What Was The Japanese Show Like Wipeout

American comedy tv series that re-dubbed Japanese game show Takeshi'southward Castle as a parody

Nigh Extreme Elimination Challenge

Created past	Paul Abeyta Peter Kaikko Larry Strawther
Based on	Takeshi'southward Castle
Starring	Victor Wilson Christopher Darga John Cervenka Mary Scheer
Opening theme	"Firebrand" by Bumblefoot
Land of origin	Usa
No. of episodes	81 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Paul Abeyta Peter Kaikko Larry Strawther
Producers	Christopher Darga John Cervenka^[a] Herbert C. Goss^[b] Ray James^[c] Roy Jenkins^[b] Kip Madsen^[d] CeCe Pleasants^[c] Mary Scheer^[eastward] Victor Wilson^[f]
Running time	approx. 20 minutes
Production companies	RC Entertainment, Inc.
Distributor	Magnolia Home Entertainment
Release
Original network	TNN/Fasten
Original release	April xix, 2003 (2003-04-nineteen) – February 9, 2007 (2007-02-09)

Most Extreme Elimination Challenge ( MXC ) is an American comedy boob tube program that aired on Spike Telly from 2003 to 2007. Information technology is a re-purpose of footage from the Japanese game show Takeshi's Castle, which originally aired in Japan from 1986 to 1990. The re-purposed MXC created a completely new premise, storyline, and characters, with two teams competing confronting each other à la a typical team sports broadcast and players trying to win points for their teams by surviving through unlike challenges. In the original programme the Count and his underlings would follow the progress of the players every bit they moved through the course. In the re-purpose Count Takeshi became veteran network journalist Vic Romano and the Count's flunky became immature upstart Kenny Blankenship.

About Extreme Elimination Challenge was created and produced by RC Entertainment, Inc. (Paul Abeyta and Peter Kaikko) in Los Angeles, California, and Larry Strawther (a writer and producer on a number of network sitcoms). The iii were friends who had worked together at Merv Griffin Productions in the tardily 1970s. Strawther was a staffer on Dance Fever, which Abeyta took over as executive producer the post-obit season, while Strawther stayed with Jeopardy!. Between jobs they would occasionally try to create their own projects. One of these was the 1990s talk show spoof Night Stand with Dick Dietrick. MXC is the property of both Tokyo Dissemination System (TBS) and RC Entertainment. The 2004 special episode MXC Almost Live is the property of Viacom International and was filmed in Orlando, Florida, by the producers of MXC.

Episodes [edit]

Season		Episodes	Originally aired
Season		Episodes	Season premiere	Flavour finale
	1	13	April 19, 2003	July xix, 2003
	2	13	July 31, 2003	Nov 6, 2003
	iii	27	April 22, 2004	April 7, 2005
	4	xv	Oct 20, 2005	March ix, 2006
	five	13	November 9, 2006	February nine, 2007

The premise of Most Extreme Elimination Challenge (as distinct from Takeshi'southward Castle) is a game show that is hosted by the eccentric characters Vic Romano (Vic Wilson) and Kenny Blankenship (Chris Darga), along with the field marshal Captain Tenneal (John Cervenka) and the field reporter Guy LeDouche (John Cervenka). The journalist (John Cervenka) would begin each episode with this standard introduction:

"What are these people running from? They're not! They're running to the world'southward toughest competition in town!"

When the show was transitioning away from its total name, it briefly added "Most Extreme Elimination Challenge!" to the end of the opening.

Eventually the opening introduction was changed to:

"Go fired up for MXC! The earth'southward most toughest competition in boondocks!"

Usually, two or 3 teams of contestants compete in several plough-based and head-to-head challenges. The only episode washed without a competitive team base was the first episode always made, which was simply centered around the stereotypical antics of college girls. Fifty-fifty though this was the first episode made,^[1] it was the seventh episode of season one to air. Nigh other competitive teams do not truly take a real-life rivalry (due east.g., Season ane, Episode ii "Donors vs Addicts"), while others such as Democrats vs Republicans vs Tertiary Party do.

