"Fight Quest" (2007) TV series 2007-????

Creator:

Amy Rapp

Seasons:

1 | 2

Release Date:

2007 (USA)

Genre:

Reality-TV | Sport

Plot Keywords:

Travel | Martial Arts | Mixed Martial Arts

Cast

Douglass Anderson	...	Himself - Host (13 episodes, 2007-2008)
Jimmy Smith	...	Himself - Host (13 episodes, 2007-2008)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Australia:M

Company:

NorthSouth Productions

Could have been interesting but . . .

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Fight Quest is a reality based show that places two mixed martial artists in the situation of training for one week in a traditional martial art in which they have no background and then compete against a master of said art. Sound familiar? Well, it should because it is the same exact formula that The History Channel used in the far more interesting Human Weapon.

In the premier episode of Fight Quest the two hosts, Jimmy Smith and Doug Anderson, travel to the Philippines to train in the popular weapons based art of Kali, as done in Human Weapon. In the second installment, the duo travel to China to train in San Da Kung Fu (also another Human Weapon adventure). Out of the hundreds of different styles of Kung Fu that could have been selected, both shows chose the kick boxing style of San Da probably due to its similarity to the American mixed martial arts. The differences between the two shows were minor (at the time of this writing, episode three has not aired).

One difference between this show and Human Weapon is that Jimmy and Doug are split up and each train with a different master only to be reunited prior to their match and each of them engage in combat; while fans of Weapon know that Bill and Jason stick together, travel to various locations around the country to train with different masters of that weeks chosen style and only one is selected to compete. Other than that the shows run along parallel plot lines.

Another notable difference between Fight Quest and Human Weapon is that Bill Duff and Jason Chambers (both of Weapon) have better on screen chemistry and they inject a fair amount of humor into each episode; whereas Jimmy and Doug (Quest) seem to approach their task with arrogance. In the end both Jimmy and Doug usually end up whining about their training and making excuses about their sub-par performance against their opponents. Remember, Jimmy and Doug are both professional mixed martial arts fighters.

Fight Quest could be a very interesting show if the producers had tried a non-Human Weapon approach or even done something as minor as selecting different martial arts to highlight. Nice try guys but, we've seen it before.