NBC "Best of SOI" broadcast

[jcspkbfan]

Looks like this year's NBC SOI broadcast will be a mix of old and new footage:

http://www.starsonice.com/news/detailnews.asp?NewsID=200

I don't know how much of the broadcast will be old footage and how much will be new, but either way, it should be fun to see a lot of our favorite "old" SOI programs again!

[Artemis]

That's odd. I assumed today's broadcast would be the 2003/04 show exclusively. Does this mean we'll never get the whole new show, do you think? (Of course we never get the "whole" thing but you know what I mean.)

[Suzanne]

Am enjoying this show! I wasn't sure how they were going to show the past years but it's pretty good. I just wish we'd get to see more than just 8 programs in their entirety.

[TsMom]

New Member, long time lurker.

My Tivo messed up and I didn't get this show. Is anyone willing to copy it for me? Am willing to compensate for postage, the video tape and such.

Thanks.

[Nicki]

Although I enjoyed the look back at SOI over the years, I was really disappointed that we didn't get to see any of this year's programs especially after all the build up they gave them on the show. It would be nice if N.B.C. would show the 2004 SOI programs on another day, though I doubt that will happen.

[Artemis]

The "best of" moments weren't too bad, I guess, and some of the history was interesting. Especially the clips of the older shows, performances we haven't seen a million times.

But if this was the only broadcast of the 2004 SOI tour, I will be severly ticked off. The Time ensemble number looks terrific, one of the best yet, and if we don't get a chance to see most or all of it on TV I'm gonna write letters. (be afraid!)

Mostly I though it was a horribly self-serving 1 and a half hour commercial, "go out and buy tickets to the show." A grand total of 1 hour 3 minutes once you edit out the commercial, and that included not one but two complete listings of every single show date, as if that info wasn't available elsewhere.

And as much as I love Scott, and as much as I respect him as the driving force behind SOI, I though the selection of clips shown were pretty self-promotional. I thought it was Stars, plural, not "Scott and a bunch of other people who don't matter as much."

[Bailey]

Actually it was Scott, Christopher Dean, and a bunch of other people who don't really matter that much. And heaven forbid if we mention the Canadian tour - oops, except for the clip of the Spaghetti Western featuring, you guessed it, Scott. I fast forwarded through much of the show. Who could possibly do a retrospective of the top 8 performances and not include Kurt Browning or Gordeev and Grinkov?? And, given I fast forwarded most of the show, but I thought it was disrespectful to have no mention of Sandra Bezic (even though she is not with the tour this year). Who says skating isn't political??

[Suzanne]

I do remember they mentioned Sandra Bezic -- I don't remember the exact wording but they talked about her choreography.

[sillyskates]

Originally posted by Bailey
Who could possibly do a retrospective of the top 8 performances and not include Kurt Browning or Gordeev and Grinkov??
ITA. Obviously I'm biased, as I'm a huge fan of Kurt, but Kurt has been a featured performer in SOI for ten years, and a headliner in Canada even previous to that while he was still an amateur. I could sit here all night listing the "classic" programs he's performed in the history of this tour. During their brief years with SOI, G&G performed several "masterpiece" programs that certainly merited inclusion. I was quite disappointed with the retrospective, overall.

[jcspkbfan]

Originally posted by Bailey
Who could possibly do a retrospective of the top 8 performances and not include Kurt Browning or Gordeev and Grinkov??

ITA2! ;) Seriously, though, if NBC was going to show "8 Great Skates" in their SOI broadcast, I wish there would have been a poll/survey of some sort on the official SOI website or message board so the fans could have their say. How many "best SOI program" threads have there been on various message boards over the years? I'm sure NBC/SOI would have had no problem finding people to vote on a topic like that.

I know many people have wanted to see an SOI retrospective show like this for years and in that aspect, I thought NBC did a fairly good job. Yes, there was a little too much Scott and not nearly enough of certain other skaters (coughkurtcough!) and I thought Scott's comment about buying tickets and taking the family to see SOI were a little too over-the-top, but it was still fun to see all those old clips--and seeing some for the very first time--again. I'm also glad fans in the States got to see at least a little tiny bit of the Canadian version of SOI--I still think Lloyd Eisler in drag is at least 10 times funnier than Katarina in drag! :lol:

And did anyone else think the "SOI costumes" segment should have been called the "worst costumes of SOI" segment? Those bright-orange bellbottoms on Brian Orser--yiyiyi...

But I really hope this SOI retrospective show wasn't meant to completely replace a full broadcast of this year's show! A 60-minute broadcast of this year's SOI show was broadcast in the UK a few weeks ago and I thought this would be the same broadcast we'd get in North America (with old SOI footage taking up the other 30 minutes), but at least parts of the new show have been broadcast in some part of the world.

I remember A&E did a really good job with last year's SOI show in terms of not chacking anything--I think the only numbers chacked altogether were Alexei's "Born To Be Wild" and the "Love On The Rocks" number with I&Z, M&S and R&S--and I hope they'll do the same this year. A&E usually broadcasts SOI sometime in February, but they're usually slow when it comes to announcing the exact date--hopefully we won't have to wait too much longer, though! A few posters on the official SOI board have speculated this year's show may be broadcast on Oxygen instead, but I really hope this won't happen since I know a lot of Americans (and none of us Canadians) don't get that channel. :(

BTW, one poster on another board (sorry, forget which one) recently went to the show and said it was the best SOI she'd seen in more than 10 years! If this is true, I think it's sad the powers to be at SOI feel they have to rely on the past (as wonderful as the past was) in order to sell tickets instead of focusing on the show and the skaters they have today. :(

[ceceB]

Yeah, it's like the Canadian part of the tour never existed! They only time it was mentioned was when they showed Llyod in drag (which was priceless). I too couldn't believe that one of Kurt's numbers didn't make their "best" list. I also found it wrong that there was such little mention of Bezic, and also the skaters who have been in the Canadian portion, like Brasseur and Eisler and Bourne and Kraatz.

