The uptick in gymnastics interest after an Olympic Games often allows for some form of media to get produced. The U.S. women’s team’s dramatic gold in Atlanta helped launch a series of books about the lessons and trials a group of younger gymnasts faced in training and in life. (Dominique Dawes provided an intro to each story and a personal anecdote inside the cover of each book.)
After watching the Games in Athens, Jessica Bendinger wrote a screenplay about a rebellious teen gymnast that became “Stick It,” maybe the biggest girl-power film of 2006.
This quad’s concept sounds a bit like “Stick It,” albeit compressed into an hour and even less, um, realistic:
ABC Family has greenlit the pilot “Perfect 10,” an hourlong set in the world of competitive gymnastics.
…”Perfect 10″ follows a group of teen Olympic hopefuls as they train, live, love and get on each other’s nerves.
ABC also tried this after 1996 in the short-lived series Push, a drama about the super-intense lives of NCAA athletes, that included men’s and women’s gymnasts. Push was particularly unrealistic — in the pilot, the fun-loving main character smokes pot with the team’s new, good-looking assistant coach (That doesn’t really happen, does it?) then proceeds to mess up the season-opener.
The best look into the world of elite gymnastics that I’ve seen were the 25 episodes of “Behind the Team,” produced by AT&T between spring 2007 and the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials. They’re still available here.
Tags: Dominique Dawes, Jessica Bendinger
December 9, 2008 at 1:27 am |
wean does it air im gonna wache