‘American Gladiators’ dark side revealed in ESPN doc: ‘Like wartime’
nypost.comMcBee split his head open and sustained a vicious concussion from the impact that required surgery to realign his forehead.But, no one working on the show — one where amateur competitors from across the nation took on titans with fun nicknames — seemed that concerned, according to McGee.“None of the producers or directors came up and talked to me about it.
Nobody wanted to say what happened and it was like they wanted to sweep it under the rug.”His physician, however, was alarmed.“My doctor said, ‘Listen, you sustain one more hit like you got, you’re going to be in a wheelchair paralyzed because your brain is slowing,'” McBee, now 62, told The Post.
But, “I begged him to let me go back to work.” The hit competition show, which ran from 1989 to 1996, didn’t have much job security for its participants, who taped as many as four events per day.
McGee continued being a gladiator for several more years, during which time he tore his bicep and broke three ribs.“It was cutthroat,” he said. “[The attitude was] ‘because if you don’t do it, we’ll just get somebody else to fill your boots’ … I had these things in the back of my mind.
Read more on nypost.com