Tony Little
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Tony Little (b. September, 1956) is an American TV fitness personality and businessman, best known for his fitness infomercial products. His most famous product is the Tony Little's Gazelle by Fitness Quest. Tony is a certified personal trainer and identifies himself as "America's Personal Trainer", and most of the products he sells on his infomercials are targeted to the personal fitness market. He is known for his over-the-top, hyper-enthusiastic personality and bald spot always covered by a baseball cap, with a long ponytail. Three of Tony's favorite catchphrases are "You can do it," "It's technique!," and "Always believe in yourself."
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[edit] Personal life
As a child, Little was abandoned by his father, and raised by his mother in Fremont, Ohio. As an adult, he moved to Tampa, Florida to advance his personal fitness career. He is married to Tacy Little, and has two children, Trent and Tara, with her.
Tony is a former Junior National Bodybuilding champion. In 1983, while training for The Mr. America Bodybuilding Championship, he was in a near-fatal car accident in which he suffered numerous physical injuries. He suffered lacerations to his face and body and two herniated discs, a cracked vertebra, and a dislocated knee. He recovered enough to compete in the event and finished in fifth place. Tony has stated publicly that afterward he suffered from depression and became addicted to pain medication and gained weight. After realizing that his life was slipping into a downward spiral, Tony developed his exercise programs and went on to become a successful businessman in the fitness industry. His book One on One with Tony Little: The Complete 28-Day Body Sculpting And Weight Loss Program has sold thousands of copies. His fitness videos have won him 11 Platinum Awards and he has formed partnerships with fitness clubs, HSN and QVC to sell his products.
Tony revealed on a July 9 HSN broadcast of One on One with Tony Little that he would be turning 50 in September 2006.
[edit] Parodies and appearances
Tony has frequently been the target and source of parodies. In his own infomercials, he's dressed up, and made fun of other TV personalities, such as Fabio, Richard Simmons, and Susan Powter. Some of these were light hearted, but others were part of attacks and counter-attacks between competitors, each portraying others as having silly gimmicks, while they themselves had "legitimate" products.
In 1997, he appeared as himself, making fun of his own image, on The Weird Al Show. The following year, he once again parodied himself on the Fox show Mad TV. He also did a cameo appearance in the movie Frezno Smooth in 1999. In 2005, he appeared in a GEICO commercial, that at first pretends to be another of his personal training videos, but then becomes a commercial for car insurance.
Tony Little recent stint in the "Jensuscho" Campaign also landed him a new role in public ad-campaigns.
On an episode of Mad TV in early 2002, he was parodied and was portrayed by WWE wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin. Austin himself would be parodied by MADtv cast member Will Sasso
Tony also appeared in the 2006 film The Pumpkin Karver.
Tony has appeared on VH1's Best Year Ever 2007
In October 2006, Tony appeared on an episode of G4TV's popular videogame review show X-Play; the episode in question was actually named "The Tony Little Episode". The highlight of the episode featured Little in a comedy sketch which directly parodied his own infomercials. In the sketch, Little magically transports (via superpowers) an excessively obese member of G4's web design team into a fitness infomercial (Little claims in the sketch that he obtained said superpowers when he was 16 years old, after being bitten by a radioactive ponytail). Little then shows the person how they can begin an exercise regimen using specialized video game peripherals. (X-Play's Tony Little Fitness Infomercial - MP4 video format)
Tony appeared in a October 29, 2006 episode of VH1 reality show Celebrity Paranormal Project.
[edit] Controversy
The FTC found in 1999 that the infomercials for several Fitness Quest products, including Tony Little's Gazelle Glider, made several unsubstantiated claims, including the claim that "users could burn up to 1000 calories per hour." [1]
In June of 2006 154,000 Gazelle's were recalled for pistons breaking causing people to fall off. [2]