The contestants compete in a variety of challenges, usually four per episode, but occasionally as many as six. The challenges are extremely hard, and a bulk of the contestants fail to complete the challenges. Throughout the testify, painful failures to complete challenges are reviewed by Vic and Kenny in the "MXC Impact Replay" (briefly given sponsor names similar the "Snickers Satisfies Replay" and the "Slim Jim Snap of the Solar day"), which is essentially a sports-themed playback characteristic. Occasionally, the Impact Replay is used for Kenny's pleasure, in looking at the female contestants, items, or random events in the series which he finds funny or disappointing. Contestants who practice complete a claiming earn points for their team. The squad with the most points at the end of the episode wins the contest. At the stop of each episode, Kenny counts down the ten "Most Painful Eliminations of the 24-hour interval", which usually focus on the events shown in the Bear on Replay, but sometimes includes random events that involved the primary or recurring characters.

Kenny and Vic, along with any other people around them at the terminate of the show, all end the episode by maxim: "Don't get eliminated!"

MXC Almost Alive and other special episodes [edit]

On Apr 22, 2004, Fasten Idiot box aired a special edition of the bear witness to start the third flavor, featuring skateboarder Tony Hawk and snowboarder Tara Dakides. The special was taped at the Universal Orlando Resort in Orlando, Florida, using students from nearby colleges and dubbed MXC Almost Live . The special edition is non based on the original Takeshi'south Castle footage, but merely has some added in for Vic, Ken, the Captain, and Guy LeDouche. Actors were hired to play those who would supersede the roles of the latter two, named "Major Babe" (Michelle Sorrell) and "Gip LeDouche" (Eric Esteban).

Three other special episodes aired, all from Season ii, including a special dark episode, a "Monsters vs. Mascots" episode, and a special winter episode.

Fasten initially held a contest in 2005 or 2006 in which the winner was to have his name and the proper name of five of his friends used in an episode of MXC and would as well receive a viewing party of that episode for up to 50 people at a place of his choice. However, this contest never fully materialized and was canceled for unknown reasons.

Characters [edit]

Main characters [edit]

Vic Romano (voiced by Victor Wilson) is the co-host and play-past-play commentator. In Takeshi's Castle, Vic'due south graphic symbol is Count Takeshi himself, the chief character of the show. In MXC, Vic is level-headed, has a nighttime past of alcohol corruption, failed marriages, and various addictions, and generally treats MXC every bit a serious competition. Vic was one time also a professional baseball player who became addicted to "everything", including every blazon of drug, alcohol, and easy women. He was a one-time news ballast who lost his job because "the scotch made the teleprompter blurry" and once was an airline pilot during his stint of alcohol abuse, but states: "Luckily, nobody noticed." Notable catchphrases include "Right you lot are, Ken!", "Good to know!", "I think you might be right, Ken!", "Indeed!", and "Kenny!", which is usually followed by him smacking Kenny's caput with a paper fan, in response to Kenny's commentary of the action. He'due south especially addicted of his 1974 AMC Matador coupe. The character is played past Japanese actor and motion picture manager Takeshi Kitano, who besides created the original serial from which MXC takes its footage, Takeshi'due south Castle.
Kenny Blankenship (voiced by Chris Darga) is Vic'southward co-host and colour commentator. Blankenship is a high-school dropout whose uncle owns the network. Kenny's grapheme is very unprofessional about hosting, far less serious about the job than Vic's character is. Despite his non-professional, simplistic stand-betoken, he claims to brand ten times the amount that Vic does because of his uncle being i of the network bosses. Kenny has also been stated to own a condo circuitous from all the coin that he earns from hosting and drives a Volkswagen Jetta. During hosting, Kenny usually spends his fourth dimension commenting on the sexual appeal of the female competitors and how much he likes beer, pizza, and seeing the majority of competitors wipe out. Kenny'south grapheme was originally played by Japanese pol and comedian Hideo Higashikokubaru.
Captain Tenneal (voiced by John Cervenka), whose name comes from the 1970s musical human activity Captain & Tennille, is the field marshal who conducts the contestants through each challenge with a sharp "Get it on!" (in the manner of former Idiot box guess and boxing referee Mills Lane, whose courtroom testify appeared on The Nashville Network, the predecessor of Spike TV). Near the start of each MXC episode, he is seen addressing the contestants as a grouping, request whether some broad assertion relating to one of the topics in the episode is truthful. After the contestants raise their hands to testify agreement, the Helm usually declares "Well, you're wrong!", simply in a few episodes, he actually agrees with the contestants. He'll sometimes defend his stance by maxim, "Of course I'm right, I'thou the Captain!" After further caption and give-and-take with individual contestants, he bellows "Allow's go!" and leads the contestants forward to begin playing the games. Captain Tenneal normally displays traditional attitudes towards social bug and speaks formally (calling Vic and Kenny "Victor" and "Kenneth," respectively) and takes pride in both his armed services service and modest alimony. He is the author of a best-selling book (Well, you're incorrect!) and is not above trading suggestive innuendo with the female competitors, most all of whom are interested in him romantically. Captain Tenneal is played by Hayato Tani.
Guy LeDouche (pronounced "gee" equally in "geezer", and too voiced past Cervenka) is the MXC field reporter. He is portrayed wearing a pith helmet and his personality is that of a deranged and maniacal pervert of suggested French descent who has a questionable sexual orientation, equally he makes passes to many of the contestants he interviews, regardless of gender. Near any interaction with the contestants arouses Guy, even those where they do violence to him, and he volition respond with, "Guy similar!" In improver to this, he is seen to have a romantic interest in Helm Tenneal, always calling him "Skipper". He has other family member interviewers who show the same beliefs, such every bit "Lyndon" (which plays off political figure Lyndon LaRouche), "Geek", "Giddy", "Gip", "Goon", "Gawp", and "Gawk", along with females named "Gay", "Grandmama", "Gab", "Gin", "Gidget", and "Gal", with an unrelated reporter named Al Frankincense. Guy is played by Junji Inagawa. The family unit (and Al) is voiced past John Cervenka (male) and Mary Scheer (female person).^{[ citation needed ]} Guy, and his family unit members, forth with interviewing contestants, will also announce the games that volition be played in each episode, and will sometimes explain one or more of the games' objectives.

