Richard Simmons was characterized as an oily flamboyant fitness guru by Late Night television host David Letterman back in 2008. He said this jokingly of course, but it does seem to represent the negative modern American perception of Simmons. It's not our fault that we think of him in this light since Simmons boastingly indulges in the spotlight whenever he gets the chance and does so in a less than serious manner. Simmons means well and is genuinely concerned with America's struggle to reduce obesity rates but it's hard to take him seriously when he prances around in a sparkling sleeveless top and shorts. Still, his relevancy in popular culture peeked around the mid 90s and some of us still remember his cameo in The Nutty Professor (1996). His weight loss program derailed from the high-impact philosophy of exercise and instead focused on dance based aerobics. Many flocked towards this fun and rhythmic take to exercise and his rise to stardom soon followed.   
 
Now in 2010, dance-based aerobic fitness games have become the cash cow product for many developers. Nintendo and Ubisoft to name a few have capitalized on the idea of making exercise fun, and executed their products flawlessly. That's not to say that Wii Fit and Just Dance were high quality games, but they sold remarkably well. Many have utilized these motion control based machines in hopes to shed a few pounds. My friend's mom swears she's lost 13 pounds within a few months of owning Wii Fit. In a way, the marriage between software and hardware has essentially replaced Richard Simmons and these modern machines have become the new face of household fitness for both youth and technology-eager adults. Microsoft hopes to raise the bar for dance based fitness games with Harmonix's Dance Central and Ubisoft's Your Shape when Kinect launches in the fall. New technologies such as 3D, and motion controlled peripherals leave very little wiggle room for "fitness gurus" to gain any amount of notoriety within the growing gaming community. 
 
Richard Simmons is the last of his kind. Luckily for him, he's self aware of his silliness and goofy antics and utilizes self deprecating humor in his favor to continue to raise awareness on obesity. Perhaps he could jump on the fitness gaming bandwagon in the next coming years or so and get back in the spotlight. How would you feel if Your Shape 3 featured a frolicking Richard Simmons to helm the tutorial mode?       
 
Update: Happy Birthday Richard Simmons (62)