Stars on Ice TV Special

SkateFan4Life · Jan 8, 2005

I watched part of this afternoon's broadcast of Stars on Ice, which was a preview of this winter's tour and a retrospective of some of the outstanding performances from past shows.

Host Roz Sumners related how SOI came into being. A group of top skaters, led by Scott Hamilton, formed SOI in the mid 1980s, and many Olympic gold medalists have since skated with this show, including Dorothy Hamill, Kristi Yamaguchi, Katarina Witt, Oksana Baiul, Ilia Kulk, and Gordeeva/Grinkov.

A 1997 performance by Jayne Torvill/Christopher Dean to "Take Five" was aired. It was another T & D masterpiece, IMHO. The audience responded with a standing ovation.

The 1995 performance of Katia Gordeeva/Sergi Grinkov to "The Man I Love" was absolutely, positively beautiful. Stunning. Gorgeous. They were truly a couple in love. Their partnership was a gift to the figure skating world and to their many fans. G & G will forever remain in my heart and memory and one of the finest, if not the finest, pairs teams of all time.

I saw a portion of the last number, which featured Sarah Hughes and the men of the cast. Hughes skated a few double jumps and spins. She looked good, although she has gained quite a lot of weight since her competitive days.

Overall, all, great show!

Did anyone see it? If so, what are your thoughts?

Piel · Jan 8, 2005

How about Kristi winning that OGM in Albertville, Canada in 1992. :rofl:

Get Roz away from that mic!

Will there ever be another lady as versatile as Kristi? G&G were breathtaking. I would not have shown Kulik immediately after them, JMO.

Kulik, Yags both wonderful.

The girl pairskater in the Aflec commercial looked like both Sasha Cohen and Jamie Sale.

Finally Johhny Z. remains F-I-N-E FINE!

Jhar55 · Jan 8, 2005

I had to tape the show, and didn't get the whole thing because I ran out of tape

thought I had enought to get the whole thing, it ran out after Sarah's part with the guys. Thought Todd's part of the circus mc, when he squishes the flea :rofl:

The show wasn't what I was expecting but did enjoy what I could. It was great seeing G&G again. :rock:

Can't wait until March 25th when I can see the show.

heyang · Jan 8, 2005

I enjoyed the retrospective - especially G&G. "The Man I Love" is one my favorite G&G programs since it expresses so much love.

I was glad it wasn't a broadcast of the 2005 tour since I'll get to be 'surprised' when I see SOI later in February. Heather's web page lists the A&E showing as a March broadcast.

I checked SOI's website. Mike Weiss will be the guest in Trenton. Definitely my last choice. Oh, well. I'll just have to enjoy the tornado thing he does.

skater85 · Jan 8, 2005

The girl pairskater in the Aflec commercial looked like both Sasha Cohen and Jamie Sale.

That's actually former Canadian silver medalist Keyla Ohs.

Overall, not a bad show. I enjoyed most of the performances they decided to show.

Yazmeen · Jan 8, 2005

One aspect of this show really surprised me. To be blunt, I think this show puts to rest the answer to the question "Did SOI really dislike Tara Lipinski?" Every OGM got a full solo performance except for two. Dorothy Hamill was profiled briefly, and considering she was only with the show in its earliest days before it was televised, there is probably no SOI solo of hers on good tape. But then Tara gets 30 seconds of photos at Nagano and brief clips of her skating with SOI while Roz praises the "spunk and energy" she brought to the tour, and they promptly cut to a second performance by Kristi. Even Oksana Baiul, who only appeared as a guest skater last season, got her "Swan" performance shown in full. Every OGM from the last 20 years who toured with SOI had a full SOI performance shown except Tara. I'm no Tara fan, but that came off like a major diss.

NJSk8Fan · Jan 8, 2005

I enjoyed the show a lot.

I liked the sneek peak at '05's show. I'm one who doesn't like to see the show on tv before I see it in person, so the peek was just enough to tease me but not spoil me.

Eeyora · Jan 9, 2005

I agree that was kind of odd that they didn't show a Tara performance. That seemed rather fishy.

It was wonderful to see a performance from Gordeeva and Grinkov.

