Me: Ah, 'Gladiators'. So good to have it back. I've always maintained that 'Gladiators' was the second best game show in the history of game shows. The best was probably 'It's a Knockout'.
Him: I feel honour bound to point out to you that ‘Gladiators’ is not in fact a game show, it is a reality TV show, and is therefore the enemy of all things good and true. If you watch it, somewhere a ‘Firefly’ or ‘Arrested Development’ fan drops dead.
Not true! Not true I say! 'Gladiators' is not only a bona fide "game show", but it goes right to the heart of what a "game show" is - and it's a (rather well disguised, admittedly) revival of one of the oldest "gaming" traditions in our culture. There have always been two different types of games in our culture - parlour games and "village green" games, and the latter has a longer tradition of entertaining the masses than the former, but is under a greater threat.
Long before people in suits sat behind buzzers and answered silly questions like "What is the capital of Madagascar?", people would gather at the village green and try to knock each other off greasy poles while balancing over mud pits. Long before they were trying to guess which suitcase held the highest number (okay, surely there's no way you can get an entire half-hour out of that concept?), they would compete to see who could get to the top of the may-pole first. That entire concept of getting from one side of the playing area to the other while members of the opposing team tried to stop you? As old as time itself - and one of the foundations behind many sports today. And races through horrible, awkward, messy, wet obstacle courses are the direct ascendants of the steeple chase and other "games" that used to be a lot more interesting before they got into the Olympics...
'Gladiators' is an exaggerated, heavily padded version of the games villagers used to play during their harvest and spring time celebrations. What you see when you watch modern game shows like "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" or "Are you Smarter than a Fifth Grader" is the result of a tradition that started with the radio. You couldn't see people knocking each other off greasy poles into mud pits on the radio, so they favoured the types of parlour games that were heavily word oriented instead of the "village green" games that were largely visual. Television evolved from radio, so the first game shows you saw on TV were actually the same game shows you once listened to on the wireless - and things just continued on from there.
It's actually rather interesting, when you think about it. Once upon a time the parlour games were enjoyed by a small group of people indoors on a cool evening, while the "village green" games would bring the whole community together (and sometimes neighbouring communities as well) and have everyone talking about them for weeks. Now, thanks to radio and television, the parlour games are this huge national things that everyone watches and talks about, while the "village green" games have become something you might do once in your life (or maybe at a school fun day) and they're this small, local thing that not many people might see...
Anyway, one of the reasons why I love 'Gladiators' (apart from the pure cheese factor, which is a big selling point for me) is that it is bringing back the concept of the physical games and keeping the whole greasy-pole thing in the public consciousness (this was also one of the reasons why I couldn't entirely hate the Friday Night Games spin off from Big Brother, even though I wanted to). Yes, the pole has been replaced by a suspension bridge. Yes, the mud pit has been replaced with a hell of a lot of padding, but it's still the same game at heart.
And they are games - and it is a game show, not a reality show. We aren't following these people for weeks and no one is voting them off. They play the games and win or loose.
You say every time a reality show proves successful a good quality scripted drama dies (or is never born), and I agree, but I say we need shows like 'Gladiators' to balance out shows like 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire'. I bet the kids in your class have played games like 'Millionaire' and 'Sale of the Century' many times in the past, but have any of them ever tried to pull themselves up to the top of the rope and grab the ring/flag? Heck, you'd be surprised to find out just how many of them have never been in a three-legged race - and that's one of the most dirt-basic, common "village green" games out there.
It always amazes me when I go to fairs or fetes and the only game they have is a boot-tossing competition. Where are the muddy pits? Where are the greasy poles? Where's the race track for the egg-and-spoon races, the sack races, the three-legged races and the wheelbarrow races? Where are the coconut shys? Why is a log-splitting competition now part of the semi-professional sport of wood chopping and not something that just happens at community events? I once saw a potato picking race (where you had to compete to see who could put the most potatoes in a sack in the time allowed) and was impressed that it would still exist - but perplexed that they didn't also have a sack race (seeing as they had the sacks, and all).
We're slowly loosing the "village green" games - and it's really hard to enthuse people about bringing them back. I've often tried to convince people to have a few "fun day" type races (I've even been willing to co-ordinate them), but I get knocked back no one really connects with them any more. It's slipping out of our cultural currency. But - we have 'Gladiators'. Even if you can't convince the modern punter to "climb the rope and grab the flag", you can market it as "Townsville Gladiators" and suddenly people are more engaged - more interested.
So, yes, 'Gladiators' is a game show. Perhaps not the most intelligent game show on the face of the earth, but no less important for the fact that the games are physical instead of knowledge based. I shall defend it to the death (or at least to the pain).
No comments:
Post a Comment