Recurring characters [edit]

The post-obit are characters who have established a semi-consistent name. However, their names may modify to fit in with a show's theme or style of game.^{[ citation needed ]}

Danny Glands (Cervenka), whose name is a play on the proper name of long-time Las Vegas entertainer Danny Gans, is an MXC staffer who works in many of the games. His main responsibilities include asking questions in Finger It (afterwards renamed Hand Job), knocking downward contestants in Contumely Assurance, and launching the soccer assurance in Dirty Balls. He was also known equally Jimmy Junk, Carbohydrate Ramos Phiss, Gilt Shower Boy, Barry Sosa, and Spin. The original actor is early 1980s J-Pop star Michiru Jo; he is notably skinny, and his lack of appealing physique is ofttimes played for laughs, emphasized past his voice actor who adopts a nasal, nerdy tone.^{[ citation needed ]}
Skanky is a 16-pes (v m) samurai who punishes contestants who fail to complete the Wall Bangers game.^{[ citation needed ]}
Principal Otto Parts (a parody of the Chief Motorcar Parts auto supply shop chain) is an American Indian who taunts the contestants in Rotating Surfboard of Decease.^{[ commendation needed ]}
Em on Em (a spoof of rapper Eminem) is a set up of twin rappers dressed in rainbow ponchos and bowler hats. The main games in which these characters participate include Tumbling Dominos of Doom and Irritable Bowl Syndrome. The characters are too known as "Babe and Ruth", "Bud and Pud", and "Jessie and Jackson" amidst others. They are played by identical twins Shoji and Shoichi Kinoshita. In one of the episodes, a contestant was said to have the proper name Marshall Mathers.^{[ commendation needed ]}
The Baba Ganoosh Family is a family of contestants from the Middle East who appear in nearly every episode. The last name "Baba Ganoosh" became a pop running gag throughout the serial. It comes from Chris Darga's Lebanese heritage, in which baba ganoush is a popular entree.
The Brownish Spider taunts contestants in various games, including Wall Buggers and Dash to Expiry. Usually played by Brad Lesley (besides known as Brad Leslie).^[two] ^[3]
Herbie the Steamy Pile is a strange, brown creature who taunts and sprays fallen contestants with a burn down-extinguisher in Buck Off! ^[four]
The Zygote Brothers are identical characters that announced in the game Nuance to Death. They try to distract the contestants and knock them into the water as they run through the obstruction course.^[3]
Sporky is a character featured in the game Dash to Expiry. Hiding inside a jail jail cell near the "spinner" obstruction, Sporky taunts contestants as they pass by. If contestants fail in the area of the grade around him, Sporky is commonly credited with distracting the contestant into falling off the course.^[three] ^[5]
The Diddler is a character sectional to the game Little Human in the Boat. If contestants don't get far enough on the course, The Diddler appears out of nowhere and pushes the contestant off and into the water.^{[half dozen]}

