Paul Wylie at Kristi Yamaguchi's TV Special | Golden Skate

Paul Wylie at Kristi Yamaguchi's TV Special

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SkateFan4Life

Guest
I watched, videotaped, and thoroughly enjoyed the two-hour broadcast of Kristi Yamaguchi's "Salute to American Music" on Sunday afternoon. Great show!

Kristi Yamaguchi looked absolutely beautiful, and she is still skating at top level, with several clean triple jumps, fast spins, and interesting choregraphy.

My favorite program was Paul Wylie's performance to the soundtrack from the motion picture "JKF". 👍 Great skating, Paul. Although he skated "only" double jumps - his perfect double axels, flips, toes, and lutzs were beautifully executed and well placed in his program. He had a furious, quick-footed sequence to the drum taps that were part of the "JFK" prologue. If I remember this correctly, the drum taps were heard as background over footage of President and Mrs. Kennedy's motorcade through Dallas prior to his assassination.

Paul is still a fabulous showman. His routine was at least four minutes long, possibly longer, and he was pouring perspiration when he finished. The audience loved his routine, with many of them on their feet, and they gave him a long, prolonged ovation. Wylie seemed thrilled to be back on the ice again.

Immediately after this segment, a short "conversational" segment with Paul was aired, in which he said he had skated practically non-stop from the age of three to thirty-three, at which time he returned to school and got a "real" job.
Even when he was working in corporate America, he frequently skated during his lunch hour, just for the fun of it. Paul laughed and said, "It's incredibly hard for me to stay in shape now. Skating feels almost like an out of body experience, and I feel as though I'm almost arthritic. But I love it, and I continue to skate."

Paul turned 40 earlier this year, yet he continues to skate with great skill, artistry, and a lot of heart.

Kurt Browning paid tribute to American composer Jim Croce, and skated a terrific number to "Time in a Bottle".

Brian Orser said his favorite singer, to skate to, was Neil Diamond, and he skated to one of his many great songs. Orser is 43, and he still looks great on the ice.

Roz Sumners skated several numbers. She also turned 40 this year, and she still looks "young" out there - very energetic, and (forgive me) "perky".

Ilia Kulik skated several great numbers, as did Renee Roca and Gorsha Sur. I was delighted to see Art Garfunkel sing two "live" numbers, one of which, "Bridge Over Troubled Waters", was skated by Kristi.

There were several ensemble numbers. IMHO, this was one of the best skating shows "made for television" that I've seen in a long time. It was short on schmaltz and long on excellent music and skating.

Great job, guys! IMHO, of course! :biggrin:
 
S

SkateFan4Life

Guest
Forgot to mention Caryn Kadavy, who also was in the cast. She still looks lovely, and skates with a lot of speed.

Again, great show! 👍 👍
 

76olympics

On the Ice
Joined
Mar 4, 2004
I enjoyed it very much too!

I really haven't watched one of these shows (non-competitive) for a long time. I think I had tired of them. But-I really was glued to this one. I liked nearly all of the skaters (never have been a big fan of Roz)--and the routines were fun and interesting! My favs were the JFK program, the ensemble program with the three guys and Renee, and "All I Know" with Ilia.

I am glad someone else noticed that this one had a special something to it. I thought I had just picked up enthusiasm after not watching for a while!

Now-I am really looking forward to Ice Wars on Friday! Does anyone know which skaters will be there? (threadjacking a little!)
 

IDLERACER

Medalist
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
It was one of those 2 hour specials, that was actually only an hour and 15 minutes after you edit out all the commercials. :disapp:
 
Joined
Jan 30, 2004
Similar to 76olympics comment, a lot of times the specials like Kristi's show leave me wanting more. But NOT this one!
Kristi's show was exceptional. Partly because it was like a "mini SOI" show...several skaters participating were the ones I began my avid-fandom of skating with.
This show was put together really well and skated superbly by all the participants.
 

Linny

Final Flight
Joined
Aug 13, 2003
Hadn't seen nothin'

Until Ilia did his Arabian cartwheel, my husband was saying "They haven't shown me nothin' yet"... but he was suitably impressed with that jump.

I thought Kurt's shirt in Time in a Bottle was unflattering. He's looked better than that. I liked Kristie's Bridge over Troubled Water the best of all the numbers. And I thought Rene Roca looked healthier than she has in years past.

Linny
 
S

SkateFan4Life

Guest
76olympics said:
I am glad someone else noticed that this one had a special something to it. I thought I had just picked up enthusiasm after not watching for a while! /QUOTE]

We were all spoiled with umpteem television skating specials in the mid-1990s, and after a while, they peetered out. It was a case of overkill, probably, and the skaters seemed to be doing the same routines in a number of shows.

