[murgatroyd]

... starts in less than an hour in my TimeZone, so I'll start a thread now for the four or five other people who may be watching it.

Cruising around the web looking at stories from my Google Alert, I discovered that:

• Gibson went to Canada to train with Kurt Browning
• Jillian Barberie last skated when she was in her teens

More later after the show has aired.

Jan

 

[ebonovic]

All I can say...

WOW!!!! that was 1,000% better then I expected it to be.

A bazillion times better then Dancing with the Stars.

Very shocked and surprised....

I'll tell yah what, FOX does know how to "present" a show much better then the other three networks.

Very cool...

Only down point... It is not offered in HDTV... The production value of the show is almost wasted by not having it in HD...

Very very surprised...

My wife an I agree, we have watched a lot more Figure Skating (her about 5 times more then me... I just watch during Olympic time), so maybe we just know more about it then compared to Ball Room dancing...

Very entertaining...
Very surprised.

 

[FourFourSeven]

I'm shocked. I watched for the expected train wreck factor...
And enjoyed it...
And added the season pass...

Especially odd given that I hate watching figure skating and the celebrities are C and D-listers...

 

[RegBarc]

Darnit! Missed it completely in between trying to watch American Idol and Lost.

 

[bluenoise]

I'm about to watch it for the train-wreck factor. Are you saying I'm going to be disappointed?

 

[Brig1977]

I enjoyed it. I actually thought it was pretty good!
(I WAS waiting for someone to fall though )

 

[sallypnut]

I totally loved it.

 

[iDriveX]

Boycott.... Arrested Development

 

[DLL66]

Yeah, I didn't think it was going to impress me after trying to watch "Dancing with the Stars". I was wrong to "judge a book by its cover".

 

[omnibus]

I'm watching and enjoying both dancing and skating to different degrees.

I find the two or three really bad performances on dancing with the stars very depressing. The difference in scores between the bad and good should be much wider though.

The short clips of the celebs training sessions on "skating" seem to be preparing us for the proverbial train wreck. When it doesn't happen there's actually a sense of relief.

Thank you powers that be for not making skating a popularity contest by leaving the TV audience out of it.

 

[DancnDude]

I liked it. Funny that Dave Coulier ground off the toe pick on his skates since he kept falling. I was also surprised that Jillian was so good on skates. It's neat that they will continue to have more difficult technical requirements each week.

 

[TIVO_GUY_HERE]

Was ok. Will get better in weeks to come when they have to do alot more than just a simple spin. Can't wait till that guy throws Jillian in the air.

 

[Zaui]

oh i missed this episode Lost was recorded instead. Where can I download this?

 

[Havana Brown]

I can't believe I liked it. I was hoping people would be falling all over the place, but they held their own. Todd Bridges was really stiff. I know they let him pull that dance stunt off because he couldn't really skate and it was the only thing that would give him some brownie points. Jillian was great, she was easy to watch and I can't wait until she gets more daring. I thought Dave Coullier would be better, and couldn't stand horse-face, uh, I mean Nancy Kerrigan, she seemed to be really showing off and it was all me, me, me!

 

[coolpenguin]

I missed it too! Wonder if they'll replay it since they're cancelling all of their other shows.

 

[murgatroyd]

All I can say...

WOW!!!! that was 1,000% better then I expected it to be.

Obviously FOX was employing the strategy suggested by Josh Lymond on the West Wing -- lowering expectations. "Low -- molten core of the Earth low."

After finding out who was involved, I expected that it would be as entertaining as everyone could possibly make it. All the people from the skating world know each other -- the choreographers are skaters -- everyone involved (except Summer Sanders, unless she has also done some skating) has been through the same learning process during their career. They know what the celebs will be going through.

No one there wants to send the celebs out to do anything humiliating. They want the show to be fun.

When I compare this show with Dancing with the Stars, there are two big differences. First, Bruno is far more entertaining than Mark Lund. But Scott and Summer are way better hosts than Tom Bergeron and his backstage counterpart (although the Season 2 person is much better than the Season 1 person).

I thought some of the spiral sequences were pretty damn good, given how many elite figure skaters don't have the strength to hold their legs up.

What I want to know is:

What's going to happen to Dave when they ask for a move like a toe loop or flip (asking people to learn a Lutz would be really cruel) where you MUST pick in? He'll be sorry he ground off all his toe picks then.

What was the jump that Jillian was trying in practice? Time to do some more slo-mo replays, but was that a double? All the other celebs better look out!

I'm really rooting for Jillian. She's been gung-ho about it from the start, and of the two male pairs skaters, John Zimmerman probably has more experience at skating with different partners than Lloyd does. Before John skated with Kyoko Ina, he was skating with Stephanie Ziegler, who is taller than many other skaters. John is much more used to handling a tall girl. Lloyd's regular partner is tiny.

Don't count him out, though.

Props to Jenner for the waltz jump sequence -- that was sweet.

Oh, yeah, this show is going to be a ton of fun.

For all you folks who missed it because of LOST, next week it moves to Monday, its regular time slot.

Jan

 

[Havana Brown]

Who was that blonde Stephanie chick? She looked a bit "thicke" I thought. The judges kept telling her that her partner was strong, which cracked me up.

 

[CharlieB]

I didn't see this, but am quite familiar with Jillian from her local news show. Apparently she was good on skates, but the crucial question is: Did she look hot? She's pretty high up on my "I know I'll never get the chance, but I'd do her in a NY minute" list.

 

[Figaro]

What in the world has Kristy Swanson been eating? She has chubbed up a lot since her recent appearances in Playboy and "Dude Where's my Car?" Despite that I don't really get why the "judges" crapped on her partner and her some much. With the exception of Jillian I thought she was the most natural on the skates. She may have over rotated on her turn but she still turned rather effortlessly. It was certainly better than an injured Bruce Jenner and Todd "Where's my coke" Bridges.

 

[HiddenSky]

I can't really get into Dancing With the Stars, but I tuned in to watch this last night since I'm more inclined towards winter sports and I enjoyed it. My mom was planning on skipping it and taking a shower but couldn't peel herself away from the TV until it ended.

I wonder how it'll shake out as the competition moves along. It seems like the male pro/female celebrity pairs have a bit of an edge at the moment because the male celebrities can't really be counted on to do impressive lifts or other manuevers of the sort, at least for now.