Although uncredited, Jamie Alcroft was the announcer for the first four episodes of MXC before John Cervenka took over that function for the remainder of the serial.^{[ citation needed ]}

Product [edit]

In the show, the contestants' names are usually slightly altered names of celebrities, network bosses, or family members and friends of the producers or voice actors. Several recurring names appear in the prove; the nearly common family name is Babaganoosh, since the producers of MXC were given short deadlines for producing episodes, therefore giving them express time to write the scripts.

During the production of the prove, the network bosses stated that they did not desire the producers to repeat games from episode to episode, just the producers ignored this, knowing 1) they didn't take the rights to enough episodes at the fourth dimension to not echo, and 2) some of the games (especially Log Driblet and Sinkers or Floaters) proved to be interesting and funny every time. Some fan-favorite and recurring games included Log Drop, Wall Bangers, Dope on a Rope, Rotating Surfboard of Decease, and Sinkers and Floaters, amidst many others.

While the basic premise of MXC is that of a legitimate game testify, its truthful premise is that of a comedy not intended to be taken literally. All original sound was stripped from each bear witness for legal reasons, and all audio was added by producer-writers and an audio technician, leaving none of the original audio from Takeshi'southward Castle. The script is completely unrelated to the original Japanese dialogue; both Abeyta and Strawther's original notes deliberately avoided any references to Japanese or Asian culture. Some thought the only Japanese-related, admitting loosely, term used for the show was the proper name Most Extreme Elimination Challenge, which has a Japanese-like naming style. Just Strawther noted that the championship – pitched by Abeyta – was a spoof on network buying tendencies of the time – "Extreme sports were large and the term was being thrown around everywhere. We thought information technology was funny to employ "Most Farthermost." All the producers and writers admit that they had no noesis of what the contestants or actors were originally saying during the filming of Takeshi's Castle. All the same, the producer-author's ability to match the original Japanese dialog and action to something completely unrelated in English was uncanny. MXC'south early scripts spoofed popular civilization, or mocked various celebrities, athletes, sports announcers, politicians, with the occasional sexual pun. In afterwards seasons, with network encouragement, sexual puns and references took on a much larger role, to the dismay of some of the prove's producers who felt the inexpensive jokes led to its demise earlier than necessary. Contestants are given seemingly incongruous simply humorous names and occupations based on their squad and physical advent (east.g. Sal Bloomberg from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, a meat handler team fellow member in the Season one episode "Meat Handlers vs. Cartoon Voice Actors", aka "Network Boss"). In addition, the various challenges are all given humorous names, such as Sinkers & Floaters or Wall Bangers. Any water or mud used in a claiming is given humorous names from Kenny and Vic, notably "safety fluid", with Kenny usually following it with a more than specific name (e.g. "runoff from Hot Carl'south chili cook off"). The footage for a unmarried episode of MXC can come from multiple episodes of Takeshi's Castle, and occasionally the aforementioned footage, including challenges, will be used in multiple episodes with dissimilar grapheme names and dialogue. Unlike international editions of Takeshi'due south Castle, the original text that appeared on screen is left as is.