I would have chosen to air Kristi's Madame Butterfly over her tango number.

Vash01 · Jan 9, 2005

Yazmeen said:
One aspect of this show really surprised me. To be blunt, I think this show puts to rest the answer to the question "Did SOI really dislike Tara Lipinski?" Every OGM got a full solo performance except for two. Dorothy Hamill was profiled briefly, and considering she was only with the show in its earliest days before it was televised, there is probably no SOI solo of hers on good tape. But then Tara gets 30 seconds of photos at Nagano and brief clips of her skating with SOI while Roz praises the "spunk and energy" she brought to the tour, and they promptly cut to a second performance by Kristi. Even Oksana Baiul, who only appeared as a guest skater last season, got her "Swan" performance shown in full. Every OGM from the last 20 years who toured with SOI had a full SOI performance shown except Tara. I'm no Tara fan, but that came off like a major diss.

I agree. Oksana only skated as a guest last year. Tara skated full tours with SOI for a few years. They could have shown her performance in either Oksana's place or in place of Kristi's second performance.

BTW the only 'new' performances belonged to Sarah Hughes.

This show was just a 90 min. ad for the SOI tour.

Kasey · Jan 9, 2005

I would have preferred they show a different program of Yagudin....I think 'Ain't that a shame' was a weaker demonstration of his abilities....would have preferred to see "Overcome" or "Racing".

Agreed, it is a 90-minute teaser, a promo ad for this year's tour. But it must have helped ticket sales last year, for them to do it this way again. I'm looking forward to seeing the 'real' show on A&E later on.

I am grateful that they weren't cheesy enough to show Katia and Ilia's duet after Katia and Sergei!

Kasey

Vash01 · Jan 9, 2005

Kasey said:
I would have preferred they show a different program of Yagudin....I think 'Ain't that a shame' was a weaker demonstration of his abilities....would have preferred to see "Overcome" or "Racing".

Agreed, it is a 90-minute teaser, a promo ad for this year's tour. But it must have helped ticket sales last year, for them to do it this way again. I'm looking forward to seeing the 'real' show on A&E later on.

I am grateful that they weren't cheesy enough to show Katia and Ilia's duet after Katia and Sergei!

Kasey

Agree about Yagudin's number.

I don't know if this 'teaser' helps the ticket sales. It makes no difference to me what they show.

I was dreading the Katia-Ilia number, after they showed G&G's The man I love. I was relieved that they did not show G&K who are not really a pair on ice.

I would have loved to see a Paul Wylie and a Bechke & Petrov number.
However, they were showing only the Olympic gold medallists in today's show.

I could have done without Oksana's number.

Vash

iluvtodd · Jan 9, 2005

A few thoughts on the NBC show, which I thought was better than last year's. I was delighted to see T&D's "Take Five" & G&G's "The Man I Love." These are truly classic programs & performances! :agree:

That said, I wish the emphasis for this show was not on OGM credentials. Kurt has been such a major part of the SOI family that he should have been included (much more so than Oksana who appeared as a guest star just last season - I mean no disrespect to Oksana when I say that, but Kurt has much more of a history with the show & continues to be a guest star for this season). I also think this is unfair in general to the SOI cast members who have no Olympic medal of any color yet have given excellent performances at the shows. Does that make them nothing? I don't think so! They deserve their time to shine, too (Thank goodness for the A&E broadcast that will take place on March 11, from 9 to 11 PM EST).

I was glad to see that when they showed Sarah, that they chose to show her in "Mr. Blue Sky" with the guys from the current cast.

NJSk8Fan · Jan 9, 2005

I wonder if SOI and TPTB are on a trend to have a theme for each years airing from here on in. I don't remember what was shown last year and didn't tape it. It didn't really bother me that they used the OGM theme this year. Kurt has had plenty of "air time" as far as tv goes....and I'm not saying this because I didn't want to see him, he's one of my personal favorites! If the show is going to have a "theme" in coming years, who knows what next year could be...it could be "the men of SOI" and Kurt, as well as the other guys, might get lots of coverage.

