I may be showing my age here, but I grew up watching The Superstars on Sunday afternoons on ABC. It was appointment television at my house. Kyle Rote Jr. may have been the ultimate Superstars competitor, but as an Oakland Raiders fan and a lover of entertaining television, I treasured the appearances of massive defensive end Ben Davidson. I can still see him yanking the oarlock right out of the boat during the rowing competition.
The new version of The Superstars, inevitably, has a celebrity and reality-competition vibe instead of the junk-sports format of the original show. Athletes like Terrell Owen, Robert Horry and Brandi Chastain are paired up with supermodels, designers from Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, singers, actors, and anybody with a minimal amount of fame who might look good in beachwear. The setting is the Atlantis hotel and casino in the Caribbean, and this suggests a few twists to the rather high-school-practice-field-bound competition of the seventies. Read More
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