Kristi's special really was "special", in my opinion. Great skating, great music, and a great connection with the audience. 👍
 

Eeyora

Final Flight
Joined
Aug 4, 2003
I wasn't home and unfortunjately my tape ran out after Kristi's number with Caryn and Roz. I am so upst. From what I saw it was one of the best NBC Starskates specials I have ever seen. Kristi weas wonderful as always.
 

Jaana

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Country
Finland
Eeyora said:
I wasn't home and unfortunjately my tape ran out after Kristi's number with Caryn and Roz. I am so upst. From what I saw it was one of the best NBC Starskates specials I have ever seen. Kristi weas wonderful as always.

Eyora, LOL, just a little correction... These are not StarSkates specials, StarSkates (by Cousins and Slater) does not exist anymore in USA. Steve Disson formed the Disson Skating:

http://www.dissonskating.com/our_events/index.htm

I´m eagerly waiting for the tape from USA...

Marjaana
 

shanilia

Rinkside
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
SkateFan4Life said:
My favorite program was Paul Wylie's performance to the soundtrack from the motion picture "JKF".

Paul is still a fabulous showman. His routine was at least four minutes long, possibly longer, and he was pouring perspiration when he finished.

Paul turned 40 earlier this year, yet he continues to skate with great skill, artistry, and a lot of heart.
Yeah, I love that program. It was nice to see it revived.

Paul always sweats bullets after his programs. He seems to sweat easily.

Boy, 40 years old already, eh? I wonder what he does for work.
 
Joined
Jul 11, 2003
I've never been overly responsive to Paul's comptitive action on the circuit. He was among some very interesting competitors, and he was not one to grab my attention. IMO, he did not shine during that period. However, his Olys was in deed an exceptional. skate "that night" and I would have scored him higher than what he received.

Since then, I am not overly responsive to Paul. For me, all his routines come out the "that night", and nothing has shown anything diffeent in his pro career. JMO.

Joe
 
S

SkateFan4Life

Guest
Joesitz said:
I've never been overly responsive to Paul's comptitive action on the circuit. He was among some very interesting competitors, and he was not one to grab my attention. IMO, he did not shine during that period. However, his Olys was in deed an exceptional. skate "that night" and I would have scored him higher than what he received.

Since then, I am not overly responsive to Paul. For me, all his routines come out the "that night", and nothing has shown anything diffeent in his pro career. JMO.

Joe

As Dick Button said on more than one occasion (to paraphrase), "Paul Wylie is probably the world's greatest practice skater. He skates fantastic, error-free programs in practice. Unfortunately, he's not able (yet) to translate that into a great competitive performance. The competitive ice is a lot tougher than the practice ice."

I remember seeing Paul compete at US Nationals during the 1980s and 1990s.
Sometimes he was in a position to win the title, but he always made enough mistakes to relegate him to silver or bronze, not gold. At Worlds, Paul's record was undistinguished, to put it mildly. Lots of falls, mistakes, and finishes out of the top 10. He was always a great skater and had wonderful musicality, but until the 1992 Olympics, he had not been able to put it all together. Frankly, Paul's performance at Albertville was better than Victor Petrenko (who stumbled and fell throughout his program and ran out of gas at the end), but Petrenko was the reigning Olympic bronze medalist, two-time World silver medalist and European champion, and his reputation won the day, IMHO.

I've enjoyed Paul's various exhibition performances following the Olympics and his pro competitive skates. He always pushed the envelope, in my opinion.

It's great to see him skate again. Life begins at 40!! :biggrin:
 

76olympics

On the Ice
Joined
Mar 4, 2004
As a 41 year old, I cheer your sentiment heartily, Skatefan4Life! (my screen name comes from the first Olympics that I really watched-my mom was desolate that my curly wild mop could never look like Dorothy's!).
 
S

SkateFan4Life

Guest
76olympics said:
As a 41 year old, I cheer your sentiment heartily, Skatefan4Life! (my screen name comes from the first Olympics that I really watched-my mom was desolate that my curly wild mop could never look like Dorothy's!).

It sounds as though we have the same kind of hair - curly - with a mind of its own. The Dorothy Hamill hairstyle would never have worked on my head.
Oh, well, such is life.

I hope that Paul Wylie continues to skate for as long as his body allows him to do so. I thought he skated wonderful programs on Kristi's special, and his double jumps are good enough for me!
 
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