Jhar55 · Jan 9, 2005

I thought they were showing past OGM winners to promote the "6 OGM" winners that they have on tour this year.The only OGM winners they don't have on tour is A&P

I am not a Tara fan either but if SOI didn't like her then why keep her around? After all she wasn't that hard to replace when she did leave.

Jaana · Jan 9, 2005

Vash01 said:
I was dreading the Katia-Ilia number, after they showed G&G's The man I love. I was relieved that they did not show G&K who are not really a pair on ice.
Vash

Yes, Katia and Ilia are not really a pair on the ice, and I guess that nobody is denying it, LOL. Their "Bolero" was a duet, not pairs skating. As a SOI duet I really love their number, and it would be great if SOI broadcasts it again later. I mean they could e.g. have in next year´s broadcast some of the great ensemble skating, and there e.g. "Bolero" and "Four Corners" would be wonderful.

Mathman · Jan 9, 2005

I don't think Tara was easy to replace at all. In fact, since Yuka seems reluctant to commit to the tour full time, they have not really had a lady headliner since Tara's time, and I think the show has been hurting because of it.

I thought Sarah looked fine. I was fearing the worst after some of the reviews of the live show. She looked elegant. I think she has a future in show skating if she wants to go that route.

IMO, the best thing that could happen to SOI is if Sasha wins the OGM in 2006 and then joins the show.

Mathman

Lotta · Jan 9, 2005

Great show but my most favorite part was when Alexei imitated himself as being Sarah Hughes. :laugh:

Speaking of Sarah, I noticed her voice changed. It went from that high chipmunk voice at SLC to a deeper tone. I'm not going to SOI this year, but her number with the guys looks cool.

SkateFan4Life · Jan 9, 2005

iluvtodd said:
That said, I wish the emphasis for this show was not on OGM credentials. Kurt has been such a major part of the SOI family that he should have been included (much more so than Oksana who appeared as a guest star just last season - I mean no disrespect to Oksana when I say that, but Kurt has much more of a history with the show & continues to be a guest star for this season). I also think this is unfair in general to the SOI cast members who have no Olympic medal of any color yet have given excellent performances at the shows. Does that make them nothing? I don't think so! They deserve their time to shine, too (Thank goodness for the A&E broadcast that will take place on March 11, from 9 to 11 PM EST).

I agree with you that it sometimes seems a bit unfair the way Olympic hardware is valued with shows such as these. If you happen to own a precious Olympic gold medal, you're in the "club", if you don't you're not included.

Kurt Browning, in my opinion, is one of the finest, if not the finest, figure skater to have not won an Olympic medal of any color. I fully expected Kurt to win at Lillehamer, as he was the defending World Champion, and I truly thought he would prevail over the likes of Petrenko and Boitano, who won the two previous OGMs in men's figure skating. After his disastrous short program that left him in 12th place, he came out and skated a magnificent "Casablanca" number and pulled up to fifth place. He was a true champion in my book. Browning's failure at Albertville in 1992 wasn't totally unexpected (athough it was certainly disappointing) due to his back injury. He simply had not had the time to heal and train properly for the Olympics.

Todd Eldredge is another excellent skater who also did not win an Olympic medal.

Browning won four World titles, numerous Canadian championships, and Eldredge won one World title, several World silver and bronze medals and a host of US championships.

I can only imagine that the Olympic gold medal is a standard of excellence that is held up in the highest esteem. If you win this medal, you're the best, period.

Mathman · Jan 9, 2005

Piel said:
The girl pairskater in the Aflec commercial looked like both Sasha Cohen and Jamie Sale.

Which means she looks the most like Susanna Poykio! :love:

Piel · Jan 9, 2005

Mathman said:
Which means she looks the most like Susanna Poykio!

You're right. I had never seen Poykio before.

Speaking of non OGM winners who have contributed a lot to SOI, Roz should be in there too. I would much rather see her skate than hear her talk.

Stars on Ice TV Special

SkateFan4Life

Guest

Piel

On Edge

Jhar55

heyang

skater85

Yazmeen

NJSk8Fan

Eeyora

Vash01

Kasey

Vash01

iluvtodd

NJSk8Fan

Jhar55

Jaana

Mathman

Lotta

SkateFan4Life

Guest

Mathman

Piel

On Edge

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