Sunday, October 31, 2010

A Call To Arms



Does anyone, ANYONE have a copy of Tonya and Nancy: The Inside Story?  When I was a small child, my parents forbade me from watching the television film due to the scenes of molestation.  The fact that I have never seen this movie has devastated me my entire life.  It was recorded and then immediately taped over by my parents.  For years, I had to open my entertainment center and see Tonya and Nancy crossed out!  A year ago, TheUSOpenLineJudge graciously treated us to A Promise Kept: The Oksana Baiul Story.  It has given me renewed hope that I will one day view this classic.  It is something that would best be shared together.  I long for the bygone era of movies of the week.  In my day, Lifetime wasn't a network for watching Project Runway.  It was a network you flipped to when you wanted to watch a wife burn down her house after catching her husband in bed with her underage nephew.  We need to bring the art form of television movies back to the masses.

Tonya and Nancy never made it to DVD, which is a shame for all of us.  If anyone could upload it or mail a copy, I would be eternally grateful.  Based on this review, it sounds like a film that all of us MUST SEE.

24 comments:

  1. Someone must absolutely help us get this masterpiece.

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  2. Oh Nancy and Tonya was a feast. They tried to make it all pseudo documentary. And opened with some random writer dude talking about writing the perfect story. I seem to recall him being at his desk, back to the camera then he turns around to face it and starts talking about two little girls:
    One who grew up with everything. One who grew up with nothing. Then we cut to shots of fauxchildhood Nancy playing hockey. And fauxchildhood Tonya with her crazy mother? It has been ever so long since I've seen it.

    Please help Aunt Joyce, AJ readers! The recap will be amazing!

    P.S. I seem to recall the molestation scenes not being that bad. But it might be because my 8-year-old self read the 1992 Newsweek article about Kristi, Nancy and Tonya, and in that they actually talked about Tonya being raped by her stepbrother, whereas it was more or less alluded to in the TV movie. Plus in that magazine, there was an article about the Mike Tyson/beauty queen rape case as well as an article about Jeffrey Dahmer. Yeah, what were my parents thinking? I should never have been allowed to read Newsweek.

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  3. I am getting more jazzed about this film by the nanosecond. We can have review contests, write essays based on the beautiful and talented actresses! PLEASE HELP!!!

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  4. They even recreated that infamous photoshoot, as I seem to recall. Oh, and they did a little recreation of Tonya's skatelace incident at Lillehammer.

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  5. Man, the heyday of skating provided so many great TV movies. Canada was especially good at giving us these gems. There was a TV movie version of the life story of the Duchesnays that was pure gold, a fictional TV movie called Skate! that was a soap operatic trainwreck of awesomeness, and all sorts of skating specials that had "storylines" (like Brian Orser's Night Moves and Blame It on the Blues, Elizabeth Manley's Back to the Beanstalk and The Trail of Red Riding Hood, and other gems I'm forgetting).

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  6. Oh, I'd also live for a Duchesnay movie!!!!! Upload please!!!!

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  7. I wish I still had a copy! I don't even have a copy of that one on VHS. :(

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  8. Weren't there a couple of different Tonya and Nancy movies? I seem to remember at least two.

    I started feeling sorry for Tonya after the Sports Illustrated article about her leading up to Lillehammer. She was such an amazing talent with her trailer trash upbringing. I was obsessed with that whole ordeal just because it was so unbelievable. Sorry, AJ, I don't think I taped any of the movies.

    My husband (fiancee at that time) did buy the copy of Penthouse with the honeymoon photos of Tonya that her ex-husband sold. Eeewwww!

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  9. I also remember a movie called On Thin Ice: The Tai Babalonia Story or something similar. It was Tai's history and how she paired up with Randy and then got their hearts broken.

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  10. Don´t know if that helps at all since you need to get registered. No clue if works.

    http://dl-access.com/location.php?aid=10102020&q=Tonya%20Nancy%20The%20Inside%20Story

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  11. Did they really sit next to eachother?

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  12. What someone needs to post is the white Julie Brown's take on the Tonya and Nancy scandal in attack of the 5'2 women (there's also a send up of Lorena bobbit in that movie). Sadly, this is the only thing available.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nld8NY1fJu8

    And there's also Tina Yothers' take.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQXazQ_pIC0

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  13. a fictional TV movie called Skate! that was a soap operatic trainwreck of awesomeness

    I remember that movie all too well! The brilliant (that isn't sarcasm) Colm Feore as the asshole coach who abuses our poor budding skater by tearing down her confidence, slapping her, kissing her, and basically fucking with her head so epically that she goes on a downward spiral and ends up drinking and smoking (gasp!) in a hotel room with a boy (double gasp!!). As said boy gropes her, he notes that she has a lot of muscles. Dude, she's a female Canadian singles skater -- of course she's got bigger shoulders that you do!

    Good times.

    I checked a TV upload community where you can sometimes find some classics, but alas, no Tonya and Nancy (or any others mentioned here).

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  14. Ahh, the Tonya and Nancy movie! I saw it when it was first shown. I vividly remember one scene featuring young Tonya and her father (stepfather maybe?) collecting old cans and bottles along the Interstate to raise money for her skating lessons. I also remember a scene where Nancy's agent (not sure if they actually called him "Jerry Solomon" in the movie) gleefully telling Nancy and her family that she was more marketable because "the next Olympics takes place in only two years, not four, so you could be a contender!" Or something like that. SOMEBODY FIND THAT MOVIE!!!!

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  15. In cases of obscure-ish movies not available on DVD - I always suggest people use imdb.com to look up names of the cast and production company - if they are not very famous - there is a good chance you can find contact info for them on the net.

    In the case of this movie, the production company was "Brian Pike Productions" which is now out of business but can be contacted via an agent (I don't feel right posting exact info here, but you can find it via google just like I did). The actress who played Nancy also now owns a chewing gum company which has an email address linked to it.

    There's a pretty fair chance people like the above have a copy of the film. Offer to pay for shipping and any associated costs and you might get lucky and score a copy.

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  16. Sort of on topic, but does anyone remember the movie "Nadia"? That was a true skatenastics classic. I had it on tape for years and I remember one particularly popular girl in HS found out I had it and literally begged me to let her borrow it. I still would have had it except that my mother threw it out when I moved away :(

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  17. I too remember this classic - I hope someone can find it. I also remember all the dramaz because I took lessons and skated at Clackamas Town Center in Portland during "The Heyday of Tonia Harding" and can remember her leaning over the boards to take drags of a cig. Ahh good times.

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  18. "Nadia" is available on DVD.

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  19. The Nadia movie is also on YouTube in all its glory. Amazing, amazing badness. I LOVED it when I was a child and watched it and acted it out almost daily. My best friend and I used to re-enact the scene in which Teodora and Nadia did a mirror routine in the empty gym and became bff for life. ;)

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  20. I have it on VHS but have no way to convert it...

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  21. I love how this post turned into "do you remember this hot mess of a TV movie" fest... and consequently, how old we are. :)

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  22. Edwards, would you be willing to mail a copy of the tape for someone to convert? auntjoycesicecreamstand@gmail.com

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  23. the movie airs on lifetime and LMN from time to time.

    Remember SPUNK on comedy central with tina yothers!!

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  24. I wouldn't mind at all!
    Just give me an email address, and I'll get in the mail. Bear in mind that I'll be sending it from Japan, which will take it a little while to arrive

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