All four of the producer-performer-writers on the series are alumni of the famous Groundlings comedy troupe in Hollywood: John Cervenka, Christopher Darga, Mary Scheer, and Victor Wilson. The creators/Exec Producers Paul Abeyta and Larry Strawther had worked together at Merv Griffin Productions in the late 1970s. Strawther had worked on the company'south pilots for the re-boot of Jeopardy! and Trip the light fantastic Fever in 1978. When both shows sold Strawther went with Jeopardy! as its head writer and Abeyta came over to Griffin's talk show and became executive producer of Dance Fever. Kaikko worked for Trip the light fantastic toe Fever's distributor, 20th Century Fox, and while overseeing that show he struck up a longtime friendship and business partnership with Abeyta. Kaikko and Abeyta teamed to co-create and Executive Produce the original serial Burt Luddin'southward Love Buffet on Game Bear witness Network which starred John Cervenka. Strawther went on to write and produce network sitcoms, including Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, Night Court, and My Sister Sam and some movies like Without a Inkling, only between jobs he would work with Abeyta and Kaikko on specific projects that seemed fun to him.

Home video releases [edit]

Season		Region i DVD release date
	i	October 3, 2006 (2006-10-03) ^[7]
	two	April 17, 2007 (2007-04-17) ^[8]
	three (Half one)	November 6, 2007 (2007-11-06) ^[9]
	3 (One-half 2)	November 11, 2008 (2008-eleven-xi) ^[nine]
	4	November 11, 2008 (2008-xi-eleven) ^[9]

Lawsuits [edit]

The American gameshow Wipeout on ABC was accused of existence "a blatant copycat" of shows such as Takeshi'due south Castle and Most Farthermost Elimination Challenge, and a copyright infringement lawsuit was filed past Tokyo Broadcasting System confronting ABC in late 2008, claiming the obstacle-class game bear witness closely resembled several Japanese shows. It alleged Wipeout violated its copyrights to shows such as Takeshi'southward Castle and Ninja Warrior.^[x]

The Japanese network later sued Dutch entertainment giant Endemol, which produces Wipeout.

The companies settled the case on November thirty, 2011, after meeting with a federal magistrate judge in Los Angeles. No settlement terms were filed with the court.^[eleven]

Notes [edit]

^ Cervenka served equally producer for seasons one thru three, and season five.
^ ^a ^b Goss and Jenkins served as producers during season iv and five.
^ ^a ^b James and Pleasants served as producers during season five.
^ Madsen served every bit producer during season iv.
^ Mary Scheer serves as producer for the first iii seasons, and supervising producer for seasons four and v.
^ Victor Wilson serves equally producer for seasons one and two and supervising producer for season 3.

References [edit]

^ DVD Sound Commentary for Flavor 1, Episode 7
^ "Wall Bangers (Wall Buggers) i – Virtually Farthermost Emptying Challenge (MXC)". YouTube. 2010-12-26. Retrieved 2013-09-30 . ^{[ dead YouTube link ]}
^ ^a ^b ^c "The Best of the Best of MXC – Dash to Death". YouTube. Retrieved 2013-09-30 . ^{[ dead YouTube link ]}
^ "Buck Off one – Most Extreme Emptying Claiming (MXC)". YouTube. 2011-01-01. Retrieved 2013-09-30 . ^{[ dead YouTube link ]}
^ "Well-nigh Extreme Elimination Challenge (MXC) – Top 25 Almost Painful Eliminations of Flavour 3". YouTube. 2011-02-23. Retrieved 2013-09-thirty . ^{[ dead YouTube link ]}
^ "Little Man in the Gunkhole one – Most Extreme Emptying Claiming (MXC)". YouTube. 2010-12-30. Retrieved 2013-09-xxx . ^{[ expressionless YouTube link ]}
^ "MXC – Nigh Extreme Elimination Challenge Flavor 1". Amazon.com. Retrieved April 29, 2015.
^ "MXC: Nearly Extreme Elimination Challenge – Season ii". Amazon.com. Retrieved April 29, 2015.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Nigh Extreme Elimination Challenge DVD news: Release Date for MXC: Most Farthermost Emptying Claiming – Volumes 4 and 5". TVShowsOnDVD.com. Archived from the original on 2012-04-03. Retrieved 2013-01-23 .
^ [1] Archived Dec 11, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
^ "ABC, Endemol Settle 'Wipeout' Copyright Lawsuit With Japanese Broadcaster". Hollywood Reporter. 2011-12-24. Retrieved 2013-01-23 .

External links [edit]

Most Extreme Elimination Challenge at IMDb