[Artemis]

My guess is that the major reason the Canadian tour wasn't mentioned except in passing is that Smuckers isn't the headline sponsor of CSOI. And obviously they were the ones paying bigtime for this commercial, um, I mean broadcast. :roll:

[Alexa]

Originally posted by Artemis

Mostly I though it was a horribly self-serving 1 and a half hour commercial, "go out and buy tickets to the show." A grand total of 1 hour 3 minutes once you edit out the commercial, and that included not one but two complete listings of every single show date, as if that info wasn't available elsewhere.

And as much as I love Scott, and as much as I respect him as the driving force behind SOI, I though the selection of clips shown were pretty self-promotional. I thought it was Stars, plural, not "Scott and a bunch of other people who don't matter as much."

I felt the same way. It totally came off as a self-serving infomercial. Especially since they kept showing the tour dates and locations. And everytime they kept flashing to Scott ready to tell us more about SOI, it had infomercial written all over it.

And I could be wrong since I fast forwarded through most of this event, but I think Scott kept telling us that the 2004 show was coming up. Leading me to believe there actually was part of the 2004 show that would be on. Again, he could have said something different than that, but that was my impression.

My thoughts were that since ticket sales are down, they are hoping to get more sales if they don't have the show on TV, but I have found that many people decide to go to the show after seeing it on TV. One of the times I went to the show, I had originally planned on not going until I saw the TV broadcast, and liked it so much I decided to go.

[PaulWyliefan]

Originally posted by Bailey
Actually it was Scott, Christopher Dean, and a bunch of other people who don't really matter that much. And heaven forbid if we mention the Canadian tour - oops, except for the clip of the Spaghetti Western featuring, you guessed it, Scott. I fast forwarded through much of the show. Who could possibly do a retrospective of the top 8 performances and not include Kurt Browning or Gordeev and Grinkov?? And, given I fast forwarded most of the show, but I thought it was disrespectful to have no mention of Sandra Bezic (even though she is not with the tour this year). Who says skating isn't political??

I missed the show. Which performances did they name as the top eight?

[proam]

Let’s see, Kurt not one of the Eight, hmmm, credibility of the Top Eight list – ZERO. :roll: :roll:

Sandra was barely mentioned, a sentence or two. :( Sandra deserved her own segment.
Yes Scott it is all about “family”. :roll:

As I see it, there must have been a reason why his show was produced this way (there must have been a method to their madness), but dang if it is clear. So many wonderful past SOI and CSOI shows and if done right could have been a keeper.

[expo86]

I just read on another board (AYDG) that Stars on Ice will be shown on A & E on March 11/04. No other details available at this time as to program content.

[FlowerPower]

The part I liked best about this special was that the top 8 were shown without commentary during the skate!! As all good skating should be shown. No talking so the viewer can concentrate on the music and movement. Skate trance!
Plus I hadn't seen all the numbers before.

The top 8 as I remember it....roughly in order

8)Kristi's "Doop Doop" this went along with segment about Leading Ladies
7)Scott's "Hair" this went along with segment about costumes and props
6)'96 cast "spaghetti western"
5)Paul Wylie's tribute to JFK (which is not my fav of his) this went along with the segment on tributes
4) Torvil and Dean's "Still Crazy After all these Years"
(their final tour number together)
I had not prev. seen this. And it's so great!
3) '96 cast "Chairmen" Rocca, Sur, Kulik, Cousins,Browning ..... WOW really neat number
2) "5 minutes for Icing" Paul Wylie, Scott, Kurt
this went along with the segment on Music as part of the soundtrack for this is just sound of skate blades on ice
tie 1) Group finales that weren't too interesting to me
tribute to Rolling Stones '95
tribute to Queen '93



Yea, I thought the whole thing was an infomercial too, but not complaining too much. I enjoyed it. I was looking forward to seeing Todd Eldredge skate so that was a little disappointing. At least they included little backstage scenes and had the cast reading the names of tour dates. So I got a tiny Todd fix. hee hee.

[Artemis]

Originally posted by FlowerPower
The part I liked best about this special was that the top 8 were shown without commentary during the skate!! As all good skating should be shown.

I agree, but ... there's never commentary during the performances in an SOI broadcast. So that wasn't anything new or exciting.

And at least 2 of the "8 greatest" performances weren't even the whole thing, they were just clips (namely the Spaghetti Western and the Queen and Stones ensemble pieces).

Expo: thanks for the great news about A&E showing "the real thing." That makes up for a lot.

[Oracle]

I was very disappointed in this show. I kept waiting to see segments from this year's SOI, too. Instead it turned out to be a payday for Scott & some of the past performers of SOI. Like they didn't earn enough during the 90's? Not only that but back in the 80's I tho't that Dorothy Hamill was the headliner for SOI. It wasn't until the 90's that I became aware (was made aware) that Hamilton was the top dog of this show. As to polls, my favorite ensemble featured Dorothy Hamill, Underhill & Martini, think Blumberg & Seibert were in it, maybe Orser? The Jewel Theft...how many of you recall it? The other ensemble number that stands out for me was Christopher Dean's Red Hat. Very clever altho somewhat similar to the Jewel Theft. I wanted to see Todd, too & barely caught a glimpse of him. I truly hope the '04 show will be on A&E.

[A.H.Black]

I'm not quite sure why no Gordeeva and Grinkov number was included.

I would have included one of their performances ove "The Chairman" anytime