American Gladiators is an American competition television program that aired weekly in syndication from September 1989 to May 1996. The series matched a cast of amateur athletes against each other, as well as against the show's own "gladiators", in contests of strength and agility. The concept was originally created in 1982 by Johnny C. Ferraro and Dann Carr. Ferraro is the sole creator of the 1994 kids' version of the series, Gladiator 2000 (a.k.a. G2)