it was airing, it's even better now because in retrospect, it's classic cheesy 90's material. The new one will try to put a new millenium twist on the concept, but hopefully it will be worth viewing.

If not, I'll fall back on watching episodes online of the Japanese show Ninja Warrior. More on that later...




3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The most expensive thing about being an Eagles fan is all the psychological and grief counseling needed after each game. And then I resort to wearing my team apparel to do yard work. Somehow, that just feels right! No superbowl this year . . . again.

Anonymous said...

Glad you enjoyed Fogarty...CCR will never reunite...ME? I am waiting for The Eagles. After seeing The Hell Freezes Over Reunion a few years back and their release of the new album last week, MY tickets won't be available for give-aways! LOL! Love you, Kev! Glad Thanksgiving was good. My best to your fam...Ange :)

David Oblas said...

yeah, they always had fun guys on there... theres Blaze.. Lazer...... Blazer... lol

good CCR reference - probably the best "revival" ever known to man (c: