TTTTT H H EEEEE
T H H E
T HHHHH EEEEE
T H H E
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PPPP OOOO RRRR TTTTT L A N N DDDD I A N N TM
P P O O R R T L A A NN N D D I A A NN N
PPPP O O RRRR T L AAAAA N N N D D I AAAAA N N N
P O O R R T L A A N NN D D I A A N NN
P OOOO R R T LLLLL A A N N DDDD I A A N N
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The Portlandian, the Internet's premier source of Tonya News
July 5, 2014 Edition - BANNED IN THE USA EDITION
(C) 2014 Portland Ice Skating Society
http://www.pdxiss.org
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We hope that all our readers had a happy 4th of July, and what
better way to recuperate from celebrating that most American of
dates but to read about that most American of skaters - Tonya! In
this issue, we bring information on a new TV documentary
featuring a clip of Tonya, another attempt at a musical
adaptation of Tonya's life, and the long overdue review of the
two Tonya documentaries that screened earlier this year.
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CHANNEL 90'S SPECIAL
This week sees the National Geographic Channel screening a 3 part
documentary series on the 1990s. Entitled "The 90's: The Last
Great Decade?", it postulates the not altogether surprising
theory that the biggest cultural influence of that decade was
scandal and the tabloidization of the media. The second part, on
July 7, 9pm Eastern, features a segment on Tonya with what
appears to be new interview footage:
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/the-90s-the-last-great-decade/episode-guide/
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/the-90s-the-last-great-decade/episodes/friends-enemies/
You can view some trailers here - already it's obvious that they
seem to be recycling the same faces as the other documentaries
that we've seen, such as Christine Brennan & Connie Chung. And
strangely, the voiceover on one of these says that Tonya went on
to win the 1994 Nationals but the images are just of Tonya
practising at the Clackamas rink:
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/the-90s-the-last-great-decade/videos/tonya-vs-nancy/
https://tv.yahoo.com/video/90s-tonya-harding-163429306.html
http://tvblogs.nationalgeographic.com/2014/07/01/watch-a-free-sneak-preview-of-the-90s/
Variety has a review of the series:
http://variety.com/2014/tv/reviews/tv-review-the-90s-the-last-great-decade-1201250607/
On a similar note Yahoo! has put together a list of TV movies
about the big pop culture events of that decade:
https://tv.yahoo.com/blogs/tv-news/remember-those--the-most-ridiculous-tv-movies-about-big--90s-cultural-events-235156832.html
TONYA GOES MUSICAL
The Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in Los Angeles will be
holding another performance of their production, "Tonya Harding,
The Musical" on the 22nd of July. So if you missed the premiere
performance back in April, and the other one on July 3rd, here's
another chance to catch it:
https://www.facebook.com/Tonyahardingthemusical
http://losangeles.ucbtheatre.com/shows/view/3915
Please note that this is NOT the same as the opera/rock opera
that has been performed previously - it's a totally separate
thing by a different bunch of people, and with a ticket price of
five bucks, isn't likely to have the same production values.
Whether it's pro or anti-Tonya isn't known either.
20 YEARS OF INJUSTICE
The last day of June marked the 20th anniversary of the final
chapter in the affair that has become known as "The Whack Heard
'round the World". On June 30, 1994, a USFSA committee meeting in
Colorado Springs stripped Tonya of her 1994 U.S. National figure
skating title and banned her for life from eligible competition.
America yawned. Tonya was old hat. What would have been front-
page news less than six months earlier was now relegated to a few
centimeters on the sports page. A couple of weeks earlier a
former football star's little Bronco ride had kicked off the new
scandal du jour and banged the final nail in the coffin of
L'Affaire Tonya et Nancy.
With this in mind we finally review the two Tonya specials that
aired earlier this year.
ESPN 30 FOR 30: THE PRICE OF GOLD (79 minutes.)
Director: Nanette Burstein
Originally slated to air in November, this entry in ESPN's 30 for
30 series eventually screened in January of this year to critical
acclaim.
As expected, the documentary focuses mainly on the events
surrounding the Clubbing, but it would be naive to expect
otherwise. It paints a largely sympathetic picture of Tonya as an
outsider.
The film starts off with details of Tonya's early life, from her
birth in Portland to her first interest in skating at around the
age of 3 (the documentary mentions how she started skating at
Lloyd but actually shows a clip of Clackamas). Burstein has dug
up what must be the earliest footage of Tonya in existence, from
1977, showing that even at the age of 6 Tonya's skills were so
advanced that she was seen as a skating prodigy.
We then move on to what appears to be the next existing footage
of Tonya, mostly culled from Sandra Luckow's 1986 doc "Sharp
Edges", which follows Tonya as she prepares for her first
Nationals. Clips from this were previously used on "60 minutes"
in 1994 and in recent years the director has made the complete
version available on line. Luckow, a Yale film student who was a
fellow pupil of Diane Rawlinson's, is also interviewed by
Burstein, and recounts the well-known story of how she saw
Tonya's mother Lavona beating Tonya with a hairbrush in the rink
bathroom after a poor performance. We also see Tonya getting it
on the phone from her mother after failing to do as well as
expected in a competition. Although these clips have been seen
before it's useful to see them again with comments by the film-
maker.
Ann Schatz, a Portland TV reporter, talks of of Tonya's poverty.
Skating is described as a "snob sport" in which Tonya was an
outsider.
Unfortunately we see little of Tonya's skating during this period
of the late 80's. Why is a mystery, as footage certainly exists,
and is easily found on YouTube. Thankfully Tonya's triple axel at
the 1991 Nationals is shown. Here Tonya gets emotional recalling
what was obviously the high point of the career. She's clearly
excited about this - it opened up possibilities for her. But
skating officials were less enthusiastic, regarding Tonya as an
embarrassment rather than an asset.
By early 1992, however, Tonya's off-ice problems were dragging
her down. We see footage of Jeff, sans his creepy moustache, from
around 1991 or 92, who admits that their marriage is volatile. In
addition to her domestic troubles, equipment failures meant
little time to practice, and Tonya eventually lost the 3 axel. At
the 1992 olympics, a broken blade sabotaged her performance.
Kristi Yamaguchi, the 1992 U.S. champion wins gold, then retires.
It is implied that Nancy was seen as "next in line" by the
skating establishment, with the trouble-prone Tonya being now
viewed as old news.
We see how Tonya endured bias from the judges - she recounts an
incident where a judge ordered her not to wear a bright pink
dress that Tonya had made herself at any further contests - Tonya
retorted in typical style, asking if the judge was going to pay
for a replacement.
At this point, Tonya had a rare stroke of luck. The IOC decides
to stagger the Winter & Summer Games in order to milk more money
from the TV networks who have trouble paying for two Olympics in
one year. This means Tonya would get a second crack at the
Olympics in 1994, not 1996.
------------------
The next section focuses on the Incident.
Theres's footage of Fat Boy Dim - aka Shawn Eckardt - as he turns
up at the airport "guarding" Tonya as she returns from the 1994
Nationals. One of the major figures in the plot, he's also one of
the key witnesses against Tonya, and the doc exposes his lack of
credibility. "He was such a prolific liar" says John King, an FBI
agent. But little is said about the details of his lies, such as
his ridiculous James Bond fantasies. Here we also get what has to
be the doco's coolest line - the agent's description of Eckardt
when the Feds put on the heat: "he folded like a cheap accordion"
- something that sounds like it could have come straight out of
some 1940's pulp detective novel.
Tonya's first hint that something is amiss comes when she
receives a call from Ann Schatz at KOIN about a letter, and
agrees to do an interview. A now-moustachioed Jeff can be seen
lurking in the background (I think we all have to agree that the
Gillooly Moustache ranks behind only the Hitler Moustache and the
70s Porn Star Moustache in terms of bad face-fuzz fashion fads).
It seems hard to avoid the impression that he's deliberately
placed himself where Tonya can see him in order to intimidate
her.
The next section concentrates on the media circus and contrasts
the bedlam at the Clackamas rink with the relative peace & quiet
that Nancy was afforded as she rehabilitated her knee. The poor
quality of this footage of Nancy implies it was shot with a cheap
domestic camcorder, probably by Jerry Solomon or a member of
Nancy's family - i.e. there were no press present, a total
contrast to what Tonya had to endure.
Skating magazine publisher Mark Lund emphasizes that Nancy was
protected from the media - Tonya wasn't. Tonya at first is
polite, but the novelty quickly is seen to wear off. We learn
that coach Diane Rawlinson's house was bugged. "Nobody did the
grey - NK looked wealthy" is the message. As Ann Schatz says,
there was an attitude of "go get Tonya". We see how flashbulbs
going off hinder Tonya's training.
Then it's off to Norway. The media harrassment continues with
Connie Chung's abortive attempt at interviewing Tonya, and then
we endure the farce of the joint practice at Lillehammer forced
upon both skaters by the lunkheads at the IOC. This does a good
job of showing what Tonya had to put up with. It was also here
that Tonya meets Nancy for the first time after being implicated
in the scandal. She says Nancy refused her apology.
The rest of the Norway stuff is familiar territory - Tonyaphiles
are shown watching the Short Program at what appears to be a bar
in Portland, then we endure the tragedy of the broken shoelace in
the Long. Tonya says she is disappointed that she did not manage
to do the Triple Axel, but it's also hinted that CBS is
disappointed by Oksana Baiul's victory, spoiling what they
anticipated would be the perfect ending with Nancy winning gold.
Nancy's fall from grace began immediately, as she is caught on an
open mike bemoaning the delay in the medal ceremony.
Upon her return to Portland, Tonya pleads guilty to "hindering
prosecution" and is subsequently handed a life ban by the USFSA.
Tonya is clearly upset here - if the Triple Axel was the high
point of her career that she recalls with great pride, the ban is
obviously the low point. She had nothing to fall back upon:
having devoted her entire life to figure skating, she had no plan
B. Paul Wylie is less sympathetic, saying he thinks the ban is
deserved.
There is then a short "where are they now?" segment, with a few
seconds of Tonya's boxing attempts briefly shown.
The final part of the documentary focuses on the obvious question
- what did Tonya know and when? It does a good job of demolishing
the credibility of her accusers.
Jeff Gillooly, the only one of the conspirators Tonya knew
closely, changed his story and cut a deal to rat on Tonya. Shawn
Eckardt, whom Tonya barely knew, and Shane Stant, whom Tonya
never met at all, also changed their tunes. A clip is shown of an
interview Stant did with Larry King in 1994 in which he states he
has "no doubt" of Tonya's involvement, but when tracked down
recently by Burstein admitted he had "no direct contact" with
Tonya, and couldn't say for certain if she knew.
District Attorney Norm Frink describes Tonya's plea deal as
cutting her losses - one could say the same thing about him. He
claims that it is Tonya's writing on the so-called "Tunee Can"
note - but admits not all the writing is Tonya's.
Did she know? Luckow says yes. Burstein doesn't say on camera,
but in other interviews has said yes.
THE VERDICT:
This documentary is clearly one of the better ones on the
subject. It does a good job of showing the media harrassment -
Tonya couldn't sleep or practice - and a good job of building a
largely sympathetic portrait of Tonya. There is a better variety
of people interviewed (such as Tony Kornheiser, Ann Schatz, Norm
Frink and Sandra Luckow) than the usual faces that appear in
these things. The absence of Nancy does not hurt the documentary
- it's actually good as it allows more time to be devoted to
Tonya, who as the director admits, is more interesting. Nancy
does appear by proxy, however, in the form of her husband/agent
Jerry Solomon.
Unfortunately the documentary falls apart in the last 15 minutes.
Tonya has a brain explosion. She's understandably angry about the
shoddy way she has been treated by the media & the skating
establishment. She accuses Nancy of being whiny about the medal
ceremony. A typical reaction from many viewers was "I was now
rooting for Tonya until this happened". This has been seized upon
by Tonyaphobes as proof she hates Nancy.
There are other shortcomings that both this doc and the NBC one
suffer from that I'll mention later. But all up, essential
viewing for anyone interested in the scandal.
------------------
NBC's "NANCY AND TONYA" (75 minutes)
NBC's crack at milking the 20th anniversary, entitled "Nancy &
Tonya" and hosted by Mary Carillo, aired on the last day of the
Olympics.
As its name suggests, it's mostly about Nancy, and there's
nothing wrong with that - they've got her as an exclusive and
this is the first time she's really talked about this. It's
probably the first real Nancy doc actually done. However it does
mean that combined with the shorter running time than the ESPN
doc the Tonya aspect is naturally more superficial.
It starts off with NK skating while commenting in voiceover - "I
would have chosen another path". We see her daily life as a
mother driving her kids around to ballet practice. Then we're
full-on into it with footage of you-know-what. Nancy says that
the kids know, but they don't discuss it much.
We're shown footage of Nancy skating at an early age. The
impression is of a shy, gangly-looking girl, a dorky duckling who
later grows up into a beautiful swan, characterized by a shyness
and modesty that is often mistaken for stand-offishness by those
that don't know her (she explains that she was taught not to wear
her medals as this was considered "bragging"). The image is of
somebody who is an extrovert on ice, but introverted off it. We
see that the difference between the two skaters is alot less than
we are often led to believe by the media - both were from blue-
collar backgrounds, Nancy also originally a tomboy with short
hair who liked to jump. The difference is that Nancy was prepared
to play the game and become ladylike while as Tonya wouldn't. As
Christine Brennan puts it, Nancy did a "deal with the devil" and
"Tonya wouldn't play the game".
There were a couple of other differences: Nancy, with her tall
slender build, found it easier to look graceful & elegant. Plus
her coach, Mary Scotvold, knew Vera Wang, a former figure skater
turned fashion designer and persuaded her that providing the
costumes for an up-and-coming skating champion would be a good
form of product placement. Tonya, with her short, stocky body and
asthma attacks had to make do with Couture by LaVona, which isn't
anywhere near as fancy as it sounds.
We then move over to looking at Tonya. The stuff here isn't
really anything new, though we do see more of the Tonya '77
footage and some newly-shot material at the end of her doing
landscaping. However from the very start there's bias apparent:
we start off with Tonya doing dreadful karaoke. This is about a
skater, not American Idol - her singing ability is irrelevant. Is
this trying to make Tonya look like a joke?
There's more footage from "Sharp Edges", and an interview with
Tonya's coach Dody Teachman, one of the few new Tonya-side
interviewees spoken to. We see Tonya's 1991 Triple Axel -
Christine Brennan (who was also interviewed in the ESPN doc) and
Scott Hamilton praise Tonya's Triple Axel, and Tonya makes it
clear she's proud of that too. Nancy also has kind words to say
about Tonya's skating: "she was dynamic & strong & powerful,
which I liked - she jumped huge".
Nancy & Tonya disagree about whether they were "friends" - Tonya
says yes, Nancy says no. Dody Teachman says that Tonya was only
friendly with those skaters she didn't see as a threat.
Nancy recalls her first Olympics at Albertville, when she had a
good time, saying it "felt really great". Tonya's experience
wasn't so good, arriving late and jet-lagged and bombing out.
Tonya admits to Mary Carillo that she didn't train. She then
fires Dody Teachman, though Teachman thinks that Jeff probably
had something to do with it.
While Tonya's career nosedived during '92 and early '93, Nancy's
skyrocketed, with her taking the 1993 Nationals title. One mis-
step was at the World's in Prague in 1993 where Nancy had a
meltdown.
Then it's that fateful day in Detroit. Brennan claims that
although she did make cracks at the time about Tonya being
responsible, she was only joking and did not seriously believe in
Tonya's involvement at that stage. Tonya says she was sleeping
when her choreographer woke her with the news.
Eckardt is again shown with Tonya at the airport (she denies he
was ever her "bodyguard") and we get to see his CV in which he
claims to be skilled in "PSYCOLOGICAL OPERATIONS TRAINING AGENTS
IN COUNTERSNIPING AND UNCONVENTIONAL WARFAIR" (sic) and that he
once worked for the "BLACKSTONE CORPORATION" in "LAUSANGE
SWITZERLAND" (sic).
Again we see the media circus. It's described at one point as
being like "reality TV before reality TV". It was all absurd: as
Phil Hersh comments "nobody would have bought the screenplay,
even as a comedy - too preposterous". Christine Brennan describes
the noise of the cameras going off every time the two skaters
passed each other during the Lillehammer practice as "like
firecrackers going off". She speculates that with today's social
media it would have reached critical mass alot faster. Tonya
herself is clearly angry at how she was treated. Nancy contrasts
the experience with Albertville, and this time it's much less
pleasant.
We then get to the Long Program. Scott Hamilton, who was
commentator for the event, reveals his anger at the time, that he
thought the shoelace incident was "not legit". Tonya felt stress
coming on as her body cooled down, and skated 35 mins later.
Hersh speculates that Tonya was doomed from the start, noting
that it "kinda had to end that way" - that Tonya's career "wasn't
going to end on an upbeat". Tonya might have been able to jump
high, but in the end she couldn't reach the escape velocity
necessary to overcome the gravitational pull of the trailer park
and was ultimately dragged down.
Tonya herself praises Oksana's abilities. Nancy explains her side
of the medal ceremony affair, saying she was concerned that
people were leaving and that she thought Oksana was the hold up
(it was actually caused by a delay in finding a copy of the
Ukrainian anthem). She also says that her complaining at
Disneyworld was about having to wear her medal, not about Mickey
Mouse. Brief clips of her critically-panned "Saturday Night Live"
appearance are also shown.
As with the ESPN doc there's not much post-incident stuff
included - some of Tonya on "World's Dumbest", and the Fox
"Breaking The Ice Special" which Nancy participated in in what
she now admits was a naive assumption that it would make it all
go away.
Brennan finishes by saying "Tonya Harding is the ultimate
survivor. You can make the case that no-one pulled themselves up
by the bootstraps in the history of the sport more than Tonya
Harding." Hersh is less sympathetic, saying he doesn't buy that
Tonya was a victim too.
------------------
The final part, a 6 minute interview between Nancy & Bob Costas
is the most interesting and worthwhile bit, as we finally get to
hear what Nancy thinks about Tonya - and surprisingly, she seems
to be alot more sympathetic and gracious about Tonya than many of
the other commentators. She praises Tonya's athletic ability,
saying that she admired Tonya's power, and that Tonya "always had
it tough" and "feels like she's on the defensive all the time".
She also confesses that she doesn't really know if Tonya was
involved more than she has admitted, but says she doesn't care
and that it's time to move on.
"You feel bad for her, to not have that stable home," Nancy says
about Tonya. "I am so lucky. It wasn't easy. I remember counting
quarters and my parents counting money to buy groceries. But I
lived in one place with two parents and it was stable. I had
grandparents two houses away ... It's not like I was a princess.
I happened to have good posture so I looked the part, I guess. In
figure skating that is what we do. We stand up and straight. But
I feel for Tonya. When you see someone struggle from the
beginning, that's hard and I feel for her. It doesn't excuse her
judgment. But I hope now, not just for my sake, but her sake too
-- she has a family -- let's move on. You have to allow people
the chance to get on with their lives and to be better and learn
from mistakes. But I don't feel like this film resolved anything
for me. I mean, I was attacked. I was the victim."
She seems to have made her internal peace with Tonya, and it
seems, Mickey Mouse as well, revealing that her kids are huge
Disney fans.
THE VERDICT:
As expected, it's mainly about Nancy. If you're a Nancy Kerrigan
fan, it's essential viewing as it's probably the most in depth
documentary about her so far.
I found myself having a new respect for Nancy and her
achievements. We come away realizing that she & Tonya had alot
more in common than most people realize and that Nancy was also
originally an athletic type skater like Tonya but was able to
make the transition to being artistic in a way Tonya couldn't.
The NBC doc makes the point that they both lost their fathers
within a year of each other, something I hadn't really thought
about. At least Tonya's dad went of natural causes, not in the
violent way Nancy's dad did.
From a Tonyaphiles perspective, it's of less value, mainly a
retread over old ground. There's no real attempt at analysis of
the evidence. There's a clip of the interview in 2008 when Tonya
claims she was raped, which isn't shown in the ESPN doc, but
that's it. Being pro-Nancy does not automatically mean having to
be anti-Tonya & vice-versa. In terms of interviews, there is
little creativity in the people chosen. With the exception of
Dody Teachman, its mostly the same old people we've seen before -
not the variety seen in the ESPN one. Three participants are
anti-Tonya: Brennan, Hamilton and Hersh.
The most interesting bits are that we finally get Nancy's take on
Tonya, which is surprisingly positive and more respectful than
alot of Tonya's critics. She was obviously very impressed with
Tonya's jumping ability. Plus the "rich ice princess versus
scheming trailer trash" narrative was exposed as the steaming
load it's always been - we find that both skaters came from
working-class backgrounds, and that Nancy was originally a jumpy
athletic tomboy like Tonya was. The main difference was Nancy had
stability in her family life and chose to go down the artistic
side of skating, while as Tonya didn't.
GENERAL COMMENTS ABOUT BOTH DOCOS
Twenty years on, this incident continues to fascinate. Perhaps
it's because Tonya/Nancy is to scandal what "Die Hard" is to
action films - about as perfect as you can get. And because
Tonya/Nancy screams "1994" in the same way that "Do The Hustle"
screams "1975". It's something that defines its era.
The result has been two high-profile documentaries that can be
seen as mirror images that to some degree complement each other.
I'd say ESPN's effort was 66% Tonya/33% Nancy while the NBC one
was the reverse. But both films have their shortcomings.
Although the media circus is covered, there is nothing in
either about the Wedding Night Video or the hacking of Tonya's
email by reporters in Lillehammer, two further indignities Tonya
had to endure.
They also suffer from some pretty weird omissions. I've already
mentioned the lack of skating footage from the late 80's in
"Price Of Gold". There's little about the fan club started by
Elaine Stamm in early 1993. Strangely neither mention the death
threat Tonya received in November that year either. This is
critical as it was more of the type of crap Tonya had to put up
with. Skating official & well-known Tonyaphobe Morry Stillwell
circulated an email at the time claiming this was faked, an
accusation he has repeated recently on FSU. It's also important
as this seems to be when the mysterious Shawn Eckardt enters the
picture as Tonya's "bodyguard".
There is not enough on the post-incident life of either skater in
either documentary. "The Price of Gold" briefly shows a clip from
Tonya's short-lived boxing career, but that's pretty much it.
Bizarrely, Tonya's 1999 comeback skate in Huntington WV is not
shown by either doc - bizarre because it was at an ESPN
competition, so it's their own footage. NBC mentions Tonya on
"World's Dumbest", and the Fox "Breaking The Ice" thing, and
shows her doing landscaping. The past 20 years are basically
condensed down to about 3 minutes. There's no mention of her
acting attempts, or her "comeback" in Reno in 1997. Or her Land
Speed Record that she holds. And what about an acknowledgement of
Tonya's charity work for a change?
One thing that I would like to see in a documentary, apart from a
critical analysis of the paucity of evidence against Tonya, is an
examination of the pop culture legacy of this story and why
people are still interested in it (as they plainly are) so many
years on. Twenty years on we have everything from operas to drag
queens doing dramatizations of the event. Academics write
papers about the class/gender implications of the scandal and how
it led to the tabloidization of the media. Presidents make cracks
about it in political speeches. At Halloween parties across the
USA, crowbar wielding "Tonyas" pretend to club bloody-kneed
"Nancys" - I've got a whole folder of photos of people doing
these "re-enactments". There was even a pair of Tonya/Nancy
lookalikes who turned up at a fun run in Alaska a couple of years
back. And then of course there was Jim Maxey and his
tonyaharding.com site with its crude Tonya "fantasies" section,
or the loony who thinks Tonya is the reincarnation of Lee Harvey
Oswald. Neither doc has anything on this, apart from ESPN showing
the Obama clip.
What about a bit of creativity when it comes to interviews? An
interview with someone like Sarah Marshall, who wrote the
"Believer" article, would be nice, or long-time Tonya supporters
like Linda Lewis or Michael Rosenberg (the latter spoke up in a
recent article), rather that exhuming the same old mostly anti-
Tonya corpses of Brennan, Hersh, Hamilton, Wylie et al. The NBC
one is particularly a let-down in this area. Overall the ESPN one
and the writers of the various 20th anniversary articles seemed
to make a better fist of trying to contact a diverse array people
rather than the NBC guys, who just took the easy route.
It would be nice to try and track down the footage of Tonya's
1993 NHK performance if it exists - it was Tonya's poor showing
in this event that supposedly inspired the plot in the first
place, and apparently it was never shown on Japanese TV, which
"chacked" everybody except the medal winners and any local
skaters. Is it still gathering dust in NHK's archive? It seems
hard to believe they would have wiped it in the wake of Tonya's
sudden notoriety less than a month later.
All this would be something new, rather than merely a reheating
of the events of '94 (which has been done in plenty of other
previous documentaries that can easily be found online, such as
"Anything To Win") followed by the obligatory "where are they
now" segment?
In short, both are worth a look, particularly the ESPN one which
is the better of the pair from a Tonyaphile's perspective. I'd
give that one 7 out of 10 for being relatively pro-Tonya and
making more effort in terms of research and diversity of people
consulted. I'd give the NBC one the same - but only because we
finally get Nancy's take on the whole deal, including Tonya. The
NBC Tonya material is mostly an unimaginative rehash, and without
Nancy I'd give it a 5. If you're a Nancy fan you'd probably bump
it up to an 8. But they both seemed to be wasted opportunities.
The definitive Tonya/Nancy documentary has yet to be made.
Hopefully we won't have to wait until the 40th anniversary in
2034 - the next time a major anniversary of the incident
coincides with a Winter Olympics - for this to happen.
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VISIT THESE GREAT TONYA WEB SITES:
PortIce - http://www.pdxiss.org
David House - http://www.tonyaharding.org
Charlie Main - http://www.charliesweb.com/tonya/tonya.html
Puppetboy - http://www.usapaul.net/tonya/
Valerie Smith - http://www.olywa.net/radu/valerie/LilHam.html
Swan Lake - http://members.tripod.com/~TonyaHarding/index.html
Blades of Gold - http://members.tripod.com/tmhfan/index.html
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